Gravity (17 page)

I have a
million other questions but my eyes
are tired. I want Violet to stay and talk. I'm so eager to explore
the rest of my new room.

"I see you're
tired. Your clothes are in the dresser." She proceeds to the door.
"You'll see that Red provides everything you need."

"How much does
Red know about me?" My hand skims the black sheets.

"Probably
everything,
" she
smiles.

I hope not.

"Ho
w much do
you
know about me?" I'm afraid to look at her.

"Nothing I
already expressed
."

It's a relief to hear. She doesn't know my
history; unless Alex told her. I hope that she won't ever find out
about the monster I truly am. If I'm to live here I want to leave
that all behind.

"Goodnight,
Gabriel." She
says kindly and
closes the door leaving me to myself. My lips grow to a wider
smile. I give my bed a bounce and letting out a laugh. Before
writing about it all in my new notebook, I peek out of the door and
watch Violet turn out the living room lights. She goes into Red's
room and closes the door. I thought about what she might be doing
in there. She must have a room of her own. The light under the door
goes out. She must really miss Red.

Gabriel

I'm used to
getting up with the sun. Always on the move to avoid going home, I
often leave where I've slept for the night as the sun comes up.
This morning my internal clock forgot I'm in a safe place. Rising
with the sun is an old habit. My body feels particularly heavy this
morning, I don't want to move. Beneath my head is the softest
pillow I ever rested upon. I bury my face to whiff the smell of
washed the linen. I'll stay in bed a little longer.

I make myself
at home at the kitchen counter for breakfast. I snack on an
apple
while writing about the
only thing I've thought of all night—Violet. The girl that stalked
me, chased me, bumped into me and invited me into her home—all in
one night. I don't know her, but there's definitely something about
her. Maybe, it's because we briefly touched each other, but usually
that would make her the one to swoon over me. It's not the case
with Violet. She seems pretty normal as far as girls go. Maybe it's
me? I'm the one crushing. That's the weird part. I've never had
feelings like this.

"You write?" I slam my journal shut.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." She's
wearing a loose fitted t-shirt and jeans like she's hiding herself
on purpose. Her hair is a bit wild, like maybe she forgot to brush
it. Maybe she doesn't realize no matter how much she tries to hide,
she's still nice to look at. There goes that ache in my chest.

I
realize I have nothing to worry about
with Violet keeping her distance. She won't be able to read my
secret thoughts. "It's okay." I'm too embarrassed to look at her
after what I had written about her.

"Writing about
everything, huh? Are you any good?"

"I've been told I am,
but I'm not so sure. I love writing, though."

"
Plants. Writing. Is
there other talents or hobbies I should know about?"

"No, not
real
ly." This is about the
longest conversation I've had with a girl. She makes herself
comfortable on the other end of the counter. To see her big brown
eyes connect with mine brings an instant smile to my face. I blush
at the question and shake my head.

"I wish I
was
good at
something."

"I thought you said
you could see auras?"

"Yeah, but I'm
not
good at it." She rubs her
arm as if it were painful. Then her head perks up. "Hey, I could
teach you that today!"

Both her eyes and
lips smile together. It's contagious. "Yeah, that would be
awesome."

"How about now?
...or when you're done writing." Her smile falls
slightly.

"Actually, now
would be great.
I can write
about it later." There's slight bounce in her heels when she goes
to the door. It makes her seem like a kid. She's so
cute.

"Come on we'll
do it outside." I can't keep my eyes off her. She's so excited, it
makes me excited. I follow her to the lake, keeping the appropriate
distance.

The Sanctuary
is alive. I can feel it in my being like when birds sing to
announce the arrival of spring. The city parks and suburbs are
not
as lush as this. There's
no one but us here. It's like a dream I never want to wake
from.

"I'm sorry for
acting lik
e an idiot it's
just..." She swings her arms slightly displaying another child-like
quality about her. "... it's been a while since I practiced with
anyone. Actually I've been alone so it's nice to have someone
around. This is going to be fun." She clasps her hands. "Red used
to help me practice."
There we
go again. Red. Being compared to him isn't bad if he's her
boyfriend. I could be that.

Violet
plops
in the grass and I do
the same. It's particularly annoying to have to be so far apart.
She shows me how to relax and breathe, and focus on lifting my
energy. I like listening to her voice describes what it looks like
to see an aura of light around living things. I've seen the auras
she described, but only around plants. I don't want to interrupt
the heavenly flow of her voice with my questions. She tells me
practice makes perfect. It takes a lot of eye training to adjust
the eyes to see auras. Once I get it down, I could learn to
decipher what the colors mean.

"So what color
am I?" I ask.

"Well, you have
mostly red, with gray and some blue mixes here and
there."

"What does that
mean?"

"The red means,
you're very physical. You're very conscious of your body that is.
Makes sense because of your ability."

I can feel my
face heat up. "The blue means you're sensitive and
affectionate."

Affectionate—that's strange to hear.
"And the gray?"

"T
he gray's not good. Its
mix with the red, looks kind of pink in areas," she hesitates.
"It's murky which is negative; a disturbance or maybe its
immaturity. I'm not sure. I told you I suck at this." Violet hugs
her knees to her chest. "What happen to you?" she says
softly.

I
do
n't know how to respond.
Immature, maybe because I'm sixteen, but the disturbance is a whole
other story.
Things
happened to me and
I did
things
.

