Chapter 19
I covered my mouth to stifle my yawn, wishing I didn’t have to be up so early. Despite getting home late last night I decided I needed to go to school today. I had a few more papers to turn in and a couple of quizzes and tests that needed to be completed in the learning center.
Jaxson and I took our seats at a table shared by Tamara, Kade, Ben, and Rachel.
I was secretly pleased to see I wasn’t the only one that looked tired.
With our increased missions and the end of the school year looming we were all feeling the effects of it.
We all gave halfhearted greetings before pulling out our necessary items.
Rachel leaned over and handed me what appeared to be an energy drink. “Here, try this. It’s caffeine free but should give you a nice pick you up.”
I raised a skeptical brow at her, and she giggled. “Seriously, read the back. It’s caffeine free. Terrance got me a case when he got his last weekend. He said I didn’t need the extra caffeine to bounce off the walls.”
I carefully read the back, while Jaxson leaned over to place his head on my shoulder. “She’s right, it’s caffeine free. It won’t hurt you to try it.”
I popped the top before taking a sip of the drink. “Mmm, it’s good. Hopefully it works. Thank you!”
Rachel opened up her laptop. “No problem. If you want, Ter and I can grab another case this weekend when we go shopping.”
I took me a few moments to compute her statement. Yes, they hung around us often, but I had never seen them interact with each other outside of our group. They seemed poles apart in most aspects of their life. The fact that they were hanging out now, was super odd. I voiced my surprise aloud.
“Terr and you?”
Rachel shrugged. “We’ve been becoming friends. I’m taking a break from all the eff boys and Terrance is having a little drama with some of his past hookups.”
I slowly blinked at her and felt out of the loop once more. Suddenly, a thought struck me and I imagined a kettle, teacup, and saucer. A wicked smile curved my lips when my illusions appeared in perfect minute details. I placed the kettle in front of Rachel before holding the cup toward her.
Rachel was pulling out a honey bun despite eating less than twenty minutes ago.
I wasn’t judging because she was expending a lot of energy lately.
She had increased her running and work outs.
She seemed determined now more than ever to be in top shape especially after the previous mission.
She admitted to gassing out when they had to run from the enemy.
She didn’t want to feel like her physical limitations could impede her in the future.
She didn’t notice my illusion until she began to open her treat.
She looked up and the others at my table began to laugh or chuckle at her quizzical look.
It was Tamara who informed her of the meaning behind the steaming fine white China with blue flowers adorning it that I had placed in front of her.
“She wants you to spill the tea.”
Rachel playfully rolled her eyes. “I thought it was well known and since it’s not necessarily a secret, I’ll spill.
” She ripped off a piece of her honey bun.
“One of the nons is claiming that she’s pregnant with Terrance’s baby and his other hook up chick became possessive and territorial.
He’s laying low until boo number one is willing to take a paternity test and he’s trying to discourage boo two from attacking or going cray cray on anyone else he attempted to talk to. ”
I pretended to peer down into the cup. I pretended to take a sip and frowned down in mock displeasure. I smacked my lips as if I was still thirsty.
Tamara leaned forward eagerly. “Boo two has the gift of object manipulation. She can make things appear and disappear, nothing huge but enough to be a nuisance. Some of the women that tried to flirt with Terrance had their purses disappear, phones, whole tray of food, you get it.
“She’s also has a group of friends that are more than willing to help her in her endeavors.
One of the women Terrance started talking to got injured in training.
She was climbing the ropes and got momentarily blinded by a smoke screen, when she reached for a knot, she missed it and then fell. I can go on but you get the gist.”
“So needless to say, Terrance is trying to get the psycho chick transferred out and, in the meanwhile, we discovered that we both like playing video games. We began playing them together while we both lay low for a while.” Rachel popped a piece of her food into her mouth.
My mouth dropped open in shock. “So, he can be a daddy soon and he has a stalker.”
Ben snorted finally joining in the conversation.
“He can be one of the twelve guys that slept with Monica in the last two months—” he held up his hand when it looked like Tamara was going to reprimand him.
“I’m not judging her. We’ve all been using our gifts a lot lately.
The problem with the game she’s playing right now is that she’s trying to tell four different guys that she’s pregnant with their baby.
