Crossing the Barrier (7 page)

Lily put the car in reverse and drove away from her house. Ten minutes later, she parked her Mini Cooper in her school assigned parking spot and got out of the car.

“Well, here we are,” Sandra said, getting out of the car also.

“Yes,” Lily said, looking at the school and feeling her breakfast sitting uncomfortably in her stomach again.

Already the humming of the faraway emotions was crawling all over her mind. At least, a lot of those were happy feelings, as most students were excited to be back in school and to reunite with their friends.

“You’ll be fine, you know,” Sandra said, walking around the car to join Lily.

“I don’t know. I already feel overwhelmed,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Yes, but band practices have become easier, no?”

Lily nodded and then glanced at the school with apprehension.

“Let me walk you to your first class,” Sandra said, putting her hand on Lily’s arm, blocking the humming surrounding her.

“Okay,” she said in a small voice.

Sandra put Lily’s arm through hers like they used to do when they were kids. Lily looked up at her friend and gave her a smile of gratitude. Sandra was the best.

“Ready?” Sandra asked.

“Let’s do this.”

They made their way to the school, Lily as nervous and uncomfortable as on her first day as a freshman three years earlier.

Chapter Eleven

MALAKAI

As soon as
Malakai made his way into the school, he was surrounded by people who just
had
to talk to him. After the message he had left his father earlier that morning, all he wanted was to surround himself with his closest friends.

But none of them were around.

After rushing through the crowd, he finally made it to his first classroom, AP English. As he walked in, he was surprised to see Lily sitting along the wall, the third desk from the door, her head bent over a book. He walked to the empty desk behind her and sat. As he leaned forward, he smelled her. And she smelled so, so good: green tea, the same kind his mother used to brew when he was young. It created a longing in him, a longing to see his mother but at the same time, a longing to take Lily in his arms and never let go. He just wanted to kiss her until his head spun. He had never felt so strongly about a girl before; he had never wanted to kiss a girl that badly before, and he didn’t know what to make of it.

But before he could do anything, he had to know her.

“Hey,” he said, gently touching her shoulder.

This simple touch sent a warm and fuzzy feeling up his arm. It was almost as if her soul had caressed his, as if his soul had in turn rejoiced at her nearness. Malakai was about to reach out to touch her again when she turned, her gray eyes meeting his. They were as wonderful as he remembered, and he couldn’t help himself; he smiled.

She was beautiful. In fact, Malakai thought she was prettier than all the cheerleaders and Zoe’s clique combined, and they were supposed to be the finest girls in school. Her long brown hair was fastened in a ponytail that morning, and her delicate face was makeup free except for a pink lip gloss, which favored her complexion. She wore a black school polo shirt and jeans.

“I…I was wondering if you were all right,” he said quietly, slipping his hands under his legs to prevent himself from reaching out and touching her again.

Malakai hoped he wasn’t making a complete fool of himself with his pathetic line, but then she smiled. He was fascinated by her straight white teeth and her pink lips. Somehow, he caught himself thinking if angels did exist, they would look just like her.

“Yes, I am. Thank you for asking. Bumped into anyone else lately?” she asked, a glint in her eyes.

“No,” he answered, looking at his desk, a small smile on his lips. So far, so good, he thought as he glanced up at her. If she was attempting humor, he must be doing something right. “I try not to make a habit out of it, you know. It would cost me a fortune in magazines, and I would have to get a monthly parking pass at the hospital.”

Lily laughed, something real and true, and Malakai was reminded of wind chimes in a breeze. It was the most amazing sound he had heard in a long, long time.

“Thank you for the magazine. I really liked it.”

“I’m glad you did.”

And he was—a lot.

Before he could say anything else, Wes entered the classroom and, walking like a bull, made his way to the desk next to Malakai. He let his bag drop loudly to the floor and plopped onto the chair, the legs scraping the floor.

Of course, someone would have to pick this exact moment to interrupt a conversation Malakai actually enjoyed and had looked forward to, and that someone had to be a person he barely recognized anymore.

“Hey, bro,” Wes said, turning to Malakai. “Missed you in the parking lot earlier.”

Malakai frowned. “I didn’t know you had AP classes.”

“Yeah! I decided to show everybody football players aren’t only muscles,” he said with a grin.

“Can you actually pass this class?” Malakai asked before he could stop himself.

“Dude, why wouldn’t I pass? I mean, it can’t be that hard,” he added, looking at Lily.

Malakai’s blood was pounding in his ears. The last thing he wanted was for Wes to pick on Lily or any of the band members, for that matter. The old Wes would never have done something like that; he would have only ignored them. But this new Wes, who hung out with Zoe? Who knew?

Malakai glanced toward Lily, but she had turned around and resumed her book, no longer listening to them. Disappointed his conversation with her was over, he turned back to Wes and listened to him drone on and on about Zoe, again.

Chapter Twelve

LILY

It was strange
sitting in front of Malakai. He was nothing like the other boys Lily had met lately. Most of them had two things on their minds: sports and sex, and not much else. The vast majority of the time when she met them, she felt appraised, as if she were an object and not a person in her own right.

With Malakai, it was different.

She didn’t understand why, but when he smiled at her, Lily felt as weightless as a feather; when he spoke to her, she had the impression someone was singing a hymn to her soul; and when he touched her shoulder, she believed everything would be all right, that her shielding situation wasn’t so bad after all. His touch felt so safe, so peaceful, so right. She had never quite felt that way with anyone before, and she wanted to feel his touch again.

