Heroes 'Til Curfew (Talent Chronicles #2) (6 page)

“Marco is keeping my secret about the same
way I’m keeping his. I mean, it’s not like I told all my friends
about him, but I told Kat, Dylan and Eric knew, things happened,
and they all know. Just like all Marco’s friends know about me. But
so what? Marco—”

“So
what?
Did that actually just come
out of your mouth?”

Damn.
“What I’m saying is that we’re
all Talents and it’s still us against them—against NIAC. But Marco
was turning Talents in to NIAC. First of all, I couldn’t know that
and just not do anything about it. Aside from the moral
implications, he was also drawing too much attention to
Fairview.”

“First of all, you could have
damn
well
not done anything about it. You could have kept your mouth
shut, your head down, and your abilities to yourself the way you’re
supposed to. You don’t actually have any evidence Marco ever turned
anyone in to NIAC—”

“But he was blackmailing them!”

“—nor do you have any reason to assume he
won’t turn them, and/or you in at any time.”

“But I have the upper hand. Kat and I have
the video of him using his Talent. If I go down, or any of my
friends, Marco’s definitely going with me and he knows it.”

“Do you even hear yourself? Is that going to
comfort you when you’re in State School, that you took Marco with
you? Because let me tell you, it’s not going be much comfort to
your mother, or your sister, or me. What kind of faulty logic is
fluttering around in your teenage brain that makes you assume
everyone Marco tells would actually care if he gets sent up? I
taught you to think better than that, Joss.”

“Well, but…knowing we have the video,
clearly it would be in Marco’s best interest to only tell people he
could trust to—”

“So your secret, your safety, your
future
is at the mercy of the good judgment of a juvenile
delinquent.”

Well damn, when you say it like that…

“Dylan’s become a problem.”

My heart slammed into high gear. Suddenly I
felt the threat of being forbidden from seeing him anymore. And not
that I was
seeing
him, but even if things were weird between
us a lot of the time, the idea of losing him as a friend was
sucking all the oxygen out of the car.

“He’s trouble, and he’s brought nothing but
trouble since he started sniffing around you.”

I turned toward the window, rolled my eyes
and tried to shake off some of the dread so I could think better. I
wished Dad wouldn’t use phrases like “sniffing around.” How are you
supposed to have a serious conversation with someone who
says
stuff like that? And I didn’t want to have a serious
conversation. Especially this one. I hurt all over, especially my
head, and I was exhausted. I just wanted to crawl into my bed and
go to sleep.

I knew there had to be a serious
conversation. I’d screwed up and I deserved to have to have a
serious conversation, I got that. But about Dylan? How did that
make any sense?

“He’s done nothing but look out for me.”

“He’s the kind of kid who finds trouble and
trouble finds him. That birthday party ends with police
intervention, who’s right there, driving the getaway car? Dylan.
You come home all beat to hell, who’s with you? Dylan. You leave
the store and never make it home, have your mom and me worried sick
about you for two hours, call me to come pick you up because you’re
hiding from the police
again
, you’ve been fighting
again
, using your Talent in front of other kids—”

“
Again
-and-who’s-right-there-Dylan,”
I rattled off. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. But—”

“Do not sass me, young lady. Do not do
it.”

“I’m not. Or I didn’t mean to. Sorry. It’s
just, yeah, Dylan’s there, every time.
Looking out for
me
.”

“Oh is
that
what he’s doing?”

“Yes!”

“You remember needing ‘looking out for’
before? Because I don’t remember you getting in these fights
before. I don’t remember you throwing your Talent around in front
of other kids before.”

“Dad, Dylan wasn’t even there when I got in
trouble tonight. Or even when I got into it with Marco the first
time. He’s not the one causing the problems.”

“No, it’s you, Jocelyn. You’re the one
causing the problems. Because Dylan makes you stupid.”

Don’t spare my feelings or anything.
Damn
.

