Unaltered #2_A Diamond in my Heart (9 page)

“You know all those times I tried to
get you to say yes, and how I’d get frustrated with you and ask why
you were so persistent?”

“Yeah, you’d get upset so
quickly.”

“That’s what you saw. Truth was I’d
repeated several times until the point where I’d snap. My snapping
became the version you saw and remembered. Don’t you like me,
Calli?”

“Brand, you’re not my kind of guy. I
think we can be good friends, but I don’t see you in any other
way.” I tried to let him down easily.

“Just a friend?”

“Yeah.”

“Can friends hug?” He executed the
‘dimples’, his only true weapon in softening a girl’s
heart.

“Yeah, as long as you don’t try
anything.”

He opened his arms in invitation for
my hug. Somewhere in the back of my mind I realized Suz was
watching this from a distance and yet it didn’t stop me. I stepped
into his embrace and hugged him like I would hug my father. I can’t
speak for him, but I don’t believe for a second he was hugging me
like he would his mother. Brand was an opportunist and I’d just
fallen into his opportunistic arms.

I pushed him away and scanned the area
and found the backside of Suz’s head as she walked away. Strangely,
I didn’t feel sad. I guess after finding out she’d set the
firecracker in middle school, I’d distanced myself from her. I
realized she’d never really been a good friend to me but I was more
of a burden to her.

I thought about her infatuation with
Brand and how it must really hurt her to see me hugging him, but
instead of empathizing with her, I decided to get to the bottom of
why Brand had shunned her.

“Brand, what happened with Suz? Why
did you break off your friendship?”

“I’ll only tell you this if you swear
you won’t tell Suz.”

“Suz and I aren’t friends
anymore. Besides, I’m a vault, Brand.”
More than you know.

“I was making out with Suz
one day when my mother busted in on us and revealed I was making
out with my
half-sister
. My father and her mother had an affair and Suz is the
result. I knew about my parents' rocky beginnings but I never knew
who he cheated with. I was able to repeat back to before my mother
came in and save Suz from embarrassment. I’ve had to give her the
cold shoulder to suppress her attractions to me. I suppose I could
just tell her why and develop a brother/sister relationship but
that would devastate her. Honestly, Calli, I believe I did the
right thing by getting her out of the house before my mother ruined
her life.”

“Yeah, I agree. I won’t tell
her.”

“Can I have another hug?”

“Nope.”

“Does he have a name?”

I looked at him for a long moment. “I
tell you in two and a half minutes.”

“Damn, you got me figured
out.”

“How many times did you ask me for a
hug?”

“Many.”

“So, what did you alter to soften
me?”

“Winning the stuffed puppy for you,
but doing it by chance, that softened your eyes. Then I knew you’d
be more likely to give me a hug.”

“Let me guess, you thought by
answering my question about Suz you’d be able to soften me some
more, right?”

He nodded.

“So, now you figure I have a
guy?”

“No, you told me you did when I tried
to kiss you.”

I slugged his arm… hard! “You tried to
take advantage of me? You’re a pig, Brand.”

“Well, you may be right, but I have to
say, you are the strongest willed girl I’ve ever met and you’re the
only one who I can’t seem to win over, so, you have my complete
respect.”

“His name is Chris Harding, and he’s
going to kick your ass someday.”

The rest of the day played out without
incident, well, it was repeated so many times that the end result
was without incident. After a few repeats, I asked Brand to leave
me behind for the rest. It truly was exhausting to have two minutes
repeat itself multiple times. We didn’t always go back two whole
minutes, sometimes it was only thirty seconds or less, however long
it took to reset the situation giving us the advantage over the
slew of angry boys hunting for Brand.

One bad thing about the day was that
being with Brand prevented me from riding any rides. The lines were
long and the rides were all at least a minute long, some two
minutes, so repeating out of a bad situation was next to
impossible.

On the bus ride home, Suz sat with her
other friends throwing me dirty looks. I closed my eyes, so I
wouldn’t be tempted to read any lips, and fell asleep.

Chapter 6 - Deadly
Shadows

Brand shook my shoulder waking me from
my deep sleep. “Calli, what am I going to do?”

I noted the panic immediately. I
looked out the window of the bus and realized right away what his
panic was all about. Apparently our sleepy little town had been hit
by a lightning storm and the power was out. We were nearing the
high school driving down the eerily darkened Main
Street.

“We’ll figure it out, Brand. Don’t
panic.”

“Don’t panic? Are you kidding me?” His
voice raised into a high pitched whisper I was sure everyone could
hear. “Calli, repeating will only put me back on this bus. And you
say don’t panic? Oh, I’m panicking! There’s much panicking going on
here!”

I knew he was possibly in
big trouble. I wish I’d had time to develop some tools or gadgets
to ward off the Demons that Brand could use at this very moment. I
knew once he was safely in his car, he’d be safe. He’d drive home
and pull into his lighted garage…
crap,
I thought,
his garage will be dark as well.
He’d have to stay inside his vehicle till the lights came
back on.

The whole situation made me wonder
what people of powers did before electricity. Did they carry lit
torches with them at all times?

We pulled into the darkened high
school parking lot and the murmurs and whispers of everyone else
increased. “Brand, we’ll leave the bus last.” That would give me
time to think of a solution.

One by one, everyone exited the bus
and soon we were the only ones left.

“Everyone off.” The driver sounded
tired.

I walked up to him and said the first
thing that came to my mind. “My friend here is deathly afraid of
the dark and this power outage is only making it worse. Would you
mind holding up just a second longer while I drive my car around
here to the door?”

“Hurry it up, then.”

