Born Wicked

XL

Julian teaches me to screen my power. It takes us several days to master it. Georgia and I meet in the library a few times, but we don't practice. Both of us feel safer giving it a break, now that we know about David Cross.

We've practiced screening, which now that I have the hang of it, helps me control my telepathy on my own. Something happened that night in my room, I can now see the full spectrum of aura light. Julian helps me decode each one, attributing an emotion to a color and how to define the mixtures. It's illuminating. Tempores have an underlying glow of gold, beneath their emotions. Spiritus have silver. Julian tells me that mine is white, so that must be the aura signature of a Hybrid.

Ethan is still upset with Julian.

"I just don't understand," he says, carrying his tray to our table. It's no longer mine. Everyday Ethan, Julian, and Tristan sit with me. Mike floats between us; Shane and Blythe being considerably less friendly toward me.

I sigh, placing my tray on the table and sitting down. "I know," I say softly. "But do you trust me?"

He eyes me stoically. "You know I do. Always. I just don't trust him."

"Don't trust who?" Julian asks, sitting next to me.

I shrug offhandedly and reply, "Shane," without missing a beat.

Ethan's eyebrows soar in surprise. He's still the only one who knows immediately when I'm lying, which is awful when you have as many secrets to keep as I do.

Julian peers over at his former table where Shane and Blythe sit with some of the football team.

Shane looks over at us in the same moment and glowers at me. Nice. I roll my eyes and gaze down at my soggy burrito.

Ethan shakes his head, smiles ironically and stabs at his own lunch.

"This is fucking gross," Tristan grunts as he sits next to Ethan, Mike right behind.

I grimace at my food. "Yeah, it is pretty nasty."

"We should start going off campus," Ethan says, taking a bite and chewing very slowly.

I grin. "We could go to Max's."

"Max's?" Mike asks, popping the tab on his soda.

I nod. "It's a diner by my house, maybe a ten minute drive? Food's superb."

"You've been?" Julian asks, addressing no one in particular. It's not very subtle, really. He's asking Ethan if he's gone with me.

I blush. Hard. We have about two of these moments a day it seems. An awkward tense moment, when Julian says a biting remark to Ethan or asks a loaded question.

Ethan pauses and eyes him warily. He runs his tongue along the outside of his teeth, clearly thinking, before answering, "Yeah, I've been. Like Jayme said, the food is good."

There's a heavy silence that follows. I want to crawl under the table until graduation.

"Anything has to be better than this," Tristan quips. There is no measure to the amount of gratitude I feel for his quick wit and sense of humor. I glance at him thankfully and he nods once, acknowledging me swiftly.

Julian sighs heavily. "Okay, if that's what you guys want." He peers at his food in disgust.

None of us really eats. We poked around and chatted about nothing, which was kind of strained, but okay. I dump my tray and head out into the hall with Ethan. He slings an arm across my shoulders and saunters up the stairs with me.