And the thing of it was, I could kind of see
his point. Not that I agreed, but I knew Dad’s position on keeping
the secret and how to stay safe, and I knew I had crossed the line
and was playing way outside of his comfort zone. It was just…so
easy. There had been so many changes since my parents agreed to let
me try living like a normal kid, and everything seemed so much
better. Even Dad seemed better, more stable, more able to handle
things—even things like this. Sometimes, moments, I forgot how we
had lived before and why it was ever necessary.

“Maybe it muddies the waters for me to put
it on Dylan,” he said. “It’s this choice that you’ve made to be
around him and people like him.”

“You mean Talents?”

“I mean…civilians, Joss. People who don’t
have a clue how to protect themselves. People who don’t even think
about it. Like they don’t even care. These are the people you’ve
chosen to surround yourself with. I don’t understand it. I don’t
like it, and I don’t approve.”

Who am I supposed to surround myself with,
Dad? People like us? There are no people like us. So I’m just
supposed to be alone.

But I don’t want to go back to being
alone.

I turned to the window again, feeling the
sting of tears behind my eyes. No way I was gonna start that. I was
just tired and hurt. I hadn’t told Dad everything that had
happened, or how close I had been to Really Bad Things.

When I started to think about it, it was
such a loop Dad and I were in. The idea that NIAC would come and
take me away made him so crazy he’d had to go to the hospital. When
he got out, I did everything he ever asked me to so that he could
feel like NIAC would never come take me away. So he’d never have to
go away again either. He put all his energy into protecting me and
teaching me how to protect myself. That was his whole life. I made
sure he never had to worry about me, that he never had to feel
threatened. That was my whole life.

And I just didn’t feel like I could do it
anymore.

Chapter 4

Dylan

I leaned against the side of the school,
waiting for Joss to show up. Not out in the open, but from around
the corner where she probably wouldn’t see me. I don’t know why. I
just felt like I really wanted to see her, but also like I wasn’t
up to trying to talk to her.

Stalker.
Now I was thinking it.

I banged my head against the wall, letting
the rough texture of the bricks dig into my temple. Damn I was
tired. I’d called Eric when I got in, to fill him in and to make
sure he’d gotten away okay when he’d peeled off to try to misdirect
the cops that were chasing us. After that I’d collapsed into bed,
but I was so wound up about Joss that I couldn’t sleep. What had
happened in the time it took for Eric and me to get over there?
She’d said she was okay, but was she? Was it okay to press her on
it, or should I just leave her alone?

What happened with her dad after I got out
of the car? Joss’s dad was kind of scary. Not like I’d be jerk
enough to hold it against him that he’s been in the mental hospital
or anything. But hey, there’s overprotective dad, and there’s
overprotective dad with guns and military training. You pick. And
she was about as overprotective of him as he was of her. She’d
probably take my head off if I asked about that and it came out the
least bit wrong.

Which it always did.

I crossed my arms against the morning chill
and yawned. Even after I’d fallen asleep I’d had a lot of
nightmares. About Joss. About Marco. About the two of them,
together. About Joss being hurt and not being able to do anything
about it. And man, that had really sucked. I kept trying to put the
images out of my head, but they kept coming back.

Joss’s mom’s car pulled into the drive and I
watched Joss get out, walk over to the cement planter in front of
the school, and sit down. It was still early and there weren’t a
lot of kids around. Even though I wanted to go talk to her, I found
myself just standing there and not moving forward.

I objected to Eric’s term “chicken-shit.”
I’d never had problems talking to girls before. And I wouldn’t say
that it’s because I didn’t care before, because it wasn’t like
that. It’s just that Joss mattered in a way those other girls
didn’t. Maybe that’s why it always seemed like I was saying
something stupid, or wrong, or pissing her off. She was so damned
complicated and different that I was never sure what to say or what
she thought about me.

Oh yeah, and there was that whole thing
about my Talent we might have to talk about some more. I thought
that I’d be more relieved that she finally knew, but it was more
like I was just realizing what an idiot dick I’d been for not
telling her sooner. And I don’t know why I hadn’t told her. It just
never seemed like a good time, until later when I’d think,
oh,
that would have been a perfect time.
Maybe if I had a cool one…
Something useful like Marco or even Tony. Or Joss.

