INeverSawAnotherButterfly – Thanks! I went rereading through Significance today and saw about the wife. (:

The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.

Chapter Five

I called Hanna to ask about the double-date with Paul. I was worried she would freak out on me because I hadn't called her right after my date with him in the first place. I was still clueless about what I was going to tell her. Sure, I figured I'd have to tell her about Nick because I would be hanging around with him a lot. If anything, I needed him around, just like his grandmother had told me. I need to tell her about my friendship with him, because he was just my friend, whose touch I needed. Of course, I couldn't tell her that last little part. But still.

I bit my lip as I hit her speed dial number and held the phone to my ear. Three rings later, I was hoping that maybe she wasn't going to answer. I prepared myself to leave her an upbeat message. Right then, though, she answered the phone. "You better have a good reason for not calling me."

"Not even a hello?" I replied swallowing the rehearsed words that I'd had prepared for her voicemail. "I'm hurt."

"Whatever, now tell me what happened! Everything that happened!" She was so excited that I couldn't help but smile, even though it wasn't even that good of night. That was Hanna, though. Excited, personable, a hopeless romantic. That's why I loved her.

"It wasn't that great, Han," I said back. "He gave me a gift card to the video game store, and then he took me to the store itself."

"He didn't!" Hanna gasped.

"He did," I replied, adding in a pitiful sigh. "I don't think he knew what to get me," I said, sitting down on the edge of my bed. "But I think he's trying to make up for it now. He called and wanted to see if you wanted to go on a double date with us."

"He called?" She asked. Hanna and Paul had never really gotten along, and I had the feeling that she sort of did that on purpose. I didn't know what it was that made Hanna not like him in the first place, but she was adamant that he was no good. She wouldn't even let herself see the real him.

"I was just as surprised as you are." I said. "And actually, now that I think about it, he texted me."

Hanna clicked her tongue. I bit down on my lip. Hanna didn't see it the way I did. She thought that I shouldn't have to settle for anyone. I wasn't settling for Paul. I was dating him, and not breaking up with him because Hanna wanted me to. "Listen, chickie," She said seriously. "I don't know what his motives are. And in case you haven't noticed, I'm pretty dateless right now."

"I thought you could call Brandon." I said, leaning back on my bed. Hanna had been pining after him since the beginning of the semester. Brandon was a part of our group. He had been for years, and he was definitely interested in Hanna. She was too wrapped up in her ordeal of looking for her Prince Charming to pay attention to the guys around her. It was just another one of the reasons that I didn't completely trust her on relationship advice.

Hanna was silent, which was a rarity. Finally, she said, "Yeah, maybe I will. But this better not be some matchmaking trap." She said sharply, but I could hear the hint of sarcasm and humor.

I laughed. "Not intentionally. Go ahead, call him and get back to me."

"Fine! I give in. I'll call you. Love you," She said.

"Yeah, love you, too." I said back, pressing the end button and thinking that I wish I was going somewhere with Nick instead of Paul. And then I wanted to smack my forehead against the wall.

# # #

That sick feeling I had in the morning was starting to come over me again. It wasn't bad, but it was still there. At the time, it was just a little flutter in my stomach, a little ache in my lower back, like I'd been standing all day. I was surprised, though, at how badly I wanted to call Nick. It was like a physical pain to be away from him, like my skin was slowly being picked and peeled at. Or maybe it could be better described as a sunburn, hurting the more you pressed on it.

I checked the time on my cell phone. Paul was supposed to be here in five minutes, and then we would go pick up Hanna and Brandon. There wasn't enough time for me to call Nick. And, when I thought about it, I realized I awful that must be for him. I had sat there and told him that I didn't want to break up with Paul, that I didn't want to be in a relationship with him right off the bat, and now I wanted to call him so he could come touch my hand and take away my pain. My plan was basically to use him. I knew that I wasn't being a tease, technically, but I still felt bad about it. So I resolved that I wasn't going to call Nick at every moment I started to feel sick. I was just going to deal with it until it got really bad.

I bit down on my lip and played with the necklace I was wearing. Hanna had given it to me on my birthday last year – a long chain with a rhinestone frog. I had absolutely loved it the moment I laid eyes on it. Paul said that it looked creepy.

I was still lying back on my bed when the doorbell rang. I bolted up, a little slower than usual because of the head rush I got. Royce had beaten me to the door. I could hear him talking to Paul, giving him the average you-take-care-of-my-sister speech. I took his wrist in my hand, annoyed by that rush of feeling that said I was doing something wrong when I wasn't. I gave Royce a half glare and stepped out towards Paul's car.

"Hey," I said with a smile when the door closed behind me.

"Hi," Paul replied, not even bothering to look up at me as he dug his car keys from his pocket. I bit down on my lip, waiting to see if he would say anything more to me. Paul and I used to get along really well, when we first started dating. He was really sweet, taking me the movies and to lunch dates. One time, he even packed up a picnic and we went and sat at one of the gazebos in the park. But in the months since, that sort of fun that we'd had together had faded. I was starting to worry that it was a sign that we didn't belong together. Hanna would say that I should just break up with him, but I was the type of girl to take relationships seriously. If there was a problem, I wanted to work it out. I just didn't know how to breech the subject with him.

