The guy was still passed out on the couch. I followed Todd back into the kitchen and we both sat down at the table and stared uneasily at each other. I decided to just get it over with. So I told Todd about the camping trip and how somebody had dared me to jump out of the canoe and swim to shore. How I was stupid and when I jumped out, my foot slipped on the railing and my head hit the canoe's edge. I had thought I had friends. But I heard later that none of my friends in the same canoe tried to help me. It was a girl in another canoe that happened to see everything that called for a teacher. I don't even know her name. I was under the water for far too long. I shouldn't have made it. My lungs had even filled with water and my brain had started to shut down. The paramedics couldn't believe it. I stayed at the hospital for a week to make sure I didn't have any brain damage. To their knowledge, I didn't. But after being home a month later, things had started moving around in my bedroom. I thought it was a hallucination at first. When it happened night after night, I thought it was a poltergeist. I even did a small exorcism off the internet. That didn't stop it. It was when it happened during school that I realized it was me doing it. I was in the bathroom and some upperclassmen were drilling me about what happened at the lake. I told them I couldn't remember anything just so they would leave me alone. They didn't believe me. I guess they thought physical trauma would help me remember something. They tried flushing my head down a toilet. I freaked out when I saw the water heading for my face. After the accident, I was afraid of water. Of being in water. I took showers instead of baths now and I hated being anywhere near a boat. I panicked and thought "why won't they leave me alone?!?" and the next thing I knew, all three of them had slammed against the tiled walls and passed straight out. I heard they had concussions. Of course I had ran out and didn't tell anyone about what happened. They were found by a poor freshman. I didn't envy her.
I had went straight home that day and so far my mother didn't know anything about what I could do. She was unfortunately home when I stomped up the stairs and threw myself on my bed. She had come up to see what was wrong, but I was still frightened by what had happened at school. So when they door had opened I unconsciously pushed her back into the hallway. She never looked at me the same way since. Her fear of me left me unstable. More things than ever were moving around the property and my mother became a recluse in her own house. She finally had enough a couple months later and signed me up for "volunteer therapy". I never asked her if she knew this therapy consisted of electroshock therapy. When I finally came home a few weeks later, I flinched at everything. I was scared of everything. But I had learned to control my powers. It wasn't a good idea to have my powers going haywire when I was in "therapy". Even through blinding pain and straight torture, I only had let my powers get away from me once. Thank god the scientists thought some stupid intern had knocked over that tray of urine samples. It wasn't pretty.
But now I hated my mother and she hated me. While I was gone, she hooked up with some random Joe from the house across the street. I knew he was married. I knew his kids. Her disdain for me based out of pure fear of my powers transformed into an extreme hatred for everything about me. Somewhere between the mixing of anti-depressants and over-the-counter drugs, she suppressed her knowledge of me having any anomalies and based her hatred of me on my lack of a job, lack of a career goal, lack of a father, anything and everything. And I loathed her for it. She couldn't handle having a daughter with abilities so she made up other reasons to hate me.
I started crying as I told Uncle Todd about of this. Stupidly balling in front of him in his kitchen. He still looked quite shocked by the whole ordeal, but finally sighed, patted me on the head, and said that we should check on the poor guy on the sofa. I sniffled a bit and wiped my face dry before nodding and going into the living room.
He wasn't there. I stared blankly at the empty sofa and tried to remember if I had moved him anywhere. I hadn't. I slowly started to panic. He knows! He knows what I can do and he ran away! What if he tells others! I am so screwed! The coffee table whined as it was pushed across the hardwood floors. I became aware of Todd shaking my shoulders. I breathed heavily in and out, in and out, until I had calmed down. I sat down on the couch and put my head in my hands.
++++++++++++++++++++Josh's POV+++++++++++++++++++++++++
I had groggily woken up to a girl sobbing in the back room. I tried remembering what happened and the picture of a girl's face looking up at me while braking my bike flashed in my head. I wonder if she's all right. I quietly sat up and listened to the girl. She was talking again.
"....lake...hospital. I...powers." I caught enough of the conversation to understand that the girl used some kind of supernatural power to fling me off my bike. I couldn't be here anymore. She wasn't natural. She shouldn't be here. She was using her charm to get her Uncle on her side. She wasn't going to get the chance to sway me. I picked myself off the couch and tiptoed out of the house. I have to get away from here, sister is never going to believe this!
