The weeks passed by in a blur, so quickly that I couldn't keep track of the days. The temperature slowly warmed up, winter turning into early spring as December turned into March. Grass started to show through the white and brown snow, although dead, but grass was grass and there was hope for the season to come.
Aiden was nothing but a gentleman to me since we started going out in December. On Christmas Day, he sent me a necklace through the mail that was sterling silver, the pendant a cursive M for my first initial. It was a very sweet gift, very Aiden, but Aiden knew that I would never take off my dad's ring from my neck line for as long as I lived.
I hadn't seen much of Peri since the beginning of junior year. She would often tell Luna and I that she was far too busy to hang out with us. To make matters worse, I also didn't see Gemma as much. Not that I cared that much, but she was still my sister. I had a right to see her and wonder where she went sometimes.
"So, how are you and Lover Boy doing these days?" Luna asked me as I sat in the passenger side of her Kia. "You look super cute this morning," she commented, taking in my appearance, completely changing the subject. I looked down at my clothing.
I wasn't wearing anything special today, but I did manage to make a little effort in my appearance. My hair was extra curly today, with a little braid in the middle of my hair in the back. I had on mascara, applied with the help of my mother. I was wearing a graphic T-shirt that wasn't super baggy like it normally would be and skin tight jeans that left nothing to the imagination. Looking up from myself, I glanced over at Luna. "Thanks," I spoke. "I really did try to put some effort into what I looked like."
"Why would you do that? You never did that before. Aiden has liked you since basically the beginning of time without you going all supermodel on us. What changed?" she asked, driving down the neighborhood roads to get to school.
I shrugged. "I don't really know. I just thought that I would spice some things up. I mean, you only live once," I told her.
"Ah," Luna said, her mouth opening up wide in realization. "I see." She never finished the rest of her thought, just simply let it hang there for me to fill in the silence.
"What are you thinking, Lu?" I asked her as she made a right onto the street to our school.
She just shrugged, her grip on the steering wheel tightening. "Nothing, just thinking about whatever pops in my mind."
"Like what?" I pressed.
"Oh, you know, if you're just changing to impress Aiden and his popular friends."
Luna drove her Kia into the student parking lot, finding a spot to park nearest to the school entrance. I gawked at her. "Luna, I'm not trying to impress anyone. I'm just trying to be happy."
In the months that I've had my Empathy, I have found out how to control it. Or let it control me, I haven't decided which one it was yet. I discovered that the more feelings I absorb from people, I feel their emotions as my own. I actually quite liked having artificial emotions, it made me feel human, less broken inside.
Less like a failure and a mistake that should never have walked this earth.
I could feel her despair over Aiden and I. She thought that she losing me just like we were losing Peri. Luna would never admit it, but I knew her too well. I knew exactly what she was thinking despite not being able to read minds. I found that people were a lot more truthful with their emotions that anything else in the world. It wasn't just the physical tells that I could see, but it was so much more.
"Luna," I said, placing my hand on her knee. "It's fine. Nothing is changing, nothing had changed." Lies, but I wasn't going to tell her. Not anytime soon was I ever going to tell anyone, family, friends, or boyfriend, about my ability. It would be so hard to explain. I can't even explain it to myself, so how would I be able to ever explain to another human being?
"How can you be so sure?" Luna asked me, placing the car in park. Her almond shaped, soulful eyes stared into my very being, possibly seeing past my lies and my armor. "Vel, Peri's been distant with us ever since the school year started. She's been lying to us about everything. You are now dating the Star Student of Ambrose High School, and there is nothing, literally nothing, going on with me. I'm the same as I was the year before, and the year before that, and the year before that." Luna was starting to ramble, something she did often whenever she was feeling anxious and scared.
"Luna, Luna," I called, taking her hands in mine. Her skin was warm and sweaty in my palms. Her anxiety was rolling off of her in waves. "You're rambling. And I've told you this once and I'll say it again, nothing bad is happening. Plus, I like Luna. I like how you don't let anything change you, no matter the circumstance. You were my rock at my father's funeral, helping me through that time and you were there when I had my attack. I've never been more thankful for you, the Luna Melrose who never changes, no matter what."
