Freak. That was the only thought running through Miley Stewart's mind as she watched her skin heal itself. Closing her eyes, she cried at the pain of cutting her palm open once more but her rapid breathing increased when the blood slowly drew back into her hand and her skin sealed up again and left no scar, just soft skin. Horrified, she began to shake and threw the scissors across the kitchen as she slid down the side of the counter. She hugged her knees to her chest and rocked back and forth. Damn gym class. She'd always known gym would be a bad class.
"Come on Miles, you can do it," Lilly said jogging next to Miley as Miley breathed heavily while trying to keep up with Lilly. "It's almost ¾ of the mile, you can do it!" Miley grimaced at the realization there was still more than ¼ to go and she felt like dying. "Your shoe!"
"My…what…?" Miley breathed as she tried to ask what Lilly was talking about.
"Your shoelac-"
It was too late; Miley tripped over her own shoe lace and went flying forward. She groaned as tears creeped into her eyes but didn't escape.
"Shit Miles, your knee is bleeding."
Miley looked at her poor scraped knee and carefully tried to stand up. "Lils I'm not finishing the mile run."
"Yeah, let's go to the locker room," Lilly began to help Miley but Miley nudged her off.
"I'll be fine," Miley winced as she took a step forward by herself. Lilly raised an eyebrow.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, you go finish your mile thing," Miley grinned and turned to keep walking while trying to keep the pain at bay. She walked back into the school and tried not to think about the embarrassing situation. Quickly, she dragged herself to the sink and wet a paper towel and went to clean her knee when she saw nothing except a trickle of dry blood. The redness was gone and there was no cut or scrape. Shocked, she touched her knee to see if it hurt but there was nothing.
"Miley? You in here?"
Miley heard Lilly's voice and scrambled to find her jeans and hastily put them on. She had no idea how long she'd been observing her now non-existent wound.
"Over here Lil," Miley said.
"How's your leg?"
"It doesn't hurt that bad," Miley said truthfully though her heart was beating fast and her mind was racing with thoughts. She was definitely going to have to figure out what was going on, fast.
"Miley, Miley, hey Miley!" Jackson waved his hand in front of his sister's head which was still tucked in her arms. Her head shot up and her red eyes widened.
"Leave me alone!" Miley meant to yell but it came out as a muffled cry as she scrambled to her feet and ran upstairs despite her father and brother's concerned voices calling after her. She flung her door shut and jumped onto her bed burying her head in her pillows and grasping one of them tightly as her breath hitched and she wondered what the hell was wrong with her. Eventually, she drifted into an uneasy sleep.
When she began to wake up, she realized the room was dark and there was someone sitting on the bed and there was most definitely a hand resting on her. She shifted to see Lilly, who had fallen asleep, sitting against the head of the bed. Miley rolled over and saw the time to be 1:12 am in the morning.
"Lils," Miley whispered gently shaking the blonde who wore pj pants and a tank.
"Hey Miles," Lilly said sweetly as she rubbed her eyes and yawned.
"What're you doing here?"
"Your dad and Jackson called me saying you totally freaked out and they were scared it was a female problem or something."
"Oh."
Lilly squinted as she tried to see Miley's face in the moonlight.
"What's wrong Miley?"
"Nothing's wrong."
"Jackson told me he found you shaking on your kitchen floor and then you ran away crying. Come on, you can tell me anything. Best friends remember?"
"Lilly…"
"Did Amber and Ashley hurt you again?"
"No-"
"Come on Miles."
"I feel gross."
"Well yeah you're still in your school clothes. Go change!"
Miley rolled her eyes and climbed out of bed and took her jeans off and searched for a pair of flannel pants. In the moonlight she could see her perfectly smooth leg, no damage from earlier in the day. When she examined herself closely, she had no scars anywhere. After changing, she climbed back into bed and crawled under the covers.
"Miles?"
"Yeah?"
"Please tell me what's wrong," Lilly pleaded as she slid down so she was laying facing Miley.
Miley avoided looking at Lilly and thought. No harm could come of telling Lilly, right? It was most certainly not a disease or disorder. No, Miley was sure this was something far more intense and unknown.
"Lils," Miley whispered, her voice shaking and her breathing shallow. "What if I was different?"
"Different? Like what?"
"What if I was an alien?"
Lilly's face scrunched up. "Miley I'm not joking."
"Neither am I! What if I was an alien? What would you do?"
Lilly paused before answering. "You'd still be my alien best friend," Lilly grinned and whispered softly before a frown emerged. "What's going on? You're not really an alien are you?"
"I don't think so. Remember today in gym class? When I fell?"
"Yeah, I think the whole class remembers," Lilly teased.
"Not funny. Well, I went to go clean my knee. But there was no scrapes or scratches. It was perfectly smooth and just had dry blood."
"That's impossible, I saw it, it was scraped to at least the next layer of skin and it was gross."
"Look Lilly!"
Miley sat up and pulled her knee up for Lilly to stare in wonder.
"I went home and I tried to figure out what the hell was wrong. Then I wondered if it was real so I used a knife to make a small cut in my arm. It stung, but it was gone within a minute. I tried to slice my palm open so many times and it just kept closing up and disappearing," Miley continued. Lilly stared intently. "Something's happening to me Lilly and I don't know what's going on and I'm scared."
Lilly was quiet for a minute before she spoke again. "Break a bone."
"What?" Miley yelped quietly. "I'm not breaking a bone. Cutting myself hurt enough!"
"Don't you wanna learn what's going on?"
"Well yeah-"
"Do it."
Miley stood up and started to pace and Lilly followed her. She paced nervously till Lilly stopped her. "I can't, I can't," she whispered panicked.
"Shh," Lilly soothed as she walked behind Miley and gently rested her head on her shoulder. "Give me your hand."
Shaking, Miley slowly put her left hand in Lilly's right. Lilly closed her own eyes as she swiftly placed her left hand over Miley's mouth and bent her left pinky back, snapping it. Miley's eyes widened in pain and shock as she screamed though it was muffled by both Lill's hands know as tears quickly surfaced and made their way down her face. She managed a strangled sob as Lilly whispered sorry profusely and urged Miley to put the finger back into place. She could feel Miley's hot breath pouring out rapidly into her hands and she felt terrible, yet fascinated.
"Miley, Miley I'm sorry. Come on, you can do it, put your finger back to how it should be."
Miley shook her head protesting and crying but Lilly kept encouraging her till she painfully maneuvered her pinky back to where it should be. Suddenly she felt her bone heal and grow back into her hand as both their eyes stared in astonishment.
"Does it still hurt?" Lilly whispered cautiously. Miley tried to answer but found Lilly's hands still around her mouth. Gently she nudged away.
"It feels fixed. Like brand new," Miley replied softly.
Lilly tenderly brushed Miley's tears off her face and let out a quiet chuckle.
"You're invincible."