Break the Norm

Chapter 2

Chapter 2





~*~Laura





I didn't understand why Drake wanted to go to the park, but it was his birthday. I made sure I looked up the new gate code to the neighborhood park before we left so we could get in. It didn't take long for Drake to lose his patience as I typed in the code. He hopped the fence. He grabbed the bars of the door and leaned toward me. "You have creativity beyond anything I've ever seen before... You'd make a good thief. Jump the gate. It's an essential for the crime industry."





The gate code was accepted and I pushed the door into him. I heard a grunt as I walked through. "My creativity will be put to good use. Have you never watched a superhero movie? 'Use your powers for good, not evil!' "





He shook his head. "You know me better than that. I'm the one yelling at the screen 'DON'T DO IT! USE YOUR SUPER STRENGTH TO CRUSH THAT BASTARD! IGNORE THE WISE OLD MAN WHO SAVES THE WHOLE STORY FOR HOLDING YOU BACK!' It's so much more fun that way."





He smiled innocently and I couldn't help laughing. He broke the flow of conversation by checking his watch. I noticed he'd kept checking his watch and it was starting to bother me. We had walked half way to the baseball stadium and he was walking with his hands in his jeans pockets. I put my hands in my jacket pockets, too. It was pretty chilly out. I looked up at him and he checked his watch again. I gave up. "So what's going on at the park at ten?"





He made that weird face that guys make that means the same thing as when girls blush, though I've never really seen any girls face change color on the spot like that. After recovering his coolness that all boys are so concerned with, he pointed down the path we were walking. "There's a baseball game."





My heart started beating. "Is it co-ed?" He nodded nonchalantly. I stopped walking. He turned around, confused. "Drake, isn't Brad on a co-ed team?"





He rolled his eyes. "Yes. And he's playing right now and we're going to watch and you're not going to freak out if he looks at you. Jeez, are all girls so paranoid when it comes to guys they like?"





"Are all guys so blasé when it comes to girls they like?"





He shrugged and didn't take it as an insult, "Yea, I guess we are."





I smiled. "So you are here for a girl."





One of his eyebrows lifted as he looked me. "Yes. I am."





We reached the stands and I frowned up at the awning that covered the stands. It may have been nice for the summer, but in the November wind I need some sun. After awhile Drake frowned at me. I frowned back. "What?"





He gestured toward the field. "You're not watching." I looked at my feet. He rolled his eyes, "Oh come on! Yes, Brad is here. Now get over yourself."





I looked at him with a little disbelief and a lot of disrespect. "Rachelle is here, too. You get over yourself." I should've stopped there, but I lost control. "I mean, gosh. Do you really think being so emotionless is gonna get you some girls? Or are you only like that to me, because you don't have to worry about impressing me? You know that I'm the one girl that- ugh. Never mind. It's your birthday. I'll try to be a little more tolerant."





He looked me right in the eye for a few seconds. I couldn't read his emotion, even with my gift. "You're the only girl that what?"





I shook my head. "Subject has been dropped. I don't want to get mad at you today, Drake."





He stopped and looked at me with a weird emotion that I couldn't read. "Will you tell me tomorrow?"





I closed my eyes, let my face fall into my palm, and let out a deep breath. "I don't know. We'll see." Drake nodded and kept watching the game. Ten minutes later, I could still feel that weird emotion radiating out of him. "You're not dropping it."





He looked at me and I hadn't meant to, but I knew I pushed him over the limit. He was angry and frustrated. "God, Laura! Just because of-" He stopped and lowered his voice. "Just because of your special 'power' you think you have the right to use it. I don't care who it is, I don't like people getting into my head. In any way. I'll tell you things when I feel you need to know them. You shouldn't just pry them out of my head!"





I looked into his averted eyes. My lips were pursed with regret. "Can I bribe you?"





His bright green eyes squinted in annoyance and confusion, "What?"





I smiled a little. "You know how I associate different colors for different feelings?" He nodded. "Do you have it memorized?"





He shrugged, "Kind of. I guess."





I smiled a little more. "Okay. Let me see your wrist." He hesitantly extended his arm. I started concentrating on the tattoo ink I'd been carrying around with me for awhile, though I hadn't thought of how to use it until now. An outline of a key formed on the bottom of Drake's wrist, over his veins. Now was the hard part. I concentrated on embedding part of my energy to his skin within the outline. I watched what looked like purple ink being dropped into water as the key took on the color of my emotions. "Done!"





Drake looked at his wrist. "So…you drew on my wrist?" I laughed and it changed to yellow for a moment, then back to purple. Drake looked up confused. "So…purple is love…but it's like friend or sibling love and yellow is happy, but why is it changing color?"





"It's your insight to me. So you can read my thoughts a little. They're my emotions. I…well to put it simply, I sewed some of my energy to your skin there and told it to change color. Since it's my energy, the energy can change color without pulling ink from a source."





He smiled. "Well in that case, yes: you can bribe me." Rachelle was up to bat and I lost Drake's attention. "Yea, Rae!!!!!"





His enthusiasm surprised me and I couldn't help laughing. I stopped when a sharp headache stabbed at my brain. I glanced at Drake's wrist and saw burnt orange. Usually it meant tired, but tired and weak are pretty much the same and weakness is never good, especially not for me. All the signs of another attack were accumulating, but I'd never had two attacks on the same day, or even the same week. My vision went blurry for a few seconds and refocused on the batter. Rachelle was on third base and the batter was…Sean. "Ef."





