On the Run: The Texas Files ✔

Chapter 29: The Calm Before the Storm

Parker is watching Tyler's every move.

I can't say that I blame him. Tyler is being oddly nice.

It makes no sense. Parker told him off with the SAT score thing. He should be pissed and plotting his revenge. Instead, he's eating pie with us like he hasn't treated us like dirt. His expression is different than it usually is. It's always hardened, like glass. He kind of does the same thing I do. He pastes a picture of what he thinks he should be, and that's his expression. I've only ever seen Tyler flirty, happy, and angry. Never any other emotion.

It's that stupid stereotype that guys aren't allowed to show emotions that could be construed as weak. Even Parker apologized for crying when he relived his sister's accident. I don't get it. I really don't.

I take a breath as I pause from my pie. I feel a little dizzy. Oh, God. Not here. Why now?

I excuse myself and go up the stairs before I completely lose consciousness. I'm upstairs when I fall down.

Everything is black.

~~~

I don't see anything yet. I don't hear anything either.

Mom appears suddenly. Behind her can only be described as the void.

She's pissed. "You're being careless. You shouldn't get involved with anyone. You know that. Distance is what keeps you alive, Joy. You entrusted this boy with your secrets? What's next? You're gonna tell him you're a bastard child, too? Or your real name? You won't taint your relationship with someone who calls you 'sunshine.' I didn't raise you to be this foolish!"

I can feel my expression fall. I'm being scolded by my mother. My cheating, lying, dead mother. She must be able to tell that I'm not happy with her. She gets even more pissed off.

"He doesn't understand you. He's an upper-middle-class kid who's never had to work a day in his life. He doesn't know what danger is. He's an idiot for getting involved with a flight risk."

Me not having a vision in a long time was a good thing, apparently. Nothing could have prepared me for this. She just called me a damn flight risk. I have never seen her so angry at me. Even when she was alive, she was never angry, just firm, when one of us did something wrong. I'm learning a lot about my mother, and she's not even alive.

I use my power to talk back to her. "Parker is like me, Mom. And I'm only a flight risk because you made me that way. You made me who I am. You cheated on Dad and made me into some kind of experiment to prove a theory you were working on. So don't you scold me on my choices because you've made some pretty shitty ones,"

"Whether you like it or not," she says. "you are what you are. We created you to fill a purpose. And by running, you are just prolonging the inevitable. You will get caught again, and unless you tell them what they want to know, you're not getting out of there alive. If they see you have an attachment to someone with a gift like yours, they will not hesitate to capture and torture him too. And you wouldn't want that boy to get hurt, would you?"

No. God, no. "Is there anything else you want to tell me?" I ask.

"Yes," she says. "Half of the people in attendance for your dinner today are like you. You can narrow it down yourself."

Huh. There's Parker, Tyler, and me that have them. My brothers definitely don't have any powers. That leaves Marissa, Lily, Izzie, and Del.

This will be a puzzler for sure.

She continues to stare at me.  "And Joy," she says. "For the love of the heavens above, please stop wearing that lip gloss."

I smirk.