Chapter Twenty-three

KATE’S BIG GREEN EYES were still staring at me when I fell back into my own head.

“Okay,” I said.

“What? That was only like two seconds.”

I bugged my eyes out at her. “Yeah, and probably two seconds too long—you’ve got a total mess in there,” I replied, running my fingers through my hair. Kate stuck out her tongue at me as if she knew it to be true.

“All right then, tell me my deep, dark secret,” she said, a smirk on her face.

I laughed a little and said, “No, it’s just going to embarrass you.”

Kate leaned back in her chair and let out an exhausted breath. “You’re ridiculous, Nolan, you know that? Oh, and you’re a horrible liar.” She reached for her laptop.

Knowing what I knew then, I was feeling a little ridiculous. All those years, and Kate was in love with me. My own secret crush on her seemed minuscule and harmless. How was I going to play this? I decided to just come out and say it.

“You’re in love with me.” You would have thought I did late-night stand-up on the weekends after Kate’s boisterous laugh at the statement. Then I followed with, “Ever since the fifth grade.” Kate quieted her giggling like an engine being keyed off. Something in the comic store clicked and then she gave me her stink eye.

“I’m telling you the truth, promise,” I said, holding up three fingers in a Boy Scout salute. Not that I was in the Boy Scouts. Kate didn’t think it was cute. She flipped me just one finger and stood, turning her back to me. Her whole body seemed to change character. I’d hit something sensitive, which was rare with Kate. She always acted so strong and bold; maybe she was starting to believe me.

“You’re just making that up,” she finally said. “We’ve known each other for a long time.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. I needed to heat things up. “Okay, how about the movie All the Pretty Horses?”

She shrugged her shoulders and leafed through some papers on the table as if my comment didn’t even make a dent.

“That was a lucky shot in the dark. So I’m a Matt Damon fan—it still doesn’t prove anything.” She was talking faster now. She moved to a computer station, sifting through some more papers there, but she dropped them.

I began to wonder if or when she was ever going to tell me that she liked me or loved me. I couldn’t be fully certain which; experience told me the tiny pink heart could symbolize either/or.

Was this what it felt like when you were struck with knowledge that maybe you weren’t supposed to know? Basically, something I dished to people almost every day while reading minds for my business?

“All right, fine,” she said. I had my eyes on the floor, thinking, but I looked up at Kate as she started to pace, her arms crossed over her chest. “Let’s say you’re right, I do like you. It doesn’t prove that you can read minds.”

I waited a moment to speak my next piece of evidence. Her floundering was kind of cute.

“I can tell you about The Edge Hemisphere,” I said.

Kate stopped pacing. Her eyes grew huge, and she walked straight up to me. I stood, holding my ground to meet her. It was perfect freckle-viewing height.

“Okay, Nolan, that isn’t funny. How do you know about that? Did you hack my laptop or something?”

I tapped her forehead with my finger. She blinked and looked like she wanted to punch me.

“Kate, I’m telling you the truth,” I returned.

Her expression dropped to seriousness. She slowly shook her head and brought her hand to her mouth. “No way.”

I imagined her ticker of inner thought flying at quantum speeds.

“So, you can just…what, ready anybody’s mind?”

I answered with a half-smile.

“Okay then, read Principal Muller’s mind and tell me if he’s looking to retire,” she said instantly.

I let the grin go. “It’s not like that.” I took a deep breath. “I have to look into the person’s eyes, like I did yours.”

Motioning for her to take a seat again, I began to describe to Kate the process of my power, mostly the technical stuff. I told her how each person has a mind room and how each one is different, how it only takes seconds, and then finished with how I felt responsible for Stephanie’s death.

“Oh, Nolan, I’m so sorry,” she said, placing her hand on mine. She quickly removed it as her face transformed into that Muddy-Huddy-idea expression. She went on. “I’m blown away—this is freaking awesome. Do you know how much I could…I mean, we could use this to our advantage?”

It was my turn to laugh, and I did, but then the grave realization dawned that I had left out a crucial piece of information when explaining everything to Kate. I watched her ponder the unlimited possibilities she now knew were at her disposal. She was cute that way.

I broke into her train of inner thought (ha, no, not literally). I wanted to relay certain conditions now that she knew my secret.

“Listen, Kate, there are a few things.” This time I took her hands in mine. “First of all, you can’t tell anybody about this.” She looked at me, still in her freak-out mode.

“Kate, hey! Snap out of it. Seriously, you can’t tell anyone,” I repeated.

“Yeah—okay—right.” Her words were like short bursts of machine-gun fire, her attention distant. I leaned into her field of vision.

“You can’t write anything about me. No fictional stories, no character studies, blogs, interviews, or exposés.” She kept her hands in mine, keen on my words. I sighed and bowed my head.

“And there is one more thing, something new.” Her excitement level rose even more now. “Inside Stephanie’s mind, when I read it for the last time…” I took a swallow. “There was something in there with me.”

Kate shrugged her shoulders, unimpressed. “Like?”

I tried to explain as best I could. “No, I mean something wasn’t right. Every mind I’ve read, I’ve always been alone in the room. Last night, something that looked like Stephanie was in there with me. But it wasn’t her. This thing was something else.”

Kate wore probably the most excited-slash-scared face I’d ever seen. That wasn’t good, but at least she believed me.

I finished, saying, “That’s why I need your help—to find out what it was.”

The period bell rang.