Chapter 349
My mom shook her head and folded her arms. “I don’t understand why Cadence is doing this, getting more of that serum injected into her body. It all seems so... unnecessary. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
Eyes wide, I studied her for a moment. If it were me, she’d be standing at the foot of my bed the whole time, wringing her hands because she’d be so worried I might die. Cadence could do whatever she wanted, and my mom didn’t bat an eye. “It’ll make her better at her job,” I reminded my mom.
She shrugged. “I guess so. I don’t really see a difference.” I guessed the conversation was over because she headed over to her recliner.
“You don’t see a difference?” I wasn’t done yet. “Mom, Aaron and Tara are, like, ten times faster than the rest of us. They’re stronger.” She was unimpressed. “They have X-ray vision.”
“Now, who would want that?” Mom asked, picking up her knitting. She seemed a lot older to me than her fifty-one years all of a sudden. “All that avoiding looking at people’s underwear.”
A guffaw escaped my lips, which she didn’t seem to notice. “They can control it.”
“Oh, come on!” My dad was yelling at the basketball game on the TV in an attempt to throw us off course. “He should’ve made that!”
I turned and took the few steps into my bedroom, closing the door behind me. If Holland was a puzzle, my mother was an enigma.
I changed into my pajamas and went back out to do my nightly routine in the bathroom closest to my room. Thank goodness my parents had their own. I still had to keep it nice for guests, but at least I didn’t have to share the cramped quarters with my parents. I could hear them whispering to each other but decided it was best not to know what they were talking about.
By the time I was back in my room and under my comforter, I decided to check in on Cadence. Maybe she was done talking with Aaron by now. I didn’t know if I even wanted to hear how it had gone, but I was curious, so I sent her an IAC message; she didn’t answer, which was frustrating. I hated it when people ignored me.
Annoyed at the world, I turned off the lamp by the side of my bed, double checked my alarm, and sunk down into my mattress, thinking I wouldn’t hear anything until the next day. At least all of my friends weren’t hanging out together without me for once—not Brandon, anyway. He had left here to go straight home. Most nights, I fell asleep either with my IAC on as I watched them watch a movie or joking around. Tonight, the world was silent.
I had just drifted off when I noticed a flickering in the corner of my eye that got my attention despite my sleepiness. It was a message from Brandon. “You still awake?”
I didn’t even open my eyes. “I’m awake.”
“My dad just got back from your sister’s. I guess Aaron didn’t take it well.”
I wasn’t surprised to hear that. “What did he say?”
“He didn’t want to answer most of my questions. Just that Aaron refused to accept it was a possibility. Cadence was pretty upset, I guess. Not just that he wasn’t taking the information seriously, but she’s worried about him. Dad accidentally told me that--I think. Why do they always act like they have to keep secrets from us because we are too immature to handle it? Do they really think we haven’t noticed Aaron’s been acting weird, and Cadence has been concerned about it?”
“I don’t know.” I was irritated that Aaron hadn’t taken my information seriously, but I thought that wasn’t the most pressing issue right now. There was something wrong with him, and we all needed to do something about it. I just had no idea what it was. And then there was the fact that I didn’t know if Cadence had even mentioned Spittle to Aaron. She didn’t ever answer my message. “Everyone seems to be acting all secretive again, and I don’t like it.” They’d kept this whole world from me for far too long as it was. Now, they were slipping back into their Clandestine ways.
“Yeah. Even my dad.”
I heard a note of something in Brandon’s voice I hadn’t noticed before. “What do you mean?” Elliott had been the most honest with me of anyone by far. I couldn’t imagine him keeping anything to himself that he wasn’t sworn to secrecy about.
“It’s probably nothing.” His tone wasn’t convincing. “He seems to be gone a lot more lately, which is really weird because it’s March Madness. He should be glued to the TV.”
I was definitely fully awake now. “Where do you think he’s going?”
“No idea. But... I thought he smelled a little different tonight. Sort of like perfume. I didn’t get too close to him, so maybe I was imagining it.”
“My sister wears perfume sometimes. Body spray, anyhow.”
“Yeah. But I don’t think he smelled like Cadence. Though it was slightly familiar. Weird.”
“Why don’t you ask him about it?” I offered. I certainly would if it were me.
“Nah, it’s probably nothing.” Brandon avoids confrontation whenever he can. I think it comes from growing up with a mom who was liable to fly off the handle at any moment. “I probably shouldn’t have even mentioned it.”
“You’re right. You should definitely start keeping things from me, too.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he countered. “I mean it’s probably nothing at all, so why mention it?”
“Because I’m your girlfriend, and if you’re worried about it, I should be, too.”
“I’m not worried about it per se,” he countered. “It’s just unusual. Anything unusual catches my attention, you know?”
“I do.” I could relate. It’s just most times, there wasn’t anything I could do about it.
“Well, it’s getting late. For you anyway.” He snickered, and once again I was jealous that I actually had to sleep. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Okay.” There wasn’t much I could say to argue with that. I had been mostly asleep and wished I was again. He told me he loved me, and I reciprocated before I let sleep come back over me. Someday, I knew I’d be able to stay up longer, that I’d be privy to all of the information my sister and Elliott and everyone else was trying to keep from me, that I wouldn’t have a curfew or an early bedtime. Unfortunately, that was not this day. Knowing it would be eventually didn’t make things any easier, and as sleep overcame me, I wondered what it would be like to be completely free.
