This is the aftermath of Murphy finding out about the power and how she handles it.

The two songs for this chapter are:

Three Wishes by The Pierces and Wait it Out by Imogen Heap- Links in my profile.

Enjoy ;)

Chapter 7

Two Directions

I climbed back into the hummer, and Tyler followed shortly after. He turned the car around, and we headed back over the bumpy path and merged with the main road. We didn't talk. Everything I knew was telling me that he was lying, but the look in his eyes said something different. I didn't know what would be worse; if he was lying about this whole thing, or if he was telling the truth.

We pulled into the Spencer parking lot and he turned the car off. We sat there for a few minutes and then I opened the door and got out. We walked side by side to the dorm, not touching. We walked up the creaky stairs, and he walked me to my door out of habit more than anything else. I saw that someone had left my jacket on the doorknob. I slid Tyler's jacket, which I was still wearing, off of my shoulders and handed it to him. I was about to open the door and leave him there without saying goodbye, but his voice stopped me.

"Are we okay?" he asked. His voice was soft and weak. I wanted so badly to tell him that we were. I wanted things to go back the way they were before I knew his secret, but I knew that was impossible.

"I don't know," I answered honestly. I took one last look at his blue eyes, and I couldn't help but imagine what they would look like if they were black. I opened the door and quickly closed it behind me. That's when the shock settled in.

Keira was asleep, so she wasn't going to bother me with her snide remarks. I didn't think I could handle them right then anyway. I changed my clothes without really knowing what I was changing into and slipped under my down comforter. I knew that I wasn't going to get much sleep, but there wasn't anything else for me to do. I wouldn't be able to focus on anything never mind the school work I promised myself I would get done before I went out. I knew I would see the words, but I wouldn't be able to process them. I had way too much on my mind so I pulled my comforter up to my chin and let my thoughts run wild.

The logic in me told me not to believe it, that it was impossible. There was no such thing as magic. But on the other hand, I knew what I saw, and what I saw was without a doubt real. Tyler wasn't lying to me when he told me the story, but did the truth really matter? It was still something that changed my entire perspective of Tyler, of all of them. My mind was racing until the early hours of the morning. My alarm clock went off and I let out a grunt as I rolled over to look at it. It read six o'clock; I had gotten a whopping twenty minutes of sleep.

I pulled myself out of bed and grabbed my stuff for a quick shower. I still smelled like the bar. After my shower, I sloppily pulled my uniform out of the closet and put it on, quickly ran a brush through my hair and put on some make up. I didn't know why I was in such a hurry to go nowhere. I sat on my bed and stared into space for the next half an hour until I was almost late for class. I didn't want to talk to anyone today.

I got to English class just as the late bell rang. I was the last one there, and I took my usual seat next to Caleb, but I didn't look at him. The assigned seating on top of being late just made it harder to get away from him. Sarah was about to say something to me, but she saw my face and thought better of it. The class started and I pretended to be listening intently, and taking notes. I couldn't concentrate. It felt like my head was about to explode and I had no idea what to do about it. I didn't want to talk to anyone, but I didn't want to sit here and do nothing either. The class passed painfully slow, and Caleb kept shooting glances at me, like he was trying to tell me something. I pretended I didn't see. I was still afraid of him.

When the bell finally rang, I shot up from my seat and rushed out of the room before anyone could say anything to me. History was next, and it was going to be bad. Three out of the four of them were in this class. I didn't know how I was going to get through it without talking to one of them. I got to the class as late as I possibly could, and took my seat in between Tyler and Pogue, with Reid on Tyler's other side. I didn't look at any of them. Not even when Pogue got up to let me in the row. Not even when they were all staring at me with concerned looks on their faces. I felt like I couldn't breathe. I felt like if they stared at me for too long, their eyes would turn black and I would end up thrown against the wall, or reduced to dust. I think I would have actually be grateful if Tyler turned me to dust, that way I couldn't think, and I couldn't be afraid.

