BreeTico – Yay! I'm glad you managed to feel everything that I wanted to convey. It makes me happy. (: lol. I know that the last chapter was so completely loaded. This chapter and a few of the others to come are more fluff, but hopefully you enjoy them just as much. (;
Complete Chocoholic – Lol, that's okay. I would love to have any sort of superpower. You can say that it's sort of one of those childhood dreams that you know is never going to happen but you wish it would, anyway. And I'm glad you liked the length! This one is particularly shorter, but I needed to have a connecting chapter to take care of some of this stuff. Anyway, hopefully the next couple chapters will be longer in length!
cheerdebate2015 – Thank you so much! I, too, use these fanfictions as a way to tide me over until Independence. I'm a little scared about what to think when it actually comes out though, with it being the end of the series and all. Kind of heartbreaking, really. But hey, as long as I can still write about the Aces, I'll be happy. (: Romance will definitely pick up a little more in these next couple of chapters as Emily and Derek continue to get used to each other (it's so hard to remind myself that they've been together for about two weeks by this point.) Thanks for the review!
The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.
16: Frenemies
"What?" I hissed, my hand immediately going up to tighten around the necklace Derek had given me earlier that morning, stating that I was of the Stanton clan. Instantly, I felt stupid for thinking that Derek was lying to me about anything. Of course this wasn't awkward because he and Bailey had something in between them in the past. It was ridiculous for me to think that and immediately go on the defensive because of it. I trusted Derek with my life, and I'd already given him my heart. I needed to stop second guessing myself over my own insecurities.
My fingers gripped Derek's arm so tightly that I was sure I'd left crescent-shaped marks from my fingernails in his skin. He didn't react to me, though, instead doing his best to keep himself between me and Bailey, like he believed that she was going to leap across the floor of the store to tackle me to the ground. I kept my hand on his arm, just to make sure that he was feeling a little calmer now. "Remember how I told you that our family has a rival?" He asked, bending forward so his words were more or less whispered in my ear. "The Tucker clan is our rival. And Bailey… I've known her since she was a kid, Emily. She's an Ace." He squeezed his eyes shut as he rested his forehead against mine. I'm so sorry. You can't trust her. Her family was friends with the Watsons. They're not exactly the best people.
I swallowed hard and glanced at my former best friend. She was trapped in the corner of the store, or else I think she would have fled by now. She looked like she was trying to keep herself from puking all over the floor, which was nice of her. If I was to believe Derek and the rest of his family, Bailey and her family were completely against him. If we were Good, she was Evil. And it was hard to look at someone whose hands I once trusted with my life like she was my enemy.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked her, annoyed that my voice choked on the words. I knew why, of course, but it was the only thing that I could think of to ask her.
"I couldn't tell anybody." She said. "It's not something that you go around telling people. And I wanted to tell you, Emily, I did. But it didn't matter when we were kids. It wouldn't matter until we were in our twenties. And so it wasn't so hard not to tell you." She lowered her gaze to the floor and said. "I know that the Stantons have probably told you not to trust me or my family. But Emily, we're not that bad. We still care about our family and we care about the Ace rules."
"Which is exactly why you've broken them." Derek said sarcastically. His voice was rough, challenging, and downright rude. I'd never really seen him like that. Sure, he'd been a little annoyed with his sister, but he had been teasing her or just being sarcastic with her. I could tell that if Bailey made one wrong move, Derek wouldn't hesitate to throw her out of the store. And I wasn't exaggerating when I said throw. I suddenly remembered the fact that Bailey was always seen in pictures with boys on the social website, where she was still considered my friend. Bailey hadn't followed the no-dating rule, which was like a major violation in their world. Derek had told me that the reason the other family, the Tuckers, hadn't gotten their imprints was because it was theorized that they'd broken the rules. Only families that had remained sacred to their rites and respectable way of life were getting their imprints back.
"I thought the imprints were gone forever. I didn't have any hope left. I have older cousins that have gotten married to humans. It just wasn't that big of a deal, okay?" She asked gruffly. Shaking her head, she shoved her hands into the pockets of her coat. "This isn't information that I can hold back from my family, Derek." She warned him. She didn't sound like the Bailey I remembered, shy and sweet and generally scared of the rest of the world. I could hear the threat in her words. If the Tuckers knew about my imprint with Derek, he was going to flip out. He had said that they wanted to rewrite the rules in their favor, following in the Watsons' footsteps. If they did that…. I didn't even want to think about it.