A soft smile came to her plump lips. "You know, you know just what to say. How do you do that?" she asked, squeezing my hands back.
I smiled back at her. "I don't really know. I guess death makes people wise beyond their years," I joked. She laughed a watery laugh at me, gently slapping my arm after she took her hands out of mine.
"Come on, honey, you cannot make jokes at this time," she said. Luna grabbed hold of her keys, turning them and taking them out of the ignition. "Promise me that nothing will change until we all graduate from high school."
"Luna--" I started.
She held up her hand, the keys jingling as they dangled from her grip. "Promise me, Marvel Rae Vayle," she insisted. "Or so help me, you'll find yourself in the hospital, wondering where your ability to walk went." Dear God, she was serious. Never underestimate the power and ability of one Lucina "Luna" Melrose. It won't do a person any good.
I held my hands up in surrender. "I promise," I vowed. "Nothing will change as long as the three of us are together. Now, can we get out of the car? Because I swear we have way too many serious conversations parked outside of the school before it even starts."
A stray tear ran down Luna's cheek. She wiped it away immediately. "We most certainly do. We should definitely get in there, otherwise Lover Boy Aiden may ask questions why his girl isn't in his arms every moment of everyday." Luna opened her door, getting out and getting her bag from the trunk. I followed suit and grabbed my own book bag from the trunk.
"He does not do that," I countered, slugging my book bag strap on my shoulder.
Luna gave me a look, one that clearly said she wasn't buying my words. "Hon, Aiden is so crazy about you, of course he wants you with him at all times. Who wouldn't? You are an absolute catch, whether you realize it or not, but hopefully Aiden will change your mind about that." She smiled softly at me, giving me a pat on the back and walked up to the main entrance of the school.
Luna went inside and I followed her lead, striding up to the main entrance. I opened the door, finding myself in the main hallway of my school. My eyes found Aiden by a row of lockers, talking with his friends. I also saw that Luna had walked up to him, talking with my boyfriend and the group. She flipped her hair over her shoulder flirtatiously. Luna hardly ever did that, she only flirts if there was a cute boy involved. And que the cute boy. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion, but immediately let my supposed jealousy go when I noticed that it wasn't Aiden she was flirting with. It was Mark Young, Aiden's best friend and one of the best basketball players on our school team.
Suddenly, darkness was in my line of vision. "Guess who?" Aiden's voice asked, a sing-song tone in his voice.
I tapped my chin in mock thought. "Hmm, let me guess, is it my super wonderful boyfriend?" I asked. Aiden removed his hand from my eyes, letting me see my surroundings. My eyes adjusting, I noticed that Luna was still talking with Mark and his friends.
Aiden came in my line of sight, his brown curls bouncing a little at his giddiness. "Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner. You're reward, my princess, is a kiss on the cheek." He bent down slightly, pressing soft lips to my heated cheek.
"Do I get anything else?" I asked once he pulled away from my hot flesh.
He put his hand on his chin, feigning being deep in thought. "You get me as an awesome boyfriend," he said, a joking tone in his voice. I gently slapped his chest with the back of my hand.
"No, really. What else did you want to tell me other than your "cute" act to kiss me?" I tilted my head at him as he leaned against a locker, blocking the thing from the poor sap who it belongs to.
"I was going to ask you if you wanted to go to a party at the end of this week?" he asked, staring directly into my eyes.
"A party?" Aiden nodded. "Aiden, you know I don't do well when it comes to crowds of people, especially not when that crowd happens to be my peers," I explained like it was the most logical thing for a teenager to say, which for me, it was. Being antisocial really was great, but it was so hard to be once you have friends and family who love you, let alone a loving boyfriend who would do anything for you.
