Significance - Chapter Three

Copyright 2012  Shelly Crane                    All rights reserved

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Three

“Significant? What does that even mean?” I asked Kyle after about five minutes of silence. He’d been driving around not really going anywhere since we left his house, his thumb beating an angry rhythm on the steering wheel. “And why am I ok with all this? I mean, you just told me you’re not human? I think I would normally freak out about that.”

“You’re one of us now,” he said quietly.

“What? You mean I’m an Ace or whatever?”

“Yes. Look.” He looked at me quickly. “I’d explain it all to you, but Caleb was right. You can’t handle it right now. Your body is going through enough just being away from him.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You’re his mate, his one, his partner, his companion, his soul mate, the person he’ll be with forever. Take your pick.” He waved his hand in the air.

“But I just met Caleb. I don’t even-”

I was about to say I didn’t even feel anything for him, but that was a lie. In fact, just saying his name was bringing on a little round of hysteria all on its own. My heart clenched, my palms were sweaty and tingly. I had the strange need to grab the door handle and make a break for it.

And I knew that was crazy, but I couldn’t stop thinking it.

“Why do I feel like this? Why do I-” I stopped and tried to breathe through it.

Caleb told me everything would be ok. I knew it would, but I had no idea how or why.

Kyle grabbed my hand.

“Why do you want him? That’s what you were going to say? It’s because you’re meant for each other. It’s like...both your souls saw each other and decided they wanted the other. It’s something that’s always happened in the clans. We’ve always imprinted to find a wife or husband. Usually it happens when you’re older, like about twenty two or three. I’ve never heard of it occurring this young, and it rarely happens with a human, but sometimes it does.”

“So what does that mean? I have to marry him now?”

I thought about getting married at seventeen and what everyone would think of me, that I was loony or worse - pregnant.

“No, silly.” He laughed. “You just...belong to each other, now.” He chuckled again sadly and squeezed my hand. “Just when I finally got you to go out with me, too.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about. You can’t control it.” He let loose a growl of a noise. “Ok, let’s stop talking about this. You don’t need the stress and it’s sure depressing me. What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know. I’m pretty hungry.”

“Ok. Pablo’s it is.”

We pulled into the restaurant parking lot and he got out, running to my side to open my door for me. He grabbed my elbow to help me and I thought, he’s sweet but going overboard, but then I started to wobble. I felt lightheaded and he grabbed my other arm to steady me.

“What’s wrong with me?” I croaked.

“It’s like withdrawals. You just have to bear through them. They’ll get better.”

“Withdrawals from what?”

“Caleb,” he said and curled his lip like it was disgusting. “Come on. You’re with me, you’re fine. We’re gonna have fun but we gotta stop talking about him, all right?”

“All right.”

His hand slid down, his fingers locked on mine and I had a strange sense that I was doing something wrong.

“Stay close, ok?” He opened the door to the restaurant and we went in, wafted by a strong sent of delicious pasta and garlic.

Pablo’s was the best half Italian half Mexican place in town.

“Hey, look, there’s Rebecca and the guys.”

I pulled him to a stop.

“Please no. I don’t want to see anyone tonight,” I begged.

“Because of what happened? You’ll be-”

“No, not because of what happened. I had a fight with my dad and I don’t feel like being in a crowd, ok? Please?”

“Ok. Let’s go sit back here.” He towed me to the back and we sat in a dark booth. Our waitress came over immediately. It was a junior from my Lit class. “Hey, Callie, I’ll take a root beer. What do you want, Mags?”

“Sweet tea.”

She eyed us both with a little smile. “Congratulations on graduating, both of you. I can’t wait.”

“Thanks,” Kyle muttered and she went to fetch our drinks. “You ok?”

“Yes.”

“What’d you and your Pops fight about?” he asked as he fingered his silverware.

“He’s a jerk.”

“Aha,” he replied, like that explained everything.

“My mom left last summer right before school started. Did you know that?”

“Yeah, Chad said something about it.”

“He did?” I said with surprise.

“Yeah, he was pretty strung out there for a while after you guys broke up. Of course, I only really saw him at football practice and lunch.”

“Yeah.”

“So why did you break up with him, anyway?” he asked and I looked up to see that he was serious.

I started to tell him the truth but Callie came back with our drinks. “What’ll you guys have?”

“I’ll have the...parmesan eggplant,” he answered.

“Cheese ravioli.”

“Ok. I’ll get that right in for you. No appetizers?”

“No thanks,” I answered and as soon as she was gone I turned my glare on him. “Chad broke up with me. He didn’t want to date anyone his last year because he knew he was leaving.”

“What? Then why was he so upset about it? I just assumed it was you...I mean, that’s why I kept asking you out, because I thought you broke it off with him which meant you didn’t want to be with him anymore.”

