The Clairvoyant

Twenty-four | 49 days, 15th hour

I shot up quickly from bed, my eyes darting around the room for anything recognizable. As soon as I realize where I am – inside a hospital room – I quickly brace my hands around the white linen sheets covering my legs.

“Stella!”

A pair of arms grabs me into a hug, choking the air out of me.

“I thought you weren’t ever going to wake up!”

I stare into the girl’s magenta eyes, immediately remembering who she is. “Audrey?” I echo, my voice unsure of the current event happening right now. “What happened to the fight? And why are we in the hospital?”

Then quickly my eyes widen in shock. “Cain didn’t call the police, did he?”

“No, no, no, no,” Audrey assures me, pushing me back into the bed. Something small falls from her breast pocket, and I pick it up and stare at it. An image of Colton Airway appears in my mind, and I take hold of Audrey’s arms, shaking her.

“What’s wrong?” She asks, petrified by my actions.

“C-Colton! Where is he?”

Audrey gives me a brief smile before slowly prying my arms off. “I lost, so he’s going back to New York,” She says softly, her eyes suddenly brimming with tears. “But we broke up in a nice way. He told me he’s sorry, and I told him it… it was okay.”

“You look like you’re about to cry though,” I laugh, drying a tear off the edge of her eyes with my blanket. “There’s a lot of other guys out there – I know what I’m saying isn’t much, but as your friend, I’m telling you to move on.”

Audrey gives a me a shaky guffaw, shaking her head. “I think it’s perfect advice.”

There’s a knock on the door, and when it slides open I’m surprised to see my mom. She’s holding a box of what looks like chocolates, and her blonde hair is tied to the side, curled. She has a smile on her face, a bright one as she walks over to me.

Then behind her is a red haired guy.

He’s stern looking, eyes gray as charcoal and his lips formed into a thin straight line. I’ve seen him only a few times, but I knew who he is. Giving him a curt nod, he does the same as my mother smolders me into a kiss.

“Hi sweet heart!” My mother beams at me, as if not surprised at all that I was in a hospital bed. “Your dad couldn’t make it, the lab called for him quickly yesterday.” She turns around, facing the man. “And you must know him.”

I nod my head to my mom, frowning. “The chairman,” I say softly. Or A.K.A., Cain’s dad.

When I’d met Cain last February, I had a hard time believing the chairman was a redhead, while Cain remained pure ebony. His high lights were sometimes red though. Sometimes. Or maybe it was the lights that shone red.

But now as the chairman stood in front of me, his clothes rather different that I usually see him when in school, I can see a bit of the similarities: Both are tall, eyes never wavering away from yours, and the way they moved screamed “stoic”.

“Why am I in the hospital?”

I check my body but there weren’t any broken limbs or bones.

“Cain panicked,” Audrey sighs, frowning. “You passed out after hitting your head when you fell.” But I don’t remember falling on accident, or on purpose. I rather remember Blake pulling on my ankle, knocking me off my feet.

“He called me that night,” The Chairman Steven Graichen starts explaining, his voice surprisingly very deep. “And then I brought you were and called your parents. You’ve been asleep for a day. Dr. Joelle says nothing’s wrong.”

Does ‘nothing wrong’ include telepathy? I question to myself, wishing Cain was here by my side.

And like a flash, more guys began flooding the room, bringing in flowers half the size Cain’s dad did. Chace. Tristan. Cain. Even Blake was here wearing – which actually shocked me – a formal attire with a royal blue necktie.

Everyone was wearing formal attire.

A laugh escapes my lips, and I can feel Blake glaring at me.

Since you’re laughing, I guess you’re perfectly fine then. Cain’s voice enters my mind, shocking me a bit that I flinch. This makes my mother ask me if I’m okay, and I tell her I am. You can still read my mind, right? Or maybe I’m talking to myself like an i***t.

I can hear you perfectly well. I send him a smile.

Cain smiles back. Good.

Blake clears his throat as if interrupting something, but I know no one else can hear our own little conversation. “I didn’t know your parents were coming,” Blake mutters, handing the white roses to me with a nervous smile.

“Oh, no, this is Cain’s dad, and this is my mom.” I point at them respectively.

Mom shots out her hand at Blake. “I’m Tamaris but just call me Ri, and you must be…”

“Blake,” He coughs. “Blake Patterson.”

My mom’s eyes shoot open in surprise. “Oh! The famous B,” She squeals a bit too loudly that I grit my teeth from the headache that passes like a zap. “I-I hope Stella isn’t… you know…” she looks at me for guidance.

