Truth Water: Chapter Four (re-edited)

Chapter 4

I woke up, remembering everything that had happened yesterday. But I didn’t know if it was a dream or reality. I was really hoping it would be a dream. I pulled myself out of bed and slipped on my slippers. I then started feeling head and stomach pains. I fell back onto the bed and flipped my slippers back off. I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead, thinking about what I got myself into, and why I didn’t listen to Josh.

It’s kind of hard when that thing has you trapped just by looking at it. It made me feel really lonely and hurt, like I was a sore loser again, like I had no one to look forward to in life. This lonely was worse than what it was; almost like it could have been a severe case of depression or something like that. I did the sign of the cross and opened my eyes.

Of course when I did, Josh was there. This time it only made my heart do little cartwheels and back handsprings. But it was because I liked him.

“Morning, sunshine.” He grinned in my face, “No scream?”

I moaned and replied, “Nope, I’m used to it now.”

“Figures. Can’t get any joy out of life anymore.” And he did those little “tsk tsk tsk” things afterwords.

“Hey, not everything lasts a lifetime.” And he shrugged to agree with me.

“How are you feeling? You had a pretty rough time over at my house.”

“I agree. Especially with that robot-thing. What was that anyways?”

“What? What are you talking about?” Josh asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You know, that thing that sliced right through my stomach?”

“Alicia, are you feeling ok?” He felt my forehead.

“Yeah, I’m fine. You were there. It, like, sucked me up emotionally. You kept telling me to run, but I couldn’t.”

“Wow, what a dream. Tell me more.” He plopped down next to me on the bed.

“It wasn’t a dream, it was real!”

“Maybe you really do need to see a psychologist,” Josh laughed.

“No you do-“ Then I remembered my pain, “What about the pain in my stomach and head?”

“You fell off the couch a couple times but didn’t wake up.”

“That’s not possible- I’m a light sleeper! Stop making things up!” I yelled.

“I’m not the one making things up. Alicia, you just had a nightmare. Calm down, ok?” I don’t know how he changed his voice, but it was more soothing.

“Wait, what?” It- it wasn’t real?

“No,” He cooed, “Try to go back to sleep. You had a rough night.”

“What am I doing home?” I stalled.

“You remember when I told you I wanted to keep an eye on you?”

“Yeah.”

“Well I realized it’d be better to do it from your house.”

“Why?”

“Because we can escape to mine if anything bad happens.”

“How many hours was I sleeping?” I sat up and rubbed my head.

“Hours? You slept for days.”

“What? How? No I didn’t.” I insisted.

“Yes you did, two and a half to be exact.”

“Whaaaaat?” I said over a growling stomach. I attempted to get up once again but failed.

“Hey, enough said, I’m going to make us some lunch.” Josh announced.

“Ok, make sure I get a 21 piece this time. And I want spicy tuna wrapped with cream cheese and fried. Make sure to add some spices, too. Like pepper. Pepper is good.” I ordered, my mouth watering at the thought.

“Got it. Be back in a flash.” After a few minutes, Josh appeared through my door with two trays. One had more sushi than the other. Mine.

“Hey, back sooner than I thought.”

“Well, I did say I’d be back in a flash, didn’t I?” He cocked his head to the right a little.

“Yeah, but people don’t mean it literally.” I laughed.

“Hey, never take a word for granted now a day,” He shrugged and handed me my plate and chopsticks and we dug in.

After I inhaled my food, I placed my empty plate on my bedside table and lay back on my bed with a satisfied stomach.

“Ahhh, that hits the spot!” I sighed.

“Yup. Seeing that I didn’t eat for a couple of days.” Josh lay down next to me.

“You what?!” I shot up again and stared him in the eye.

“Hey, every time you get hurt you hurt yourself even more by doing that.”

I ignored him, “Why didn’t you eat?”

“Because I was pretty much watching you the whole time.” He slowly sat up next to me.

“Um, why?” I shook my head.

“Why are you making a big deal out of it?”

“Because I don’t want to be the cause of somebody’s death from lack of food.”

“Hello, look who’s talking.” He waved his hands in front of my face.

“Hey, I’m still alive, aren’t I?”

“Yeah, so am I.”

“But bodies don’t crave food while they sleep.”

“I used magic, duh.”

“Oh.” I looked down. “Yeah.”