Derek just eyed her. "Don't you dare mess with my family." He said, his arm tightening around my shoulders. "I don't care if the council is in shambles right now. We will report you. And you know as well as I do how the Visionary feels about having families personally attacked."
Bailey went pale. I wondered if Derek could use the Visionary's name like that to instill fear in others, but I didn't say anything. He had said that our family was good friends with the Jacobsons, where that young girl belonged. Victoria's brother was Max Jacobson, after all. I had no doubt that if we really needed the help, they would come to our aid. I just really hoped that it didn't come down to that.
"I am nothing without my family. I can't hide secrets from them." She said, almost somberly. Deep down inside, I felt confused. I figured that the rivals were going to end up being monsters, people that were deserving of Stanton hatred. But this was Bailey, the girl who'd I'd spent nearly every day with when we were kids. I had memories of the two of us eating ice cream, watching movies, and painting our toenails. She wasn't exactly America's Most Wanted.
And now, I had to depend on her to help make sure that Derek and I didn't fall into any trouble by the hands of her family. Just looking at her, I could tell that Bailey was second guessing herself. Like Derek, she'd never really been all that good at hiding her emotions. Granted, she was better at it than my significant was; it took a trained eye to read what was crossing her face, but I knew her pretty well. She wasn't comfortable with the fact that we were now considered enemies. When she figured out that I could see her tattoo, that I had imprinted with Derek, she didn't look happy that she had someone to torture. She looked like she'd been truly upset that it was me – and I still let myself believe that it was because she didn't want to turn her back against me any more than she already had.
"I suggest you leave." Derek said darkly. Without looking back up at us, Bailey slid past me. Derek's fingers tightened on my arm and pulled me away from her as she stepped out of the front door and onto the sidewalk, disappearing into the chaos that was Chicago.
Right about that time, my mom opened up the storage room door. We both looked over our shoulders at her. She looked in between us and said, "Has anybody come in?"
Derek and I looked at each other for a moment and shook our heads at the same time.
# # #
When we got back home after my shift, everyone, including Carissa, was waiting to see us. They were excited about our ascensions, excited about our abilities, and excited about the fact that Derek had healed me and my hearing had returned. Victoria had made an extravagant array of desserts to celebrate. Derek had been wondering earlier in the evening whether or not he should call his father and let him know that the Tuckers knew about our imprint, but apparently he hadn't. The rest of his family was all too excited, and while we were both ecstatic that we'd taken a step forward in our imprint, neither of us were in the mood to celebrate. I had just discovered that my childhood best friend was my new arch enemy. It wasn't exactly something that I could punctuate with brownies.
"Oh, Emily!" Victoria exclaimed when she saw me step into the house in front of my significant. She rushed forward, chocolate dotting her fingertips. She gave me a hug without touching me and pulled back with a huge grin on her face. "Compulsion! I haven't heard of that coming around in such a long time." She gave me a smile that said she was truly happy about it. I was sort of shocked, though, that she hadn't been worried that I would maybe force her into doing something. Derek hugged his mom when she went to embrace him, but he was looking at me over her shoulder, telling me to stop thinking that way.
Victoria didn't seem to think that there was anything wrong with the two of us, though I sort of felt like the floor had been torn out from underneath me. Derek, who wore his heart on his sleeve, looked a little on the miserable side, but nobody acknowledged that as she led us into the kitchen. The whole place was covered in chocolate things – brownies, cupcakes, pudding, ice cream, and there was even a cherry cobbler. It looked like she had gone all out with the help of Madison, who was wearing an apron and had a smear of flour on her cheek.
"Hi!" She exclaimed when we walked in. She took one look at the two of us, though, and her smile started to fall. Her eyebrows drew together as she looked at me, snuggled against Derek, his arm draped over my shoulder, squeezing me into his side. She was the only one that could tell that everything wasn't perfect. "What's wrong?" She asked.
At the sound of her words, everyone moving around us stopped. Victoria was holding a pan full of cookies, Robert paused in straightening his tie, and Jack had half a brownie stuffed into his mouth. I bit down on my lip hard enough to make it bleed. Tears pricked my eyes, dampening my lashes and blurring my vision. The moment the first tear started to fall, Derek turned, blocking me from the rest of his family. I dropped my head and he cupped my face in his hands, fingers tangling in my hair. His forehead rested against mine. "Give us a minute," he said to his family. He stood there for a moment before withdrawing from me, his hand securely on the back of my neck as he led me away from the kitchen.
