At First Sight (6 page)

              “What did you see?” he asked her.

              “He unveiled his powers to her and she told him to leave,” she replied softly.

              “What do we do?” asked Frankie. “We can’t let this pain continue. It’s not good.”

              “We can’t do anything about it. You know that, honey.” Katherine shrugged and sipped her wine sadly. “They have to come together on their own.”

              Freddie sat on his bed and placed his head in his hands. He literally wanted to scratch his eyes out. He had overheard his parents downstairs while in the kitchen. His brother was hurting and it was casting a dark shadow over the entire family line. But, Freddie was still bothered that the gift had happened. His brother always came first. Why did it always have to be Dean? Dean this, Dean that. When was Freddie going to get his turn in the spotlight?

              He wanted to meet his soul mate so badly. Admittedly, he wasn’t the best kid. He went to parties, went out at night when he wasn’t supposed to, and he was reckless. But, he only did those things for one reason. He wanted to meet his soul mate. He wanted to have the first sight. Maybe he’d save his soul mate, bump into her, or just simply see her across the room.

              No.

              He was continuously left in the dust.

              It broke his heart and he always wondered if his future soul mate, if he even had one, could feel it.

              Matthew stared at the manila envelope in his hands, sweat breaking across his forehead. This was only step one and it brought him so much closer to eternal joy in his world.

              He carefully opened it. There was no letter inside. There was only a simple sandwich bag inside with something folded up inside. He grabbed a pair of tweezers from inside his desk and plucked the item out from inside the bag.

              It was a tissue.

              He set it down on the envelope and used the tweezers to unfold it, revealing a red stain in the middle. From the still fresh metallic scent, he knew it was what he had asked for.

              A smile grew on his face as he placed it back inside the bag, storing it safely inside his desk and locking it with an old key. He stood up and placed the key inside his jacket pocket before pressing the intercom button on his desk.

              “Brother, are you feeling up for some wine tonight?”

6

            
 
The rest of the weekend passed by uneventfully. Lola was still in pain, but she hadn’t heard from Dean whatsoever. She had returned to work the next day without any interruptions from crazy old guys trying to kill her or possess her. There was no magical presence around her, either. It was like Dean had never existed.

              Except for the pain that she was still experiencing.

              She held her head in her hands that Monday during lunch, trying her hardest to keep her thoughts to herself. She was sure that Dean could still hear her, but she didn’t want him around mentally or physically. She couldn’t handle somebody like that.

              Who could, anyway?

              This was reality and magical powers didn’t exist. Humans weren’t supposed to glow. “Soul mates” weren’t supposed to find each other like she found Dean. It just didn’t make any sense.

              The way he spoke about her made it seem like she was the Queen of England. So what if she was human and she brought back some gift? That didn’t mean she had to accept it. She wasn’t meant to be a part of some cult. She was meant to go to college and leave her past behind. Plus, she didn’t want to bring Dean into the mix. It would be too much baggage for him.

              “Who peed in your Cheerios?” asked Jessica, sitting beside her on the bench outside.

              Lola looked at her best friend and shook her head. “Cramps.”

              She didn’t want to tell Jessica what had happened over the weekend. She’d admit her into a psych ward.

              “I left my Midol at home. Sorry,” shrugged Jessica. “So, what happened to you Saturday? You never answered your phone at home yesterday, either. I thought you died. Did you go home with that guy?”

              “Absolutely not,” said Lola. “He’s… too much.”

              “What do you mean?” she asked, furrowing her brows.

              “Let’s just say he has a lot of baggage.”

              “That sucks. I can find you somebody else,” smiled Jessica, glancing around the quad. “How about Lance?”

              “He has a girlfriend,” laughed Lola. She winced. It hurt to laugh.

              “So? I heard she is cheating on him anyway.” Jessica looked at her friend more clearly. “Something else is wrong. Are you sure it’s cramps? Wait, what’s today.”

              “The fifteenth,” muttered Lola.

              Jessica narrowed her eyes. “You aren’t on your period. You get yours right after mine and I haven’t had mine yet.”

              Lola knew she was going to say that.

              “Are you pregnant?”

              “No!” exclaimed Lola, sitting up. She sighed and shook her head. “This weekend was just a little bit overwhelming for me and I’m still trying to get it past me.”

              “Well, what happened?” asked Jessica.

              Lola chewed on her lip. “I can’t tell you.”

              Jessica drew back in surprise. “What do you mean you can’t tell me? We tell each other everything.”

              Lola hated lying to her best friend, but she had no choice. She wanted to tell her, but she still wanted to keep Dean’s secret. “Look, I want to tell you but I don’t even remember most of it. Wouldn’t you rather know the whole story than bits and pieces?”

