This is short (again) but more should be coming soon. I think I have everything pretty much planned out...

Disclaimer: Only own original characters... Still...


After taking a few deep breaths to keep myself from screaming, I reappeared in the sitting room. Ellen was practically sitting on Reid's lap, and I'm pretty sure that he knew what had happened from the smug smile he shot me. Tyler could see I was upset, but he didn't have a clue what was going on. My plan was to just walk out, but Tyler kept offering to drive me home. I guess he was trying to be "brotherly" and all that, but I just needed to be alone.

"Are you sure you want to walk home?" Tyler asked again as he followed me to the front door.

"Yes, Tyler," I repeated and opened the door. "I told you that I'll be fine. I just want to go home."

"Okay," Tyler finally relented. "I guess I'll see you later then."

I shut the door behind myself with a thud. It was good I was out of there; my anger had been welling up and was about to overwhelm me. One more smirk from Reid or one more bitchy, "cold fish" comment from Ellen would have put me over the top.

The grass crunched underneath my feet as I crossed the lawn to the sidewalk. The Garwins' sprinkler system was broken, and the grass had turned shriveled and brown from the lack of water. Something about the crunching sounds made me feel better; it helped ease my anger, but it didn't completely banish it.

I hadn't even made it to the end of the street when it started to drizzle. I was fine with that. I could deal with a little water. Maybe it would cool me off a little bit. That and I knew Ellen hated rain and water.

However, when it started to pour roughly two minutes later, I was less than enthralled. My good shirt was going to be ruined, my hair was plastered to my head, and my clothes seemed to be getting heavier and heavier from all the water they were absorbing. This was awful, but just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, it did.

A car pulled up beside me. A black Mustang. There was only one person who it could be, but I tried to pretend I hadn't noticed. The window of the car rolled down.

"Need a ride?"

Well, there was no ignoring him now. I ducked down to see inside the car, and, sure enough, Caleb was sitting there in the driver's seat.

"No thanks. I'm okay. I'm almost home anyway." Leave Caleb. Don't look at me. I look like somebody tried to drown me.

"Come on," Caleb prompted. "You're soaked and you're shivering. You don't want to catch pneumonia or something."

He was right. I was freezing. "I don't want to get your car drenched or anything. Really, Caleb, I'm fine."

Caleb opened the door anyway. "Just get in."

So I slid into the passenger's seat and shut the door. The only sound in the car was the sound of water droplets hitting the seat with soft plunks after they slid down the tips of my hair.

"Caleb," I said shakily, "please tell me you didn't just make me do that."

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "You just looked so miserable."

He was right about that part too. I just took a deep breath and looked out the window to keep myself from exploding. I hated this. I hated the power that these four guys had. They had untold powers that could do anything. Sure, it would drain them of life, but they could still control people like Reid had. Caleb had common sense, but Reid was a loose cannon, Pogue was reckless, and Tyler was easily swayed. Their power was exactly why my mother had sent me away, as much good as that had done. She hated their power too, but she couldn't do much about it—except to try to "protect" me.

Breaking my thoughts, I watched out of the corner of my eye as Caleb reached into the back seat.

"Here," he said and handed me a towel. "This was just something I kept for swim practice."

"Thanks," I mumbled, still kind of angry. I knew Caleb had good intentions, but still…

The ride back to my house was silent. I got out of the car without a word and Caleb didn't try to follow me to the door. He just sat in his car and watched me until I got in the house.


That's the end of this chapter...