Evolution (4 page)

“Hang on, hang on,” I said, cutting her off as I got up off the couch. Whatever Anna had done to me earlier was starting to wear off and I couldn’t seem to sit still, so I began pacing again. “Let me get this straight. You’re saying that you’re like part of some superhuman race that can read minds, move way too quick, and can do some freaky calming shit?” The enormity of the situation was only just starting to sink in.

“I’ve never put it like that, but yeah, I guess,” Anna answered.

“And you think I’m….” I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sentence. But I guess I didn’t have to; they already knew what I was thinking.

Seeing Aiden and Anna nod in agreement confirmed my thoughts. I was like them. I was part of some superhuman race. God, I was frigging immortal! I didn’t understand how that was possible. I wasn’t like Aiden; my parents weren’t immortal.

Sure, my mum still looked young, but that was because she was young. And my father, well, all I knew about him was that he was some idiot who knocked up my mother when she was fifteen. He split as soon as he found out she was pregnant, and he hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

This was all getting too much. I felt like I was suffocating. “I need some air,” I managed to get out in between ragged breaths. My voice didn’t seem to be working properly, and neither did my body. After fumbling with the lock, I finally managed to open the bi-fold doors and step out into the midday sun. I ran down the back steps and past the pool, until I reached the end of their yard. I leaned against the glass fence, hanging my head and watching the water hit the rocks below. I tried desperately to understand what Anna had just told me. And yet I couldn’t accept that I was like them. How was it that I could be so different, and not know? I was oblivious to the truth of my own existence.

I could hear Aiden’s footsteps coming up behind me, but I didn’t turn around. I didn’t want him to see me like this. If I was supposed to be part of some advanced human race, then why was I falling to pieces?

Aiden wrapped his arms around my waist and leant down so that his head was resting on my shoulder. “It’s gonna be okay,” he whispered in my ear, before kissing my neck. “You just need a bit of time to get used to the idea.”

Used to it! How the hell was someone supposed to get used to something like this? Things like this shouldn’t be possible. When I really thought about it, it made sense that Aiden and his family were special. They were all insanely good looking and smart. They weren’t obnoxious like you would expect people with such power would be. Instead, they possessed a compassionate, understanding wisdom. How could I even compare myself to them? No matter what Anna was telling me, I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around the fact that I could be so special, too.

Aiden reacted to my unspoken self-belittling. “Are you kidding me?” He turned me around so that I was facing him.

I kept my head down, trying desperately to fight the tears that were threatening to spill from my eyes.

“I can’t believe that you never saw it sooner,” he said.

Looking up at him, I pulled my eyebrows together in confusion. I didn’t understand how I could possibly have worked it out any sooner. It wasn’t as if I had ever been set on fire before, or survived a car accident that should have killed me without even a scratch.

“I don’t mean that. What I mean is… well, look at you.” Holding my hands, he stepped back to get a good look at me. “You’re like the poster girl of perfection. You’re a straight-A student without even trying. You can stuff your face full of junk food every day and not put on a single pound. You have looks that every girl would die for.” I gave him an incredulous look, but he continued speaking. “You have perfect eyes, skin, and don’t get me started on those legs.”

I was sure my face had turned bright red. “Okay, okay,” I said with a laugh, a few tears slipping from my eyes. I grabbed onto his shirt, pulling him into me, trying to stop him from going on any more.

It didn’t work. He nuzzled my ear. “Perfect ears.” He kissed my nose. “Perfect nose.” He moved slowly down so that his lips brushed against mine. “Perf—”

Before he could say anymore, I pressed my lips against his. He cupped my head in his hands, kissing me softly, then quickly increasing the intensity. With all the drama over the past two days, it was only in this moment that the world stopped spinning me around. I forgot about my freakish healing abilities, and the fact that I was supposed to be special. All that occupied my mind was Aiden. No matter what life threw my way, he was my constant. He made me feel safe. I was wrapped in his arms, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted more; I wanted all of him. I wanted him to take me in his arms and carry me up those stairs.

That thought was quickly squashed when I realised that not only Aiden could hear my desire, but his mother could, too.

Abruptly pulling away, I mouthed, “Oh my God.” I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks at the realisation of what exactly it meant that they could hear my thoughts. My mind reeled with all the indecent thoughts, fantasies, and things that we had got up to in our relationship that not only Aiden knew about me, but his mother and father did, too.

Aiden laughed.

“This is nothing to laugh about,” I said pushing him away from me. “God, they know everything!” I felt like I was going to puke. I didn’t know how I was going to face them ever again. “Oh my God,” I repeated over and over.

“Jade.” When I didn’t answer, he grabbed hold of me by my shoulders.

I wriggled in his arms, still cringing from my realization.

He laughed again. “I think there are some things that not even a mother wants to hear.”

“She may not have wanted to hear it, but she sure as hell heard it from me.”

“Jade. Listen to me.” He still had a smile plastered across his face. I stopped muttering so he could talk. “We can choose to tune out someone’s thoughts.”

“Even if that were true, they would have caught the first part of it before tuning out, so they still heard things!” I had never been so embarrassed in my entire life.

“Trust me, they tune out before they hear anything.”

“How? How could they possibly know to tune out before I even had a single thought?”

Aiden had a smile that stretched from ear to ear. “Well, you sort of give off a vibe before you start thinking about me. Your heart starts beating faster, and that’s when they know to tune out.”

“Oh, God, that’s still bad enough.” I buried my head in my hands. I didn’t know how I was going to face them ever again. It was even worse knowing that they weren’t his sister and brother-in-law, but his parents. God, nobody wants their boyfriend’s parents to know about their love life. And to think, just how often they would have had to ‘tune out.’ That alone was enough for me to die of embarrassment—if that were possible.

