The Clairvoyant

Fourteen | 65 days, 11th hour

“Your parents are home?”

I nod slowly as I chew my food. I’m having mac and cheese at the moment, and Audrey’s in front of me, eating her own as well. She looks as if she’s slowly savoring the taste of her ham sandwich. Or maybe that’s salmon?

“Wow, ironic huh?” She adds seconds later. “And here I thought Cain was already a problem. Not to mention your parents are-“

“Audrey?”

I know that voice very well. It’s the same one that I’ve been listening to all morning since Cain and I have stopped talking to one another. And by talking, I mean mental telepathy too and all sorts of conversations.

Turning around, I see Bri standing there, her group of friends standing close by behind her. She has a look of shock on her face, and her arms are crossed over her chest. The rest, they’re just standing there, gaping like an i***t.

“Good morning Bri,” Audrey chirps despite the circumstances.

“W-what are you doing eating with this… this girl on our table?”

I give her “the nod”. She doesn’t return it. “She invited me,” I reply, jerking my chin to Audrey. “But if you don’t want me here, I can leave any moment. It’s not like I want to ruin your fabulous day after all, your majesty.”

Audrey laughs at my boldness of trying to piss Bri off. I bite my lip, but it doesn’t hide the fact that I’m grinning widely. Bri on the other hand, she’s looking at me like I’m some kind of new species she’s never encountered.

“Off.” She says, her slender fingers pointed at me. “Off our table, bitch.”

I rise and get my plates, but Audrey stops me midway. “I invited you, Stella. You stay.”

“I’m not eating with her on the table,” Bri snaps.

“Then you can go look for another table,”

The two girls give each other a death glare, and I’m stuck in the middle of this, unsure what to do. “If Stella doesn’t leave, we’re not friends anymore Audrey. Now choose.” Like a kindergartner. I think in my head, and suddenly I hear someone chuckle in the background.

I see Cain from the distance, his lips twitching in a grin. When our eyes lock however, he juts his face to his fellow guy friends and begins laughing at some random joke I’m sure he didn’t hear in the first place.

“I’m just going to go to the library now,” I stand up and smile, giving Audrey a nod.

She quickly stands up too, rumples the paper bag she has in her hand, and follows beside me.

“Wait! What are you doing?” We both turn around and we see Brianna there, really surprised. And if I know better, it’s as if she looks hurt. “When did you become so close to Stella? We were planking her until last week!”

I pang of guilt suddenly wells inside me at Bri’s hurt expression. She must have thought better of Audrey than Audrey did with Bri. It’s like, she’s screaming inside her head, “That’s my best friend beside you!”

“I have fun with Stella,” Audrey simply answers, shrugging.

“B-but we have fun too!” Bri stutters, and I can’t believe she actually did.

“Your fun and my fun are two different things.” Audrey points out, frowning. “I had a lot of fun with you, but bullying Stella – I don’t really consider that as ‘fun’, if you know what I mean. I’d rather hang out with her that do that. She’s funny.”

When Audrey turns around, I do too since I definitely have no idea what I’m supposed to do. “Audrey!” I hear Bri shout behind us, but Audrey continues her walk outside the cafeteria. And then we’re out of there, the hall enveloped in silence.

“Library?” Audrey asks, her smile totally obviously fake.

I give her a wan smile. “It’s obvious.”

“My smile?”

“A huge giveaway.”

She chuckles and walks beside me to the library. “I can’t believe Bri actually called my name like that.” She whispers softly despite the few people around us. “It just… I don’t know… I thought letting myself loose from her was easy.”

“I think you care about her.”

“I do,” She admits.

That’s when I frown. “Then why’d you decide to show them you’re friends with me? I can still carry on as a loner, even with Cain gone. You shouldn’t have done that for my sake.” I sigh, and then she’s laughing.

“I didn’t do that for your sake though.”

“Excuse me?”

“I did that,” She takes a few steps like she had done before when I first talked to her at school. I mean, after dismissal and all and she caught me with Cain in the clinic. “I did that because Blake might consider using her against me.”

I stop dead in my tracks, now looking down on the ground. I hadn’t thought about it, but Blake being Blake, he might even use my siblings against me. The thought drains blood from my face, and I can’t even begin to imagine any of that.

But like a bolt, I remember and say, “He wouldn’t.”

“How would you know?” She counters.”

“Because I just do.” I state as a matter of fact. “I’ve known Blake for three years, Audrey. He may be revengeful but he’s someone who stands by his word despite an obvious leverage coming his way. He won’t attack anyone else other than us.”

And by us, I meant Audrey and I, and Colton, Chace and Tristan.

Cain though, I’m not too sure.

“You sound so sure,” Audrey frowns. “And if he attacks them? Can I punch you?”

“Go ahead, straight to my face.” I reply with a laugh. “Besides, if he did that to us, he knows I’ll do the same. Like master and apprentice after all. He attacks people who aren’t in our fight, we attack people not in his.”

“You mean, he’s got siblings?”

