Transient Reality – Part 5

"I'm almost tempted to call his uncle. The only thing holding me back is that I know that if I do that, I'm going to destroy any or maybe all the trust that we've built up." Kevin Wilson sank into the leather armchair and passed a bottle of beer, and he did use the term 'beer' loosely when dealing with the American equivalent, to the man stretched out on the sofa with his feet propped on the coffee table.

"You can't make the decision for him, Kev. That's all part of growing up. He has to learn from his own mistakes." The redhead accepted the beer with a nod and took a long drink. "So, he gets into fights because he feels the need to defend the underdog? So what? There are a lot worse things he could be doing. And what I wouldn't have given to have him at school with us back in the day."

Kevin stared at the beer bottle but didn't drink from it. Instead he twirled the neck between his fingertips. "But getting expelled isn't one of those types of mistakes that a student like Jake should have learn from. He's too smart for that. I just get the feeling that there's a whole lot more going on with him than what's on the surface, MB."

"MB" Damon, the nickname derived from his nickname of his younger days, Megabyte, perked up a bit more attentively at Kevin's words, but did not move from his reclining position. "Then if you have a feeling about it, it means something and you should go with that feeling. But," MB continued when he saw Kevin about to continue in the same vein as before, "it doesn't mean that you can or should force him to do anything. He's seventeen, he's got to figure out for himself."

"And you were so good at figuring it out for yourself at seventeen?" Ami Jackson deposited a bowl of potato chips and pretzels on the coffee table and dropped onto the couch beside MB. "I seem to recall you make quite a few bumbling mistakes at that age."

"Like you're one to talk, Aims?"

The young British woman smiled, popping a pretzel into her mouth. Her next words came telepathically, "spoken" into the minds of her two friends. My point exactly.

"I'm just afraid of losing this one. He could slip through the cracks and I don't think that anyone would ever notice," Kevin remarked quietly, looking in earnest at his two closest friends and fellow Tomorrow People.

It was odd, Kevin reflected, that not so many years ago, he wasn't even admitting to being a Tomorrow Person and had cut himself off from contact with all of the other Tomorrow People. And in that not so many years ago time, it would have been even harder to imagine that one of the people in the room would become one of his closest friends. With MB, it was natural; they attended school together and somehow, they had fallen into friendship with one another, their common characteristic of being outsiders bringing them together in a bond of friendship. But Ami had joined the Tomorrow People when he'd been ill and unconscious; he spent months afterwards feeling like she was an interloper, the dreaded x-chromosome thief who snuck in while he was down and stole his friends away from him.

It wasn't true, naturally, but at that time his perspective had been that of a thirteen-year-old boy. He wasn't given to logic and reason. When his parents caught wind of what he was, what the Tomorrow People were, instead of taking pride in their son's gifts, they swept him away to a private boarding school and forbid him to have anything to do with the others ever again. He listened to them because he really didn't think he had any other choice. He believed them when they said he was a "freak," and that if he really wanted to be normal, he could be.

Four years later, he realized precisely how wrong his parents had been, that "normal" would never be a word to describe Kevin Wilson even if he hadn't been a telepathic, telekinetic, teleporting teenager. With that realization came a return to the fold, and to his surprise, a warm welcome with open arms; even from Ami whom he hadn't exactly been the nicest to before departing.

Likely it was his entire history with his parents, and the not so happy experiences with school as well, that made him want to be a teacher; that made him reach out to his students. Kevin took an interest in all his students, but his tele-empathy drew him to certain ones, the "lost ones," was the best description that Kevin could give to them. They were the ones who, like him, were outsiders; they had brains, or good looks, or physical talent, but they were lacking the support network they needed at home. They appeared strong, but inside they were longing to make a connection; they needed support though they would never admit it to anyone, not even themselves.

That was what drew him to River Warrendale even before he got an inkling that the boy was on the verge of becoming a Tomorrow Person. On the outside, River had it all. He was smart, he was good looking, his parents were wealthy and he never wanted for anything in his life. Teachers and students saw River as the smart kid who thought everyone, aside from his best friend since grade school, as beneath him. Kevin saw a boy who took refuge in his books and studies because it was the one thing that got him attention from his parents; it was the one place that River knew he could hold his own.