“We had talked about it. He thought it’d be easier that way, but I didn’t want to. He did it anyway.”

“Ah, man. What an idiot. I actually felt sorry for him moping around.”

“Well, I mean, he had a point, but I guess I just thought it’d be better to spend our last year together than apart, even if it would be hard for him to go, you know?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok, enough about Chad. Where are you going to school?”

“Good old University of Tennessee.”

“So, is that where all your family goes?”

“Pretty much. We try to stay together as much as possible.”

“So, where’s, uh...” Just thinking his name made me feel shaky all over again. “Where’s Caleb from?”

“From here, well two towns over. His family lives there along with the rest of our clan. We’re the black sheep who decided to live somewhere else.”

“Why?”

“This is where my mom’s parents were from.  She and my dad are the last members of our clan to be imprinted. Something is wrong and it’s stopped happening. There are a lot of single people in our clan right now.”

“So, nobody in your family has gotten married since your parents?”

“Well.” He took a long sip of his drink and leaned back. His feet touched mine under the table. I scooted them back. “My uncle got married but it was a big scandal. He wasn’t imprinted, he just married someone from a clan that he fell in love with. Big no-no.”

“Because he could imprint with someone while already being married to someone else,” I said, understanding.

“Yep. I mean, he was thirty one when he got married, no one ever imprints that late, but still. Why chance it? You can’t control it. Think about what his wife would feel if he imprinted with another woman. He wouldn’t be able to control the way he felt.”

“So you can love someone even if you aren’t imprinted with them?”

“Yeah,” he said softly and looked down quickly so I tried to act like I didn’t notice.

“So, what happens after you imprint? Caleb said something about abilities.”

“Nuhuh. That’s his territory. He has to explain it to you.”

“Another no-no?” I asked, sensing there was probably gonna be a lot of rules.

“Nope, I’m just not gonna be the one to break it to you.”

“Ok, so.” A silly question popped in my head but I hoped it’d lighten the mood. “What about Werewolves? Real?”

He laughed. “No. Not even close.”

“Wizards?”

“Hardly.”

“Angels?”

“Bible.”

“Aliens?”

“Science Fiction.”

“Vampires?”

“Young adult science fiction,” he said, laughing loudly.

An older couple beside us gave us a not happy look at his outburst and we laughed harder before I started quizzing him again. “So, none of the myths are real?”

“None that you would think of. Food’s here.”

“That was fast.”

“They always are. Good ol’ Pablo.”

“Here you go,” Callie said and she set our food down. “Ravioli and eggplant. You need anything else?”

“Nope. I think we’re good. Thanks, Callie.”

“Ok.” She lingered and looked a little uncomfortable, twirling her pen in her fingers before turning to me. “So, um, you and Chad broke up, right?”

“Yeah,” I answered and hoped this wasn’t going where I thought it was.

“Would you mind if I called him? I mean, we’re both going to Florida. I’ll be there next year. I just figured, since you dumped him you wouldn’t mind if I asked him out.”

“Jeez, Callie, blunt much?” Kyle said and looked at her like she had two heads.

“What? She’s the one who dumped him. He’s moped around all year waiting for her. He needs to have some fun for a change.”

“She didn’t dump-” he started to defend me, but I stopped him.

“No, Kyle. It’s ok. Yes, Callie, call him to your little heart’s desire.”

“Are you funning me?” Her hand went to her hip. “Cause I don’t always catch the sarcasm.”

I wanted to sigh, and I had to mentally push out the blonde joke rattling around in my head. “Look. Call him. If he wants to go out with you, fine. Thanks for the ravioli. We don’t need anything else right now.”

“Ok,” she said warily. “I’ll check on you in a bit.”

She walked away and Kyle looked at me sympathetically. “She’s such a ditz. Some people have no couth.”

“No, really it’s fine.” I had an epiphany; a revelation that made my cheeks spread in a smile. “I don’t care. For the first time in a year...I don’t care about Chad.”

“It’s the bond.” He shook his head. “You won’t care about anyone but Caleb now,” he said almost grudgingly.

“So, there’s no way to break it or stop feeling it...or whatever?”

“No. Why, do you want to?”

“No,” I answered too quickly and he grimaced.

“Yeah, didn’t think so.”

“So,” I sang, sensing a need to change the subject. “What are you gonna do at Tennessee?”

“Architecture.”

I remembered Caleb telling me that’s what he was doing. “Is that a family business?”

“Mmhmm,” he mumbled around a bite.

I pursed my lips and waited, but he didn’t say anything further. So we ate. He asked me about school, why I’d dropped out of everything. Why I hardly came to school anymore and stopped eating lunch with them. This whole time, he thought it had been because of my dumping Chad.