He pushed me into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He released me, then, turning to pull a washcloth from the towel cabinet. He ran it under the cold water in the sink, pausing to squeeze out the excess water before leaning forward and carefully smoothing the cool cloth underneath my eyes. I took in a shaky breath, my chest hurting with the effort of keeping my sob back. Derek pressed the washcloth to my forehead, as if I had a fever.
I pulled away from him to wipe the side of my finger underneath my eyes. I was being ridiculous, crying about Bailey. We hadn't even been real friends for eight years. But she was my best friend from childhood, and she knew all of my eleven-year-old self's fears, hopes, and dreams. And I knew hers. Or, at least, I thought I did. She had a whole facet of her life that she hadn't told me about. But maybe it wasn't the fact that she had lied to me, or even that it was Bailey, but it was the fact that she was the enemy, and the enemy knew our secret. Derek had been already bent on keeping me protected, and that's when the Tuckers had no idea that we were imprinted. Now that we had ascended, I had the feeling that we could care for ourselves now. But it was still the principle of it all. We were supposed to imprint and have a wondrous, magical life together. Instead, we were both worried for the other's safety.
Derek tossed the rag onto the counter and ran the back of his hand over my cheek, both of us getting a jolt of warmth. He leaned forward so his lips were at my ear. "I'm so sorry, Emily. If I had known… I would have let you know sooner, so you weren't blindsided. But I wish you didn't have to know at all." As he moved, his nose brushed along my jawline, and I took in a breath of air. The tight feeling in my chest started to disappear as he leaned forward and pressed a chaste kiss to my lips, his hand sliding over my neck, thumb gently pressing against my throat, where he could probably feel my pulse.
When he pulled back, he gave me a slight, heartbroken smile. Answering my inner questions, he murmured, "We're going to continue on with our lives. We're not going to let Bailey or her family ruin anything. We're going to be ourselves, you and me. We're going to go out to eat and go listen to music and do whatever we want."
I smiled, giving off a girlish sobbing laugh. A single tear escaped, running down my cheek. He swiped his thumb over it, erasing it from my skin. "Okay," I managed to say. "Okay, we'll be you and me." As I said it, I couldn't help but giggle. I wondered if he did that on purpose.
"Good. In that case, you're coming to band practice tomorrow."
"Is it actually band practice, or are you guys going to sit around and watch movies?" I questioned, pushing Bailey and her family to the back of my mind. Derek was right. I couldn't let them linger over everything I did. I couldn't worry about them. And I couldn't cry about them. I wouldn't cry about them. I punctuated my question with a smile, determined to show him that I wasn't going to let the Tucker clan hang over my head like a bad thundercloud.
He grinned easily. "Who knows? We'll find out tomorrow when we actually get there." He gave me a quick wink. I laughed, biting down on my lip to keep from being too loud. He grinned, pressed his lips to my forehead, and reached for the bathroom door. He pulled it open and, with his fingers gently wrapped around my wrist, led me into the hallway.
Everyone was still in the kitchen, apparently awaiting our return. Jack had continued to eat, but he was the only one. Victoria had pulled out a second pan of cookies from the oven and was seated at the table. As soon as we stepped in, all conversation stopped. They made it pretty obvious that they were talking about me and Derek and what I'd started crying for. I cleared my throat, prepared to tell them everything, about how Bailey and I were best friends when we were kids, and how I'd only discovered today that we were destined to be pitted against each other.
But Derek beat me to it. "The Tuckers," he said calmly. "We met Bailey today." He glanced over at me, and I heard his voice say, Do you want to tell them, or do you want me to?
Go ahead, I said back, looking into his eyes. They'd drawn me in at first, and one look at them could center me. You're doing a pretty good job at it. I gave him an easy grin.
Looking at his family, he said, "Emily and Bailey were best friends when they were kids. I never saw any pictures with her in them. She didn't know Bailey was an Ace. I never told her the last name of our rivals, and she only called Bailey by first name. Bailey Tucker came to mind, but I didn't think that it would beat the odds," he admitted.