"Have you talked with him any further about early graduation?" Ami asked, her demeanor shifting from the playful teasing to serious. "From what you've said in the past, that sounds as though it is probably the best option for someone like Jake."

Kevin snorted and shook his head. "He's been avoiding me since I brought it up. I know that he probably thinks I don't notice, but it's not exactly subtle. He shows up right before class bell and somehow manages to be one of the first ones out of the door. I couldn't find him anywhere after class on Friday, and River wasn't being much help. He kept insisting he didn't know where Jake went when he left school."

"You didn't believe him?" The inquiry was gentle, a soft sympathetic smile playing on her lips. She knew the answer before she asked the question because for all that River was a terrible liar, he was a fiercely loyal and devoted friend. Though Kevin was a Tomorrow Person, he was also an adult and Jake's teacher; there were certain lines that simply were not crossed.

Kevin merely gave her a look that he hoped spoke volumes.

"As much as I feel your plight and know that you need to reflect on this, Kevin, it's like two minutes to kick off." MB straightened up and snatched up the television remote. He hit the mute button to un-mute the set, "Can we just watch the game?"

"I've lived her for four years and I still can't make any sense of this particular past time." Ami slumped back against the couch, frowning at the television. "Professional football, yes, that makes sense. I understand putting everything on hold on a Sunday afternoon to watch a professional ball game and socialize with friends. But I certainly don't understand the draw of college ball."

MB rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You've watched UCCS games."

"That's because I'm a graduate student there. It's expected."

"Expected?"

"You know, school spirit, that sort of thing." Ami propped her feet up on the table and crossed her legs at the ankles. "But what I really don't understand is why you have to invade my home for this every weekend."

"Hey!" Kevin objected around the beer bottle mouth. I'm a good boarder. I pay my rent. What are you complaining about?

"Besides, you have a great entertainment system with surround sound," MB added. "All courtesy of Robert Calder."

"Yes, well it's his own fault. He never should have allowed himself to be caught screwing that tart in my bed." Ami's mouth curled into a vindictive little smile as she said the words, a smile that Kevin was glad was not directed at him, but rather at the memory of how she returned the favor and screwed her ex-husband. Figuratively, of course.

"Yes, and each and every time we watch a game here, I thank him for being such an ass, and you for being such a vindictive bitch." MB extended his beer bottle to her.

Ami gave her head a soft shake, but tapped her own bottle against his. "You're very welcome."

Their bottles remained that way a moment, touching neck to neck while his two friends shared a small, private smile. Kevin shifted in his seat, taking another drink and turning his full attention to the television to allow them to have their moment. Although they weren't together anymore as a couple, and hadn't been since two years before Ami's disastrous marriage, no one who knew MB and Ami could deny or ignore that those two had a peculiar bond that would probably never be severed.

"Kickoff," Kevin announced as the team gathered on the field.

"Yes, it's game time," MB clapped his bottle on the table and leaned forward, eyes trained on the television while Ami continued to recline against the sofa feigning utter boredom.

That was when he felt it. A sudden rush of anxiety, pain, fear and horror so strong that he nearly dropped the bottle he was holding. The room swam in front of him, and for a brief moment Kevin found it difficult to separate out the emotions that were surrounding him from his own emotions so overwhelming it was. Then came the taste, the cloying oversweet sick taste coating his tongue and causing him to toss back a few large gulps of beer before he even thought about it.

Only then, as he noticed peripherally that MB and Ami were doing the same did he register that the sensation wasn't his and his alone.

"Bloody hell," Ami gasped, cool bottle pressed to her forehead. She took a few steadying breaths. "What -"

"Shit," MB swore. He had jumped to his feet and was anxiously rubbing the back of his neck. Kevin knew that they, like he, could feel the sudden awareness of all The Tomorrow People that something was very Wrong.

Somewhere in the world, something had happened to one of their own.

Before Kevin could quite form his mouth around the right question to ask, the all too familiar tickling at the back of his mind and prickling of hairs on his arm began.

In a flash of light and energy, River appeared in the middle of Ami Jackson's family room in the same way he disappeared from the alley. The young man crossed the room in two strides, desperation and worry rolling off of him in waves. "Kevin! We have to do something! They've got Katie and Jake!"

End of Part 5