Melissa lead Eliot to the living room table. "Well, this is awkward. So how bout, where are you from?" Melissa said looking over her shoulder. "Boston, New York." Eliot replied remembering his already thought out alibi. "Cool! I love the Boston Red Soxs have you ever been to Fenway?" "No, I haven't gotten the chance, I don't really live close to Fenway" Eliot said with a shake of his head as he sat down at the polished wooden table. "You should, it is an amazing park I went there once when I was little." Melissa said, sitting across from him. "How old were you?" "Oh, about 13 years old, I went there right before mom was"
Melissa cut off, she shook her head, "Never mind, so how long are you in town for?" She said quickly, trying to avoid why she cut off. "I should be here for the next 3 weeks or so." Melissa nodded. She looked at him. "Hey, can I ask you a question?" "Sure go for it." Why did you lie when you told me your name?"
Eliot almost shot up when he heard those words. "What?!" Melissa didn't look surprised at the outburst, "How come at the party and now whenever you say your name, you're lying." Eliot just looked at her in shock. "Wow Waterson wasn't lying when he said she could read people like books." Eliot said under his breath.
"My dad told you about my gifts?" Melissa said, a shocked expression on her face. Eliot nodded. "Wow he must really trust you, he has never told anyone about my gifts. You've only met him twice right."
Eliot nodded again while thinking about her words. Why did Waterson trust him so easily? According to the look on Melissa's face when he said he knew about her "gifts" he would have to guess that only Melissa and Waterson know about what she can do. So that begs the question, why did he trust Eliot so easily, he didn't even trust all of his own company workers. Eliot realized that maybe something was going on that was bigger than just killing Waterson and Melissa. He had a feeling that something bad was going to happen, very soon.
Eliot turned his attention back to Melissa. She looked deep in thought too, he had a feeling they were both thinking about the same thing. "You still haven't answered my question, why were you lying when you said your name?" Melissa said a stubborn look on her face. Eliot was cornered, he tried to think of an alibi. "I was- well- I changed my name." Eliot finally got out relived that he had come up with something. "You changed your name?" Melissa said sarcastically, while raising an eyebrow. "Yeah, I had a sort of falling out I guess you could say, with my father. I wanted to get rid of everything that reminded me of him, which included my name."
It wasn't exactly a lie, he did have a falling out with his father just he didn't change his name. Melissa seemed to buy it though. "So what was your real name?" "Eliot Spencer." The words came out before Eliot could stop them. He internally cursed himself, how could he be so stupid. If Melissa so much as looked up his name on the internet then the job was done. "Huh, Eliot, nice name, I like it." Melissa said with a nod of her head. Eliot sighed, "Well Eliot, I guess this is only fair, you know my most kept secret and I know yours." Melissa said. Eliot looked up in surprise, he hadn't thought about how Melissa had felt about him knowing about her gifts.
"What's it like, you know seeing everything all the time." Eliot asked curiously. "I knew you would ask that eventually, everyone always wants to know, and to answer your question I hate my gift." Melissa said disgust written all over her face. "Why? I would love to be able to read people." Eliot questioned.
"That's only the part you've heard about. Imagine seeing everything about someone within 5 minutes. You can't turn it off either, I am trained by my dad to read people as soon as I see them. I hate it, I see things that should have been kept a secret, like do you remember the man named Mr. Chase?" Eliot nodded his head remembering the man in question. "He's cheating on his wife, or Mr. Hunt is bulimic, Mr. Jones is an alcoholic, and Mrs. Jones cheated on him with her boss, Mr. Niles, who is secretly a crack addict." By the time Melissa was done Eliot was so astonished he had to pull his jaw off of the floor.
All of these people he had met at the party. He thought they were normal looking rich people. He had always thought he was good at reading people. He has to be, it was part of his job. But all these people, Melissa had said she had just seen for maybe 5 minutes each, and yet she knew things that could ruin all of their careers and probably even their lives. "How could you tell?" He asked. "Well let's take Mr. Chase, that one was easy, his wedding ring was missing but there was a tan line on his ring finger, meaning he had at one point worn one, then there was an actual wedding ring around his neck, not uncommon, a lot of the men that work with my dad take their wedding ring's off during the day, but then I saw him clearly flirting with a 20 year old woman, who was clearly not his wife. Also the woman that was in the car he drove away in, had no tan line, meaning she had never had one. And that's how I do it." Melissa said with a slightly bored tone. Eliot was astonished and amazed at the same time, this was better than anyone he had ever come in contact with. "You never answered my question though, why do you hate your gift?"
Melissa sighed, "Have you ever wanted to know a secret so bad that you would do anything to know it, but then once you know you wish you hadn't asked in the first place?" Eliot nodded, not really knowing where Melissa was going with this. "That's how it is, every single day. I know things that I shouldn't, I hate it, I want to tell people but I feel like I am intruding, like I am seeing something that I shouldn't and I can't help it. There is also the problem that I can't forget anything, every bad memory is stored in my mind. It's a living hell." Melissa said tracing her scars.
Eliot thought about what Melissa had said, that must have to be hell, to see things you don't want to see, all the time. There is nothing she could do to forget, to turn her gifts off. He realized that if his assumptions about Waterson beating Melissa, and her trying to commit suicide then she must have some terrible memories, things that will never go away, ever. Eliot came to this conclusion just as the front door opened.