"Oh, you poor thing," Victoria breathed, standing up from the table. She came forward and grabbed me up in a hug, despite the fact that Derek wouldn't let go of my hand. I hugged her back as best as I could, though, as she embraced me. I could pick up the smell of her perfume, not unlike the floral scent my own mother wore daily. She let go of me and rushed to the plate of brownies, offering it up to me. "Here, eat some chocolate. Chocolate heals all wounds," she insisted.
"Or your significant," Derek replied, his hand releasing mine so he could drape his arm around my waist. "Thanks, mom," he added, plucking a brownie from the plate.
She grinned at the two of us. "Well, let's push them to the back of our minds and celebrate your ascensions. These are very important, you know. I've already seen Derek's ability, and it nearly blew me away. I thought that talking to animals like me or dealing with engines like Robert were amazing." She said, "But you two, now those are some interesting abilities. It seems that everything is changing with the return of our Visionary." She grinned widely.
Madison smiled at me over her mom's shoulder. "I made the cookies," she crowed, "from scratch!"
"Then I won't eat a cookie," Derek replied. His mom gave him a look that said not to antagonize his younger sister. I swore up and down that all of the Stantons were kids at heart. I wondered if that meant that I was a kid at heart, too. Probably, since I stooped down to their level more often than not when we got into our teasing arguments.
"I will," I said, plucking one from the top. It was still warm in the middle, just like I liked it. I smirked at Derek as I took a bite of it, relishing the still-melted chocolate chips. The others seemed to converge on the desserts that Victoria had laid out – far too many, we'd be eating some after dinner for at least a week, if not longer. I took another bite, warm chocolate sticking my lower lip. I licked it off just in time for Derek to look down at me. He got a devious grin on his face as he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine almost forcefully.
Mm, you taste like chocolate. He said, his voice slipping through my mind.
I tried not to laugh. We're in front of your family. I knew I was laughing hard in my mind, but that didn't mean that I wasn't embarrassed, because I was. But I didn't stop him. He pulled back for a second before giving me another short kiss and reaching for a brownie.
I reached into the fridge for a soda as Jack sidled up to me, reaching around me for the container of lemonade. I waited until he got the container out before closing the fridge door. As I did, Jack leaned onto my shoulder, nearly resting his chin there. My imprint flared up inside, and I made a slight movement away from him on instinct. I knew Jack was just teasing me and his brother, after all. He didn't really mean anything. "I told you that you were pretty persuasive," he said quietly. I burst into laughter, nearly dropping my soda on the ground.
# # #
I woke up to the sound of an alarm. I hadn't used an audible alarm since I was eleven, and the blaring this early in the morning was enough to make my skull pound. Derek shifted, throwing out an arm to hit the snooze button. I groaned and pulled the sheets up over my head. Derek just laughed, squeezing my side for a moment before rolling out of bed. I heard him moving around the room, but I didn't even try to pinpoint where he was. I only had a second of lying there, though, before two hands gripped the blanket at my feet and pulled, ripping out of my hands.
"Derek," I moaned, grabbing a nearby pillow and throwing it at him. He caught it easily, throwing it on the end of the bed. I squeezed my eyes shut as he sat down next to me, the mattress bowing underneath his weight. He leaned over me, blocking the sunlight coming in from his window despite the dark curtain.
"Emily, sweetheart," he crooned in my ear. It sent shivers down my spine, but I squeezed my eyes shut, determined not to open them. He had a hand pressed down on the mattress on either side of me, so I had to stay right where I was, lying on my back, facing him. "It's time for you to wake up. You've got the early shift at your mom's shop."
"I don't want to go," I complained, pressing my palms to my eyes. His fingers touched my cheek, tilting my chin up. I pressed my lips into a thin line, trying not to smile. He chuckled, waiting until I couldn't help but crack a grin before pressing his lips to mine. He never seemed to care about the fact that even though we were Aces, we still had to think about morning breath.
"Come on," he said, sliding an arm underneath my back and pulling me up to his chest. "I'll go with you. And then we can go to lunch and a movie before heading to band practice." I groaned, dropping my head onto his chest. I wasn't tired at all, but I didn't want to get up this early and go to work when I could be sleeping next to my significant.
"Promise?" I muttered into his undershirt.
"I don't think I could ever make a promise to you and not keep it," he replied. His voice turned teasing as he said, "Now, quit playing your cute sleepy girlfriend act and get up. You've got to beat Madison to the shower or else you're not going to get one this morning."