Drake turned his head toward me, slightly amused by my cursing alternative. Then he noticed my glance and looked down at his wrist. The purple had faded into a dark red. He started analyzing my anger to make sure I didn't 'interfere' with the game. Sean swung and missed. He spun around and stared right at me. I expected anger, but all I saw was exhaustion. It was like he wanted to be mad, but just didn't have it in him anymore. I guess he got tired of hating me. Although he never really hated me, he was just scared of my gift and disguised his fear in hate.





I looked over at the dugout for Sean's team and all their jaws were dropped like they couldn't believe he missed. After breaking the intense eye contact with me, Sean hit a grounder that was thrown home to get Rae out. That was the end of the game and Brad's team won. For the first time, I snuck a look at Brad. I was shocked to see him looking at me, too. He winked and tipped his cap at me. Then I felt a sharp jab in my head. My head started pounding. I faintly heard Drake talking. "I'm gonna throw myself a surprise party this weekend."





I shook my head and that only made me dizzier. I managed to say, "Then it's not a surprise."





He shrugged. "I'm gonna go talk to Rae and Brad…to invite them to the party." I nodded. Drake looked at me, surprised. "What's wrong?"





I was desperately fighting off the attack so I wouldn't ruin his birthday. "Why would something be wrong?"





Drake sighed. "I just said I was going to invite Brad to my party and you didn't blush. That's why something's wrong…Oh God. You're having another attack." He started to run off. Over his shoulder he screamed, "Be right back!"





I made my way to the bottom of the bleachers and waited for him. The stands had cleared out already and I jumped when Sean appeared beside me. "I never miss. Why did you mess with my game like that? You killed my reputation. I've had a hitting streak going since first grade and you just broke it. I can't even tell anyone you broke it because no one would believe your Jedi mind tricks and they'd think I'm crazy."





His words were harsh and filled with venom, but his midnight blue eyes were weak and apologetic. I stumbled a little and Sean's eyes seemed to understand instead of question what was wrong. I also noticed he was shaking. His eyes snapped up to something over my shoulder and he walked away without another word.





Drake walked up from the direction Sean's eyes had looked at. Drake put his arm around me, guiding me past trees that hid behind my eyelids. We made it to Drake's door when I passed out.





~*~ Drake





I somehow managed to drag Laura into my room before my mom noticed. Laura was sprawled out across my bed and her long auburn hair was fanned out as if someone meticulously placed each hair around her. After a few moments she began muttering unrecognizable words. Then, as I expected, she morphed to the age of the memory. So it was understandable that I freaked out when her face looked a few years older.





"It's funny. You keep calling me Drea. I guess that's more appropriate than Victoria or Laura or any other name. It's time I grew up and accepted what I've always feared. What you've always feared, Drake." She paused for a moment and the rest of her body slowly started to sync with what should have been a memory. Her tone changed to a slight hesitation and a little regret, "We knew this day would come." Her eyelids opened and I saw the most intense golden eyes I'll ever know. She sat up, but didn't stand. Her back arched as if a boyfriend were holding her from behind. Her head tilted toward the floor and her eyes closed. She raised her hand to the face of whoever was behind her. Her voice was a whisper. "After everything that's stopped us, you'd think we'd have known we were never supposed to be together. It's over, Hunt." I wasn't sure how to react to hearing Sean's last name at the end of that sentence, but she didn't give me time to react and she continued. "There were four different versions of this day. Two happened at this scene, with this conversation, but the end changed. I either lived or died. It was the same with the other two. Same scene but at the end of those, I either lived or died. Depending on how smart you are. If you've figured out this is an act. You think my aura is the same as the girl you've always known. You think there is something in me to salvage. You have hope in letting me keep my life. We discussed what you should do in this situation. But now that it's here, I don't want you to follow through…you don't want you to follow through." Her eyes gleamed evilly. "I want to finish what was started." Her expression shifted to one of pain and shock. "Shit. You did it." Her voice was weak despite the strong language. "You killed two birds with one stone. Damn you, Drake. I'll see you in hell."





"Shit." I moved away from her, unsure what any of this meant. Was that the future? What the hell happened to her? What the hell happened to me?! I killed her! "Oh God…Laura, wake up. Come on, Laura. Wake. Up."





She jumped up. I caught her before she fell of the bed. She must've been about twenty one…she looked pretty damn good. But she was like my sister. She sat frozen on the edge of the bed. It was weird. She was older than me and I was trying to convince myself that I didn't think she looked hot. The years must've been hard on her. She'd lost a little weight and she'd gained just enough muscle. Her cheek bones became more prominent and her face was thinner. She'd morphed her clothes, too. She seemed like she was going out clubbing or something. She had dark skinny jeans on with a red strapless top. She looked like she could take on the world. Well, more like take over the world. She was a villain out of a movie. Just the kind of character I'd fall for.





She shrunk a little as her age returned to normal. Her clothes morphed back into the less revealing long sleeved t-shirt and loose jeans. I closed my eyes. What. The hell. Is wrong. With. Me.





Laura relaxed and started to fall forward. I caught her and put her back on the bed. She was definitely awake, but no one wanted to talk. No one knew what to say.