Power

Chapter 12

I am already outside waiting when Eli pulls up the next morning. I can tell he is nervous when I get into the car, as if I am a ticking time bomb he is trying not to set off. "Nice scarf," he says hesitantly as he starts towards school.

"Thanks, I needed it to cover up where Misty sliced my neck," I say flatly, and Eli cringes.

"I told her off for that, it was out of line."

"But everything else wasn't?"

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" He fires back, before he reels himself in. "Sorry, I know you must feel like crap right now, especially after all that has happened."

"It's okay, don't worry about it." I am doing as I had promised myself late last night. If being a complacent member in Eli's group is what it takes to save my dad, so be it.

"Collin was pretty worked up," Eli continues, probably trying to shift my focus. "He went off at Misty for what she did, before Jarred and I forced him to go home and get some sleep. He forgets how hard it was on her, back when we were a lot less experienced with the Power."

"What do you mean?"

"She was the forth one to join the group, right after Collin. Him, Jarred, and I had all got our flashes on our own, through various circumstances that weren't premeditated like yours. We were just toying with the idea of creating a situation that would force it when she volunteered to test it out. This was back before we knew who had Powers, so for all we knew she could have not been special at all, just for some reason rejected by all the groups, which we now know is impossible."

"What did you guys do to her?"

"I can honestly say I have no recollection of what finally made her crack, just little bits and pieces from what I've been told. I was a mess afterword, that I do remember, since I had her take the worst stuff we did at the end, the stuff that broke her. In fact, she's the only one who has the memory of it, since she insisted that is was important for her to keep it. But there was blood, kicking, and some other things I'd rather leave in the past. Knowing Misty, her recap didn't cover the worst of it."

"Wait, what?" I am utterly confused. "What do you mean she 'took it?'"

"Oh, do you not know what her Power is?" Eli looks over to me for a second before returning his eyes to the empty road. "She can make you forget a single memory. Up to ten minutes, but only once. Once it's taken, you can never get it back, nor can she remove another one, except from herself. I know she's taken a few of her own." He sounds extremely uncomfortable with the topic, so I let him drop it, even though my mind is racing with questions.

As normal, Charger's truck is not in the parking lot when we arrive, something that makes my stomach turn in its usual way. As much as I dread it, my head wanders to where he might be. I hate how my thoughts always drift to him, wondering where he is, whether or not he thinks of me as much as I think of him. Memories of the closet are not the only ones that I have found deeply rooted in my mind, coming to my attention whenever I accidentally let my mind free. Thoughts of our day at his house are also there, the care he used when trying to coax my Power out, or the time he picked me up in the pouring rain. I still have the long sleeve he loaned me on top of my dresser, which I have not brought myself to wash or touch since I put it there. One of the most prominent images I have imbedded in my mind is the vulnerability he had shown when he talked about his mom at the cafe. It had only lasted for a split second, but it was a side of him I had not known existed until that moment.

"Talli, how are you doing?" Collin rushes over to me when Eli and I get out of the car. He has dark bags under his eyes and his shirt is wrinkled, as if he had left it in a ball on the ground the night before, then just threw it on this morning. I am still angry at all of them, but as I noted before, it is nearly impossible to be upset with Collin. He is just too nice of a guy.