“Whatever, though.”

“Hey, when can we start looking for the book?” I questioned him a few seconds later.

“Tomorrow.”

“Well, why not tonight?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Too many questions.”

“Answer it!”

“Fine. Because you are not fully healed.”

“So?”

“I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Wow, you are really over protective.”

He shrugged again, like it was really no big deal to him.

We kept having a small argument over an array of random items we selected out of our brains, getting it out of our system. I guess that’s what friends are for. To help get stuff off of our minds. I wonder what would happen if we think about too much stuff at once. Easy, depression. I’m a good listener. Even though people don’t see me, I still pay attention in class. Yes, I’m really that desperate to fit in.

But I haven’t really cared about it that much since I officially met Josh. I know it was only a few days ago, but still. I focus on our friendship more than school. No one cares, right? At least I’m sure the people at school don’t care. None of the teachers even bother messing with me. I don’t care about what happened on the school bus any more…

“Hey Josh?” I said while he was saying something.

He stopped in mid sentence and said, “What?”

“Did I ever tell you that when I rode the bus that people would talk about me?”

“No, I didn’t even know you rode the bus.”

Weird, seeing that you can read my mind.

“Well, I don’t go racking through it.”

True.

“Well anyways,” I continued out loud, “I don’t know why they do it when I’m right there. I mean, if they’re going to say something about me and be so obvious about it, then they should just say it to my face.”

“Obvious. They’re jealous of you.” Josh shrugged like the answer was standing in front of my face, blinking neon colors.

“How would I know? No one ever pays attention to me.”

“Yeah well, maybe you put yourself out there.”

“Huh?”

“I can’t explain it at the moment. I’m going to have to get back to you on that one.”

“Ok.”

I felt something weird inside of me, like something was going into me. I tried to ignore it at first, but the more I tried, the worse it got. I lay back down and closed my eyes in attempt to go to sleep, but that didn’t work either.

“Are you going through my brain?” I finally said.

“No, why?”

“Stop lying.”

“Why would I lie to you?”

“You do it all the time.”

“I joke around, and maybe I fibbed a few times
but never lied.”

“Then stop fibbing.”

“I’m not fibbing.”

“Stop joking?” I tried.

“Alicia, what’s going on now?”

I explained the feeling to the best of my abilities.

“Hmmm… I don’t know,” He said, tapping his chin with his index finger. Josh’s eyes lit up when he came up with something, “Hey, can I have permission to go inside of your body to look around?”

I hesitated, “Uhm, yeah sure. How?”

“First, I need you to turn around.”

“Why?”

“Fine. Because it’s easier to get in from the back of the head.” He said quickly.

“Sure whatever.” I stood up and turned around.

“Now close your eyes and relax. It’ll hurt a little bit at first, but if you stay still and don’t fight it, then it’ll only hurt for ten seconds, max.”

“Ok.”

I took a deep breath and slowly let it out, feeling my muscles start to relax. After a few seconds I felt a sharp pain hit the back of my head. I scrunched my eyes, trying to make it go away, thinking it was my head pain interfering. Then I remembered it was Josh.

The pain continued for a count of five then it slowly faded away. I felt movement but no hurt. I heard someone in my head say Stay calm, I’m almost done. At first I thought it was me. But then the voice said It’s Josh. I relaxed a little bit more when I heard this. Actually, it wasn’t really hearing, it was a feeling. I felt the words form inside of my head.

How can you talk into my head? I asked him.

I can only do that when I’m inside of it. Josh hastily replied.

Oh cool. So you can’t speak to me with your mind when you aren’t in me. Awesome.

Shh, I think I found something.

It felt like a hand was reaching down my throat to take something out. I felt like throwing up but just couldn’t bring myself to do so. I waited a couple of minutes and felt the “hand” come back up. Someone tapped on my right shoulder, so I spun around and saw Josh standing behind me.

“All done.” He said, swiping his hands together.

“What did you find?”

“Nothing.”

“Why was there a hand reaching down my throat?”

“Oh, so you felt it, huh?”

“Yeah.”

I sat down on my bed.

“I feel better.” I mentioned.

He looked surprised, “How?”

“I don’t know. I just do.”

“Are you lying?”

No. I looked down at my lap.

“Oh.” He sighed, “I suppose you want to go look for the book now?”