We still hadn't said a single thing to each other when Paul pulled up in front of Hanna's house. She reached for the door and slid in. "Hey, babe," she said over my shoulder. I turned to smile at her, and she gave me a wink as Brandon slid into the car next to her. He looked like he was excited about this date, which made me happy for Hanna. No doubt, we'd spend thirty minutes after Paul and Brandon left talking about how perfect their date was.

At least someone was trying to be happy.

# # #

The movie theater was pretty empty. The movie we'd decided to watch had been out for a few weeks, and the majority of people had already seen it. There was a cute old couple sitting in the front, which was kind of funny since Paul had voted for an action flick, which Brandon was all too happy to agree with. I settled into my seat between Paul and Hanna, trying to ignore the sharp pains. I was bound to call Nick when I got home, because this was downright awful. I kept repeating the mantra in my mind – deal with it, Elsie.

As the movie theater darkened, only the lights on the steps still remaining, Paul tilted the popcorn bag to me. I didn't feel hungry. In fact, I felt like I might puke. But I was sure that it was only the flu-like symptoms from the withdrawals. I took a handful and spent the previews stuffing my mouth and telling myself to suck it up and just enjoy the movie.

Just as the previews were ending, someone was walking in late to the movie. There was a bright rectangle of light for a second as the door opened, and then the rough shadow as someone climbed up the steps. My heart immediately fluttered in my chest at the sight of the shape. My mind instinctively went to Nick.

The guy continued past my row and into the row of seats behind me. I heard the creak of the chair as someone sat down in the seat directly behind mine. My heart thumped at the idea of Nick coming here to see me. I didn't know how he knew where I was, or where exactly in the theater I was, but I was nearly one hundred percent sure that it was Nick sitting behind me. I leaned back in my chair, my stomach squirming and my heart thumping erratically.

I tried to glance behind me. It was so dark that I couldn't really see anything but a sneakered food. I yawned and moved out of my seat, pretending to get more comfortable. I turned around for a brief second, and caught Nick's face. He looked mad. He also looked amused. He gave me a tiny smile, like he was genuinely happy to catch my eye. My heart shot off, and Nick put his fist to his chest at the same time. I raised my eyebrow at him as I sat back down, turning to face the screen.

I sort of wished that I hadn't seen him, because the withdrawals had just shot up in intensity in seeing him so close. I wanted to leap over the chair into his lap, wrap my arms around his neck, and just hold him close. I also wanted to smack myself for thinking that in the presence of my boyfriend. I mean, it would've been bad to think it any time, but with Paul sitting right there, that had to violate some sort of girlfriend code. Nick cleared his throat behind me. I sort of sounded like he was trying to cover up a laugh.

I leaned back in my chair, my hands trembling. I was starting to think that I was on the verge of a freak out. I glanced over my shoulder again, trying to get a glimpse of his dark, curling hair and a hint of his turquoise eyes. Hanna was watching me, her eyebrows drawn together.

I immediately sat back in my seat. After another ten minutes, I was still trying feverishly to focus on the movie. The guy had started running from whoever wanted to kill him, and he'd already blown up a car and jumped off an apartment balcony. Paul was completely entranced with it. Hanna kept giving me questioning looks all throughout the movie, like she thought that I might stand up and star screaming obscenities any moment. I was about to tell her to stop looking at me like that when I felt something in my head. It was like someone was poking the back of my head, but it was inside my skull. I probably should've panicked, but it was like my mind just opened up to it without any direction from me.

I knew, within seconds, that it was Nick. And he was inside my head. Literally. I couldn't get any words from him, but I did see a picture of him standing up and walking into the lobby, of me doing the same thing. I figured that he was telling me something. Then he slipped out of my mind and was standing up, his chair creaking. I watched him walk down the stairs, watched him turn the corner. The door opened for a split second, and then it was dark in the theater again.

I was partly panicked at what had just happened, partly excited. Clearly, I hadn't been imagining it, because he had just gotten up and done exactly what I saw he would do. And there was no denying that weird things don't exist. My life had been a mess of weird since his hand brushed mine.

"Are you okay?" Hanna whispered to me.

My eyes drifted to her and I stood up abruptly. "Bathroom," I said back, forcing my way past her legs. Brandon gave me a funny look, too, as I trampled down the stairs as quickly and as quietly as I could. I pushed open the door, practically running since I turned the corner and no one in the theater could see me. I had just barely stepped out of the theater and into the hall when an arm caught me around the waist. I let out a breath as I was stopped short, pulled around by my momentum.

Nick had been standing just outside the door. With one arm still around my waist, he pressed his palm against my cheek. We both sighed, and I instinctively leaned against him. His hold on me tightened, and I thought about how much I wanted to just stand there with him instead of going back into the movie to see Paul and Hanna. I'd rather skip out on my best friend and my boyfriend to hang out with a guy I'd literally just met yesterday. My head was swimming with the whole situation, but I couldn't find the energy to actually move away from him.

