Threads That Bind (Havoc Chronicles Series Book 1) (5 page)

I took a step towards him. “Josh, I –”

“Don’t come any closer,” he said.

“Please, Josh,” I said. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s happening.” I took another step toward him. I had to make this right. I couldn’t stand the look of fear in his eyes.

“Go away!” he shouted. His words hurt more than a physical blow.

What was happening? How could any of this be real? He had just kissed me, how could he never want to see me again? I needed to get home, to be where things were normal.

“Go!”

I turned around and ran as fast as I could.

The trees blurred around me as I sped along the river path at a speed that shouldn’t have been possible. A hundred yards flew past in the space of a breath. I raced along the path, through the parking lot, and out onto the road with hardly any effort. I felt no more tired than if I had been going for a leisurely walk.

Which I had been – before I almost killed Josh. I pushed that thought out of my mind. It was too much to process right now. I just needed to get home.

I concentrated on running and found that I could move even faster.

I sped along the back roads, at least thinking clearly enough to avoid the freeway. A glowing girl on the freeway would probably cause a massive accident and attract unwanted attention.

As I rounded a corner less than two miles from my house, I saw a car driving straight towards me. Without thinking, I pushed off and jumped. I leapt over the car, sailed twenty feet into the air, and landed lightly on the other side all without breaking stride. I heard the squeal of tires behind me, but no sound of a crash, so I continued my frantic flight until I reached home.

I collapsed in the front yard, grateful to live in a house that was isolated and surrounded by trees. As I lay there, I forced myself to relax.

Gradually my pulse slowed, my senses grew duller, and the glow faded. It was over – for now.

This was, without a doubt, the worst night of my life. I curled up into a ball. I wanted to cry, but my eyes were strangely dry. I could feel the tears there, needing to come, but blocked.

Instead of crying my body spasmed, and I began to shake uncontrollably, my teeth chattering.

I was too ashamed to even go inside, so I shivered alone on the ground. No matter how hard I tried, I could no longer keep out the memories of what had happened tonight. Over and over I relived the terrified look I had seen on Josh’s face, the sound of his body hitting the tree, and his words of rejection. But I didn’t cry.

What had I become?

I calmed down as much as I could before entering the house. As I expected, my parents were watching TV in the living room. I could tell from their expressions as I walked in that it was obvious I was still upset.

My mom rushed over and gave me a hug. “Oh, Honey, what happened?”

That was all it took to unlock the floodgates. I sobbed into my mom’s shoulder for several minutes. When I finally pulled back, my dad was gone. He must have decided this was a girl thing. He always got uncomfortable when Mom or I started crying. 

“I don’t want to talk about it tonight,” I said. “I just want to go to bed.”

Mom looked as if she were going to insist, but then she pulled me close again and squeezed me tight. “Of course. We can talk about it in the morning.”

I went upstairs and got ready for bed. I took comfort in the routine, grateful for something to distract me from the memory of Josh crashing into that tree.

But when I crawled into bed, I was too wired to sleep and there was nothing left to distract me. Unwanted images from our date flooded my mind, washing out all other thoughts.

Had there ever been a worse first kiss in the entire history of dating? It was like the Hindenburg of first kisses. How could a kiss that had felt so... glorious end up with Josh smashing into a tree? That had to have been a dating first.

But the power - that was the real issue. The kiss would have been fine if I hadn’t started glowing like a nuclear meltdown survivor. How was that even possible? I wasn’t strong enough to hurl Josh into a tree with a simple push, but I somehow did. My brain seemed caught in an endless loop as it struggled to reconcile what I experienced with what I believed to be possible.

After several excruciating hours, my brain reached its limit, exhaustion overcame me, and I fell into a dreamless sleep.

***

The next morning was Saturday, so I was able to sleep in – sort of. No one woke me up, but I could only stay asleep for so long. Once I woke up enough to remember what had happened there was no going back to sleep.

I got up, stretched, and went to the bathroom. When I came out, my mom stood there waiting for me. She looked tired and worried. Now that I thought about it, she probably hadn’t slept very well either, knowing that something had upset me like that.