"Are you okay?" Tyler whispered to me once the class was in full swing. I couldn't bring myself to look at him. I was afraid of what his eyes would tell me. I was afraid that he would reveal something else, or tell me that our relationship was a joke, or tell me that he loved me. If he did that, I would have to break his heart and maybe mine in the process. I couldn't handle this. I didn't think I was strong enough to do anything other than what I'd planed. Being with Tyler would change everything forever. He would flip my entire life ass backwards, and I'm not sure if I'm strong enough to handle that.

I shrugged my shoulders in response, not daring to take my eyes off of the notebook in front of me. I could feel his gaze on me for another second, which seemed to last a life time, then he looked away. I stole a glance Reid through the corner of my eye to see that he wasn't hurt at all, but he looked sick. He caught me looking at him and gave me a look that I never though was capable of crossing his features. He looked sorry. I guess it was his fault that I found out. If he didn't Use last night, there never would have been a fight in the first place. I looked away from him quickly glancing at Pogue on my other side. He was the only one who had managed not to scare the shit out of me, but he looked just as guilty and upset as the others did, and that meant that he could do what they could do, and that made him the same.

The bell rang what seemed like a life time later, and I went to the bathroom to kill time before I had to brave physics with Caleb. We were doing a lab, so that meant that we actually had to talk. Next to Tyler, he was the one I wanted to talk to the least. I finished up my business, and flushed. As I was about to leave I heard the familiar voices of Kate and Sarah enter the room. I quickly picked my legs up off the floor and onto the toilet seat. I didn't want them to know I was there. Then it suddenly dawned me. Did they know about it? I knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, I mean I should've known that, especially due to recent events, but I needed to know if they were liars too.

"Do you know what happened with Murphy last night?" Kate asked. "She ran out pretty quick. I was wondering if it had to do with Aaron. He was out there causing trouble."

"Caleb just told me that she and Tyler got into a pretty big fight, but he wouldn't tell me what it was about," Sarah answered. So they had lied to all the girls. Kate and Pogue had been dating forever. When was he planning on telling her?

"It must have been pretty bad if she's that mad," Kate pointed out.

"Have you seen her today?" Sarah asked.

"No. Why?"

"She looks scared. She's clutching her books to her chest, and when she walks down the hall, she's looking around, like someone's going to pop out and grab her." Sarah was more observant than I gave her credit for. I didn't even realize that I was doing those things.

"I can't imagine that Tyler could have done anything to cause that. I think it's something else." Kate had no idea how close she was.

"You've been reading way too many mystery novels. I'm sure their both going to be fine. It was probably a misunderstanding." Sarah was wrong there. I had understood perfectly; that was the problem.

I heard their footsteps fade as they opened the door and left. I got out of the stall and looked at myself in the mirror. I didn't look anything like I usually did. I looked like had just taken a day trip into hell, which I guess wasn't that much of an exaggeration. I didn't have the time or the motivation to fix my appearance so instead I stood up straight and moved my books to one hand, and supported them on my hip like I usually did. I'd be damned if I looked pathetic. The late bell was going to ring in a second so I opened the door and walked across the hall to my physics class trying to hold my head up.

Caleb was already at our lab table and looked up when I came in. I froze for a second. 'Could I run away?' I thought. No, I couldn't. He would probably chase me if I did. I slowly walked over to my seat and perched myself on my lab stool. I leaned as far away from him as possible.

"I know that you don't want to talk to any of us right now, but you have to listen to me," he whispered. He was looking over his shoulder to make sure that no one else was listening.

I sighed in response, and glued my eyes to the table in front of me.

"Will you please look at me?" he asked. There was sincerity in his voice. Right now he didn't resemble the monster that I saw last night. I looked him straight in his chocolate eyes. He was taken aback. I didn't think he was expecting me to cooperate.

"About last night, that was just an argument. When we argue like that it's just like when everyone else argues, only with the power it can get intense. I know what it must have looked like for you, but you need to know that Tyler will never hurt you. He hardly ever Uses. I know that whatever he told you about himself is true. You have to understand that he has to keep this a secret. We're all supposed to. That's why Kate and Sarah don't know, that's why no one knows except for our families." He was talking kind of fast, but I took in every word he said. His tone was convincing, but I was still skeptical. He didn't wait for me to say anything, he just kept talking. I could tell he really felt bad about what happened.