“You bet.” I got off of my bed, grabbed some clean clothes, and headed for the steam room, “I’m going to take a steam shower. Don’t do anything stupid, please.”

He smiled deviously at me as I left the room, though I knew that he wasn’t going to do anything. I got to the steam shower which was across my room. I closed the door and peeled off my dirty clothes. I threw them into the laundry basket and hopped into the shower.

After I got out, I felt oh so much better. I brushed my teeth and put on my new set of clothes. I wrapped my hair in a towel and dried up the puddle that accumulated on the floor. I lined my eyes with eyeliner and swiped on some mascara. I brushed some peach blush onto my cheek bones and some candy apple lip gloss on my lips. I sprayed myself with a bit of body mist.

I unwrapped my hair and threw the now wet towel down the laundry shoot. I retrieved my hair brush out of the near empty medicine cabinet and opened the door. A rush of cold hit me and sent shivers down my spine. I crossed the hall into my room and saw that Josh was still sitting on my bed. I just started brushing my hair when he stopped me.

“Hey, let me do it.” Josh said, sticking out his hand.

I looked at it and slowly handed the brush to him and sat down next to him.

“My mom used to let me brush her hair when my parents were still here.” Josh told me after a few minutes.

“Aww, that’s really sweet.”

He hesitated before adding, “You remind me of her.”

I hesitated, too, “Was she pretty?”

“Yes, very.”

I blushed a little and could practically hear him smiling.

“Cool.” Was all I could say.

He started brushing my hair from the ends. It felt really good. I felt tingles spark all over my body. He worked his way up my hair, one group of it at a time.

“Where are we going to look first?” I wondered aloud.

“Back at my house. We might find it hidden in my bookcase.”

“Wait, I thought you said it disappeared with your parents.”

“Yes but I’m not quite positive.”

“What if we don’t find it?”

“Then we search for clues in the other books.” Josh explained.

“And if there’s no clues?”

“You’re asking too many questions again.” He warned me.

“Sorry. I just wanted to know what would happen.”

He was working at a knot, “Well then we might have to get some assistance.”

“From who?”

“From my brother.”

“What? You have a brother?” My jaw dropped in
surprise.

“Unfortunately.”

“Where is he? What’s his name? How old is he? Did he disappear with your parents, too? What school-“

“Relax, Alicia.” He breathed before continuing, “His name is Sam, he did disappear with my
parents, but somewhere else. But I’m close enough to him to be able to keep in contact with him.”

“Why didn’t you disappear?”

“I did.”

“You did?”

“Yes. My parents made special places for us to go, hence my house, and my brother got his own house.”

“How old is he?”

“15. We’re identical twins.”

“Whoa…” The thought of two Josh’s made my heart do flips and cartwheels again, and it felt as if a million butterflies were being released into my stomach.

“Yeah, but I don’t know why we didn’t stay together.”

“Oh.”

After he finished with my hair, we got up and went down stairs. I brought the plates along and set them in the sink to be washed later, so out the door we went. I saw the go cart again. I frowned and Josh laughed. I trudged over to the door and it swung open. I saw a leaf on the seat and thought it was a cockroach, so I screamed and he laughed very hardly.

“What’s so funny?” I wanted to know.

“You scream at everything.” He tried to put a straight face on but failed.

“Do not.”

“Do too.”

“Do not.”

“Do too.”

“Do not.”

“Fine, then. If you don’t, then turn around,” He challenged me, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

I hesitated.

“Scared much?” He cocked his head to his right a little.

“No.” Yes.

“Ok, I’m waiting.”

“Fine.” I slowly turned around. When I did, Josh appeared right in front of me, smiling down on me.

I screamed and fell back on my butt. I frowned and he started laughing tens times harder than before. He never snorted, but he just kept laughing his deep laugh. I could almost say something else about it… But I don’t feel that way towards him. Well, I like him, but… Anyway, Josh reached out his hand for me and I grabbed it. He pulled me up and gave me a big hug. He had muscles but was still good to hug.

“Thanks.” I said as sarcastically as I could after we stopped hugging.

He shrugged and said, “I can do it again if you want.”

“No, but thanks for the offer,” I said sarcastically, “Besides, it wouldn’t be as funny the second time.” Then I muttered, “I didn’t even find it funny in the first place…”

I turned around to make sure half of him wasn’t over where he was. Cost was clear.

