Her heartbeat stuttered as her stomach did about ten somersaults. No. It wasn't possible.
"Fay? You there?" His voice pulsed through her with each word.
"Reid?" she asked, not completely believing that it was him.
"Yeah. Christina let me borrow her phone since, well, I don't have your number."
She swallowed and slowly sat up, the magazine sliding out of her grip. After licking her lips, she managed to make her voice say one thing. "Oh."
"Are you busy?" he asked.
"Um, not at the moment. Why?"
There was silence for a minute. "Do you mind coming over?"
"To your dorm?" She'd heard Chris say something about Reid and Tyler sharing a dorm room at Spencer.
His sigh sounded slightly amused. "No, I figured you could drive to the parking lot and then stand there."
She rolled her eyes at his sarcasm, her lips unwillingly lifting into a small smile. "Why?"
"I need to talk to you."
"You can't talk over the phone?"
"Will you just come over?"
After debating for a few seconds, she sighed and said, "Alright. I'll be there in twenty minutes."
"'Kay. Bye."
"Bye."
She flipped the phone closed and stared at her bedroom door. Did that really just happen? Twenty minutes later, she was pulling into the parking lot of Spencer Academy. The last time she'd been here had been at night when she'd broken into the school with Christina and gone for a swim in the school's pool. Reid and his friends had caught them, and then they'd almost been really busted by a security guard.
Spotting a space near the front of the school, she parked the truck and hopped out. What would Reid need to talk to her about? And what would be something that he couldn't say over the phone? Ugh. He was one of the most confusing boys ever!
She paused as her eyes landed on the front steps, where a blond boy was sitting. He wore what was apparently his style of choice: a baggy pair of jeans with a long sleeved shirt. His blue eyes found her, and she felt a flutter in her stomach. No! She was supposed to be getting over him! He stood as she drew closer and a small smile lifted his lips.
"Hey."
"Hey. What did you want to talk about?" Fayth asked.
He glanced around. "Let's go up to my dorm."
She frowned a little. "Why can't you just tell me here?"
He sighed. "Because it's something that other people can't know about."
"Ooh. I get the privilege of learning a secret about Reid Garwin?" The sarcastic comment just slipped out and she couldn't stop it.
His lips twitched. "Just come on." He turned and walked through the doors, apparently expecting her to follow. Sighing, she walked in behind him and quickened her pace to catch up.
"So who was your date to the dance?" Fayth asked, feeling the need to break the quiet.
"Just a girl I know. Jackie." He cast a glance her way. "Why?"
She shrugged. "Just wondered."
Less than five minutes later, they were standing outside the dorm door. Just as he reached for the knob, the door opened. Caleb and Pogue stood in the doorway, looking a little surprised as their eyes darted from the blond boy to Fayth and back again. Clearing his throat, Caleb spoke first. "Uh, Reid. What are you doing?"
"Being honest," Reid replied.
"Reid." Caleb's voice was firm, as though he were trying to send a silent message.
"I know Cal. But I have to do this."
"You can't throw the secret around," Pogue said. "Telling one person affects all of us." His eyes darted to her and narrowed slightly.
"You two have Sarah and Kate, and baby boy now has Christina. You three have someone outside the families who you can trust. I don't, or, didn't. I want that, too," Reid said. His voice was calm but low.
"We don't know if we can trust her yet," Pogue said.
"I do." He said it without hesitation, and for some reason, that made her feel happy. "Now let me do this."
After a moment, Caleb and Pogue walked down the hall and Fayth followed Reid into the dorm. Tyler was sitting on his bed and stood just before the door was shut. "I'm going to, uh, head out. Good luck, man," he added quietly before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.
Silence fell over the two. To her surprise, Reid seemed a little more nervous. All that calm he had portrayed in front of his friends was gone, and now he looked... vulnerable. "What, um. What did you want to tell me?"
He motioned to a bed. "You should sit down."
Slowly, she obeyed. What was so important that his friends didn't want her to know, and that he thought she needed to be sitting to hear? He folded his arms, his fingers drumming on his arm as he stood before her. It looked like he was trying to collect his thoughts, so she stayed quiet. He opened his mouth and then closed it, and then opened it again. With a sigh, he sank onto the other bed and leaned his arms on his knees. Taking a deep breath, he lifted his eyes to meet hers.
