In-laws

Elizabeth chuckled, "that's rich coming from his in-laws, aren't you supposed to be rooting for your cousin?"

It was the first thing I heard her directly say in what seemed to be forever, and it was again, complete gibberish to my ears. I continued to look at her, she was going to look at me this time.

'Look at me damn it.'

Her head turned my way, her eyes had a sad hue over them for a fraction of a second before they turned ice cold.

'I thought you were not in the market for a girlfriend.'

This time I was not surprised that she spoke in my head. The relief I felt in my bones at hearing her voice was the most toxic thing someone could ever feel.

'I think it's too late for that,'

It was the first time I intentionally try to speak into her head, ignoring the feeling that I was going crazy and embracing the fact that I was a freak.

And there it was again; sadness veiled her pretty doe-like eyes.

"Forget it, man," Elijah tried to win back my attention. I needed to win the staring contest I was having with the girl first, every cell in my body was celebrating the energy I felt in the air between us — it was suddenly the perfect day at school.

"Yeah, my brother's right," Liam Johnson mumbled, then turned away from us, dejected.

I closed my eyes and rubbed my neck twice.

She won the staring contest.

I was trying and failing to push the euphoria out of my system. Mr. Carlos began our Spanish lesson. I swallowed my embarrassment and opened my eyes.

Elizabeth was still staring at me, her reddish-brown eyes a replica of mine. I found myself wondering if the color of our eyes meant something.

She was giving me butterflies and everything.

"Ms. King" the teacher warned her.

"Lo siento," Elizabeth apologized in a perfect Hispanic accent, that brought my attention to something unfamiliar.

How come I perfectly understood everything Mr. Carlos had said?

My Spanish was not much to begin with, I shifted my weight uncomfortably, and it wasn't a good time to panic.

'You can understand everything he's saying now, can't you.'

Elizabeth's voice rang in my head again, comforting me this time, I felt something wash over me for the first time in my entire school life, I was in a classroom full of strangers, but I was not alone anymore.

The girl was with me.

I tried very hard not to think of anything and focus on calming my racing heart for the rest of the hour, but that was out of the question. When the bell finally rang, I turned my face to her and stared as she gathered her things. We were the only two students left, she took her sweet time, and I knew she was stalling.

"Go out with me," My voice shouldn't have been this shaky, I've done this before.

She turned fast, dumbfounded. I didn't know how to feel about her reaction which was completely new to me. It was lovely to discover different looks on her usually sculpture like perfect face.

She spoke out loud this time around.

"What? You did not hear what I said before about your in-laws?" She seriously asked, but there was an edge in her voice.

Happiness?

I heard her nonsense the first time around, I was not interested enough to ask what she meant when she said that. "I heard you, so will you go out with me?" I insisted.

She closed her pretty eyes and chuckled softly.

"Do you want answers, Theodor?" She asked, keeping the smile on her face; it was hard to look up once my eyes focused on her lips.

"Yes." I sounded tired. "I want to hear everything you have to say, I was rude to you the other day at my place. But I was very shocked, honestly."

Her face became thoughtful.

"It was only natural," she said,

"It's better if we carry on with this conversation somewhere other than the school," I urged. "Don't you agree?"

She rolled her eyes.

"If only there was a way around it," She said sarcastically. "If only we could have a private channel that no one else could tap into."

"We should get ourselves one of those for sure." I was enjoying her use of 'we' a bit too much so I used it again.

"She won't be okay with you going out with me." She declared a minute later.

I was astonished. Did she believe that I was interested in the girl Liam was talking about? When I finally found my tongue, I tried my best not to sound mad. "You think I care?" I sounded exasperated.

"Maybe you should," she snapped.

"Yeah, maybe I should." I felt like I wanted to hit something again. "You know what? Just forget it."

I jumped out of my seat fast, but it wasn't fast enough. I wanted to get as far away from her as possible, clenching my jaw and my fists. I left my books where they were, and I was out of the classroom the next second. The nastiest form of a headache I ever got in my entire life stopped me in my tracks.

I stood briefly where I was, closing my eyes and rubbing my forehead, my stomach twisted and turned, for a moment, I almost lost my balance.

"You think you could master the art of brain manipulation just because you can do some telepathy?" she said icily. The pain disappeared as fast as it came over, I opened my eyes to see her standing close to me.

My eyes narrowed.

"You did this to me?" I asked. Lost somewhere between getting upset and admiring her cool abilities.

She straightened up defensively, misinterpreting my question for an accusation, "I did, so what are you going to do about it?"

'I'm glad you asked.'

I strode toward her not stopping until she took a step back and hit the wall behind her, I placed both of my hands on either side of her head, and I brought my lips closer, wanting to whisper my answer in her ear.

She froze completely.

I fought the urge to laugh because of how happy that made me feel, I closed my eyes and inhaled the scent.

A garden of jasmine.

"As a punishment for what you've done, you'll have to go out with me."