“You looking to make sure that half of me wasn’t over there?”

“No. Yes. Maybe. Shut up!”

“Hey just get in the car so we can get there.”

“It’s not a car.” I stalled.

“Fine, go cart.”

“I’m not getting in.” I announced.

“Why not?”

“We almost landed in the pond the last time
around.”

“Yeah, I did that on purpose. We would of, but while your eyes were closed, I poofed us to the edge.”

“Oh. Well, what if you forget?”

“Trust issues?”

“Not really, no.”

“Then get in.” He started walking towards it.

“No!” Then I rambled on about what happened last time and what not. I never knew I could nag like that. Mostly because I never had.

“Fine,” I heard him say with a sigh, but I kept going on, “Didn’t want to waste my power on this, but ok.”

“You don’t understand, you nearly gave me a heart attack! Josh? Josh! Are you even listening? Just because you don’t have a mother anymore doesn’t mean that you can’t listen to me, Josh!”

He mumbled a few words and the next thing I saw was Josh’s face right above mine. He smiled and I slowly sat up. The floor was a bit cool, but nothing that bothered me. The thing that bothered me the most was the fact that he could of just made us come here in the first place and then he wouldn’t have heard me nagging.

“I didn’t because I didn’t want to lose a lot of energy. But now I’m 15% drained.” He answered.

“Oh. Sorry. But couldn't you have just gotten a car?”

“Nope, can’t drive those yet.”

“But, why not?”

“I’m only fifteen. I have to have an adult next to me.”

“So? I look like your mom.”

“But you still look like a teen.”

“And so do you.”

“How old do I look?” He crossed the room and looked into the mirror in the bathroom.

“About 17.”

“Oh. I still don’t have a license.”

“We would be driving in the back of the woods!”
I was now standing next to him.

“Whatever. Let’s just find the book so I can look for my parents.” Josh grabbed my arm and dragged me out to the home library. He hastily pushed me in the direction in which to start at.

“You start at this end. I’ll start at the other. We’ll meet halfway. Got it?”

I didn’t say a word, but he went ahead and got started anyways.

I don’t know why, but I tend to get on his nerves quite a bit more than I want to. I guess I’m just really annoying that way, but I’ll ask him later if he doesn’t answer me now.

I waited a few a minutes going through the books, but he didn’t answer. On my second row, I took out a book and looked through the hole. Josh was on the other side. His lips were pressed tight and he focused on the books in front of him, going through them like lightning speed. Then I forgot I never asked him what it was called or what it looked like.

“It’s a dark olive green, and it says “The Art of Lyeugin” printed in fine sheet gold on the front. It also looks old and stuff. And stop looking at me, please.” Josh snapped.

“Oh, sorry.” Someone was in quite the mood today.

“You keep annoying me and I realized that I really need to find the book. I’m going desperate.” He seemed more calm this time, realizing that he wasn’t being too nice.

I started back at the beginning to make sure I didn’t miss it, but had no luck when I got back to where I was. I kept flipping books off of the shelf, sometimes catching a glance or two of Josh. Finally, I got halfway through when I pulled one of the books off of the shelf and saw him on the other side, pulling out another book. I jumped a little but no scream. He looked pretty disappointed.

I finished that row and came empty handed. I
wiped the dust off of my hands and onto my jeans. It also helped with the sweat problem. I walked over to Josh as he was walking towards me.

“No luck?” I asked him, knowing the answer was
no because he was empty handed.

“As lucky as you got.”

“Well, did you find anything?” I sighed, “Like, something that could help us?”

“Actually, yes. I pulled them off of the shelf and laid them in a pile somewhere over there.” He pointed to where they were and led the way.

“Should we start looking through them?”

“Actually, I need to by myself.”

“Why can’t I help?”

“Because you never read the book, so you won’t know what the information would be about. But I still need to call my brother.” Josh whipped out his cell phone that I never knew he had and punched in some numbers. “Thanks for your help, though. Much appreciated.” His voice was much calmer, because he probably noticed that he’s been a bit mean today, laughing at me, scaring me, and just being mad because I was asking too much questions.

I sat down on the floor where Josh now was and thought. What if his brother comes? Will I be having two crushes? Would it be technical crush, or will the personalities be different? Boy, I hope to God that they don’t have the same voice. What if I confessed my attraction to the wrong guy? I doubt I’ll do that; after all, I just want to be friends, remember?