"You were right. You deserve to know the truth, and that's what I'm going to tell you."
"Why tell me now, when a couple weeks ago you got all pissed when I asked about it?"
"I've felt guilty for the past five years. I should have told you the truth years ago."
"So because of your guilt, you're going to tell me?" Fayth asked. When he nodded, she sighed. "Alright, let's hear it."
"In the middle of the seventeenth century, many people tried to escape the Witch Trials in England and France by coming to America. Five of those families fled not by fear of being accused, but by fear of being found out. Those five families shared a secret: they were witches. They were blessed and cursed with the Power. The families were Danvers, Parry, Sims, Garwin and Putnam." And then he launched into the history of the Covenant, and she listened in silence. "I didn't know how the Power would affect me, and I didn't want to accidentally hurt you. So, I decided it'd be better to push you away before my thirteenth birthday. I remember the look on your face the day we were in that tree, and I knew that even if I found a way to control the Power, I had damaged our friendship too much to repair it. So, I didn't even try."
She blinked, her mind still processing everything he'd said. She had thought of a hundred reasons as to why he had ended their friendship, but none of them came close to this explanation. Witches and magic? Did he really expect her to buy this? "You really expect me to believe that your a witch, and that's the reason we stopped being friends?"
His eyebrows pulled together slightly. "Yes. Because it's the truth."
She snorted. "Look, if you didn't want to tell me the real reason, then that's fine. But you didn't have to come up with some bullshit lie just to appease your conscious."
"It's not a lie," Reid insisted.
Her mind flashed back to the moment at Nicky's, where Reid's eyes had flamed over, and then to the day at the library where she'd found the book that listed the name Garwin as one of families in Massachusetts during the Witch Trials. But she forced those memories to the back of her mind. Those were just stupid coincidents. He could have easily found the same book and spun the lie into the history available at the library. And as for that time at Nicky's, well, it had been a trick of the light. Nothing more. She stood. "Well, thanks. Now I can sleep at night knowing that witchcraft is the reason we're not friends anymore."
"This isn't a joke. You wanted the truth and I gave it to you."
"And why did you suddenly want to tell me now? When you've had five years to be honest?"
"I didn't want you to freak out," Reid said, standing as well and looking down at her.
"Why would a lie freak me out?"
"It's not a lie!"
"Oh yeah? Well if you're really a witch, then prove it!"
"Fine!" His eyes flamed over, turning completely onyx. The beds in the room shook before lifting into the air, while books were pulled from the bookshelves and spun around the room.
Sucking in air, Fayth glanced around. This was not what she'd been expecting. Her eyes looked back at Reid, and she stepped back, suddenly unsure. The boy before her looked like Reid, except for the black eyes, which watched her intently. The beds and books returned to their original places, and the black bled from his eyes, revealing the beautiful blue that she'd grown up with.
"Believe me now?" he asked.
Unable to make her voice work, she breathed in and ran for the door, slamming it behind her. And then she ran down the hall and down the stairs toward the parking lot. Tyler, Caleb and Pogue were standing on the front steps and turned as the doors banged open for her. Ignoring them, she bolted toward her truck, the image of Reid and his pure black eyes stuck in her mind. She jumped into the truck and gunned the engine before banching out of the parking lot. She refused to even think about what he'd told her until she was safely in her room.
Closing the bedroom door, she finally let a sob shake her as she fell onto her bed and curled into a ball. Why was she crying? She'd gotten what she'd wanted. Reid had been completely honest with her. He'd decided that she was trust worthy enough to know his secret. And what had she done? Run away like a scared little girl. There was no denying that what she'd seen this time was a trick of the light.
* * * * * * *
Sunlight warmed her face, gently pulling her out of the dream world. After a good long shower, Fayth pulled on a large tee shirt and comfy pants and then spread out on her bed. Her thoughts floated back to her conversation with Reid. He was a witch, a real witch with powers and everything. And she had freaked and ran out on him, after he'd told his friends she was trustworthy. Great job, Fayth. Great job.
