“What do you see?”
“Evidence that our favorite children’s TV host didn’t so much overdose as go a little bonkers.”
Talley jerked her hand back, her eyes wide. And then she started to giggle. And it wasn’t the happy, this is funny type of giggling, either. This was more of the prepare my padded room variety. By the time she quit, which was a substantial amount of time later, she had to wipe tears off her cheeks.
“What’s going on?”
“I can project now.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I can project,” she said weakly. “Scout, why can I project?”
“Because you’re the most awesomely awesome Seer to have ever Seen?”
She snorted. “Any other brilliant theories?”
“Could it be because you have a mate now? Does that, like, strengthen your abilities or something?” That’s what would have happened if this was one of those trashy paranormal books I like so much.
“Highly doubtful. For one, that’s not a normal side effect of mating. And for another, I’m not mated.”
“But you will be.” I took a tentative step out onto the thin ice that was the whole Scout-as-til-death-do-we-part-matchmaker. “There is no way I can say ‘I’m sorry’ enough times.”
Talley has always been the most generous of my friends, but at that moment she went beyond her normal level of amazing. “You have nothing to be sorry for. It’s not anyone’s fault.”
“Tal, I’ve bound you to Jase. For life.” He was my brother, and I loved him dearly, but the idea of living with him forever was not appealing. “You should be very, very angry with me.”
“I’m not.”
“Maybe you just don’t know how to be mad at someone.” Since I was a pro, I decided it was time to educate her. “First thing you need to do is think really nasty things about me. Tons of them, but be sure to remember the most scathing remarks so you can pass them on to others. And there needs to be glaring. Lots of glaring. And the occasional snide comment thrown my way, just so I don’t get confused as to whether or not you’re actually pissed.”
“Scout, I’m perfectly capable of being angry when the situation warrants it. This one does not.”
How could she not be mad? She should be livid. I mean, it would be one thing if she wanted to marry Jase, but…
Oh. My. God.
“Talley, are you in love with my brother?”
Her head came up so fast I worried she might have whiplash. “What?”
“Is that why you’re not mad? Do you want to be mated to Jase?”
“Scout, did you purposefully mate me to your brother? Did you maliciously manipulate him into making an oath?”
“Of course not.”
“That’s why I’m not mad. You did nothing wrong. The whole thing is…” She took another deep breath. “It’s not ideal. I mean, the childhood dream isn’t going to come true for me. I don’t get to meet some fantabulous guy who is going to look at me like I’m beautiful and thinks my jokes are funny. No awkward first dates and breath-taking first kisses. No two hour phone conversations over nothing just so we can hear each other’s voice. But so what? I don’t get to fall in love. Not everyone does. And, let’s face it, I was already destined to be one of those people. At least this way I’ll spend my life with someone I care about, someone who is a good person and won’t ever do something to purposefully hurt me. A lot of people have it a lot worse.”
“Tal—”
“It’s Jase who got the raw end of the deal.” She pulled up her knees and tucked in her arms, somehow achieving the fetal position while sitting up. “I mean, he’s Jase. He would have ended up with someone beautiful and fabulous, but now he’s stuck with me.”
“That’s not true,” I said, but she didn’t believe me. I know because I didn’t really believe myself. It’s not that I think Talley isn’t beautiful and amazing and every single color in the rainbow of awesome, because I do. Honestly, I think she’s way too good of a person to have me as a best friend. But she doesn’t match the Jase girlfriend profile. She knew it, I knew it, and God knows Jase knew it.
“We’re losing focus.” She cleared her throat as she pulled herself out of the Talley ball. “I’ve developed a new super-power. That’s the big deal here, remember?”
“How is you having a vision of me getting killed not the big deal?”
Talley’s face tightened. “It’s not a vision. It’s a nightmare. Everyone has them.”
Of course it was.
“Well then, maybe you’re like Rogue,” I said, allowing her to pretend she couldn’t See the future and everything was peachy keen. “You suck the powers from other Seers.”
“Good theory, but I haven’t been around any Seers other than my mom, and I’m not whipping up a sparkly unitard anytime soon.”
“Have you recently fallen into a vat of radioactive goo?”
“Well, I did make the mistake of opening the bottom drawer of the bathroom cabinet.”
“I told you not to do that! Do you want to grow a third eye in the middle of your head?”
“That depends. Would I get a snazzy new power with said eye? Maybe the ability to See profitable stock investments or who will win the Kentucky Derby?” Eventually we quit speculating on the origins of Talley’s new power and ran some more tests. As long as she was projecting strongly, I would catch a glimmer of whatever it was she was trying to communicate, but never anything as solid as what she got off us.
The next day we expanded our experiments to include Charlie and Angel. Charlie didn’t get anything, and Angel didn’t fair any better in our Let’s Pretend to be Psychics game. Jase, of course, refused to be touched by Talley, despite the fact she was trying to put things in his head instead of taking them out.
With his aversion to touching Talley, I was surprised at how much time Jase started spending with her. They got so used to having to be seen as a couple in public they actually started to act like it at home. Talley would sit on the bed beside him, reading a book as he played video games. They watched a ridiculous amount of BBC together, laughing at jokes neither Charlie nor I realized were supposed to be funny. They even started fixing each other sandwiches without ever asking what the other wanted. It was weird. The two had always been friends - the four of us were pretty much a package deal outside of school - but there was a bond forming there. For a brief moment in time, I thought everything might actually work itself out.