“He’s oldest,” I nod, remembering once when we used to hang out with each other. I’m surprised Audrey doesn’t know – I mean, didn’t Blake say Audrey was important to him? “But they’re half siblings. From his father’s side.”

“You sure know a lot,” She replies softly, opening the door to the library. “He didn’t tell me anything. He just loved keeping me close to him, making sure I wasn’t hanging out with anyone else other than him.”

Possessive. I notice, nodding.

“Dude, why are we even talking about him?” She says, frustrated and she just slams the random book she got from the shelves on the table. This makes people ‘hush’ her or whatever. “I mean, it’s like you’re telling me he’s a man of his word.”

I tilt my head to the side. “But I did say that…?”

“I mean, it’s like if ever he does attack our families, which you say you’re sure he won’t, but if he does, it’s like you’re saying you’d do the same.” She points out, trying to lower her voice in this still library.

And then I give her a wan smile, she smiles back. “Audrey, if he did, I would do the same.”

“Hurt his younger siblings?” She echoes, eyes widening.

“Without a second thought, I would.”

Audrey stares at me, unsure what to say. “You’re crazy,” She finally tells me, shaking her head.

“I would be for my family.”

Then we’re quiet, and she suddenly laughs.

“Yeah, I guess I would do the same.” She finally chuckles. Then all of a sudden she stands up, slamming her hands on the table. “Oh my God, why did I even agree to come with you to the library?”

“Because there’s nothing else to do…?”

She quickly grabs her bag and notebooks, but she doesn’t even bother getting the book she did. “No, b***h – I don’t have ‘nothing to do’! I have an English class right now, and I’m f*****g fifteen minutes late!”

Audrey leaves the library with a loud catastrophe, her high heeled boots clicking and clacking against the wooden floor. I leave a chuckle in her rest, but then I hear someone say something, and I know whose voice it belongs to.

“She sure is rowdy,” He says, taking a seat beside me.

“You sure are crazy.” I point out, still looking at the book. “I didn’t even see you come in here.”

“I’m a ninja,” He deadpans.

“lol, dude, you’re not even supposed to be here.”

He hands me a paper, a paper with those stupid cut up letters that forms into a letter. It’s a letter of challenge with his name cut out in big huge characters that it’s most definitely impossible to make a mistake to whom it’s supposed to be for.

“Why are you showing this to me?” I ask, frowning.

“Because I want you to fight with me,” He says with a kind smile.

“Me? Fight? I already did, yesterday.”

“Yeah, and I’m sorry we couldn’t help you out – but it seems Blake found out that we didn’t, so he’s challenging me instead this time.” He says as a matter of fact, that same boyish grin still plastered on his face.

I take the letter in my hand and frown. “Why do I feel like Blake loves sending letters like these?”

“He just does it to pass time,” He answers, tilting the seat backward.

“Pass time? So fighting’s to pass time as well?”

“Oh,” He jolts back into position, but not so loud that everyone stares at us. “He’s making us fight so he see just how strong we actually are. He’s up to something, but this? It’s only like a pre-nap for him. A practice.”

I grin at the word ‘practice’. “A practice you say?”

Then he hands me the paper, smirking as well. “So, you in?”

“Without a doubt, Chace.”

I kick him harder in the shin, and he’s toppling down on the ground, breathing hard.

“No more,” He groans in pain, shaking his head.

“Then tell Blake to stop calling for fights.” I grunt, stepping away from him.

This fight wasn’t fair at all. Totally unfair. I’d just barely scraped my life with Chace. Chace! I frantically think, looking around the park and I can see him unconscious on the ground. He’d taken a hit on the face for me even when he was already beaten up badly.

Five against two, I frown, taking his hand and lifting him, but then buckling down and hitting my chin on the ground. I moan in pain, then try to shake him awake. But then my head’s totally tired already – I can’t even think straight anymore.

Then I fall on the ground, my hands shaking.

And then my eyelids are blacking out.

Then I hear a voice calling out to my name, and everything’s in this dream-like-state. I can’t see who it is, all I know is I’m staring at the ground sometimes falling forward, sometimes staggering backward, or sometimes even stopping.

“Don’t stop, my car’s near,” He says, my arms wrapped around his neck. “Come on.”

“Chace…” The word escapes my lips without my mind rendering the process.

“He’s already in the car.”

Then I see it. The car. He opens it for me and I hop in, my head all woozy and heavy. I can’t see Chace, but that must be because he’s in the passenger seat. The guy buckles me up, straightens me and then closes the door.

Leaning my head on the window, I hear the other door open up.

“You okay?”

“Dying,” I reply, closing my eyes. I feel a cool blast of air on my face. He must have turned the air condition on full blast.

“Where should I take you?” He asks. “Home?”

Then my parent’s face appears in my mind. “No, not home. My parents are there…”

“Then to Tristan’s we go.” He says, jerking the car to a start and he’s already driving. “You look like s**t, Stella.” He murmurs, turning the car to the right and we’re suddenly going downhill. My head moves forward with the force.

“Thank you,” I mutter, my eyelids now very heavy with all this cold filling me up.

Anything for you, Stella.