Crap. I couldnʼt argue with that.
“So, how does this Seeing thing work?” I asked as she pushed yet another bottle of fruity smelling body wash around the shower curtain. I lined it up with the others. The bathtub was starting to look like Bath and Body Works. “Like, do you have to touch flesh or could you grab onto someoneʼs shirt?”
“Flesh to flesh is the best conduit, but I can sometimes get a read off someone if there is a layer of fabric between us. Depends on how strong the person is projecting.” I washed behind my ears for the sixth time. “Projecting?”
“You know, like giving off a vibe. If someone is really stressed out or upset about something they project it off of them and I canʼt help but See whatever it is. When I first started Seeing it was overwhelming. I couldnʼt walk down the hall at school without finding out someone had wrecked their momʼs car, had an abortion, or made out with another guy while their girlfriend was out of town. It was too much. Thatʼs why I started working on controlling it. Itʼs not right for me to know those things.”
“It was Jordan, wasnʼt it? Heʼs totally hot for guys, right?”
“Scout.” Thatʼs the problem with having a good, kind hearted person as a best friend. She sucks all the joy out of gossiping.
“Fine. Sorry.” I tried to remember how many times I had washed my hair and failed. Oh well, one more time couldnʼt hurt. “How long have you been able to See? Where you born like this?”
“No, Seers are like Shifters. Weʼre supposed to come into our powers as we go through puberty.”
“So youʼve been Seeing since you were, like, eleven?”
“July.”
“July what?” I opened a bottle of body wash and immediately rejected it. I would rather smell like wolf than roses.
“I started Seeing in July.”
I poked my head around the curtain to look at my friend who had built a fort around her out of scented lotions. “July? Of this year? Youʼve been wearing a bra since the fourth grade and had your first period before we started middle school. I think youʼre a bit past puberty at this point.”
Talley stopped arranging the multi-colored bottles and looked up at me, grimacing at the puddles of water my dripping hair left on the floor. “I said that weʼre supposed to come into our Sight when we go through puberty. I was a late bloomer. Everyone thought I was a squib until I had a vision over the summer.” She handed me a loofah and motioned for me to continue my de-wolfing.
“I thought you were a Touch-a-Soul or whatever. You have visions too?”
“Well, Mom thought it was a vision, but then I started doing the whole touching thing. Since Seeing is an only-one-item-per-customer kind of thing, it obviously wasnʼt a real vision. Not that I can convince the boys of that.”
The water had gone from hot to luke warm to tepid and was now threatening to slide into the land of flat-out cold. I had enough of cold last night to last a while, so I shut off the shower, confident that my potpourri of floral and fruity scents would mask any lingering Alex-related aromas.
“What was your vision of?” I asked, wrapping a large towel around me before I stepped out of the shower.
Talley twisted a piece of hair around her fingers and looked at the wall just to the right of my head. “It was nothing.”
Nope, she hadnʼt developed super-lying skills over night. That was good to know.
“Still keeping secrets from me?”
“Iʼm sorry. I should tell you. It will help you to understand. Itʼs just that...” She took a deep breath and looked me in the eye. “You understand that itʼs not a real vision, right? I canʼt See the future. This isnʼt going to happen.” Her intensity was a bit unsettling.
“Not a real vision. Got it.”
“I was watching one of those reality TV shows with the has-been almost-celebrities. I must have fallen asleep without realizing it because I thought I saw this man walking through the living room. I had never seen him before, but I immediately knew he was a Shifter. Something about him just seemed so animalistic.” She paused and ran her fingers through her now knotted hair.
“He wasnʼt wearing a shirt. His chest was covered in blood, but not his. It had all came from the person that lay limp in his arms. There were claw marks across her stomach, shirt and flesh ripped to shreds.” Talley rubbed her eyes as if the image was affixed to the back of her eyelids. “There was so much blood. It was everywhere. Her clothes were drenched, it was dried on her face and matted in her hair. But still, even caked in blood and completely lifeless, I knew who he was carrying.” My heart hammered in my chest, already anticipating the punch line. “It was you, Scout.” Talleyʼs voice trembled. “He was carrying you.” Well, that sucked. “Good thing it wasnʼt a real vision, huh?”
“Itʼs why they hate them, why they donʼt want you near Alex. Theyʼre afraid that if you get too close to him that heʼll —”
“Gut me like a pig?”
Talley flinched. “Itʼs not funny.”
“Which is why Iʼm not laughing.” I didnʼt find this even remotely funny. I wasnʼt worried about Alex. Alex would never hurt me, but Talley had seen a man. An animalistic man. I only knew one of those, and imagining him having a desire to disembowel me wasnʼt hard. “When did you have this not-really-a-vision vision?”
“July fifth.” She was back to the hair twirling routine. “And before you ask, yes, thatʼs the same day the Coles moved here.”
That certainly was convenient. I sat down on the edge of the bathtub, unsure that my legs could continue to hold me. “But you canʼt See the future, right?”
“Alex would never hurt you.”
“I know that.” She wasnʼt answering my question and I knew why. Uncertainty was written clearly all over her face. “Does he know about this?”
“No.”
“But Jase and Charlie do? And they think itʼs really going to happen?”
“They think itʼs too much of coincidence, them showing up and the vision. And then, with Alexʼs obvious obsession with you...” She shook her head. I wasnʼt sure if her dismay was aimed at Charlie and Jaseʼs belief in the vision or Alexʼs feelings towards me. “Iʼve tried to tell them, explain how much Alex loves you, that heʼs completely incapable of causing you harm, but they wonʼt hear it. Well, Charlie hears it, but that doesnʼt really help.”