Mind Over Matter, Chapter 19

"Hey there pretty lady."

"Could you stay out of my head for five seconds?" Jackson sits beside me on the grass.

"I've known that for a while." He's referring to what he just quoted from my favourite movie.

"Why can't I get in your head?"

"You wouldn't want to be in here anyway." He's got a nice Texan drawl.

"Why did you do it?" He doesn't need to ask what I'm talking about. He's quiet for a minute before answering.

"Not everyone is so accepting of my.. ability, whatever you'd like to call it. I grew up in foster homes and was on my own from a young age. It was either get tough or get hit. I decided to get tough."

"But being tough doesn't mean you need to kill anyone."

"You never let me finish." I shut my mouth. "On that night, I was cornered by two guys, both well over twice my size. Apparently I was on their territory and they wanted me gone. They gave me the choice of going or making me go. I just walked away from them. I had better things to do. I guess they didn't like that, because I heard them discuss taking me out. I got around the corner and waited for one of them. He was big but I was stronger, he was easy. The second guy was smarter than the first and put up a good fight, but I got him in the end." This is the first time I've heard him say that much at one time. I'm not sure how to feel about it. He almost seems human.

"Oh, I'm human enough, darling." I shake my head and rest my chin on my knees, my arms wrapped around my legs.

"Why me?" I've asked him this a few times and have never gotten an answer, so I don't expect one now.

"Truth, I don't know." I'm slightly surprised.

"What do you mean, you don't know?" I see him shrug out of the corner of my eye.

"I mean, I don't know." We're silent for another few minutes. I think about going back into the house for a drink when he hands me a juicebox. Grape, my favourite. I take it from him.

"Thanks."

"I didn't poison it, don't worry." I laugh and stick the straw through, taking a drink.

"Can you see the future or something?" He shakes his head.

"No. I just seem to know things."

"What sorts of things?"

"I don't know, things. I know how a person is feeling, and how much if it they're feeling. That's how I knew to bring you a drink, because I could tell you were thirsty." I look at the juicebox in my hand. "And why you? I can't see the future, but you're going to be in some kind of danger soon."

"But why track me across the country? Just to protect me? You don't even know me."

"Au contraire, mademoiselle, I know a lot about you." He quotes himself from the first time we met.

"You know why Sam left."

"Yes, but I can't tell you."

"Why?"

"Because if I do they'll send me away somewhere. Somewhere guaranteed I can't get out of."

"You know, this one way brain thing is really frustrating."

"It's better this way, really. I'm dangerous, remember?"

"Confusing, too." He smiles and looks out across the yard into the trees.

"I admit that it isn't fair, but it's got to be this way for now."

"How long will that be?"

"So impatient." I shrug and rest my chin back on my knees. What he said before makes me wonder.

"You said you know how a person is feeling."

"Yeah."

"Well, ever since coming here, I can do that too, sort of. I just know what they're feeling, but not why or how much. And I have a sense of where people are."

"I'd noticed you thinking about it."

"Do you think it's because you're in my head so much?"

"Could be. Maybe your powers are just growing."

"Then you know I'd thought that too and figured it was too much of a coincidence that it started when I got here." He shrugs. More silence. It's weird, but I'm beginning to enjoy his company. Not enough to want to hang out with him, but enough to tolerate him when he's around. I hear him chuckle and I smile. "You know, I wouldn't run away screaming if you did let me in your head." He seems to consider.

"Maybe, but not today." I look at him.

"But soon?" He looks down at me and nods slowly.

"When you're ready, I'll let you in." Somehow I get the impression he has a double meaning to those words. If he does, his face doesn't give anything away. Suddenly I have this strange urge, this need, to kiss him. I don't know where it came from, but it seems like a really good idea at the moment. I incline my head and he lowers his, his eyes still on mine, seeming to reach into my soul.

Just before our lips meet the back door opens and I hear a strangled gasp. I don't care who it is right now, only that they're interrupting. I stop when I hear his voice, though. "What on earth are you doing?" I blink, literally a half second from kissing Jackson. It takes just about every ounce of willpower to look up at Zee. I don't give Zee an answer, because it looks pretty obvious what I was doing. That seems to be answer enough for him, because he stalks off, slamming the door behind him.

"Ah, shit, that's not good." I look back at Jackson, our faces less than an inch apart. "I should go after him. I want to go after him."

"Do you?"

"Yeah. But I also want to stay here." He moves some hair off my face.

"What are you going to do?" Before I can decide I'm suddenly standing in front of Zee at the top of the boys' floor landing. He screams and falls against the wall.

"What the hell are you?"