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, I did. I fought again.”

“But you promised!”

“I said I would try,” I retort, folding my arms.

“But what if you get hurt!”

“I’m a big girl mom, I can handle myself.”

Mom’s eyes glisten with tears, but the chairman pats a hand over her shoulder. “She’ll be fine,” He insists and somewhere in his voice it’s as if he’s actually sure with that idea. “Besides, she has these fine young men with her. They won’t cause trouble.”

Blake quickly gives him a nod. “We really won’t.”

Chace and Tristan hand their flowers to me as well, giving a quick nod to my mom, and Cain’s dad. “And these guys are Chace and Tristan,” I respectively point them out, giving them a nod and they nod in return.

“And this is Audrey,”

Mom gives me a chuckle as Audrey sits down awkwardly in between us. “Oh I know Audrey. I met her once before when I saw Angela,” the name isn’t familiar to me, but Cain and Audrey flinches at the name.

“I… I’m afraid I don’t remember you, miss,” Audrey frowns, bringing out her hand to shake my mom’s hand. “I’m sorry, but I’m Stella’s friend – someone like her. We understand each other a lot better than everyone else.”

This sounds funny coming from her.

But since we’re both delinquents, I guess I can understand.

“So when can I get out?” I ask when silence consumes us all.

Cain’s dad takes out his phone from his pocket, excusing himself in the process. My mom’s staring me in the eye, and I’m not looking away either. For a split second I can actually imagine my mom younger.

Maybe it’s because of how my dad said I looked a lot like her.

But I look away anyway. “Are you guys going somewhere?” I ask Blake, Chace and Tristan.

The trio nod in return. Chace gives me a mock salute. “We have to go, we really wished we could stay a bit longer though but we have to do something today and… well… we really didn’t expect you to wake up any time soon.”

“Chace!”

I laugh at Audrey’s reaction. “It’s fine, I understand.”

“We’ll see you some other time then?” Tristan smiles at me knowingly.

I crack a grin back. “Bread and shake?”

“What about Starbucks?”

“Can’t we go for cakes this time?” Complains Chace, shaking his head.

Audrey crosses her arms, rolling her eyes. “Gluttonous. Who would have guessed?” I watch her stand up and follow Blake and the others leave, and I’m about to call her, but she gives me a smile again. “I’ll talk to you at school next week.”

I nod my head, a bit disappointed. “Sure, take care you guys.”

She gives me a two finger salute, grinning widely. “Will do, boss.”

Cocking an eyebrow, she waves it off and Blake closes the door, but not before he gives me a smile. I watch Cain sit down on the empty seat where Audrey had been, then he holds my hand right after my mom tells me she’s going to get something.

“Where are they going?” I ask him, titling my head to the side.

He gives me a shrug. “Don’t really know.”

“They seem like they’re attending a party.”

Cain’s eyes shine at the word party. “I remember now; they’re going to a party for Colton’s good bye whatever crap. He’s leaving tonight, and they’re holding the party at the hideout. I guess they wanted you to come too but… they couldn’t really ask with your mom there.”

I retrieve a message from my phone. It’s from Audrey.

“We were having a party for Colton today, and the guys were actually planning on staying and kidnapping you for it – but when they saw your mom in the room, they panicked. Sorry! We’ll just get you food next time!” It says.

Licking my lower lip, I type in a reply, telling her it’s okay, and to tell Colton to take care.

As I place my phone back on the table however, Cain’s holding a lock of my blonde, hair, smiling. “What?” I ask him, though I already know what he’s thinking about since apparently he can’t contain it at all.

You know what I want.

Seriously? I raise an eyebrow at him, then lean in to give him a peck on the cheek. “There you go,” I laugh at his reaction. It’s half surprise and half disappointment. I’m sure he at least expected me to kiss him on the lips.

Cain begins pouting at me, then I tilt my head this time and lay them on my knees.

“Kiss me?” I say softly, smiling.

He reaches for my face, cupping it in his hand and gives me a warm tender kiss. It takes like chocolate mint, but I don’t really mind at all. Until something passed through my mind, and, shocked, I pulled away.

“Stella?” He calls my name, a little dumbfounded. “Do I kiss that bad?”

I scrunch my eyebrows, frowning a bit, before turning them into a small smile. “No, no, I just remembered something,” I say softly, wrapping my arms around his neck and initiating the kiss this time – even though Cain’s better at it.

