Independence (11 page)

No such lu
ck.

"Don’t touch me!" she screamed and scrambled to the room. She slammed the door.
I ran after her and tapped on the door gently, but she told me to go away.

I
felt torn.
Lynne was now my responsibility
,
as were all the Aces
. She was going through something supernatural that I'd already been through and it was my job as Visionary to 'deal' with it. Beck was being…Beck. Hopefully, she'd understand soon.

"
Lynne," I said distractedly as I came down the hall and willed Beck to come out. I came out of the hall to see Lynne crying hysterically into Kyle's neck and him trying to soothe her. Caleb, in turn, was trying to calm her down as well. She
was mumbling that she didn't mean to, that she was sorry.

I went to her side, but didn't try to take her from Kyle. I knew that would be a bad idea. So I just touched her shoulder and tried to tell her that it was all right. Beck was fine and everything else would be, too.

Soon.

But of course, Beck's dramatic flair won out again as she stormed down the hallway with Ralph in to
w. She glared at me and said, "D
on't even bother asking if I'm OK. I'm am so far from OK with all of this! We're leaving. I refuse to stay here in this house with you and him!" She pointed at Caleb and then Lynne. "And her! I'm done. We'll stay in a motel or something until I think
it's safe for us to
go home."

"Beck, please," I tried futilely.

"No!" she screeched and jerked her arm away from my outreached hand. "No, Maggie."

She never called me Maggie. This was bad. This was so bad.

"I'm sorry," I said lamely.

She scoffed. "Now you're sorry that you've lied and picked him over me?"
"No," I answered truthfully and silently said goodbye to her. "I'm sorry that I hurt you."

She would never understand Caleb and me. She would never be OK with what I could do. She would never
get used to the fact that I was growing up and away from her and we couldn't be silly high school friends forever. Things changed. It hurt, but I didn't know what else to do at that point but to let her go since that was what she wanted.

She once again slammed the door on her way out and I stood there as if waiting for something further to happen. It didn't.

Caleb lifted my chin with his fingers. "I'm sorry."

"If we were meant to still be friends, we would be, right?"

He shrugged sadly. "Yeah. That doesn't make it suck any less. This is the reason that I keep Vic at a distance."

I nodded and screwed my lips up. "It's a good plan."

"I'm sorry," Lynne told me in a whisper. "I didn't mean to. I didn't know what I was doing."

"It's OK, I promise.
She was mad before you got here.
It's better this way with Beck." I nodded to reassure myself more than anyone else that this was right. "It is."

"I'm sor-"

I effectively cut her off by pulling her to me. She was ridiculously tiny.
"
Remember what it felt like when we realize
d
that things weren't…normal?" She nodded like a child. "Well, we had our significant and all the stuff going on in our minds to hel
p us understand. Beck doesn't. S
he's human and I'll j
ust have to accept that she's…never going to fit in my world anymore." I shook my head and refused to look at Caleb, who was pouri
ng on the sympathy next to me.
Kyle took Lynne's hand again, which didn't surprise me. She was still pretty upset and he would want to drawn that off of her with his touch. "But you ascended," I reminded her. "That's amazing
,
Lynne.
"
"Yeah," she agreed and sniffed
before looking up at Kyle
.
They both smiled slowly at the same time.
"Yeah."

I sighed. "Stay," Caleb and I both said at the same time. We all laughed. "Just stay the night. You may as well, now."

"I'll go order some Chinese,
" Caleb said and kissed my forehead
before sprinting to the phone.

Twenty five minutes later, and a couple of stories about Gran and her inap
propriateness down, the delivery
arrived and we sat on Caleb's couch side-by-side and watched a movie.

Of course it was a horror flick.

No one cared that I was a chicken when it came to gore on the screen, but Caleb promised to keep me safe. It was
so
normal.
We ate right out of the take-out boxes with our chopsticks. I had beef and broccoli, and shared with Caleb. He had General Tso's Chicken and shared wit
h me, feeding me bites sweetly from his own chopsticks.

I tried to remain calm and normal and serene until the movie was over
,
and laugh and let everyone think that I was fine.

Kyle and Lynne retired to the guest room as soon as the movie w
as over and I blocked them out. N
ot only to give them privacy, but I didn't not want to be privy to thei
r thoughts as they mutualized and t
hat was exactly what they were going to do.

So I told Caleb I wanted a bath and he rummaged through drawers to find a t-shirt and boxers f
or me. I took them in my hands. It was his
Imagine Dragons
shirt. I
gave Caleb a smile as I went to the bathroom attached to his room and shut the door. He said he needed to make a few phone calls to his dad and his work, so he'd be busy for a while.

