Connection (Le Garde) (14 page)

Once I’d fooled around with the instruments a little bit, I started checking out the bulletin board by the door to see what was going on. San Francisco was so much more eventful compared to El Dorado.

I heard the bell by the door tinkle as someone walked in, and I stepped closer to the wall to let the newcomer walk by. It was a girl with straight brown hair, and she walked directly to me. I recognized her. She was at the party last night, the girl with one blue eye and one brown eye.

“
Aaron Bender?” she said.

I stared at her for a moment before saying, “Yeah?”

“
My name’s Kristina.” She put out her hand and gave me a firm handshake. She looked in her early twenties, and she stared at me with intensity.

“
Okay.
 
.
 
.how do you know my name?”

“
I know all about you and Anna.” 

I swear my heart stopped for a moment. “What?”

“
You don’t want me to say it in here, do you?” she asked, glancing around at the store. There was a bald guy reading a magazine as he sat behind the counter twenty feet away.

My mouth went dry. Oh, god. Oh, my god, who was this girl? “I.
 
.
 
.don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She pulled out a thin black wallet and handed me a business card. “You’re not alone. Call if you’re interested in learning more.”

I stared at the business card:
Joseph Harwood. Professor of History, Stanford University.
“What—” I looked up, and Kristina was already to the door.

“
Hey, wait a second!” I followed her outside.

She jogged across the street to a silver sports car. Wait—was that the same car I saw in Matt’s neighborhood?

I was about to step across the street when a blue mini-van sped past. When it was gone, the silver car was already pulling out of its parking spot.

“
Kristina! Wait!” I yelled, charging toward the car.

They gunned it, and the motor revved as it sped off. Swearing, I tried to make out the license plate. 729 D something.
 
.
 
.although what was I going to do, go to the police and tell them someone knew about my mental connection with my friend? What kind of a car was it? Mazda, maybe? It was growing smaller as it went down the street.

I looked down at the card. A professor at Stanford? Why had some girl who was obviously not Joseph Harwood given me his card?

The honk of a horn scared the shit out of me. I spun around and saw Tom and Tara’s car. The passenger’s window rolled down, and Tara leaned out to call, “What the hell are you doing standing in the middle of the road?”

Panting, I got in the car. “Hey. I need to go back to Anna’s—to Steven’s—to Steven’s uncle’s, whatever.”

“
What? I thought you just left there.”

“
I left something there. It’s only twenty blocks away, but it took me twenty minutes to get here.”

Tara grinned. “Really? Slow walker?”

“
Come on,” I said, pulling on my seatbelt. “It’s that way.”

Five minutes later, I was pounding on Matt’s door again. This time, Anna answered. She called over her shoulder, “It’s Aaron. I’ll be right back.” She shut the door and met my eyes with her brow furrowed. “What is it?”

I held up the business card. “Some girl just came to me and told me she knew about the two of us.”

Anna took the card, her eyes wide. “What do you mean? Who’s Joseph Harwood?”

“
I don’t know.” I ran a hand through my hair. I told her the story, my words spilling out over my mouth. “And then she just drove off in a silver.
 
.
 
.I don’t know, maybe it was a Mazda.”

Anna stared down at the card in awe. She took out her phone and punched in the number.

“
Are you calling him right now?” I asked.

“
No,” she said, as though it was a dumb question. It kind of was. “Just taking down the information. Just in case.
 
.
 
.I wonder if my mom knows him.”

“
Or my dad?” I shook my head, taking a deep breath. “I can’t believe this. Who—how—oh, my god.”

Anna held the card out for me. I could feel the fear growing in her, but she did a good job of keeping it off her face. Why bother hiding it when I knew what she was feeling?

I was trying not to panic. Maybe panic wasn’t the right word. I wasn’t scared, just shocked. Confused. How could someone know about us? What did she mean when she said we weren’t alone? Could she have powers, too?

Anna glanced toward Tara, who waited in her car. “Thanks for telling me.”

“
What, you think I wouldn’t?”

“
No, I mean telling me right away.” She met my eyes. “We’ll talk about it later. Maybe I’ll call you tonight.”

I swallowed. “Okay.
 
.
 
.okay, right. I’ll look him up online.”

“
Me, too. We’ll figure out what to do. If you ask your dad.
 
.
 
.be subtle about it.”

I nodded frantically. “Right. Right. And if they—if she shows up here, tell me.”

“
You think she knows where I am?” Anna’s voice went a fraction higher.

“
I didn’t tell you? I saw her car here when I left.”

“
What?” Anna put a hand over her mouth.

“
Look, I’m sure.
 
.
 
.she didn’t seem threatening or anything.
 
.
 
.just creepy. Not creepy like freaky, but mysterious creepy.
 
.
 
.” I was not helping. Anna bit her lip. “If you.
 
.
 
.if you’d feel safer at Tara’s—”

“
No,” Anna said quietly. “No, I’ll be fine. Just—if I don’t call you tonight, call me. You know, just in case anything happens.”

I put my hands on her shoulders, her shirt between our skin. “Nothing’s going to happen,” I told her.

She gave me a tight smile. “Okay.”

“
I’ll talk to you soon.” I slowly took my hands away and stepped back. “Don’t worry, okay? She said we weren’t alone.
 
