Intrinsical - Lani Woodland [95]
Both Cherie and I screamed. I looked at the broken mirror and wondered if I had done that. What exactly happened to me when I almost drowned? Had I come back different? A chill ran down my spine. Maybe I really was better off not knowing.
Cherie grabbed me hard and spun me around. “What was that?”
“I have no idea.” My fingers and toes started tingling and I was afraid I was going to project. Breathing deeply, I slowed my heart.
“Did you throw something at it?” I shook my head and tried to break free of Cherie’s grasp. Her fingers closed even more firmly around my arm. “How did you do that?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly.
Cherie looked at me like she didn’t know me. “I didn’t know Wakers could do that.”
“I’m not sure they can.”
“Then how did you do it? Can you do it again?”
I stared at the shards of glass sprinkling my chest of drawers and considered my answer. It reminded me of how Brent had manipulated the wind and moved things from a distance. He had told me that with practice I could do it too. But this had felt so controlled, like part of me knew what I was doing, like I had been doing for it a long time. “I’m not sure how I did it, but it didn’t feel like a fluke. I think I could do it again.”
The radio in the room suddenly snapped itself on so loud that Cherie and I both pressed our palms to our ears to protect them. The old song “Can’t Stop Dreaming of You” filled the room while Cherie grabbed for the volume knob. I watched her spin the dial but the song continued, eardrum-busting loud. The crooner’s voice was clear and sweet.
You promised me undying love
That always you’d be mine,
But now you’re loving someone else
And leaving me behind.
I put my trust in you, my love,
But life’s not what it seems.
Your love for me I thought was real
Lived only in my dreams
I could almost feel the words inside me, calling to me like a siren’s song, begging me to listen. It brought back memories of Brent. But it was more than that. Wasn’t it? My mind replayed the words of the verse and my heart broke. The next verse though put a feeling of foreboding in my chest.
I wish that you could understand
And see, and know, and feel
He cannot love you as I do,
He cannot be as real.
I hope that you will listen, dear,
To the message that I send,
‘Cause if you choose to stay with him
He’ll only hurt you in the end.
When the verse ended, the radio snapped itself off. I knew instinctively the song was connected to my accident. There was some clandestine message in the lyrics I was meant to decipher. I had no idea how or why, but I suddenly knew that someone needed me.
The next afternoon, I picked up my backpack, intending to study at the library— but some sort of internal compass guided me toward the garden that Brent had taken me to the night of the dance. Despite only having been there once, my feet easily found the way.
I settled myself inside the gazebo, feeling at home, safe and loved, more than I had at any time since the night I had almost drowned. Ever since my accident I had felt lonely, like I had lost something that night, some part of me. Being here, that feeling shrank.
Scratching an itch on my collarbone, I remembered my necklace was still in the plastic bag the hospital had put it in. Fishing my pencil out of my notebook, I began another round of homework catch-up. After half an hour, my back ached from bending over my book and my head throbbed from conjugating Spanish verbs.
“Knock, knock,” Brent called, rapping his knuckles on the wooden post.
“Hey, Brent.”
“I was going to ask if you wanted to study for the Bio exam together,” he said, pointing to the textbook in his hand.
“Oh. Um, sure.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “How did you know I was here?”
Brent ducked his head, seeming suddenly shy. “I saw you head into the groves, and followed when I had a chance.”
“Any particular reason?”
“I’m pretty sure you know why,” he said, leaning against the gazebo and giving me a confident smile.
My books slipped off my lap and clattered onto the wooden floor. He knelt beside me as I