Edward rubbed his temples and tried to ignore all the voices. All these damn voices that disturbed him day in and day out. They attacked him like a tornado of voices, sounds. But he could not use headphones to block out the sounds as they came from inside his head. And it had been like that for some time now. At first he had thought that he was just imagining, because it was so weak. But then the sound grew in strength, and he could hear the words, sentences. The majority wasn't nice. Then he had accidentally reply to a sentence that his mother hadn't said, loudly. Only thought it. Then Edward realized something was really wrong with him. After a reaction he got from a friend, whose thoughts Edward also had answered, he decided not to say anything about what he could do. It had actually been instructive to hear what people thought, even if it was crap in the length. But he could hear when someone was in danger, he had saved a few people by pretending to have gone by. Then he could always stay ahead of anyone who challenged him.
It was pretty fun. What surprised Edward was how weak humans really was. He had seen people who were so incredibly tough when they talked, but in thought they performed as a child and complained about everything. And they were often so afraid of many things. But sometimes wanted Adam to die when he heard some things. He trespassed on everyone's personal life, the only place where people thought they were safe, the only place where they thought they could to say just what they wanted, think about exactly what they wanted, without shame. Therefore, he tried to listen as little as possible on what was said. Although he could not block out the sound.
But it was a voice that he could not shut out nowadays. A voice that sought him, talked to him, although how strange it sounds. It was a girl, he guessed that she was seventeen because she seem to go the same school as he was going to. And every morning, she got him to twitch with a cheerful "Good morning. Slept well?" At first he had thought that she just had thought it to herself, that she was a bit .. crazy. There were many who spoke with theirself. But after some days, her voice became more and more urgent. When he focused on her, he noticed that she actually talked to herself as if she thought that someone actually listened. Which it was, but she didn't know that. It was actually quite fun to listen to her. She talked on about everything she liked. But sometimes got these little silences. When she somehow shut him out.
He does not know how she does it, but when he occasionally tries as he meets some kind of door, which is quite impossible to get through. Once there was even the tags on it. He wondered why .. It happened some time each day, but it always happened right when she stepped inside the doors of her house. Then the door shut, and it didn't open until she came out of the house again the next day and said her cheerful " Good morning". It irritated Adam. He was annoyingly curious how she lived and why she shut him out. That he wanted to know it made him annoyed at himself. Unconsciously, he began to look for the woman in the school.
He caught himself with studying every person he met while he listened to what she said in the thoughts. But the problem was that there were many people at the school, and it could be anyone. The only thing he had to go on was that her name was Nicole. "I really hate peoples false facades." Nicole thought precise and withdrew his attention. "And I really hate mine." Added she incredibly weak. As if it was a thought that just happened to slip out. What did she mean? But she didn't answered, but continued with her train of thought. "I mean, everyone here are pretending to be something they are not. Some pretend to be brave when they are actually quite cowardly, others pretend to like insects when they actually hate them, others say they love to party when they really would rather stay at home the evenings. And then they say that they want you to take them as they really are? How can you do that when they are not showing us their real self?" She sounded frustrated.
She was insightful, he thought impressed. It was true. He had himself heard that. That about people pretending to be some things that they really are not. But it was not as easy as Nicole made it sound. Everyone has a pride that they do not want to crack, therefore they pretend. Some had perhaps been hurt before because they had been a bit scared, so then they started to pretend that they were courageous to not get hurt again. It was a defense mechanism. Edward felt a strange feeling that he wanted to discuss this with Nicole. Open, face to face, not just listen to what she was thinking and then discuss with himself.
He got up from the chair he had been sitting on since he came to school and decided to go out for a little while. He opened the door out to the parking lot without looking up and bumped hard into a woman who just entered. "Oh, damn!" the woman thought at the same time as Nicole and seconds later Edward realized something.
The woman who stood before him, was her, the woman he longed to meet. Nicole.