She gave me a hug. “Are you ready to talk about it yet?”

I hugged her back trying to think of an answer. I couldn’t tell her the full story. I hardly believed it, and I had been there. Right now, the entire thing felt more like a dream than something that actually happened.

I decided to go with the truth, but vague. “There’s nothing really to talk about,” I said. “Things just didn’t work out between Josh and me. I don’t think we’ll be going out any more.”

“Why not? What happened?”

I shrugged. “It’s hard to explain because I don’t know. That was why I was so upset. Nothing that happened last night made any sense.” Boy was that the honest truth. 

Mom furrowed her brow. “Well, what did he say?”

Ok, the honest-but-vague approach wasn’t working. Mom wouldn’t be satisfied unless there was some concrete detail to analyze. She had that determined look in her eye, like a pitbull with a piece of meat. She wasn’t going to let go until she was done.

“I don’t want to relive last night,” I said. Still being honest. “He didn’t give me an explanation, but I think he wanted to see someone else.”
Anyone else
, was probably more accurate, but I needed to end this conversation.

Mom hugged me again. She pulled back and looked me in the eyes. “I’m so sorry. Do we need ice cream and a movie tonight?”

If there was ever a situation that called for ice cream therapy, this was it, but just the thought of too-sweet ice cream made me feel queasy. 

“I’ll pass on the ice cream, but a movie sounds great.”

Mom shook her head. “You still can’t eat ice cream? That’s just awful. What about popcorn?”

“Popcorn I can do,” I said.

“Good. I’ll go warn your father.”

I took a long shower, got dressed, and was just starting to do my hair when someone knocked at my bedroom door.

“It’s Dad.”

I took in a deep breath. What could Dad want? Did he want to talk already? I knew he would want to find out what happened, but I figured I had a few days before he would get involved. Then I had a horrible thought. What if he had already talked with Josh? I wouldn’t put it past my dad to call him, or even worse, confront him in person to find out what had happened.

“Come in,” I said.

Dad opened the door and walked in holding my purse by the strap. Why was he holding my purse? I had left it in Josh’s car when we started walking along the trail. That meant...

“Dad, you didn’t–”

He held up a hand. “I found this on the front porch this morning when I got the paper. I admit to being curious as to why your purse was left out on the porch, but that seems like a question for another day.”

I reached for my purse, but Dad opened his arms for a hug instead. How could I resist my big teddy bear of a dad? I wrapped my arms around him and held on tight.

He bent down and kissed the top of my head. “I love you, Madison,” he said. He lifted my chin so I looked him in the eyes. “And I always will, no matter what. Understand?”

I squeezed him again. “Yes, Dad. I love you too.” Despite my mood and everything that had happened, I couldn’t help but grin.

“Good.” He smiled and handed me my purse. “I thought you might want this back.” He left the room and closed the door behind him.

I sat on the bed and stared at my purse. I was glad to have it back, but the fact that Josh had left it on the porch instead of calling me or even knocking on the door was disturbing and only confirmed my fears that he would never speak to me again.

Opening the purse, I looked through it to see if everything was intact. The contents appeared to be undisturbed, which was a bit of a letdown. For a moment, I hoped that there would be a letter from Josh asking me to meet him at some prearranged rendezvous point where he would tell me it had all been a big misunderstanding and that he really loved me.

I really needed to stop watching movies.

I checked my cell phone and saw five voicemails and seventy four text messages. None of them were from Josh. Most of the texts were from Amy wanting to know if I was nervous about the date, how the date was going, and how the date went. The final texts had a more concerned tone, wondering where I was and why I hadn’t responded.

I sent her a short text telling her that the date didn’t go well, but that I would talk to her about it at school. I really didn’t want to discuss it anymore, or even think about Josh for the rest of the day - as if that were possible.  

No sooner had I set the phone down, than it buzzed from an incoming text message. I picked up the phone, hoping it was from Josh, but it was just Amy begging for details. I tossed the phone on my bed and left the room.