"How did you know where I was?" I asked.

Nick peered around the corner, down the hall. He looked back at me, grinning. He took my hand and pressed my open palm against his chest. I stared at the back of my hand for a moment, eyebrows drawn together. Once it became clear he wasn't going to answer me, I just let my gaze wander… to his eyes. That's when I felt his heartbeat underneath my hand. But the weird thing was, it was like his heart was beating double, and not in the oh-God-I'm-under-attack way. It was like there were… two hearts.

"What is that?" I asked, pulling my hand away sharply. "Do you have heart palpitations or something?" I demanded.

Nick laughed. I leaned against him a little more without even planning to. I really liked the sound of his laugh, the way his hands rested on my elbows, the way that when he looked down at me and I looked up at him, our faces were only inches apart. I blinked to try to push the images of me kissing him out of my mind. Nick cleared his throat and said, "No, I'm perfectly healthy. But you remember me saying that it's my duty to protect you?" I nodded, and his smile grew wider. "Well, as a tool to help me do that, I have your heartbeat."

"What?" I asked, pulling away from him. I put two fingers to my neck and one palm to his chest. It suddenly made sense, the way the thumps were coming from his chest. There was his, and then there was mine. One of the beats matched perfectly with my own. I could practically feel my blood pressure spike as my heart sped up under my fingertips. One of the heartbeats in his chest sped up at the exact same time. "Oh my God," I breathed.

"I can feel it when your heart changes. I can tell, just by listening to it, whether you're excited or scared or in pain. And when your heartbeat spikes like that, I know exactly where you are." He raised his eyebrow at me. "You were freaking out about your withdrawals. I could feel it. Why didn't you call me?"

"So… it's like you have a permanent tracker on me?" I demanded.

Nick's hands immediately cupped my face, my hair billowing out over his fingers. "Don't think of it like that. It's a protection device. I'll literally know when you're in danger the moment your body realizes it." He said. "And if you focus really hard, you can feel my heartbeat along with yours."

I closed my eyes and pressed both of my hands to his chest, which rose and fell with his breathing. I felt like this was extremely intimate, and I felt my heart flutter at the idea. There was no doubt he heard it, too. But along with that was the hint of another heart, steady, although a bit fast. Nick.

I took a step back from him, shaking my head. "That's impossible."

"Not really, if you think about it. All significants have it," He said. "The whole point of the imprint is that we belong together, and our bodies act accordingly. I know where you are and you can find me anytime. When we ascend, I'll be able to read your every thought, and you mine." My cheeks flushed at that. Privacy was one thing that I cherished, along with making my own decisions, being my own person. Nick cleared his throat and added, "But you can block me if you want."

I let out a pent-up breath. "What else is there?" I asked.

Nick shook his head. "First, you tell me why you didn't call me when you started to feel the withdrawals."

"I didn't want to bother you. I'm… it's like I'm being a tease, and it's not fair to you."

"Elsie," the way he said my name gave me shivers. "It's not just you that gets the withdrawals. I get them, too. And since I feel your emotions too, sometimes they're worse for me." I bit down on my lip, and he gave me a sad smile. "I don't want you to stress about it. There's no point. All I'm saying is that I won't think you're a tease if you call me because of the withdrawals. In fact, I was banking on calling you soon if I hadn't felt that spike in your heartbeat. It scared me to death."

"Why?"

"When you're in pain or you're scared, I immediately panic. It's my duty to protect you, and I want to keep you safe. If I'm not around and I don't know why you're freaked out, I immediately start to expect the worst."

"I'm sorry," I said.

Nick shook his head. "Don't be sorry. I'm just letting you know so you know. Even though you're an Ace, you haven't been raised like one. I don't expect you to understand or accept everything right away."

"So… what else is there to tell me?"

"Not now. Later, I promise," Nick said, touching my cheek one last time. "You need to get back to your boyfriend, and since I forked over six bucks I'm going to stay and watch it, too. I'll try to brush up against you while we're leaving, to keep you from getting withdrawals for the rest of the night." The way he said boyfriend was sort of annoyed, sort of disgusted. I figured that, if what he had told me was true, he was pushing down the urge to pummel Paul for even looking at me. "Now, let's get in there. And when we do, we'll go our separate ways, and I'll see you either later tonight or early tomorrow morning."

"Got it," I said back. Nick let me go back into the theater first. Hanna and Brandon were both looking at me like I'd grown a second head. Paul didn't even seem to notice that I'd gotten up and left. I settled back into my seat, but instead of watching the movie, I tried to focus on the thrum of Nick's heart for the next hour and a half.

Sorry it took so long to update. I've had a writer's block for the past few days [ugh] but today I was thinking about this instead of reading my psychology textbook. (:

Leave me a review, por favor. Also, I'm wondering if you would rather know Elsie's power and Nick's possible match-up, or if you'd rather wait and be surprised.

Peace. (: