I'll Pay For That

 

Chapter Two

 

When I wake up the next morning, I’m slightly disoriented. I look around my room, groggily, blinking away blurriness. I finally remember: I found Bruce Matthews!

But before I can get out of bed, my door is pulled wide open and I hear a loud voice talking at twenty one hundred words per minute.

“Maggie?” I ask, sleepily. Maggie grins at me, saying something to the figure next to her. I groan, and pull the covers over my head. “Too early,” I tell her, looking at the alarm clock next to me that informs me that its 9:44a.m. I glare at Maggie.

She ignores me, pulling someone in the room behind her. Bruce.

“Good morning, Skye.” Bruce says, as he and Maggie watch me drag myself out of bed.

“Mornin’” I mumble, rubbing my eyes and yawning again. Maggie giggles.

“My best friend, Lee, is coming over today, Skye! It’s going to be totally fun. And you get to meet her, of course! And then her mom is going to take us into the city so we can go shopping! Do you want to come along?” Maggie asks me excitedly, her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. I smile slightly.

“I would love to, but I can’t today Maggie. Your dad and I are going to be working, actually.” I tell her, giving Bruce a look. He raises his eyebrows.

“We are?” He asks me. I nod.

“Well, yeah.” I say, rolling my eyes at him like it’s so obvious that he’s going to help me learn to control my Talent. He hides a smile and nods back.

“Be downstairs in ten, then. We’ll get right to work.” Bruce says, turning away from me, and walking out the door.

Maggie looks at me, curious. “What kind of work?” She asks suspiciously. I shrug.

“Well, he’s going to teach me how to be a better person.” I say vaguely. Maggie looks unconvinced, but unconcerned.

“What-ev-er! Have fun.” She says, giving me a smile, and turning on her heel and leaving my room. I shake my head. I end up in the weirdest situations.

I unzip my suitcase and pull out a pair of jean shorts and a tank top, throwing some sneakers on, and brushing my teeth and hair before going downstairs. There are muffins sitting on the kitchen table, along with a pitcher of orange juice.

I debate whether or not to grab a muffin, when Bruce enters the kitchen and sees me.

“Go ahead.” He says, nodding at the muffins. I smile gratefully, grab one, and sink my teeth into it.

“Where did Maggie go?” I ask him. He folds up the newspaper in his hands and looks up.

“Lee’s mom came to pick her up already, you just missed her.” He tells me. I nod, taking another bite of muffin.

“How do you do it?” I ask Bruce, pulling out a chair at the table and taking a seat. Bruce looks confused.

“Do what?” He asks me. I shrug.

“How do you be a father and an Extinguisher?” I finish my muffin, pouring a glass of orange juice for myself. Without thinking, I pour a glass for Bruce—like I always used to do for my father—and push it toward him. He looks momentarily surprised but then nods his thanks, and takes a sip before answering.

“It’s not as easy as it looks.” He says, giving me a smile. I smile back.

“I don’t know where to start.” I tell him, admitting to my lack of control over my Talent, its power over me. “I don’t know how to control it.” I further explain. Bruce nods.

“I didn’t either. But I’ll help you figure it out.” He tells me, grabbing a muffin from the plate. I watch him curiously.

“Why are you helping me though?” I ask him, untrustingly.

Bruce shrugs. “If I don’t, who will? I can’t have some girl wandering the streets with the unstoppable ability to kill people by touch. Plus, I’m the only one who understands what you’re going through.” He smiles sadly, a distant look in his eyes.

“Well, I really appreciate it.” I tell him, and then, finishing my orange juice, I stand up. “Where do we start?” I ask.

Bruce gets up from the table too, walking out the back door and motioning for me to follow him. I do, and we end up in their backyard, a place with a variety of plants and a path through the plants that leads to the beach. I look around.

“Nice digs.” I say, and Bruce smiles.

“This is where we start.” He tells me, motioning to the various plants and flowers surrounding us in a tropical rainforest feel. I frown.

“I’m not exactly what you’d call a gardener.” I explain to him, eyeing a rose bush.

Bruce runs his hand over a plant, and when it doesn’t wither and die, I can’t help but feel surprised. When I walked on grass last week, I left a path of shriveled burnt-looking grass in my trail. Everything alive that I touch dies. So how can Bruce feel plants, pat is daughters shoulder, without either of them um, becoming extinct?

“We’ll start with plants.” He explains to me, handing me a pair of gardening gloves. I wrinkle my nose.

“Oookay…but what do I do?” I ask him. He grins and motions for me to sit next to a tall, leafy plant. I sit down and he sits beside me as I pull on the gloves.

“Concentrate all your thoughts onto this plant. Think about its leaves, its color, its appearance, and its age. Empty all of your thoughts of everything else, and think only of this plant.” Bruce tells me. I nod, clearing my mind. I take in the long, pointy leaves, looking at the intricate design of veins. I try to pick the perfect color to describe the plant, and compare the greens of each leaf. Bruce’s voice interrupts me.

“Now reach your hand out slowly and touch the plant.”

I start to protest, but stop myself, listening to his advice. I keep my eyes and thoughts on the plant—on the soil in which it sits, on the appearance of the stems—and reach out my hand timidly.

I think I was kind of expecting the plant to um, stay the same but what happened made my heart grow a little sadder. The plant died. Like, wilted. Right in front of me.

I press my lips together. “I’ll pay for that.” I tell Bruce. He looks confused, and shakes his head.

“Try again.” He tells me, nodding his toward another plant. I sigh and concentrate all my thoughts—all my feelings—onto this little plant. I then reach my hand out, slowly and deliberately, and feel it wither under my touch. I feel tears smart my eyes and I blink them away, sighing in frustration.

“I’m going to kill your whole friggen’ garden.” I tell Bruce, glaring at the soil surrounding the two dead plants.

“Tell me what your thinking when you touch the plant.” Bruce says, reaching his hand out and feeling the dead plants. I shrug.

“Yay life?” I joke weakly. Bruce looks over at me and sighs.

“Don’t beat yourself up—you didn’t ask for this.” He says, making me feel slightly better.

“I know, I know.” I pause. “I just…I had to leave people that I love because I can’t be…near them. And I’m putting Maggie in danger by even being here, and you barely know me, but you’re helping me, and I just…” I feel tears in my eyes and I laugh. “Sorry. Okay, I’m fine.” I say, wiping away a few tears and putting my gardening gloves back on.

Bruce smiles slightly. “What I’m telling you to do—concentrate on what your about to make contact with before actually touching it—is what works for me. I don’t know what else to suggest.” He says, at a loss. I sigh, trying not to feel worthless.

And then I chuckle. “I used to be a Persuader.” I tell him, flicking an ant off my leg. “And then that Talent just kind of disappeared. It’d be so handy to have that right now. I could just Persuade myself that what I’m about to touch won’t die.” I say, watching as the ant falls dead into the grass. I frown, looking away.

I look up at a silent Bruce, whose mouth is in an “o”. “What?” I ask him, paranoid.

“You used to have another Talent…” Bruce starts, and I nod.

“Yeah, I used to. But I don’t anymore.”

Bruce shakes his head. “When I worked at the Company we were testing on Half-Talents, trying to see what happens to them after they loose their Talent.”

A Half-Talent, by the way, is somebody who isn’t born with their Talent, or ability. They gain it sometime after their tenth birthday, and loose is sometime before their fortieth.

Bruce continues. “We discovered a young boy, twelve or so, who was a Half-Talent. He lost his Talent after two years, a new record. So we tested on the boy, trying to see what happened—what went wrong. We discovered that he never really lost his Talent. It was just hidden. It was a great discovery, the biggest one the Company has made for years. Can you imagine…all the Half-Talents that assume their Talents are gone finding their Talents again?” Bruce looks thoughtfully at the dead plant in front of me. “What if your Talent of Persuasion isn’t fully gone? It’s just…hidden?” He looks up at me and I can feel my mouth fall open in shock, catching flies.

“Well, how am I supposed to find out if it’s hidden?” I ask Bruce, my heart jumping. Here was a part of me I thought I’d lost—something else the Company had taken from me. But what if Bruce is right? What if it’s never really been gone?

“Back when it was your Talent and you were about to Persuade somebody…what did you do to make that happen?” Bruce asks me, eagerly. I think back.

“I would just tell people what I wanted them to believe and they would believe it.” I say, thinking about the times I’d Persuaded teachers to not count my late slips, or attendance, the times I’d Persuade people not to fight, or hate.

“Try it right now.” He tells me encouragingly. I shrug, not believing it’s going to work. I mean, I’ve tried before. It’s just like, gone. Like the love of your mama jokes: its just gone.

I look at the dead plant in front of me. “You’re not dead.” I tell it, and my voice sounds so convincing that even I almost believe it. “Seriously, Mr. Plant. I didn’t kill you. You were just…resting.” I say, continuing to try and Persuade it.

To my complete surprise, the plant picks itself up. In front of my very eyes, the plant picks itself up and straights up, the color and life coming back to it. I feel my eyes grow wide.

“No way,” I whisper. “Mr. Plant? You’re actually a white rose, not a leafy plant.” I watch in amazement as the plant turns into a single white rose and I pick it up disbelievingly. I turn to look at Bruce—who is as shocked, if not more shocked, than I am. “So you were right.” I smile. “That always feels good.”

Bruce nods, his eyes wide too. I get up from the house and place my hand on the outside of the beat-up beach house. “This is a really, really beautiful beach house.” I say, making conversation—a change of subject.

Before either of us can say anything, the beat-up brown, broken wooden planks that made up Bruce and Maggie’s home transform into a new, coming-of-age, large and beautiful beach house with glass and wood in all the right places. I gasp.

“I am so sorry!” I say, and rush over to Bruce, helping him off the ground. He is staring, open-mouthed at his house. “I didn’t mean to change your house! It’s not even living! I didn’t know I could Persuade inanimate things to do what I said! I’m so sorry!”

Bruce recovers himself. “It is really beautiful.” He says, and we both laugh.

“Seriously though, I did not mean to do that! So what does this mean? I’m not an Extinguisher?” I ask excitedly. “Think of the possibilities!” I grin, spreading my arms out wide. Bruce smiles.

“I think your both, Skye. I think you’re an Extinguisher and a Persuader.” He tells me, and I turn to him, grinning and hug him without thinking. I pull back quickly, thinking he might die, but then remember that our Talents cancel. A sigh of relief. Yay for not dying!

“You can control your Talent now, Skye. I know you can.” Bruce says, smiling.

I frown, falling from my previous high. “Um, how?” I ask, my nose wrinkled.

Bruce keeps smiling. “Persuade yourself that you’re not going to kill this flower when you touch it.” He says, and I nod. Easy enough. I’ve persuaded myself of weirder things. Like that one time when I Persuaded myself that I had three ears. It was very confusing for me. Until I fixed the confusion, Persuading myself that I was a normal person, with two ears on either side of my head.

“You’re not going to die.” I tell the white rose, before reaching out my hand and picking it up. To my amazement, the rose doesn’t wither and die. It stays perfectly normal, nothing changed. I squeal with excitement, hugging Bruce again.

“It works!!!!” I yell, happily. I can’t stop smiling. I thought this would take weeks…some serious training and learning…but who knew it could be this easy?

Bruce grins. “Don’t get too comfortable with it yet, Skye. You need to practice with other things, animals, insects, and trees. Things like that. We can’t be sure this is a fool-proof plan.” Bruce explains. I nod, agreeing.

“What should I try it on next?” I ask eagerly. Bruce thinks for a minute.

“What if you tried it on this?” A voice comes from inside the house. Bruce and I look at each other in shock and then look at the direction of the voice. Maggie walks nervously out the back door of the house, slowly toward us. In her arms she holds a small, white fluffy dog.

Bruce swallows, hard. “Try what, sweetie?” He asks tensely.

“Dad…I know all about your Talent. I’m really not that stupid of a person. And like, I know about Skye’s and all of that because I’ve been listening in for the last couple of hours.” Maggie explains, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. I frown.

“Why are you home already? I thought you were shopping in the city with Lee?” I ask her, curious. Maggie shrugs.

“She got sick, so I came home early.” She explains. I snort at the irony of it. Yesterday, to save her butt, I’d lied that she’d come home early because her friend was sick. And today, it actually happens. That really, is as ironic as it gets.

Bruce shoots me a glare, and I stop giggling. “Maggie…” He starts, but she interrupts.

“Look, it’s really not even a big deal. I’ve always known about your Talent, daddy. And like, the Company and all that. I went in your study one day when you were at work, and found a whole bunch of papers on it. So I know that you’re an Extinguisher…and I know what you can do…what that means.” She shrugs carelessly. “It’s never really bothered me. But you,” Maggie says, turning to me. “You’re a Persuader and an Extinguisher?!” She grins. “That is just so…awesome.”

I look at Bruce, at a loss for words. He blinks slowly a couple of times.

“You…know?” He manages, his words strangled.

Maggie looks at me for back up, and I smile slightly. “What’s the deal, Bruce? This is a good thing. You get to finally stop lying to your daughter!” I say, cheerily. Maggie giggles. Bruce glares at me but then his face softens.

“I guess your right.” He says slowly, enunciating his words.

“Of course I’m right!” I say, smiling. Then I look at the wiggling dog in Maggie’s arms. “Who’s that?”

Maggie grins at the dog, patting his head and he licks her chin happily. “I found him.” She says, and before I can ask anything else, she turns to her father. “Daddy, can I keep him?” She asks hopefully. I laugh, earning me another look from Bruce.

“How about if Skye can pick him up without him…you know…then you can keep him?” Bruce says sarcastically, not serious at all. Maggie and I glare at him, and I mumble something to the dog: you are not going to die. And I walk over to Maggie, who looks alarmed for about a second, and then I pet the dog.

And get this: he doesn’t die!

He licks my hand happily and I take him from Maggie’s arms, successfully picking him up. Bruce looks shocked.

“Maggie, you get to keep him!” I say, grinning at her. Maggie laughs loudly and I give her back the white fluff of a dog. “What should we name him?”

She deliberates it for a minute. “What about Bear?” She suggests. I look at the tiny dog, the opposite of a bear and automatically love the name.

“Perfect!” I say, grinning at them both.

Bruce shakes his head. “What have I gotten myself into?” He mumbles to himself.

I laugh, pushing Bruce towards the house, the only human I can make contact with without Persuading myself that they won’t die. It seems I have found how to control my Talent, after all. And while doing that, I rediscovered yet another Talent. I grin at

Bruce and he finally smiles back.

“So, thank you for your help—for everything. But I guess I don’t need to stay here anymore…” I say, more seriously, kind of sadly. I really like Bruce and Maggie. A lot.

“But you’ve only been here for like, a day!” Maggie complains loudly from the kitchen. She appears in front of Bruce and me. “Plus, she’s like the big sister I never had! Can she stay dad? Please?” She asks her father hopefully, his blue eyes round.

I turn to Bruce. “What do you say, dad? Can we keep her?” I joke. Bruce chuckles, shaking his head at himself.

“You’re welcome here as long as you want, Skye.” He tells me, smiling. “Besides, you still need to practice.”

Maggie frowns. “Practice what? Not killing people?” She asks nonchalantly.

I laugh out loud. “Exactly. Not killing people.” I say, and Bruce winks at me. Together, the three of us walk into the kitchen where we make lunch together—Mac n’ cheese.

And I feel the best I’ve felt for weeks. I force away thoughts of Chase again that night, not allowing myself to hurt. I need to focus on the good feelings of today. I close my eyes that night, wishing that I will have a family of my own one day. A family that will never be torn apart, like mine was. A family that I’ll never have to leave, like Chase’s. A family that’s I’ll never have to be careful in, like Maggie’s.

I squeeze me eyes tighter when I can’t fall asleep that night. I get up from my bed and walk over to my suitcase, pulling out the framed picture of Chase and I together, staring at each other, laughing, in love. I press my lips together as tears fall from my eyes.

I touch the glass that covers Chase’s picture and let the tears fall freely, silently. I’m so heartbroken that I don’t hear someone walking down the hallway, towards the room. I’m so lost in thoughts and memories that I don’t heart someone open my door.

Reviews

[Anya]

awwwwwwww.... I'm so happy for her! Although she's missing Chase soooo much, poor thing...

[Rusty]

I really like the beginning.....I like the new title for the first book as well, it suites the book!!!

[Aimee]

Awesome chapter!
[:

The ending made me sad, though. D:

Can't wait to read more.