Then it happens again.

And image.

But this time I don’t pull away. This time I let it simmer into my mind as if it’s printing in there. An image. An image who looks eerily like Audrey and Jaime combined. And it takes me a second later to realize that this woman is “Angela”.

I don’t know how I got the name. I just know it.

Cain pulls away, and I don’t even notice how out of breath I am.

“You’re thinking of something else,” He says softly, caressing my cheeks. “Let me in?”

I close my eyes, the image appearing half way finished like it the printer was stopped midway. I give him a smile, saying, “No way. My mind’s a mess right now. I just want to kiss you all day,” I lie, intrigue about Angela’s image.

“Are you thinking of someone else right now?” I ponder, giving him a quick smile.

“No,” he says softly, giving into another kiss. “I like you,”

I open my eyes, a little shock before I pull away. Biting my lower lip, Cain gives a small chuckle as he holds my face in place. “Shocked you there, didn’t I?” He grins at me, leaning in for another kiss before I stop him.

“Stella?”

“I-I like you too but…” I can’t let the image of Audrey’s mother in my mind. What’s she doing in there? “Are you preoccupied or something? I… I know it’s weird of me to ask but you seem a little… off. Like you’re desperate to forget something so you’re kissing me.”

Cain stood there, his expression priceless.

It’s as if he’d been caught red handed, and for a moment he kept gawking at me.

“I-I can understand if you don’t want to tell me,”

Then all of a sudden he’s laughing and pulling me into an embrace. “You’re a weird girl,” He whispers into my ear. “I know I’m weird, but you’re weirder for understand me. How’d you know I was preoccupied?”

I begin wondering if I should tell him about the image.

“Lucky guess,” I reply, then I immediately thought of a better excuse. “It’s just that, you always were the type to back out first. I mean, I was always the one initiating the kiss despite how bad I kiss. You’re always just so… shy.”

Cain frowns at me. “Shy? I’m not shy.”

This time I crack a grin. “Dude, yes you are.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“No.”

Cain gives me a grin this time. “Not falling for that.”

“And not falling for the fact that you’re trying to change the topic,” I retort with a small smile of my own. “If you don’t want to tell me, I’m pretty much fine with it. I can always black mail it from you later on.”

He rolls his eyes, and then lays his head on the empty space on my bed.

“I’m just not fond of hospitals, okay?”

“But why?” The image of Angela appears in my mind again, and I press on.

“I guess I just hate it.”

I bite my lower lip, finding myself really intrigue at the information. “I couldn’t help but notice you and Audrey flinching at the mention of Angela’s name. Did she die at the hospital? Is that why you’re not fond of hospitals?”

He suddenly shuffles my hair, giving me a smile. “Yeah, I hate hospitals because of Aunt Angela.” He suddenly wraps me around with the blanket, shoving my face in pure whiteness.

“You’re so…” He says softly, but I can tell his voice is shaking.

“I’m sorry,” I mutter, now looking down, feeling ashamed. “I won’t ask again.”

I pull off the blanket, touching his black hair again since he’s still facing down, shoulders shaking. His aunt must have been really important for him to still react this way – not that I know when she passed away or whatever.

Maybe she did pass away.

Tugging on his hair, he looks up at me, looking completely fine. But I’ve seen Cain’s fake act. I understand him a bit after all this time. “Kiss me?” I grin at him, trying to make it up to him since I felt sort of bad for prying.

He takes the back of my head and crashes his lips onto mine and I return the kiss right away. My arms are wrapped around his neck and right now, I can’t see a thing running into my mind like a while ago.

His hands fall onto my lap, one hand slowly trailing up my thigh and I let out a small sigh as he does this. I pull back a hand and place it on his chest, instantly feeling the wild beating of his heart just under his sweater.

Now warming up to the small part of my back, just above the waist line, I feel him bite onto my lower lip, and a gasp escapes my lips. And then all of a sudden we hear a clatter of clinks falling onto the tiled floor.

We pull away.

Fast.

Cain’s dad is on the door way, plastic spoon and forks on the floor, askew. He clears his throat, and I can’t help but grin at the situation. Cain immediately backs away from me, a little embarrassed when I should be the one embarrassed.

“This is, uh, CPR,” He excuses lamely, now picking up the plastic utensils.

His father nods absent mindedly, picking up the same plastics too.

“Yeah,” Steven Graichen mutters as lame as his son.

And it makes me laugh.

“CPR.”