I looked back at Brand and jumped off
the bus. The Demons were thick around the bus and continuing to
gather. I hurried and unlocked my car and climbed in. I drove it
quickly around the lot and up onto the sidewalk with the passenger
door next to the bus door. I reached over and opened the door
toward Brand who stood on the bottom step of the bus. The light
spilled out from the interior of my car and I saw the Demons
fade.

“Get in!”

Brand jumped and entered my car with a
fluid motion slamming the door shut. I could see the bus driver
shaking his head and rolling his eyes. I put the car in gear and
drove away. “See? That wasn’t so bad.”

“I need to repeat, Calli.” He pulled
his blood covered hand away from his stomach.

I yanked the steering wheel to the
right and pulled over. “Wait!” I scanned his body quickly and found
his injury was pretty serious but not irreparable. “Brand! I can
heal you.”

“But the blood, your car, if I
repeat—”

“No! Lean toward me, your injury is on
your back and I need to touch it.” He leaned, or more like fell
toward me, and I quickly pulled his shirt up from his waist and
rested my hands on his skin. I felt the mending within him as
sliced muscles and organs righted themselves. His exit wound on his
stomach was the last to heal together… but, he’d lost a lot of
blood. I searched my own body for excess energy to transfer to him,
extra ‘plasma’ so to speak, to sustain him until his own body could
replace the lost blood. Instinctively, I took my hands and ran them
over his entire body mere millimeters above his skin and clothes
transferring my energy to him.

“Calli, you’re amazing. What does this
Chris guy have over me?”

“Knock it off, Brand.”

“Sorry about your car; sweet ride, by
the way.”

“It will clean, don’t worry about it.
The bigger question is how are we getting you home?”

The question was answered before we
arrived; the power was restored and the Demons were pushed into the
shadows.

“You left your big puppy on the bus,
Calli.” He pointed out my error as I slowed to a stop in his
driveway.

“Oh, so I did. I had more important
things on my mind.” I smiled and then looked beyond him to his
front door. “No Demons, Brand. You’re good to go.”

“What should I tell my Mom about this
blood?”

“Just tell them it’s not real and was
a prank pulled by some other boys.”

Brand began leaning toward me as if he
was going to kiss my cheek, but I put my hand up and stopped him.
“Just get out, Brand.”

“Sheez, you’re strong willed.” He got
out of the car and jogged up to the door.

I drove away once he was safely
inside. What a day! I decided to hit the car wash and shampoo the
interior of my car before I went home. First I called my mother and
told her I was back in town but would be delayed getting home so
she wouldn’t call out the cavalry. I told her someone threw-up in
the passenger seat and I was going to go clean it at the
twenty-four hour car wash. She bought it.

*****

Graduation came and went without much
fuss. Well, if you don’t count Suz and all her exaggerated antics
of jealousy and self-inflicted depression, then there wasn’t much
fuss. My parents were curious as to why my friendship with Suz had
ended, but the new development of me hanging out with the all-star
quarterback had them a bit preoccupied. I’ve tried to tell them
he’s just a friend but they didn’t buy it. Even more frustrating is
the fact that Brand has apparently stuck onto me and is no longer
‘playing the field’. All the females who swooned over him now throw
dirty looks my way; so much for ambiguity and blending into the
shadows.

Now that school is out, I no longer
have to ignore snide remarks, or pretend not to hear the animal
sounds directed in my direction. However, one day was particularly
fun when one of Suz’s snotty friends was making a pig snorting
sound and actually snorted a bunch of phlegm into her throat. She
hacked and coughed and dry heaved; I guess she really was a snotty
friend.

*****

One week after school ended, Maetha
and Beth came to visit me late in the afternoon when my parents
were out and I was pleased to see both of them. Beth looked good;
she had confidence and composure even though she still wore a bit
too much black eyeliner, but that was just my opinion. I guess it
doesn’t really matter how a confident woman dresses.

Maetha spoke, “Calli, Beth and I will
be in town for a few days and will be staying at the hotel by the
river. I think it's best if we do our training there and I want you
to bring Brand with you. Here’s our room number,” she handed me a
card, “Beth’s cell number is on the back.”

“I’ll find out when Brand is available
and get back with you.”

Beth jumped forward and hugged me
tightly. “It’s so good to see you again, Calli. You look really
good; you’re all grown up.”

“Beth, it’s only been a year since I
saw you. I couldn’t have changed that much. Look at you; you’ve
changed more than me.” I was amazed to see the creeping color
redden her cheeks.

Maetha said, “Alright, call when you
are able to come over.” They left and I immediately called Brand. I
told him the woman from the amusement park was in town and wanted
to meet with us again. Unfortunately, Brand was busy the next day
but the day after would work alright. I told him I’d pick him up
early on that morning and he excitedly ended the call with, “It’s a
date!”

I called Beth to let her
know.

I picked up Brand two
mornings later and drove to the hotel. Beth met us in the lobby and
shook Brand’s hand. He said only a couple of sly sentences to Beth
and then put his arm around her shoulders and
she let him do it!
This was going to
be a long day.
I smacked his shoulder and
said, “Stop it, Brand.” I knew he was repeating to get his desired
result. Beth, on the other hand, had no idea what was going
on.

The day was long and tedious and it
didn’t matter how many times Beth explained the process of viewing
auras, I still couldn’t see anything. Maetha spent a long period of
time talking privately with Brand asking him questions about his
ability. Every now and then I noticed peculiar behavior in Maetha
unlike her regular business-like manner and realized Brand must be
repeating. Later on I spoke with Maetha and told her what I’d
witnessed.