Unfamiliar (Unfamiliar Series #1)

Chapter 15

The ride back to the academy is quiet as Indigo and I sit side by side in another Uber that smells faintly of perfume. A few Cheetos dot the floor as I carefully keep my boots from crunching them into the carpet. I want so badly to talk to Indi, but with the driver around, we can't without raising suspicion.

I sit rigid, my fingers having found a loose thread on my hoodie as I wind and unwind when my fingertip turns purple. I stare out the window, unable to keep my thoughts from circling.  

Anyone could be searching for you. 

Instead, I pull out my phone and text Indigo.

"How did you find out?" I text.

Her phone buzzes in her pocket a second later and she pulls it out and looks at the screen for a long moment. The screen casts her in white light, something I can't understand about her and my mother is they never use the nightlight option on their phone. Instead, it seems they prefer to blind themselves. 

"Only the first born are told they're an Unfamiliar so we can pass on how to cover up our powers discretely. If you and Connor have children, I would be responsible for covering up their powers as well. That's why I stayed in Salem over the summer, I was being trained."

She pauses for a moment before she types another message.

"We have to stick together, mom is part of a coven that seeks out other Unfamiliars, you'd be surprised by how many orphans there are, or even how many children are abandoned by their parents when they're found out," she frowns and stares at her phone screen, "we have to keep other Unfamiliars safe."

"I understand," I text her, and it's the truth.

"Good, I'll tutor you in some defensive spells so you can learn how to keep yourself safe, if people act weird around you, let me know," she warns and I can feel the direness in her text.

"Can I be inducted into the coven that mom's in?"

She shrugs and texts me back, "Maybe sometime soon, you'll have to talk to her about that."

"Have you joined?"

"No," she looks around, her eyes narrowing. "We're getting close," and then, "we'll talk more about this later." 

I'm too tense, my shoulders aching from sitting so uncomfortably. Sleep doesn't appeal to me anymore as I squint at the time on my phone screen, it's almost four in the morning.

I clench my jaw, stifling a yawn as my eyes abruptly burn. 

Class is going to suck tomorrow. 

I open the group-chat where Tessa and Luke's numbers are. We had last texted each other a couple of days before I had come to Greenwood. The innocence and simplicity of what my life had been like before makes me shut my eyes against the tears that suddenly spring to them as a surge of fear grips my heart.

To think I was nervous about just going to class. 

I bite my lip, finding my courage as I send them a text. Even though I know that it's still too early for them to be awake, I can only hope that they've maybe woken up in the middle of the night to realize that I'm gone. I need to talk to them about this and tell them the truth. They were my closest friends, and I know deep down that I'll need them. 

"Can you meet me at the IHop near campus at five?" I chew on the inside of my cheek before I send another text, "Tessa, bring Astrid with you."

I've come to trust my other roommate over the short time that I've known her. Besides, she already knows that I'm an Unfamiliar to begin with and she's yet to show me any harm.