Gifted Connections 2

“Story time,” Gavin gently prodded with a smile.

I smiled, resisting the urge to tell him he had a connection out there and how similar they were in the way they said and did things. One surprise at a time. I would tell him…soon.

I finished the food in my mouth. “Okay, so since I know you’re going to be around for a while and you’ll be practically family,” I told him mysteriously. “I will give it to you straight. Which if you knew me, you would realize is a rare thing and you should feel privileged.” I explained, trying to make light of the situation.

“Privileged, huh? I feel like you’re just going to fully blow my mind, as if you hadn’t effed with it enough as it is,” he said jokingly.

I jokingly rolled my eyes. “I guess I can start at the beginning, with a few details omitted for time’s sake” I began. “I had a crappy childhood. My dad was murdered when I was ten. I was left in the care of my step mom and she developed a drug and alcohol problem. She moved my half-sister and I to a crappy trailer park where things went from bad to worse. I was abused in every way imaginable. Almost a year ago I was taking a music class and I had a teacher that took an interest in me.”

“He didn’t try to touch you, did he?” Gavin asked grimly, but working with the shelter, I’m sure he had heard plenty of ugly stories.

“How much do you know about connections?” I asked him instead of answering him.

He shook his head frowning. “Connections?”

“In the gifted community, some of us are marked, most of the time around the same time we come into our gifts. It is believed that we should find and make connections with our…other half so we don’t lose our gifts.” I explained to him.

His eyes widened. “Like my mark on my shoulder.”

I nodded, still battling with telling him the truth about his connection. “Most of us are born with no connections, but generally it’s the people with the weaker gifts. Some of us are born with a single connection out there. Then in rare instances some of us have more than one connection. Those well-versed with the gifts say that we can only have a max of two.

He blinked slowly. “When you say connections, how are we to connect to the other person?” I had a feeling he knew exactly what I implied, but he wanted to make sure of it.

“We have to have an intimate bond with our connected,” I clarified.

He seemed stunned and overwhelmed by the knowledge. “What happens if we have no interest in the other person? I’ve been known to be…picky,” he blushed. Then hurried on. “Before I hit puberty, I enjoyed sports. I did well in school. I had friends. Then I got my gift. I was thought of as the weird kid for a while there. I had no clue I was gifted, and my parents had me in and out of hospitals. By the time I started getting interested in girls, I found out most of them wanted me for my money…” his voice trailed off.

“From my understanding,” I elucidated slowly. “We are naturally drawn to our connections, and the bond we feel for them is undeniable. That’s not to say it’s easy.” I frowned thinking about the fact I had never made my connections with Noah and Troy, although I had been attracted to them and cared for them. “In fact, it can be slightly difficult. It’s almost like an arranged marriage. We should be a perfect match, but for people like me, since my father died I struggled with the littlest things. Trusting and touching being a few of my hang ups. I never had a real boyfriend either. I was out of my league when I found out about my connections.”

His eyes widened, and he said almost in shock, “So, you have more than one connection. How can that even work?” He cocked his head to the side. “Do you have a strong gift…?” Then as delicately as he could, he said slowly, “You seem so weak.” He shrugged apologetically. “I’m sorry, but like I said before, your aura is faint, sometimes it’s not even there.”

I nodded, feeling melancholy creep in once more. “I was, am, an anomaly. According to Will Bell, it was rare that my gifts came to me at an early age. I had started showing signs long before I was a teenager, so I was told. And I don’t have just two connections, I have six.”

Gavin choked on his breakfast pizza, literally. After taking a long swig of his drink, he finally cleared his throat. “Excuse me.” Then something like horror entered his eyes. “Am I one of them?”

I didn’t know if I should be offended or amused. I put myself in his shoes and started giggling. I playfully punched his arm. “No.” I rolled my eyes. Then I said quietly, urgently, “You can’t say anything to anyone. The people that took away my connections, my memories and turned back time, are…afraid of me. No one, and I mean no one, outside of the Bells and my connections knew that I had six connections. I’m sure we kept them guessing since we are…” I paused and gulped back tears. “Were very close and everyone, including Jemmy and Rachel were openly affectionate with each other. To an outsider looking in, I’m sure we looked like brothers and sisters, but a few nefarious individuals seemed to be threatened by me.”

He gingerly patted me. “I promise I won’t breath

e a word to anyone. You’re my first real friend I’ve had in a long time. When I came here it was obvious almost everyone had known each other for years, and since I chose to keep my gift hidden, some of the gifted treated me like a pariah.”

I could see how that was possible. I had noticed it with quite a few of our class mates. Most of them pretended like we weren’t even there.

When I looked at Gavin’s rugged handsomeness and realized how intuitive he was, I would think he was Mr. Popularity. He carried himself with confidence, but now I understood it was a defense mechanism. It must have been hard on him to go almost seven of his twenty years not knowing he wasn’t crazy, but gifted.

“Thanks,” I smiled at him. “So yesterday I woke up with a man I hadn’t seen in years and he’s proclaiming to be my boyfriend, and when I ran into one of my connections, he didn’t recognize me.” Once more I had to fight the tears. “I have no clue where my sister is, and I have no clue how to make them remember me.”

“Why don’t you just leave him and go find your sister? I’m sure we can find her, somehow,” he tried to sound reassuring.

I shook my head. “I can’t leave him, at least not yet. The night before I ended up….here, in this time, we found out for certain that Will had people working for him and people on this very campus that are working against him. Will’s no angel, he had a colorful past, but he realized the error of his ways. He wants to create a safe part of the world where we could peacefully coexist with the non-gifted and live in harmony together. There’s another man, his ex-best friend Horatio, that feels like we should rule the world. Enslave the non-gifted and brainwash newly discovered gifted to do his bidding and dirty work.

“The night before I ended up here, I had just met you. You witnessed the abduction of Krista and a few other gifted children. Including my half-brother. We also found out, for some unknown reason, they wanted Will and me. There was a gentleman by the name of Zach Young, a member of Will’s board that was working for Horatio—at least that’s what we surmised—and now I know Collin works for them too.

“The more people I found out about, the more names I can hand over to Will…eventually. I need to gather compelling evidence.”

Gavin looked at me dubiously. “Is it safe for a seventeen-year-old girl to take on these…men? I mean, they already messed up your life. They can do it again, or worse, end it.”

I gulped. “Right now, they have no clue that the same gift they used on the guys, didn’t work on me. I still remember them. In theory, when time went back, I should have naturally forgotten everything, but I didn’t. I think, for some reason, I’m too valuable alive. My gut tells me they want to lure me to the ‘dark side.’ I need to figure out a way to inadvertently spy on them. They already put a tracker on my phone, who knows what else they can or will do to keep me separated from the guys. I feel like together we can beat this, the guys and me. If I were to finish making my connections, we will be stronger together.”