The rest of the weekend dragged by excruciatingly, painfully, mind-numbingly slow. If this weekend had been in a race against a little old lady with a walker, it would have been lapped. Twice. And everyone would have already gone home before it crossed the finish line.

It wasn’t all bad. Mom and I did have our movie night, but to be honest I did it more for her than me. I could tell Mom was really worried about me and watching the movie together made her feel like she was helping me. Fortunately, she was in comforting mode, rather than her previous Spanish Inquisition mode, and she didn’t ask me any questions. 

I didn’t hear from Josh the entire weekend. Not a phone call, an email, or even a text message. Nothing. Didn’t he need to at least officially break up with me or something? I suppose him screaming at me to keep away could be interpreted that way, but I didn’t count it because what had happened simply couldn’t have happened, and so it must not have happened.

Or something like that.

***

Amy was waiting at my locker on Monday. She gave me a hug as soon as she saw me. “I’m so sorry,” she said.

With the entire weekend to recover, I had regained some of my composure. I managed an attempt at a smile. “He’s just a boy, right?”

Amy was quick to jump onto that bandwagon. “That’s right. An emotionally stunted little boy who clearly is incapable of a meaningful relationship. In twenty years, after a series of failed relationships, he’ll find himself alone and so miserable that he’ll finally enter therapy and realize that breaking up with you was the beginning of his life of misery.” She paused, and when she saw my bemused expression added, “And he’s a jerk.”

Sometimes listening to Amy felt like being on a day-time talk show. She was like a forty-five-year-old divorcee in a sixteen-year-old body. But I loved the fact that I could always count on her being on my side.

“No, he’s not a jerk,” I said. I couldn’t help it. I still really liked him. It was my fault everything went wrong. He had wanted to kiss me. Could I blame him for not wanting to see me after I threw him against a tree and nearly killed him?

From the way Amy was bouncing on the balls of her toes, I could tell that she was dying to know what had happened. I could also tell that her self-control wouldn’t last much longer. If I gave her a few details now, I could possibly prevent a barrage of incoming questions.

But what could I say?
Well, Amy, after I began glowing and threw him against a tree, Josh got scared and told me he never wanted to see me again. Oh, and I ran faster than humanly possible and jumped fifty feet over a car. Do you think he was overreacting?

Yeah, that wouldn’t work so well. 

“Well, we talked and agreed that we should see other people,” I said. That was sort of true.

I opened my locker and hung up my backpack. I took out my Physics book, closed the locker, and leaned against it.

Amy’s bouncing had gotten faster. “Did he say why?” she asked.

I nodded slowly. “It just wasn’t working out between us,” I said. “We were too different.” He was a normal human being, and I was some sort of dangerous freak. It didn’t make for a compatible relationship.

Despite the fact that I had been emotionally preparing for this all weekend, a few tears began to roll down my cheeks.

Amy’s bouncing stopped, and she looked horrified. “Oh, Madison, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have been asking you about this.”

I wiped the tears from my eyes, trying to keep my makeup intact. Given my luck lately, I probably looked like a deranged raccoon. “No, really. It’s ok,” I said. All right, that was a complete lie, but if Amy started crying I really would lose it, and I didn’t want to start today off by crying in the bathroom.  

Once I had my tears under control, I gave Amy a smile. “See, I’m fine. Perfectly fine.”

She tilted her head and gave me a look that clearly said she didn’t believe a word I said. However, she did stop asking about Josh, for which I was grateful.

Amy and I talked for a few minutes, and she filled me in on what was happening around school – I had been a bit preoccupied with Josh and hadn’t been paying much attention. There was a big football game next Friday against our arch rival Riverview High; Ginger Johnson, the varsity cheerleader captain, had broken up with her college boyfriend; and two seniors had been suspended for vandalism.

We were just about to head to class when I saw the top of Josh’s head over the crowd in the hallway. He hadn’t yet seen me, and I caught my breath as he came closer. I grabbed Amy’s arm and squeezed.