I told him everything. I don’t know why, I just did. I told him things I didn’t even tell Rebecca and she was the closest thing to a best friend I ever had but I even felt withdrawn from her lately. I told him how my mom left, taking everything of value with her: all our plates and dishes, the money, our savings, my college fund, my parent’s bed. My dad had slept on the couch in the den for ten months. I told him how she used to call me and try to explain how much she had hated her life and everything in it. I told him how my dad was bitter now and spiteful, his life just spiraling down and he was slowly taking me with him. I told him how I had to get a job to help out because my dad lost his.

He listened quietly as he ate. He waited to see if I was done, watching me closely.

“I’m sorry, Mags. Everyone just assumed you’d ditched Chad and just didn’t want to hang out with us anymore. No one knew- I mean, we knew your mom left but the rest...you should have said something.”

“I didn’t know what to say. How do you tell someone that your boyfriend dumped you three days after their mom left and their dad sits in his room and doesn’t even speak to you? No one wanted me around anymore,” I said softly and stared at the ravioli I no longer wanted.

“I wanted you,” he admitted just as softly. I looked up and caught his hazel brown gaze. “I’ve always wanted you. But it was always you and Chad. And now, it’ll be you and Caleb. And not only that, but I’ll have to see you together, every day, because you’ll be family.”

“Kyle.” I pushed my plate away and began to toy with my hoop earring. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say.”

“No.” He sighed roughly and grunted. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I still want to be your friend, Mags. Now I get to be your cousin, too.” He forced a grin. “The Jacobsons are a weird bunch, I’m warning you now, but they are fiercely protective. You don’t have to worry about anything anymore. Your mom and dad are idiots for leaving you, but you have a new family now.”

I didn’t know whether to smile or run at his comment so I just bit my lip and chuckled under my breath.

“So, you ready to get out of here? Wanna see a movie?”

“Sure. We can’t go back to your house can we?”

“No. Not tonight. There’s gonna be a lot of crap going down tonight at my house with the whole family there. Believe me, you don’t want to be there anyway.”

I could beg to differ. Caleb was there and whatever this imprinting thing was, it wasn’t a joke. I could still feel his heart beating if I thought real hard about it.

“Ok. What do you want to see?” I asked as he flagged down Callie for the check.

“Anything you want, even a chick flick if it’ll cheer you up.”

I wrinkled my nose. “I’m not really into chick flicks. I’m more of a Sci-Fi girl.”

“Ah, you’re gonna fit right in.” He grinned and took my hand to pull me up. “And I know just the movie.”

I let him pull me to the car, again feeling that ping of wrongness for holding his hand, but not before Rebecca and the rest of them saw us. Her eyes bulged and I saw her glance at our hands. Then I saw Chad, sitting in the very back of the group. I should’ve known. That was why Callie was asking about him.

He was there.

His face was a textbook description of hurt and confusion and anger. He looked like he wanted to stand, but thought better of it. He leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms and glared at Kyle. Boy were they all wrong about what was going on, but I was sure it still looked bad. It might have been better if he saw me with Caleb instead. They didn’t know Caleb, but he knew Kyle. This was like betrayal to Chad.

I quickly turned and left the restaurant before any of them could move towards us.

“Kyle, you shouldn’t have done that. Those are your friends. Now Chad’s going to be all weird around you.”

“I’m leaving and so is he. It’s not like I’m going to talk to him anymore. We only hung out in our group and at football. I wasn’t really his friend. Besides, from what you just told me back there, he’s a complete idiot anyway.”

“Still.” Then a thought hit me and I pulled him to a stop. “Did you do that on purpose? Did you see him back there?”

“No. But I might have done it on purpose if I had. He’s not worth your time. He cared more about football than you. He proved that when he ended it when you guys could have tried to work out some long distance relationship or something. That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“I know,” I started as he towed me again, “but that doesn’t mean I want to hurt him on purpose.”

“You’re too sweet, you know that? You can’t let people just do away with you. You are too good for him, even your parents, if they can’t see how great you are.”

He opened my door and put me in, reaching over to do my seatbelt. “Uh, Kyle, I can do it.”

“Oh. Right.” He smiled bashfully before going to his side. “So, are you a popcorn or candy girl?”

“Popcorn,” I answered.

“Ah,” he groaned and shook his head. “You’re killing me here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing, just...you’re pretty awesome.” He gave me a sidelong look at the red light, staring with a little smile and I blushed involuntarily, looking away. “Huh,” he said smiling wider, looking entirely too pleased with himself. “Maybe Caleb’s got some competition after all.”

“Kyle-”

“Ok, I know. I know,” he said, his hands raised in surrender before taking the wheel and turning into our spot in front of the theater.

It was literally two blocks from Pablo’s.

I opened my own door this time, feeling a little more like my old self. I was even starting to wonder why I was taking everything so well. I mean, I just found out there are people out there with powers or abilities or something. Not human. I had bound myself, unintentionally, to one of these people I just met and couldn’t get him out of my mind. Shouldn’t I be freaked?