I waited until he got off the phone to stand up. When he said his goodbyes and such, I slowly pushed up off of the floor. He stood up too.

“He’s coming over tomorrow.”

“Why does everything always have to happen tomorrow? Why can’t they happen today?”

“Hey, you always get your way. We always end up going to do something “today” when I always say that we can’t until “tomorrow”.”

“So.” I crossed my arms over my chest, “Then make it happen today.”

“Can’t. He has to make a helicopter and fly out.”

“Why can’t he use magic to poof himself here?

“Sam’s too far away; it’ll take up too much of his energy. He’ll only have 1% body energy left and we wouldn’t be able to look for the book for at least a year.”

“What will take a year?”

I whirled around and saw someone that looked exactly like Josh, except maybe a bit hotter. I stood in awe as he walked gracefully across the room towards us. I heard Josh stand up and walk next to me and rest his arms around my shoulders. Finally, the stranger came to a stop in front of me. I guess my mouth fell open because he shut my mouth with a gentle hand and said, “Don’t want you to catch a fly.”

I blushed and tried to say something, but couldn’t.

“Sam, this is Alicia. Alicia, Sam.” Josh introduced us. He seemed a little reluctant to in the first place, though.

While shaking hands with me, Sam said, “Is this your girlfriend you where telling me about?”

“No, uh, I uh, she’s not my, uh-“

“So you’ve been lying to me, huh?” He cut Josh off. I looked over at Josh and saw he had a confused look on his face, “Just kidding. Don’t worry. She’ll be mine.”

I felt my face get hotter.

I remembered that Josh had his arm around my shoulders when he took it off. We followed him over to the couch with the books and sat. He broke the books off into different piles in front of us so we could look through them. When they started looking, I just sat with a puzzled face, because I had no idea what I was looking for.

“Uhhh…” I heard myself say.

Josh reached over to help me, but Sam beat him
to the punch.

“Here,” Sam started in a soft, comforting voice, “What you need to do is look through them, and try to find some sort of word that is from a language you never heard of called…”

He continued helping me until my pile was finished. Josh was done when Sam helped me finish mine, so Sam was the only one left working on some books. Josh got up and stretched. I got up with him and he immediately grabbed my arm and pulled me into the bathroom.

I was too stunned to say anything.

“Don’t be fooled by him.” Josh warned me.

“What do you mean fooled?” I crossed my arms over my chest.

“You don’t want to like him.”

“But why?” It sounded better when I said it in my head.

“So you do like him, huh?” Now he was the one crossing his arms over his chest.

“No, I didn’t say that, it’s just-“

“Alicia, you don’t need to do that he is not dating type!”

“Yeah I know, but it came out-“

“No, no, no, I know what you want to do-“

“If you read my mind, then-“

“I didn’t, I can just tell by your face!”

“Stop fighting with me, why are you so-“

“What am I, a lunatic?”

“No I didn’t say that-“

“Then what are you trying to say!”

“If you would let me say it then I would.”

“Maybe I don’t want to hear what you have to say.”

Then read it.

“What if I don’t want to read it?”

Then don’t, you don’t have to know because you
are overreacting.

“How am I overreacting?!”

“Because I never said anything about liking him, you just assumed-“

“What are you guys fighting about in here?” Sam said, as he slammed the door open. I yelped and fell down on my butt on the floor.

“We weren’t fighting, we were discussing.”

“Discussing my ass. I heard you guys fighting over me.”

“We weren’t fighting!”

“What do I look like, a retard? I wasn’t born yesterday! You were yelling at her for falling in love with me.”

“Um excuse me,” I cut in, “But I never fell in love with you.” I did quotation marks with my fingers around “fell in love”.

“But you like him!” Josh said, now both sets of eyes on me. I felt a little intimidated.

“No, I never said that.”

“Yeah, you just technically did.”

“No, I didn’t!”

“Yes you did!”

“No I didn’t!”

“Yes you did!”

“Hey, you can read my mind. Why don’t you go back and see if I said that?!”

“That’s not something I do!”

“Then what do you do?!”

“A lot!”

“Well apparently caring isn’t part of “a lot”!”

“That’s not true! I care for a lot of people!”

