Insanity

Chapter 7 of Banished for Love

“Have you completely lost your sanity? Inviting Brittney of all people to your house,” Jeremy chastises me on the drive home from school in his new Honda Civic, since the last one lost a fight with a fir tree.

 

“She’s all we have,” I bite my lip, hesitating. I had been thinking about how to ask this all day. Actually, if I’m being honest with myself, since yesterday morning, and even after all that thinking, I had come up with zip, zilch, nada, so I am going to end up winging it. “Jeremy, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

 

“What is it?” he casts a quick, questioning glance at me before returning his eyes to the road.

 

“Well,” I begin, trying to get the words to come out right. “You already know that Maggie came to the house yesterday. She told me that since I’ve fallen, the angels will no longer support my living here. So, I’ve basically been kicked out of my house.”

 

“You can move in with me and Cheyenne,” he replies without a second thought.

 

“Are you sure? I don’t want to impose or anything,” I say, fiddling with the hem of my Tripp mini skirt.

 

Jeremy takes one of my hands away from my fiddling into his own. “If you think I’m going to let you be homeless, you’re more insane than I feared,” he says with conviction, sending me a disbelieving glance.

 

“Thank you,” I reply, feeling like a huge weight had been lifted from me.

 

“Of course. Besides, I’m sure my big sis would love having another girl around the house” he says, kissing the back of my hand before wrapping our joined hands around the gear shift so he doesn’t have to let go to shift since the new car is a manual. “I’ll help you move into our guest room this weekend.”

 

Jeremy pulls his car neatly into my driveway. I pop open the passenger door and step out. Jeremy is waiting by the hood of his car, his hand outstretched to recapture mine. With a pained smile, I take his hand, unable to feel the soothing brush of his fingertips. He seems to take note of my expression.

 

As his other hand brushes against the knob of the front door, we hear another car roar up the street. Turning around, we see Brittney getting out of a little pink VW Bug.

 

“Let’s get this over with,” she says exasperatedly, brushing past us and walking into my house like she owns the place. I roll my eyes and follow her into the living room. She plops down neatly in one of the oversize chairs, surreptitiously casting curious glances about the room.

 

“So,” I begin. “What can I look forward to as a fallen angel?”

 

She lets out a humorless laugh. “You mean other than losing any sense of touch. Yet still being able to feel as if you’re dying of heat or cold?”

 

“I said look forward to,” I reply bitterly, sitting next to Jeremy on the love seat. “That’s more something to dread.”

 

“You seem to be coping just fine,” she mutters, jealously eyeballing the way Jeremy’s arm is draped around my shoulders. If only she could see the way this tormented me on the inside, but I didn't want to make Jeremy feel worse by voicing that aloud. “Well, you already know you can speak into minds. Building off that, you can also project images or commands into minds.” She says, inspecting her perfectly manicured fingernails.

 

“What exactly do you mean by that?” Jeremy asks curiously. Brittney turns an eerily calm gaze on him, staring intently. Jeremy begins to squirm, and when he looks down at himself, his eyes widen noticeably. He starts violently swiping at his shirt, though I see nothing there.

 

“What are you doing?” I ask, turning back to Brittney.

 

“Making him see spiders,” she turns her calm gaze back to me. The moment she does, Jeremy stops freaking out. “He saw the spiders, felt them as if they were really there. He believed fully that what I showed him was reality,” she explains, smiling darkly.

 

“And I had to be the guinea pig?” Jeremy says, shuddering and looking highly irritated.

 

“Yes, it doesn’t work as well on other Angels.” She turns back to me after sneering at Jeremy. “Also, be careful about who you let touch your scars. The moment anyone does, they will be sucked into one of your memories, and you have no say as to which one.”

 

“Which has the potential to end badly,” I say, stating the obvious.

 

“No s**t Sherlock,” she replies sarcastically. I scowl, but she ignores me.

 

“The last power I can really think of is dream walking. Basically, the same way you project thoughts or images, you can infiltrate dreams. Then there are some powers that develop uniquely to you like premonitions and other crap like that,” she says, waving a dismissive hand, making me think she has yet to develop any, and was pretty salty about it.

 

“I’ll have to practice some of those,” I feel Jeremy stiffen next to me, knowing he will be acting as the practice dummy.

 

“Yeah, you have a swell time with that. I’m going home,” Brittney stands, straightening her cutoff jean skirt that has been cut so short it should be considered public indecency, and heads for the door.

 

“Hey,” I call, getting her to turn around. “Thank you, really.”

 

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get used to it,” and with that she shuts the door.