"Marvel," he whined, pulling in to his chest. I could feel the muscle definition there, years of working out really paying off. "Please? I wouldn't ask you if I didn't know it was okay."
"And is it perfectly okay? How many people will be there to make me miserable?" I asked, leaning next to him on the locker.
Aiden just shrugged, refusing to answer my questions. In a tiny voice, he said, "There will be enough people."
I crossed my arms over my chest. "How many?" I ask.
"Katie is the one hosting it and basically everyone from school is invited to her house for a good time."
My eyes widened. "Katie?" I practically shrieked out, thankfully we were here early enough so that no one could hear me. "Katie Byrne, your ex-girlfriend, invited all of us to her house party at the end of the week? Why the hell would she do that? She hates me!"
Ever since Aiden and I started dating, Katie had been sending me death glares, promising so much pain to come to me. She would try everything in her power to make sure that Aiden wasn't near me, by taking him aside and making him her partner in group projects. She would try to make me miserable at every waking moment at school, but the joke was on her.
I hardly felt what she tried to do. Her emotions were fueling me instead of my own. It was so much fun to mess with her and her feelings.
"Marvel, it won't be that big of a deal. It will be a huge party, Katie won't be able to find us in the sea of people. We can do whatever we feel like doing without her getting in our way, I promise," Aiden said, holding up his hands in surrender.
Huffing out a sigh, I said, "Fine, but as soon as the sight of trouble comes, I'm leaving the party, with or without you."
A large smile spread across his lips. Turning to me fully, he placed his hands on either side of my small waist. He lifted me up from the ground, just the tip of my toes touching the tiled ground. "You make me so damn happy, Marvel Rae Vayle," he laughed, just letting me levitate off of the ground.
"Put me down, you big dork," I said, laughing along with him.
"Never!"
"It's open!" I yelled from my seat on my bed. I was shuffling through my homework on my bed, some random assignments for Chemistry and trigonometry problems from Algebra Two. I was also home alone, Mom was out to dinner with some friends from work and Gemma was spending the night at a friend's house.
My bedroom door opened, revealing Mickey.
He didn't look so great. There were dark bags under his usually vibrant eyes. The tan skin he donned was pale and sickly. His clothes were dirty and torn, as if they were the only things he owned, unable to buy anything. I saw blood stains coating his shirt sleeves.
"Mickey," I yelped, taking in his appearance. "What are you doing here? Does Mom know you're here?" He shook his head. "How'd you get in here?" An afterthought, of course.
"No," he whispered, his voice hoarse. "Len has no idea I'm here. I just used the spare key given to me by Nathan. I needed someone to talk to." Mickey shuffled over to my bed, practically collapsing on the mattress.
"What happened?" I asked, removing my homework from my bed. I threw everything off, caring very little for the paper. I felt his agony and anxiety collide into me. It left a nauseous feeling my stomach.
A sob left his throat. He wasn't looking at me, completely avoiding eye contact with me. "I lost my job. I lost my home, my savings, everything. I had nowhere else to go, so I grabbed what remained and high tailed it out of Duluth. Your mother won't see me, my parents won't return any of my calls. Now I'm starting to think that everyone would be better off without me," Mickey whimpered out. "I can't get the voices to stop. They keep telling me to end it all."
"Mickey." My voice was a whisper, a look of horror on my face. "Please don't say that. I need you around. Gemma and I can't not have you in our lives. Without you, there wouldn't be anything left for us who understands. We need our uncle. So please don't consider it."
Mickey calmed down some after a while. He looked at me, saying, "Do you have any idea how long it took me to get clean? Do you know what it's like to have your family shame you for something you can't control? I can't stop the voices in my head, Vel. It's getting to be too much. I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this." Slowly, cautiously, he rested his head on my shoulder. "I'm scared of myself, Marvel."
I blinked tears out of my eyes. I reached up to pet his hair, the same way he would when I was little and hurting. "I'm going to help you. We're going to get you help," I announced. Mickey wasn't going to go through life like this. He couldn't, not unless I wanted to lose him.