"Alex told me
that you're home life is not safe. You know you can talk to me,
Gabriel. I'm here. That murkiness could be an unresolved issue that
maybe talking about would help. Do you want to talk about
it?"

I shake my head. It's upsetting that the
colors she sees shows my
disturbance
. Like a scar, it's
there for her to see. I will never talk about those
things
with her—ever. It would mean reliving those nightmares.

"You know I can see your mood change too,"
she pouts.

Great.

"Your red is
brighter. You're thinking physical thoughts, abou
t your body. I know you hate your
ability."

I'm
physical. Keenly aware of my body in
relation to others is a constant in my life. The monster that lives
inside of me is part of this body—I'll never tell her that. I'm not
going to confirm it.

"What about you? What
color aura do you have?"

"I'm not
telling. When you get it down, you can tell me." She hides her
smile behind her knees. I can't help, but smile too. That will be
nice to see what she's feeling or thinking through her aura. If
Alex can read minds, then this is a step in that
direction.

"So you said
you're not even good at this?"

"No. I suck.
Sometimes I can't and sometimes I lose the sight. And sometimes I
don't know what the color means. Red never had a chance to show me
much." Her smile droops followed by an awkward silence. She's
thinking of Red, I'm sure of it.

"So
ho
w do we do this again?" I
ask to distract her thoughts from thinking about Red.

"Relax your
eyes, and look at me
, but not
directly at me. Look to either side of me. Remember relax your
eyes. Kind of like those 3D pictures."

I'm good at
those.

"Your eyes may
go in and out of focus but that's okay. Your eyes
a
re looking for the aura. You
might see wavy lines—that's the energy. You might only see the aura
color for like a second and it disappears. That's okay too. You'll
get better at it. You're a lot stronger than I am."

"How do you know
that?"

Violet looks
guilty all of a sudden like she said something she shouldn't have.
"Bumping into you on the street... you felt like Red a bit. Red is
strong."

I
always wondered what it feels like
for the other person. Sometimes they seem to enjoy me and sometimes
it seems I'm hurting them. I remember feeling Red in my dream. It
was an intense touch for only few seconds. What would if feel like
for her to touch me? Do I feel dangerous or do I feel enticing.
"What does Red feel like?" I'm really asking 'what do I
feel like'. I want to know. It may
give me a hint of what she might think of me.

She slouches
and bows her head. She can see through tmy words by the way she
hides her smile.

"Overwhelming."

Alex

I meet Dash at
the street corner where we had left each other the night before. I
know a mouth full is coming when Dash takes a deep
breath.

"Don't say
anything to her, but I took the journal on Red's desk. I didn't go
to school—I played sick. It's the end of the school year anyway and
testing is done. I couldn't put the journal down. I know it's wrong
but I had to. Red said it was okay."

"You only just
met her and you're stealing shit? It better be
interesting."

"It was."
He'
s drowsy and his crooked
smile looks way too content. "Don't tell her I took it."

"
Did you find Ryan Grey
stuff?"

"Yeah and then
some. I can't imagine what's in those other books." His eyes widen
like a mad scientist.

"You read about
Violet?" I pretend not to care.

"Yeah." Dash
blushes.

Bingo. I dive
into his head to pick off the Violet info, but it's a complete
mess. I stop walking. "This sucks. I can't read your mind to see
any of it. It's all cryptic."

"It's the
journal. But I think there could be a way for you to see what I
read. Red has the ability to come into our dreams and Violet said
you have the same ability."

"Yeah, but I can't do
that."

"Yes, you can. Your mind is always open so
that can work in your favor."

"Dude, how much do you know? I'm trying to
tap into that thought, D-man, but I don't see what you mean."

"I
think I might know a way where I
could share what I've read. But you're not going to like
it."

"Whatever. If I can
get to help Violet this way then I don't care."

"You mean get
to
know
Violet?"

I have to give
it to him. My flaring cheeks are a dead giveaway. "Yeah." I clear
my throat. "So how do we do it?"

"Red is a telepath.
That means he can go inside your head. When the other person is
sleeping, he can enter their dream."

"I told you. I
can't do that."

"Actually you can.
You're telepathy is open and kinda out of your control so it'll be
easy for you to slip into my head. The thing is I need to be
close."

"How close?"

"Like in your bed
close."

I
rub my chin. Violet is so worth it.
"Okay."

"Really?" Dash is
surprised.

"Hey, man if sleeping
with a guy will get me closer to Violet then so be it."

Dash turns
flaming red.

"Ugh—that came out
wrong. You know what I mean. So, my head is open?"

"Yeah, I could help
you with control if you want—"

"Nah, I'll pass
D-man. We'll let Red do that."

We see the abandoned building in the
distance. It looks just as God-forsaken as it did last night. I
follow Dash as he recalls exactly what floor and room the mirror
is, like a mouse sniffing his way to the cheese. It’s amazing that
we'll enter a mirror to see the most beautiful girl I've ever laid
eyes on. Dash is grinning because he feels he's created her. What a
weirdo. He's got some strange ideas. Whether it's a premonition
that he'd meet her, Dash isn't sure, but he's just as happy as I am
to see her again.

"Telling from the grin on your face, you're
thinking about her. I don't have to read your mathy mind to know
that."

"Mathy?"

"Looks like Einstein took a shit in your
brain. Do you know how old Violet is?" I ask before taking the step
into the mirror.