So I
blocked
Caleb,
hoped he didn't notice because he was on the phone, and I
took that opportunity as I sank down into the hot, bubbly water of his huge garden tub to break loose. To break loose over my friend. My friend who had been with me through everything. Who was spoiled and carefree and shallow, but
mine. The girl who was angry with me because
I hadn't told her about my mom\Chad drama
and she was a
glutton
for it. A glutton for drama and
mayhem and gossip.

But when I needed her to be my friend most, to look past anything else and just look at me, she walked out without looking back.

And right now, I was breaking down with hurt and loss.
First
,
I thought I lost her when she went
missing and now, she walked out and
I lost her again.

I leaned my head back, the white bubbles
up to my chin, and let the tears come. The steam made the air thick, so I sniffed more
than I would at a normal cry—
session. I let my arms float beside me and stared at the pretty glass ceiling of
the
beautiful bathroom.

My body grew
tense
r
with every breath, and the shakes of my chest got worse with every minute.

I barely heard the door click open as Caleb came inside. I sat up, taking my knees to my chest and knew there was no way to hide my cry-face. "Did you finish your calls?" I tried for nonchalance.

"I haven't called the center yet, but I talked to Dad. I've got it under control. Don't worry about it."

I nodded. "Well, go call the center. I'm fine."

He took his phone out of his pocket and placed it on the counter. Then his wallet followed
soundlessly
. With bare feet, pants
,
and shirt he climbed into the tub behind me.

"Caleb, what
are you doing?" I asked, though
I knew.

I knew exactly what he was doing.

He pulled
me
by my arms
for me
to rest in
between his legs as he settled into the back of the tub. The water rose almost to the rim. I decided to let him do what he came
in
here to do and sank into his chest, turning a little on my side, letting my fingers hook in the collar of his soaked shirt.

He pressed his lips to my temple and spoke f
irmly. "It's not her fault, babe
. She just doesn't understand. She
'll never really
understand, but she'll come around one day."

"But aren't you glad that she's gone?" I asked and felt my breaths shudder to hold back the sob. "As the Champion, aren't you supposed to keep the Ace secrets safe, not pass them around to your girlfriend's friends?"

"Fiancé," he corrected. "And yes, that's my job now, but when it comes to you, I'll do anything you asked me to. I'll break any law, any rule, any sanction if it meant that you were happy."

I sniffed. "I'm sorry. I didn't want
you to have to do that for me, b
ut she…"

"Shhh," he calmed, running his hands up and down my arms in the water. "Shhh."

His calm and warmth soaked into me and I pushe
d everything else away but us in
that tub. I let all my anger and sadness blow through me. I cried while Caleb held me tight and
I
soon calmed. It was hard to stay upset with Caleb's calm keeping me from it, but I was grateful.

"You're crazy, getting in the tub with your clothes on," I admonished softly and laughed. "But thank you. I'm sorry you couldn't make your call."

"
There are things more important." He k
issed my temple. "Besides,
I'd have to call the manager
because the center is closed. It's kinda late anyway. I'll call her tomorrow. It'll be fine."

I saw the woman
in his mind. She
was an older, very pretty, but
slightly
heavyset black woman
about Gran's
age
who ran Caleb's main office
when he was away. I winced. He'd
been away since he met me. I was wreaking havoc
on his
life, wasn't I?

I looked up to see his scowl as he listened to my inner monologue. I smiled and touched his cheek. "There's no one else I'd rather be wreaking havoc on."

He laughed in a rumble and growled, "You're daggum right." Then he sobered as he looked down at me.
He rubbed my nose with his and stayed close.
"Better?"

"As better as I can be."

He nodded. I leaned forward, pulling him to me with my hand on his face, and kissed him, solid and good.
We stayed like that until the water turned cold.

Caleb

I woke to the tune of Maggie's heartbeat going nuts.

I jerked up and pulled the covers back a bit to inspect her. I turned her to face me and finally saw what she was dreaming about. I sighed.

She was dreaming abou
t
walking down the aisle and seeing my bare feet
. And she had a gorgeous grin on her face.

It didn't matter that there wasn't going to be an aisle to walk down,
I grinned back at my sleeping girl and scooted out gently so as not to wake her. The sun was barely peeking through the curtains, but I wanted to get up and get ready.
I h
ad big plans for us
,
and Maggie, though she didn't know it yet, had a big night with Gran and Mom.

Wedding stuff.

I was worried that Maggie would feel overwhelmed and not ready for it all, but from the look on her face just now, I guess that worry was unfounded. So I went to shave. I wanted to last night, but after we lazed in the tub forever, I just wanted to go to bed, hold my girl, and forget everything else.

Of
course
Kyle and Lynne in the next room were having none of that.
Maggie
slept peacefully in my arms, but I was worried about her and couldn't fall asleep. Therefore, I was forced to listen to those two and their freaky-deakyness for what seemed like forever. Lynne was a giggler, I'll tell you that.
And Kyle, well…