And all four guys are the ones that have the most money, so—”
I turned and looked at Jaxson and pouted. “Why didn’t you fill me in on that juicy gossip?”
Jaxson kissed my cheek before stating. “We’ve kinda been busy lately. We really haven’t had much time to talk about stuff outside of our daily craziness.”
“Speaking of craziness how’s Jemmy?” Ben tentatively inquired.
Jaxson answered. “There’s not much to say.
She went crazy when she noticed Gavin in the room.
From what Alex is telling us about the voices in her head they are telling her Gavin is an imposter and wants to hurt her.
He claims it isn’t her voice speaking either.
Until Neville can find that one woman or unless we find someone else that can remove that implant in her then there’s not much we can do.
We don’t even know the purpose of the implant or if it’s the reason she is acting so irrationally against Gav. ”
Tamara took a sip of her iced coffee before asking. “Is Alex sure it’s not her own insecurities fueling the voices?”
“When Noah, Gavin, Alex, and I were walking back to our apartments Gavin admitted to mimicking Alex. He heard the voices in Jemmy’s head.
He believes they may have fed into her insecurities and are definitely fueling them.
He says it’s hard to say if they brainwashed her or continued flaming the lies she already believed.
” I took another sip of the energy drink.
Ben typed in his laptop and feigned a shudder. “I couldn’t imagine having Alex’s gift. There’s no way I would want to hear people’s thoughts let alone having voices screaming at me in the dead of night.”
Rachel laughed. “At one point I thought it would be really cool thing to do. I’ll weed out the fake bitches quick.”
We all laughed, but then Tamara sighed. “I know the likelihood of Erin getting a gift is high, but I have to admit I’ve been praying she isn’t saddled with a gift like Alex’s. I would be worried sick about what she could potentially ‘hear’ and if it would disturb her sleep.”
Kade winced. “Yeah, sorry about that. I didn’t even realize Alex left.”
I leaned over and squeezed his hand. “Not your fault, plus, it’s been a hot minute since I had time one on one with Alex. As it is Ella is coming with us girls this weekend for our spa treatments.”
Alex seemed too upset to return to Pop’s apartment last night, so we let him stay with us.
We sent off a text to Pops, Megan, and the boys just in case they realized his absence.
We then put on movie, and he ended up falling asleep between Noah and I.
I could tell it meant a lot to Alex since I hadn’t been able to do one on one’s with the children in quite a while.
The spa weekend was a new revelation. Lincoln surprised me by informing me this morning over breakfast that he and the guys decided that the girl’s day should happen this weekend.
He made a few phone calls and was able to book a spa out for us completely.
Luckily, the place was secluded, and was in an optimal location for the guys to watch us without being “seen.”
“Spa weekend?” Tamara perked up.
I laughed. “Wanna come? So far Dawn, Anna, Rachel, Mercedes, Sierra, Megan, Vick, Miranda, Shiloh, Lexi, Ella, Nadia, and I are going. The men already plan to watch the kids, what’s one extra?”
Tamara didn’t even hesitate. “I’m in! I’ll see if Herman is good watching all three girls.”
“Sweet.” I smiled. “I’ll let you know the rest of the details by tomorrow morning. How is the whole Herman, Anna, and the girl’s thing going for you?”
I paused pulling my notebook out so I could read my notes. Sometimes it felt odd realizing Tamara and I were becoming friends. It just went to show you that sometimes we shouldn’t discredit all people based on initial meetings. Plus, I had to take some accountability on the foot we started on.
She made a raspberry sound. “Honestly, if I hadn’t gotten to know Anna so well before I discovered their connection I think I would feel a lot more insecure. There are very few woman that would like the idea of sharing their child with another. It’s not like that for us.
“I like Anna on a personal level. We’ve been out on missions together before I even knew about their relationship and it’s hard not to like a woman like her. I know she’ll never step over any of the boundaries I set. In an odd way I feel like I’ve gained a sister.
“In addition, our situation isn’t normal. I never got to know Herman or had romantic feelings toward him. It wasn’t like Erin was made the conventional way. Considering all that, I can’t ignore the fact that at the end of the day, he is an amazing father.