“Two for Battlestar National, please,” Kyle said to the attendant then smiled at me. “You’re going to love this. Have you seen Lord of the Rings?”

“Of course,” I scoffed.

“Well, this is nothing like that.”

I laughed and he laughed, too. The attendant rolled her eyes as she passed him the tickets. He took them and we made our way in the doors and to the concessions stand. I took off my jacket, stood behind him and waited.

My mind drifted to Caleb. I scolded myself. I’d never been so smitten in my life. I mean, this was borderline boy crazy. I didn’t even remember being like this with Chad. I felt a little foggy thinking of Caleb. I had an urge to leave, right then. Head out the door and straight to Kyle’s where I knew Caleb would be. A lump grew in my throat the more I thought about it. My hands twitched at my sides and I took a deep, steadying breath.

Kyle looked back at me and frowned. “Don’t think about him, I told you.”

“What’s happening to me?”

“It’s just new. It’ll fade,” he grimaced, “some.”

“You both keep saying that. What does that mean?”

“Just stop, ok? Don’t think about him and you’ll be fine,” he said, irritated.

He turned to place our order and handed me a drink while he squirted butter on our huge bucket of already pretty yellow popcorn.

We started towards our theater and I heard someone call Kyle’s name from behind us. I groaned as I turned, thinking it was guys from school but it wasn’t. I’d never seen those guys before. There were six of them and they were all black haired and tall. Kyle groaned beside me, so I didn’t feel much better.

“Jacobson,” the guy said lilting and sardonically. “What brings you out? Oh, I see,” he said like he hadn’t seen me already. I raised an eyebrow at him as his eyes perused me openly. “My, my, I do see. Hello.”

“All right, Marcus, enough,” Kyle barked and I balked at his tone.

“What? I only said hello. So, Kyle, you breaking your clans rules now? I always knew you were a rebel at heart. What movie are you seeing?”

“Not interested in adding to our group, but thanks.”

Kyle tried to turn us but Marcus grabbed my arm. I had another jolt and for just a second I worried that I was imprinting with someone else. But I realized, that was the last thing I was doing. My veins screamed in protest and my skin burned hot on my arm. My body was warning him; my blood, whatever, however it worked. This guy’s intentions were not to keep me safe and the imprint reacted.

He released my arm with a curse like I shocked him. He and his group eyed me with wide, scared eyes and something else; anger.

“She’s your significant! Impossible!”

“Not mine. She belongs to Caleb. Now back off.”

“She’s human. She’s what...fifteen?”

“Seventeen,” I butted in, annoyed.

“Impossible,” he repeated, but this time he growled it and I stepped back, Kyle pulling me behind him.

“Don’t freak out. You’ll call Caleb and all hell will break loose. Breathe,” he told me quietly and waited for me to take a deep breath, then turned back to Marcus. “Back off. You know now that Caleb’s imprinted, it’ll only be a matter of time until he gets his ascension. You’re not stupid enough to mess with his girl, are you?”

“Marcus, let’s go,” one of the guys said behind him. “Enough already.”

“For now, human,” Marcus spat and eyed me evilly before they moved on.

One guy hissed at me. Hissed! I shook my head. “What was that?”

“Bad news. Crap, why tonight? They are a rival clan. They haven’t been imprinting for a while either. This will definitely stir up the pot now that they know about you.”

“Why is everyone so hard pressed to date? I don’t get it. So you don’t find your soul mate. There are tons of single people out there. It’s not like you can’t live that way.”

“No. You don’t get it. Wait.” He looked around and pushed our theater door open, taking us to the very back to sit down. “See, if we don’t imprint with anyone, we don’t ascend. If we don’t ascend we don’t get our abilities. It’s not just about being single. This is our whole life, our heritage, being an Ace, protecting our family, having the power to do that. But without finding our mate, we can’t do that and it’s crippling our clans, making us vulnerable.”

The full weight of what he’d been trying to tell me hit me like a ton of bricks. That’s what Caleb meant when he said I was special. This was a big deal. No one had imprinted in years. Caleb was the first one of his kind in a long time and they were gonna make a fuss about this, good or bad, and I was stuck in it with no way out, but wasn’t sure I wanted out.

The screen blinked with an advertisement for concessions then went straight into a movie preview. I settled back in my seat and tried not to think about Caleb. Whenever I did, I felt a zing in my chest, an ache, but a pleasure as well. It was all very confusing and frustrating. While I sat and pretended to watch the movie, my mind was somewhere else. On a blue eyed, brown haired boy. And though it made me feel anxious, his heart beat coming to me in waves and pulses the harder I thought, and I fought to stay in my seat, I did it anyway. I thought about that boy.

A boy that apparently now belonged to me.