Whatever. Stop stalling and go talk to her
already before everyone else gets here.

When I turned the corner, she spotted me
right away. She didn’t jump up or wave or anything, but I thought
that maybe there was a little smile there, just at first. And this
was the dumbest part about the whole thing: Joss was into me. I
knew she was. And I was probably really messing with her by not
doing anything about it. But then, what if whatever move I made was
wrong? What if I screwed things up before they ever got started?
She was so…self-sufficient. Would she even bother giving me a
second chance?

I plopped myself down on the planter next to
her and brilliantly said, “Hey.”

“Hey.”

She looked up at me. Joss’s eyes are really
big and dark. She wasn’t one to give a lot away by her expression,
but I was pretty sure the key was in her eyes. I just hadn’t
figured out how to read her. Possibly because I was distracted by
the freckles across her nose and cheeks which really did things to
me, which makes me sound totally perverted.

Try not to make an ass of yourself first
thing in the morning.

But it was hard because when she was looking
up at me, I couldn’t help thinking about that one time I’d kissed
her. And how she’d kissed me back.

I had to clear my throat. “How’re you
doin’?”

“I’m okay, you?”

“Okay.” I looked up at the sky.
Oh, no,
you are not going to talk about the weather.
“So, um, what
happened with your dad after you guys dropped me off?”

She made a noise in her throat. “He’s not
happy. He said some stuff to indicate his state of non-happiness,
but I think it’s going to blow over.”

“Oh. Well, good.”

There was an awkward silence as we watched
the other kids. Eric and Kat pulled into the parking lot and
started their morning make-out in the front seat. Maddy and Matt
pulled up a minute later. Maddy immediately started banging on
Eric’s car with her gloved fist, trying to get their attention.

“I called Eric when I got home,” I told
Joss, “to let him know how things turned out. He said he was going
to let Kat know, and she probably called Heather. Hey, did you know
Kat took over for me at Casey’s when Eric and I blew out of there
last night? Wonder how that worked out.”

“Hard to imagine Kat, you know, working. I
guess I should have called Kat? And/or Heather? I totally never
thought of that.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“This friends thing is really
complicated.”

Tell me about it.
“You’re doing
fine.” I knew that making this transition from confirmed loner to
friends with the bunch of us was hard for her. It was another
reason I didn’t want to push her with the boy/girl stuff. Or so I
told myself.

But there were chicken noises in my
head.

We watched the twins and the lovers make
their way across the street where they were joined by Heather and
Elizabeth. The group could hardly make it up the sidewalk for
trying to talk and walk at the same time. I had wasted most of my
opportunity to talk to Joss about last night.
Idiot.
If I
was going to say anything, I’d better get it out now.

But then Joss spoke. “I…” she hesitated,
clearly uncertain, “I don’t know if you want to hear this, but I
kind of want to say it.”

Well, that was kind of scary and
intriguing.
“Yeah?”

“I might be on my way to the State School
this morning if you hadn’t covered me there at the end last
night.”

I couldn’t stop the shudder that went up my
spine at the thought of Joss being taken to one of those
government-run research “schools,” never to be heard from again. I
know she felt me twitch. “Don’t say shit like that.” I actually
started to raise my hand for the cigarette that wasn’t there,
because I had quit for good this time.

“You really came through for me last night.
You knew I was in trouble and you came for me. It doesn’t matter
how I was doing when you got there, it matters that you came. So
thank you.”

She had directed this speech to the tops of
her boots, and she had timed it perfectly, so that, almost as soon
as the words were spoken, Kat was on her in a giant hug, everyone
was grouped around us, and we didn’t have to talk anymore. Which
was great, because I didn’t know where to go with that. If I’d
opened my mouth, I’m sure I would have blown it off and made a jerk
of myself, just so I could start breathing again. I caught myself
rubbing at my chest like I could make my heart loosen up like any
other muscle. I dropped my hand.