"That's as violent as you will ever see any of us get. To us it's just boys fighting. It might have looked like he could get hurt, but Reid's fine. We can't really hurt each other; I was just proving a point." The last part was rushed. He was really trying to prove a point.

"You just need to promise us that you won't tell anyone." He still looked worried as he said this. Then I spoke my first words of the day.

"Your secret's safe with me," I assured him. "But that doesn't change how I feel."

"We're not going to hurt you," he told me again.

"That's not the only thing I'm worried about. You can't imagine what it was like to see that, what it was like to find out that someone you thought you knew was keeping something this big and unbelievable and frightening from you. There really isn't a way for me to know anything about any of you for sure. I know that you're probably telling the truth, but there's a chance that you're not and I'm not willing to take that risk." I said all this in a rushed whisper hoping that if anyone was listening they wouldn't understand me.

"So you're going to throw away friendships and love on a stupid assumption?" When he said it that way it sounded like I was a stupid bitch. I didn't know what to say so I glued my eyes to my notebook like I had already done so many times that day. "If that's the case, then you're not the girl we though you were."

We didn't talk for the rest of the period. I didn't hear a word the teacher said, and to be honest I really didn't care. I knew that Caleb was right, but I didn't know what to do about it. I couldn't just go back to the way things were. There would always be doubt lingering over my head. Maybe it was okay that they had some sort of unexplainable powers, but I would never know if I knew the whole truth or if they were hiding something more dangerous from me.

I didn't know how I made it through the rest of the day. I didn't talk to anyone, and no one tried to talk to me. I ate lunch alone in the library. Kate didn't even try to talk to me during journalism. I guess I looked that miserable and antisocial. After school I went to cross country practice. That was much better than being in a constant five foot radius of the people I was trying to avoid. I did my workout, and then went back to the dorms to attempt to do homework for classes that I didn't actually attend. I was there physically of course, but mentally I was somewhere else entirely.

It was about ten o'clock when someone knocked on our dorm door. I assumed it was for Keira so I waited for her to get up and answer it. When she opened the door I heard a familiar voice that I was both relieved and scared to hear.

"Is Murphy in there?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah," Keira responded and opened the door wider so he could see me from the hallway.

"Can I talk to you?" he asked. His eyes were begging me.

"Just let me get a sweatshirt," I told him. I picked myself up off of my bed and went over to my tiny dresser. I picked up the first ratty old sweat shirt I could find, then turned and faced him, still in the doorway. I didn't bother putting shoes on; this wouldn't take long.

We walked down the hall and to the deserted common room. He stood in front of the couch, and turned to face me.

"I know that Caleb already talked to you, but you have to hear this from me. It's true that if you stay with me it won't be a normal relationship, but nothing will ever hurt you, you have my word." I knew he wasn't lying, hell he would probably dive in front of a speeding bullet for me. But that wasn't what I wanted from him. I'd never been this scared in my life. He was everything that I was brought up to hate, to stay away from. I wanted to love him and hate him at the same time and that scared me almost as much as the secret did.

"The best thing to do is just end it now. This whole thing with the power, it's too big for me. I can't handle it. I knew that this wouldn't last long, and I was right. As much as I wanted to be wrong, I was right. This," I gestured to us, "just can't happen. My mom was right, I can't trust anyone." My voice was cracking and I didn't know why. This was the right thing to do to protect myself and too keep from hurting him worse in the future. "I want to be civil about this and I would appreciate it if you and the others didn't talk to me anymore."

He looked shocked, but more than that, he looked hurt. He looked like I had just punched him in the gut.

"You don't mean that," he said in a soft voice. I started to walk towards the door, then hesitated.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." With that I left him. I waited until I was back in my room and under the covers before I let the silent tears fall. I knew this was going to hurt, so why did I let it happen? I was a stupid girl that thought she could be happy with a stupid boy. I was miserable now, but I knew that I would thank myself in the long run, as soon as I stopped seeing his hurt face every time I closed my eyes.

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