“Well, I guess I’m not one of those people then!”

“That’s not true either! I care a lot about you! In fact I care for you the most!” It got quiet. A tear escaped his left eye and ran down his cheek. It was so quiet that I could’ve sworn I heard it land on the floor. My mouth fell open and Josh stormed out of the room, shutting the bathroom door.

I crawled backwards on the neatly tiled floor until my back hit the tub. I lifted myself up and sat in it. I buried my face in my hands and started crying. I never knew that he cared for me a lot. As a matter of fact, why would he care for me the most? Why doesn’t he care for his brother Sam the most? Why me?

Because he loves you. I heard after a few seconds.

I looked up and looked around. The only person I saw was Sam. I closed my eyes again and put my head back in my hands, pretty sure I was hallucinating. I heard it again and when I looked up, I saw Sam smiling. He walked towards me and sat inside the tub with me.

“Wa- was that you?”

Yes.

“Can you read my mind, too?”

“No, only Josh can do that.”

“Well, why not?”

“Because his special power is reading minds. Mine is speaking to them.”

“Then how did you know what I was asking myself?”

“Because Josh heard and told me to tell you.”

“Does he hate me now? I bet he does.”

Hate you? No. Love you? Yes.

I started blushing again and felt my tears soak into my skin.

“But as a friend. He loves you as a friend. Actually, as if you two were related, really. When he told me about you, I recall that he told me he thought of you as his sister most of the time and that you guys never fought before,” He looked up, “I’m guessing this is your first fight with him?”

“Actually, it’s my first fight, period.”

“Then how did you know how to fight back?”

“Well, I don’t know. It just came naturally, really.”

Either way, I think you should go apologize. He’s out there bawling his eyes out.

“Why should I apologize? He’s the one who started the whole thing.”

Yes but it would be nice.

“Ok. I will. Thank you.” I got out of the tub with him and gave him a little squeeze. He hugged me back. It felt different than Josh’s hugs. Sam’s is more warm and firm, and Josh’s is more warm and comforting. But both are nice.

I walked out of the bathroom and shut the door softly. Sam agreed to stay in the bathroom until I was done talking to Josh. Josh was laying down on his couch, with his head resting on the arm rest. I could tell he saw me from the corner of his eye, but he didn’t look up.

I walked slowly over to the couch and sat next to his head and looked down at him. He finally decided to look at me directly. I could see streaks of tears rolling down his cheeks and that his eyes were red. He got up off of the couch and walked over to his kitchen. He poured himself a glass of water and drank it down in three gulps. He set it in the sink, looked up at the ceiling, and closed his eyes.

I slid off of the couch and patted across the room and into the kitchenette next to him. I blocked the doorway so he couldn’t get out. Josh slowly turned to look at me. His facial expression was a bit harsh and had a hint of bad boy in it, looking more like his brother now.

“What?” Josh hissed, a very mean tone in use.

“I just came to apologize.”

He sighed and said, “Ok.”

“Well, I’m sorry and I know I shouldn’t have said those things and all.”

“And?”

“And what? You expect more?” I said on instinct, immediately regretting it.

“Kind of.”

I thought for a moment before saying, “I don’t like Sam that way at all. He’s not my type.”

“Oh.” Disappointment spread across his face like the spreadable butter.

“What’s wrong? I thought that’s what you wanted to hear.” I was confused.

“Well, it’s unexplainable on my part but maybe Sam could tell you some time. Maybe. Or I might tell you, I’m not positive. I’m not even sure if I want you to know at all.”

“What? What is it?” I felt like jumping up and down at this.

“Hey, not now.” I heard Sam say as he came up behind me. He rested his hands on my hips and I turned my head slightly to the right and looked at him through the corner of my eyes.

“You’re not her type.” Josh sulked.

“No shit. I heard the whole thing,” He took his hands off of my hips and pushed pass me, “And apparently if I’m not her type, then neither are you.”

“Ah, you read my mind.”

“No, that’s not necessarily true.” I butted in, “You two have different personalities.”

“So you’re saying you like him?” Sam pointed to Josh with his thumb, and an incredulous look painted on his face.

“I’m not saying that either! I just said that it’s not necessarily true.”

“Oh so you don’t like me and all those thoughts you say you like me in are lies?” Josh asked, the corners of his mouth tilted up.

