If Normal Was a Thing

Normal's Not a Thing

A body sat down at the table where Oakley had just left, one too muscley to be my best friend, not to mention she had literally just left the table to go to the bathroom. I looked over, finding myself face to face with Owen, he tilted his head with a small smile.

"I'm glad you took your word seriously and didn't freak out," he said while motioning over a waiter to clear the dishes that were left dirty on the table.

I frowned, not because I realized that was what he had asked me earlier, but because I wasn't sure why he had asked that of me. I'm sure there were a few people who knew less than I had, that had just been told, and they didn't freak out... but then again him saying that meant he knew something, it meant that he was likely already in the Academy.

I went the casual route, "So are you a group with the others?" I asked kindly.

He smiled in approval and nodded, "I am, they have been my family for quite some time now, we're all as close, if not more so, as brothers," he explained, watching me carefully.

I nodded, keeping my face from showing any emotion, "That's nice, I hope I'll be able to find a family like you guys have," I mused and sipped my cider.

He raised a single eyebrow, "So you want to join?" he asked me carefully.

I smiled, "Why wouldn't I?"

He was so quiet that I had to look over at him to make sure he hadn't just vanished, when our eyes met my pulse picked up and I had the oddest sensation to lean forward and kiss that small smile. The sensation was joined with confusion, and guilt. It wasn't right, what I was doing. Each day I had noticed that I liked them all more and more, when one of them texted me I didn't feel any difference in how happy I was to have been texted. I didn't favour one over the other and that scared me.

At first I thought maybe I was just happy to have found friends, but you don't want to kiss friends. I felt myself start to close up, being swallowed up in the emotions that were all too thick and real. This was her fault, my step mother had damaged me once again. I was messed up, couldn't even like a guy without liking his eight friends, who he considered family, just as much as I liked him. I felt sick, the ball like scene around me was washed away by the image of my step mother, my throat closed up at the thought of her and then like lightning she didn't just damage me, she was damaging me.

Hitting me, I wasn't sure if it was a memory or real, and the inability made me want to vomit. He cruel face was twisted and she pulled back a hand to strike me, I shut my eyes and waited for the pain.

It never came, a soothing voice cut through the haze that I had been engulfed in, and when I managed to open my eyes I didn't see my step mother, or my room or the house. I didn't see Marie standing off to the side, watching but never helping. I didn't see Oakley's face as she walked in and saw the damage first hand.

What I did see, were nine pairs of eyes looking at me with mixtures of concern and something else. I couldn't identify it, but I knew that they weren't about to strike me down.

"Oi, Trouble, you look too fucking gorgeous to be worrying about that bitch," Gabriel said, kneeling next to me. In his ears were bright orange crystals that matched his undershirt and belt on his suit.

Someone popped him upside the back of the head, "You dick, she's scared you can't just go cuss at her," said North, standing behind him in mostly black.

"I'm sorry," I said, interrupting them while looking at everything in the hallway but them, which was not an easy feat.

There was silence and then Sean was there, cupping my cheeks in that sweet, flirty manner of his, "Don't be sorry about them pumpkin," he said, trying to joke.

I couldn't crack a smile though, and Kota spoke up next, "What do you have to be sorry for?" his voice held concern.

"I'm not normal," I said, unable to admit the truth, hoping it would go away, that I would maybe just start to favor one of them, or that perhaps I would stop liking them all, that it was just a phase. The fact that I wasn't normal was also something I should apologize for, they didn't ask some messed up girl to go and ruin their perfectly fine lives by kissing them all in a water park.

Oh what they must think of me.

There was a small laugh, and I flicked my eyes up to catch Luke in the act, "Sugar, normal is a matter of opinion. But even so, I doubt anyone could every use a word like normal to describe a girl like you."

I was being called abnormal, and for the first time in my life, that sounded pretty good to me.