              “True,” she muttered.

              Lola nodded. “I’m sure it will all come back to me by tomorrow.”

              The bell rang, signalling the end of lunch. Both girls gathered their things together and stood up from the table to head to their next class.

              Jessica pointed a finger at Lola. “Fine. But, you’re going to tell me the whole story when you remember it.”

              “Promise,” said Lola, hooking her pinky around Jessica’s pinky.

              Dean could barely focus on his schoolwork that day at home. His mother had assigned him to write a paper detailing the events of the Civil War, but he had barely written a paragraph. All he could think about was the pain he was experiencing and Lola.

              He tapped his fingers against his cheek as he stared at his computer screen, completely drawing a blank. Absentmindedly, he had typed Lola’s name five times. He erased them and groaned out loud, pushing away his keyboard. He stood up and scratched his head, trying to block out the pain.

              He had heard her thoughts all day, even though he knew she tried to keep them to herself. It hurt, no doubt about it. She didn’t want him. She thought everything about him was crazy and he had expected that, but he also expected a little understanding. It honestly made him frustrated the way she thought about him. It wasn’t right.

              But, he couldn’t stay mad at her. Regardless of her rejection, they still had the gift inside and they were still soul mates. He had spoken to his parents last night and they had explained to him how long the gift could stay inside of you. Lola had two weeks to either accept or continue to reject their destiny.

              But, if she continued to reject it, then the consequences were dire. He knew that only because his parents were hiding something. He had brought up what Freddie had told him and they only explained that Freddie was angry because he didn’t have the gift yet.

              Dean knew that was bullshit.

              He went downstairs, seeing that nobody was in the house except for him. He walked down the hallway and stopped at his father’s study. The door was open, as well as his laptop. He looked over his shoulder before walking inside. He tentatively opened the laptop and found that his father’s Skype was still open. The last contact was made to Matthew, the speaker of the family line.

              Matthew would know what was going on.

              Dean knew it was wrong, but he didn’t want to be left in the dark. He needed to know what was going on. The arrow hesitated over the green button on the computer screen. Matthew was still online so it would so simply to just call him right then and there.

              But, what if the secret was something bad? What if Dean wasn’t supposed to know

              But then again, Freddie knew.

              Dean had every right to know.

              He was about to click the mousepad when he heard a squeak. He jumped and turned around, seeing his father at the door with a curious expression on his face.

              “Dean, what are you doing in here?” he asked. “You should be writing that paper.”

              “I just…” Dean knew he had to lie. “I didn’t know if you might have a book about the war in your study.”

              Frankie walked over to his shelf and pulled out a worn book, handing it to Dean. “Right here.”

              Dean nodded. “Thanks.”

              He left, but not before looking back and seeing his father looking at the computer screen as if a heavy weight was bearing down on his shoulders.

              Something was definitely up.

              Matthew walked down the hallway with his brother that evening, passing and nodding a few people along the way. Once they were both alone, his demeanor change as he lowered his voice.

              “They won’t tell him.”

              His brother furrowed his brows. “He has a right to know, don’t you think?”

              “He does. It’s a powerful role for Dean to take over and, without his knowledge, we can’t complete our task,” explained Matthew. “We must do something.”

              His brother stroked his chin, deep in thought. He stopped and faced Matthew, putting his hands on his shoulders. “Leave it to me, brother. I’ll make sure he knows. We won’t fail.”

              “
You
won’t fail,” murmured Matthew, pointing a finger at him. “I have other things to attend to.”

              Matthew walked away from him then stopped, feeling some dark cast over his person. He looked around and, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, headed back for his office.

7

Lola stared at the formula taunting her at the moment the next day during free period. She did well in calculus, so she should know this. She was passing the class with flying colors. This was why she was going to be valedictorian next month. So, why was she having trouble studying one formula when she could do it in her sleep?

              Oh, yeah. Dean had taken over her thoughts for the better part of the day.

              She sighed and closed her notebook and textbook, giving up as she rubbed her forehead. She couldn’t keep doing this to herself. She needed to have control. She didn’t want to be distracted. She couldn’t afford to lose her scholarship or her valedictorian title. Sure, it hadn’t been confirmed but the principal was basically handing it to her on a silver platter.

              The pain was starting to become unbearable. She had taken an Advil last night and then a Midol this morning. Nothing was changing. Medication couldn’t fix this and she knew that. She knew what would stop the pain, but she couldn’t fall to that level. Doing so would mean that she believed in everything. But, she didn’t. She couldn’t.