She wanted it so badly that needles kept running through her fingers as if they had gone numb. She stretched her hands under her desk, hoping to get rid of the sensation. After all, she was nothing special, and Malakai had plenty of girls throwing themselves at him. She just didn’t want to be one of them.

All throughout the period, she perceived Malakai—the only presence she seemed to be able to feel for one reason or another—was distracted, and it prevented her from concentrating.

And it worried Lily.

If Malakai sitting next to her distracted her so, how was she ever going to be able to keep her average up? But the thought of switching seats, of moving away from him, made her soul cry in pain.

When the bell rang, Lily barely had any notes and didn’t even get the assignment for the next class. As Malakai passed her on his way out, he brushed her shoulder, and she felt a warm caress to her mind. She watched him make his way to the door, Wes monopolizing his attention, and, as he was about to walk out, he glanced at her and gave her a small smile. Lily’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of it.

Then he was gone.

She quickly gathered her books, reached the front desk, and asked the teacher if he would repeat the assignment to her. The classroom was empty when she finally made it into the corridor.

The moment she joined the mass of students, she was assaulted by a wave of emotions so powerful her head pounded and began to spin. She tried to push the sensations away but to no avail. They kept on crashing into her, drowning her.

She put her hand on the wall next to the door and took a few deep breaths, tasting bile at the back of her throat.

She had to do something and quickly. She didn’t want anyone to see her this way. She didn’t want to have to explain what was wrong with her if someone were to ask. All she wanted was to become invisible.

Putting her back against the wall, she slid to the ground and retrieved her cell phone. With shaking hands, she texted Sandra their emergency code and told her where she was. Then she closed her eyes and put her head on her knees, rubbing her temples to ease the pressure.

She didn’t know how long she had been there when Sandra finally arrived.

“Lily,” she said, putting her hand on Lily’s shoulder. “I couldn’t find you! If you hadn’t told me where to look, I wouldn’t have found you at all.”

The minute her friend touched her, the sea of emotions was replaced by Sandra’s only: worry and a touch of fear. Lily sighed in relief, the pressure in her head diminishing considerably.

“You okay?” Sandra asked.

Lily looked at Sandra, tears threatening to spill from her eyes, and shook her head.

“I… Sandra, what am I going to do? I can’t even walk two feet in the corridor without feeling like someone is picking at my brain, slowly, with needle-size chopsticks.”

“I don’t know, but at least you took two steps more than this morning,” Sandra said with an encouraging smile. “How was class?”

“Not so bad once the lecture began,” she said, looking away.

“The truth, Lily!”

“I…I don’t have any notes,” Lily admitted. “Sandra, what am I going to do?”

“We’ll figure it out,” Sandra said, helping her to her feet. “For now, we have to get you to your next class before we’re late.”

Lily told her where to go, and Sandra began pulling her down the corridor.

“How was it this morning when people began to arrive?”

“People were trickling in so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.”

She remembered the moment Malakai came into the room. All she felt was him. The others were only a second thought. She would have told Sandra, but they didn’t have the time.

“Okay, good. Then we’ll have to figure out how we can use that later. Now we really have to get you to your next class. There’s not much time left before the second bell.”

They arrived at Lily’s classroom, and Sandra turned to her. “I’ll come and get you after class. Wait for me inside, okay?”

“Okay. Sandra, thank you.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out.”

Only a few stragglers remained in the corridor when Lily entered her classroom and took the nearest empty desk, dizzy again from the effort of keeping the emotions from the classroom at bay. The moment the lecture began, things got better, and Lily relaxed a little but the moment someone’s mind drifted away, their emotions distracted her, and she could no longer concentrate. In a classroom where half the boys thought about girls, and the girls about boys, minds tended to drift a lot, making it impossible for Lily to hear anything that was said or take any notes. Again she didn’t get the assignment and had to approach the teacher once the bell rang.

It was embarrassing.

She had to find a way to manage her classes, and quickly; otherwise, she wouldn’t survive the year.

Chapter Thirteen

LILY

By lunchtime, Lily
was exhausted and starved. Her lack of shields was by far worse than she had expected. She was so tired from trying to keep her mind intact that she was ready to crawl into bed and sleep for a week. She didn’t know what she would have done without Sandra meeting her between classes.

But Sandra would not always be there. And that was exactly the case at lunchtime. To make matters worse, Lily didn’t have her lunch and had no choice but to try the cafeteria.

The corridor was mostly empty when she had finished talking to her teacher about the assignment, and made her way out of the classroom. As she got closer to the busy hub, she wondered what she had been thinking: how would she ever be able to manage the crowd without her best friend’s help?

She had barely taken a step into the room when the feelings hit her so hard she staggered back. She wanted to laugh, cry, high-five, and punch people all at the same time, but above all, she wanted to grab her head in her hands and scream at the top of her lungs for it all to stop.

But she did none of that. Instead, she stood frozen, incapable of fighting it off. She took a shaky step back as darkness began to cloud her peripheral vision.

Suddenly two hands grabbed her face, replacing the onslaught with deep concern. Her soul stirred in recognition before her eyes even met his.

“Lily? Lily? Is everything all right?”

Two deep green eyes searched hers. Peace filled her soul.

Malakai.

Lily leaned into his hands, sagging in relief.