Human

12.

I woke up to the sound of Garrett's phone ringing around 9am.

I sat up slightly disoriented after my long, and crazy night. I looked over to Garrett who was looking at the picture that kept popping up on his phone every time she called. "You better go before she finds out you're here." I told him sleepily. If one thing from last night had stuck with me, it was that Carrianne was a dangerous girl who I did not want to cross.

"You don't have to worry about her." Garrett said tossing his phone down by his feet. "I told you, I won't let her bother you." He smiled up to me, and I covered my face with my sheet. "Besides, if she even tries anything her dad will tear her apart. We aren't supposed to expose what we can do, and Carrianne has already gotten in trouble for that multiple times. She has no control." He scoffed.

"Will you get in trouble?" I asked peeking my eyes out from under the sheet to look at him.

"Not if no one finds out." He shrugged.

"I would never tell anyone." I assured him. Then a thought popped into my head. "Wait!" I exclaimed sitting up quickly. "You said her dad? I heard both of y'alls parents had been killed."

Garrett bit his lip and closed his eyes. "Crap." He muttered. "I wasn't supposed to say that."

I got out of bed and sat in the floor next to him. "You're already breaking all the rules now, might as well spill it all." I joked.

"Don't freak out." He said carefully.

I looked at him very seriously. "I won't." I assured him.

"Ok, well Carrianne's sister and brother-in-law...They aren't her sister and brother...They're her parents." He told me.

"Then why the heck do people think that? Wouldn't it be pretty obvious if they were old enough to be her parents?"

"No, because they only look like they are in their twenties." He explained.

"I don't like where this is going." I said under my breath.

Garrett reached over and pulled my hand out of my lap and held it tightly. "That's the other thing about us..."

I could feel that I was freaking out a little. "Are you like, immortal or something? Are you actually like a freakishly old man who just looks like a seventeen year old?"

Garrett actually laughed at my outburst. "No Cadence, it isn't like that." He smiled. "We don't live forever, we just live a little longer than normal humans do. Potentes retain their youth much better than others. We can look like we are in our twenties for about twice as long as normal. I am only seventeen, but once I reach around twenty five, I won't change, or age anymore, for twenty more years. Then after that I will age like anyone else, and I will die."

"Why?" I asked in a daze trying to take that in.

"I don't know Cadence, that's just the way it is." He answered.

"Well, where did your kind come from?" I felt silly as I said it.

"We don't know really." He said again.

I snorted a laugh. "How do you not know?"

Garrett rolled his eyes at me. "Where did you come from Cadence?" He questioned. "Where did humans themselves come from? Some say it was the big bang, others hold to a deity for our creation, but nobody knows without a shadow of a doubt, right?" He asked.

"I guess." I agreed.

"We are just like everyone else, we don't have all of the answers. There are theories and whatnot, but just like you, we don't know where we came from or why." He explained. "We just exist like everyone else on this planet, just a little differently than some."

"Why don't Potentes want others to know about them?" I asked.

"We've tried that." He shrugged. "It hasn't ever ended well. Remember Salem?"

"The witch trials?" I asked.

"Yeah, they weren't witches. They were exceptional beings..."

I nodded in understanding. "They were Potentes?"

"Yeah." He said. "Anytime we have tried to be open with other humans about our abilities, it always goes bad for us. People treat us like freaks and think that because we are different that they have a right over us to do whatever they want to us. People have captured Potentes before and locked them in facilities against their will to do tests and studies on us, trying to figure out what we are and how they can make all humans like us. We've learned over the years it is in our best interest to keep our abilities a secret." He told me as he got up and pulled his shirt on then looked around for his shoes. "That's why our parents have to pose as our siblings."

"So your brother Dalton is actually your father?"

"Lucky me." He said obviously annoyed by the mention of his father. I totally get where he is coming from on that. "I've got to go before she starts burning down houses looking for me." Garrett said as he came to me and pulled me into a hug.

"Will I see you later?" I asked hopeful.

Garrett hugged me a little tighter and kissed the top of my head. I tried to keep my emotions in check so that he wouldn't be able to tell how happy that made me. "As long as I can get away you will."

"I really hope you will." I told him as he walked toward my door.

"I know you do." He winked at me before he was out of sight.

That whole emotion reading thing was going to prove to be embarrassing if we continue to hangout like we have been. I'd be stupid to not realize that I am starting to have some feeling for him that go beyond just friendship. I don't know how he is feeling about me though, so that makes it a little complicated.