“Lucky that’s not a possibility, then, isn’t it?” Aiden said, referring to my unspoken thoughts. “Come on, come here.” He pulled me into his arms, hugging me tightly. “You’ll just have to find a way to deal with it like I had to.”

“What? You’ve found a way to deal with my thoughts?”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” he said, shaking his head. “I meant that they are my parents, and they have also had to tune out my thoughts before I learnt how to block them.”

I pulled back enough so that I could see his face. “You can block them?”

Aiden cupped my head in his hands. “Yes, so there’s hope for you,” he teased, before kissing me softly. “Now.” He took my hands in his. “Let’s go back inside.”

Inside was the last place I wanted to go. I still didn’t know how I was going to face Anna, knowing what I did.

“You’re going to have to face her sometime, so you may as well get it over with.” Aiden pulled at my hand, trying to get me to go inside with him, but I didn’t budge. I knew I had to face her at some point, but I didn’t see why that time needed to be now.

“Anna still has more to tell you. And I know you have more questions that need answers.”

Yeah, I still had like a zillion questions, but at that moment, the need for answers didn’t seem to outweigh my fear of facing her again.

“Come on,” he pleaded. I stood my ground for a few more seconds before giving in. He was right. I had to get this over and done with, and the more I delayed it, the worse it would be. “Okay, I’ll go back inside. But I’m not staying.”

Aiden sighed. “You know, you are going to have to get over this whole ‘she can hear my thoughts’ thing sooner or later.”

“I say later,” I protested. “I’ve waited seventeen years to find out who I am, so what’s another day… or five.” Truthfully, I wished it could be forever, but I didn’t think I would be able to avoid them for that long.

“Fine. We’ll go back to yours, just as soon as you face Anna,” Aiden said, pulling me back towards the house.

With my heart pounding against my chest, we walked back through the bi-fold doors and into the living room. My eyes darted to Anna, sitting there and looking just as uncomfortable as I felt.

“I don’t want to talk about this just as much as you don’t, Jade. Trust me when I say there are some things a parent does not want to know about their child, and their love life is at the top of the list. I have never, and will never, pry into that part of your life,” Anna promised. “Now, let’s forget we ever had this discussion.”

A wave of relief washed over me. I had actually got through one of the most awkward moments I would probably ever have in my entire life. “Agreed.”

Chapter 4

For most of the way home, we sat in silence. I had always thought we had the kind of relationship where we could go for long stretches of not talking without it being remotely awkward. I wondered if we were really as comfortable with each other as I thought, or if it was just me that was okay with the silence. It wasn’t like Aiden was stuck with his own thoughts. No, he would be sitting there listening to all my silly inner ramblings. And believe me, superhuman or not, I’ve had my fair share of dumb-ass thoughts.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see his lips twitch. I had seen it a million times before and had always thought it was a cute quirk of his. A slight imperfection to his otherwise perfectness.

I turned my body so that my back was leaning against the car door, allowing me to watch his reactions to my thoughts. Why the hell should I pretend my thoughts were for my mind only when he could hear every damn thing I thought about?

“You alright there?” Aiden turned his head so that he was completely facing me and not the road. A couple of days ago, that would have freaked the crap out of me, but knowing that I couldn’t die—or even get much more than a cut—kind of changed things.

I kept staring at him, willing myself to be able to hear his thoughts, too. If only it were that easy.

Aiden’s phone rang, interrupting my attempt at what seemed the impossible. He glanced at the screen before answering.

“Hey, Chels, what’s up?” The moment I heard her name, an unsettling feeling that I couldn’t explain swept over me.

Her voice came through the car speakers. “Hey, I just wanted to check to see how Jade’s doing. I know she looked okay before you took her to the hospital this morning. I can’t believe she didn’t even get burnt. I do not know how Ms. Drake put the fire out before it managed to burn through her uniform.”

I glared at Aiden. Is that what he had done to them right before we got in the car? Did he feed them a load of BS? Could he even do something like that? He didn’t admit it with Chelsea listening in, but the little smirk Aiden threw my way made me think I was onto something.

“Anyway, how is she? They didn’t find anything wrong with her, did they? Are you still with her?” God, that girl could talk.

“She’s fine. And yes, I’m still with her.” Aiden put his hand on my knee. I was still facing him, with my back against the door, so my knee was all he could reach without leaning over.

“You okay?” he whispered to me. I knew he wasn’t asking me if I was okay for the same reason Chelsea was. He was asking me about the creepy feeling that kept growing inside of me. I shrugged. Truth be told, it was starting to scare me a little.

“Hi, Chels,” I piped in. “And before you say anything, I am fine.” I knew that she would have asked me even though Aiden had just told her I was okay.

“Good,” she said, letting out a sigh. Knowing her, she wouldn’t have really believed it until she heard it from me herself. “You must be like a saint or something, only instead of performing miracles on others, you’re using them all on yourself.” She laughed.

I thought about what she had just said. Everyone must be thinking something was up with me. I mean, how many times can you come so close to death and live to see another day? I made a mental note to try to be more careful. I didn’t want to bring any more unnecessary attention to myself.

“So, anyway, I have your things you left at school this morning. Do you want to meet up after school? Ben asked me to go to Baxter’s with him, but I can come over to your house instead.” She sounded hopeful.

I didn’t want to intrude on what I thought was some sort of date Ben was planning. But even more so, I didn’t want her coming around my house just yet. There were too many things I knew she would ask, and I didn’t want to answer. So I opted to make it a double date. “We’ll meet you at Baxter’s.” Although I couldn’t see Chelsea, I could tell she had been hoping that I would save her from the whole date thing. “I’ve been stuck in the hospital almost all day, and I really feel like some fresh air.” I lied about the hospital part, not the needing fresh air.