.
 
.maybe they have the same thing.”

Anna shrugged, biting her lip again. “Maybe. Thanks for telling me.”

I smiled. “Of course.” I slowly backed away toward Tara’s car, and Anna opened the door behind her. She paused in the doorway while I went for the passenger’s door. She gave a small wave, and I returned it before shutting my door.

“
Geez, that was the longest goodbye I’ve ever seen,” Tara said.

9. l’appel (phone call)

Anna

I rolled over onto my side and looked at the alarm clock. It was nearly one in the morning, but I could tell by Kaylie’s breathing that she wasn’t asleep yet. We lay in the full bed in the guest room. Kaylie had slept on the floor the nights that Sam had been here, because she was nice like that.

“
Hey, Kaylie?” I whispered. “Are you awake?”

“
Yeah, are you?”

I smiled. “No.”

“
Well, this is the first time I can say you talked in your sleep,” Kaylie said.

I giggled. Usually, Kaylie was the one who talked in her sleep, and I slept like a log. “Yeah, I guess so.” I paused. I didn’t know how to say it, because I didn’t want to admit it. “I.
 
.
 
.I kind of like Aaron.”

Kaylie turned onto her side, facing me. In the dark, I could only see the outline of her face and the occasional shine of her teeth. “I can tell.”

My eyes widened. “You can? Oh, gosh, that’s horrible. Do you think Steven can?”

“
No. I probably just notice because I’ve known you guys for a while, you know? I know you’re acting different than usual.”

“
Like how?” I bit my lip.

“
Oh, like when you guys were taking pictures at the wax works museum,” Kaylie said. “You guys look at each other a lot when you think no one’s watching.”

I put my hand over my face. “That’s embarrassing.”

“
Plus, you’re always finishing each other’s sentences. Like you’re reading each other’s minds.”

If only she knew how close that was to the truth. “But you don’t think Steven’s noticed? I obviously like Steven way more than Aaron, but I don’t want him to get weirded out.”

“
I don’t know.
 
.
 
.is Steven the kind of guy to mention it if he saw it?”

He’d mentioned it at the party on Saturday, but maybe that was only because of what I’d said about the two of them being so alike. “I don’t know. Maybe. What about Sam?”

Kaylie huffed. “I don’t know. Sam’s clueless when it comes to Aaron.”

“
I think he turned her down today.” I picked at a thread on my pillowcase.

“
Oh, did she say something?”

I’d felt Aaron’s emotions while they’d been talking in the kitchen, and I assumed what happened when Sam switched to Matt. I hated when she acted like that. It wasn’t like her. “No, Aaron did,” I lied.

“
Oh. Well, he broke up with her, right?”

“
Right.”

We lay in silence for a moment. My phone was on the bed, and I was waiting for a right moment to call Aaron. I’d probably go in the bathroom so no one could hear me.

“
So, you still like Steven more?” Kaylie asked.

“
Yeah, of course.
 
.
 
.but I don’t know.
 
.
 
.I feel like I need to be careful with Aaron.”

“
What do you mean?”

I hesitated, trying to formulate my thoughts into words. Trying to describe what had freaked me out ever since our friendship started changing, charged with tension and chemistry and everything else between two people attracted to each other. “I just feel like.
 
.
 
.if I’m not careful, I could totally lose myself. I feel like I’d be Aaron part two instead of Anna.” I cleared my throat. “Just because we’re such close friends, you know? I mean, we haven’t been for a year, but all those memories and habits are still there.” Not to mention the empathic thing.

“
Yeah.” Kaylie’s voice was soft. “I bet a lot of girls are afraid of that. Afraid of becoming obsessive and single-minded about a guy.”

“
And some live for it,” I said, thinking of a couple girls at school. Girls who were not seen without their boyfriends or heard talking about anything but their boyfriends. I didn’t want to become one of those girls. I felt like the odds were even more against me since Aaron and I had that connection. “I don’t know, do you think that could happen to me?”

“
You are definitely not like those girls.” Kaylie paused. “You probably just need to set boundaries for yourself, you know? But I don’t know, maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as you think. My parents would die for each other, but they’re still they’re own people somehow.”

I wondered if I’d die for Aaron. My gut told me yes, I would, but a more selfish part of me said it would depend on the circumstances. Would he die if I didn’t? Do I have any other options? Weird questions like that. What kind of person did that make me?

“
It seems like you’d need someone you could trust,” Kaylie said, “to not take advantage of you if you did get to that point. Or someone who’d feel the same way about you, so you’re both kind of obsessed.”

I laughed, wondering if Aaron fell into either of those categories. “That makes sense.”

Kaylie yawned. “Hopefully. Hopefully I’m not just rambling.”

“
You’re wise beyond your years.” I turned and looked at the clock again. “Well, I’d never cheat on Steven. Ever. But I have to go call Aaron about something really important.”

“
Oh, okay.”

“
I know it’s weird.” I pulled off the covers. “But don’t worry.”

“
I’ll probably be sleeping when you get back,” Kaylie said through another yawn.

I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and got to my feet. “Okay, goodnight.” I didn’t ask if that meant she thought I’d be on the phone for a long time.