I blushed, “What? What are you talking about?”

“I’m just playing with you,” He started laughing, “Even if you did like me, I couldn’t tell. Unless you truly wanted me to hear. If you’re not sure, or even 99.99999999% sure that you want me to hear, I can’t. You have to be 100% sure.”

“Oh ok.”

“But I can hear if you like Sam or not. And so far, I can tell he’s not your type.”

“Yeah, just like I said.”

“Yeah, ok,” Sam said, “We need to find the book before time runs out.” I could tell by the tone in his voice that he was a little jealous.

“What do you mean, before time runs out?” I asked frantically.

“Well, the planet is full of-“ Josh slapped his hand over Sam’s mouth and started fake-smiling.
“-people that are going to find us if we don’t hurry up.” Josh nodded.

“What kind of people?” I said, ignoring the nod.

“Enemies.” Sam told me.

“Oh. So how long do we have?”

“We’re not quite positive,” He continued, “but we still need to find the book as fast as possible.”

“Ok. When do we start looking?” I asked.

Josh said “tomorrow” at the same time Sam said “today”. I sat there with a puzzled look.

“Today,” Sam told me.

“No, tomorrow,” Josh argued.

“Why do you always have to do stuff the next day?” Sam whined.

“That’s what I said!” I agreed. Josh looked at me and he looked disappointed- again. I
certainly didn’t want to go through this again.

“Hey, I thought I was your best friend, not him,” Josh whined.

“Well, um, can we look for the book now please?” I asked him.

“Ah, fine. Let’s get going.”

We left the house and went east in the opposite direction of my house. Josh and Sam were leading in front of me. Josh looked over at Sam with wide eyes and nodded. All of the suddenly, Josh was standing in front of me while Sam was behind me. I guess they decided it would be better. I don’t know why, but whatever.

Because someone might attack you. Sam responded after a couple of heartbeats.

How did you hear? I thought only Josh could do that. And if he did, how did he tell you?

After about 15 seconds, I heard Sam say, Well, since we’re twins, then I can talk to him with my mind and read his mind, and visa versa.

Ah, ok.

Josh led us up and down a few hills until we reached a little shack in the back of the woods. He peeked inside of the window and his eyes brightened. The door creaked open and out came Lane, all dirty and such. Lane smiled at Josh and Sam, but when he saw me, his eyes looked puzzled.

“Lane, this is Alicia. Alicia, you know Lane.”

“Um, why is she here? And how?” Lane asked, clearly confused.

“She’s with us.” Sam said. When I looked back at him, it looked as if his eyes were burning holes inside of Lane. He looked down at me and
smiled.

“Does she…?”

There were a few minutes of quiet, but I’m guessing that was because Josh and Sam were explaining everything to him. I don’t know why they didn’t say anything out loud. Maybe they didn’t want any enemies hearing their conversation? I’ll ask later, when we are safer.

Lane’s eyes softened after they were done talking and said, “I was always too scared to talk to you.”

“Why?” My turn to be confused.

“Because I thought you would be like some other people we know…” He trailed off, “But anyways, sorry for stepping on your paper. I was in such a rush that I almost tripped and had to step there. Unfortunately, your paper was right there. Next time I’ll be more careful,” Lane smiled at me and I forced myself to smile back.

I turned to look at Josh. When I did, I was startled because he looked like a 27 year old again, “Uh, Josh?”

“Yes?” His voice was the same.

“You look like a 27 year old again.” I stepped backwards a bit.

“What?” He felt around his face.

“He looks fine to me,” Lane announced. Sam agreed.

When I looked over at Lane, I realized that he didn’t have beady-black eyes like the rest of the school does. Then I remembered that we had to go back to school in a week. I sulked and looked back over to Josh, afraid of what I might see, but then I noticed he was back to normal. I let out a sigh of relief.

“If we don’t find it soon enough, then we have to ditch school to look for it.” I told Josh.

“Well, we might have to anyways after this trip.”

“Why?”

“Because. We might have some enemies there. Not positive.”

“Excuse me,” Lane whispered, “But we need to go, now!”

All of a sudden, Josh grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the shack. Lane and Sam were behind us. We all sat down against the walls and sat there for a few minutes. I didn’t know what was going on.

Josh, what’s going on? I’m scared.

Enemy.