I snuggled up against his chest for a moment longer before pulling back and kissing him just underneath his jaw. Scrambling to get out from underneath the blanket, I stepped out of bed and went to the dresser, pulling open the drawers and collecting my change of clothes. I slipped out of the hall and into the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind me.
After a quick shower, I pulled on my change of clothes and used Madison's hair dryer, combing through my hair. I was still trying to get used to the unreal shine it naturally had. Since I knew Madison had to be waiting for the use of the bathroom, I opened the door and caught sight of her sitting on the floor next to my bedroom door, a bowl of cereal in her hands.
"Hola, chica," she said, tipping the bowl back to drink the milk. "I was wondering when you were going to make your grand exit. Did I ever tell you how pretty your hair looks now? I mean, it looked pretty before, but it's super shiny now." She stood up, grabbing her bowl in the process. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got school to get to." She grinned and slipped by me, closing the bathroom door behind her.
With my camisole and pajama shorts in my arms, I pushed open the bedroom door. Derek was sitting on the edge of the bed, phone in hand. He'd changed into a soft cotton heather gray shirt with a V-neck. I smiled at it; my significant loved V-necks as much as I did, maybe even more. And where some people found it girlish, I found it extremely adorable. I dropped my clothes into the laundry basket in the corner of the room and stood in front of the double-sided mirror on top of the dresser, applying my mascara and lip gloss. Derek had already made his hair lie flat, swooping over his eyes. He tossed his phone onto the bed and pulled on his boots, lacing them up as I dug for my shiny gold sandals.
"Well come on, then," I teased from the doorway after slipping on my shoes. "Let's go. We've got work to get to."
# # #
I leaned back in my seat, propping my feet up on the counter as I stared out over the floor of the room. Derek was in the storage room trying to make sense of the rearranging my mom had done. While she was out getting coffee for herself and Derek, I was stuck sitting out on the floor just in case any customers arrived. I wanted to be back in the storage room with my significant, arranging boxes and making sure that labels were in place instead of playing with the height lever on my seat and twirling a piece of hair around my finger.
The bell above the door chimed. On instinct, I looked up to see who it was, forgetting that I was supposed to be pretending that I couldn't hear anything. Luckily, my mom was trying to drop her car keys into her purse while carrying two cups of coffee. She'd even bought me a bag of candy. And I didn't miss the fact that my mom had done exactly as my significant had, going to the nearby gas station for fortification instead of the coffee shop that Xavier frequented.
"Derek!" I called over my shoulder, glancing back at the storage room door. It swung open without as much as a squeak, though my mom had once complained that it was loud and creaky. I figured that at some point she'd gotten around to oiling it because I hadn't heard any noise from it. He glanced out, immediately on the defensive. I rolled my eyes at him, reminding him of what he'd told me – We'll be ourselves, you and me, and we're not going to worry about the Tuckers. I gave him a look to drive my point home as he sidled up to the desk, taking the coffee my mom offered with a thank you. I was surprised that my mom wasn't bothered by Derek requesting to stay with me at work once again. She had mentioned to me, when Derek was in the storage room and she was leaving to get the coffee, that she thought we spent an unusual amount of time together, but she hadn't told Derek that he had to leave. All she did was joke that maybe she should put him on the payroll. Her tone had been teasing, but I understood what she meant by that – she was worried that we were too close, always together, with absolutely no separation. She'd told me at some point that couples needed to have a regular amount of separation or else they'd get fed up with each other. I couldn't tell her that Derek and I weren't exactly a normal couple or that our lives and welfare basically stemmed from whether or not we were in close contact, so I'd kept my mouth shut.
Derek glanced at me as he took a sip of his coffee. It's my job to worry about you. I sneered at him when my mom turned her back to us and he smiled, grinning from ear to ear. He knew he'd won this round because I couldn't come up with a rebuttal to a need that was woven into the very fiber of his being. Picking up on my thoughts, he said, Derek, one. Emily, zero.
More like 'Derek, one. Emily, five thousand.'
How'd you come up with that one? He asked, his mental voice feigning disgust. My mom gave him a look and we realized that we were making faces at each other to accommodate our words. He quickly shot off a smile her way and turned his back to me, saying something out loud about finishing up in the storage room.
I'll always win when it comes to you, I teased, because you love me oh so much.
You've got something right there; I do love you.
And I love you too, you overgrown child.
Ouch, the insults. I held back a snicker. In my mind's eye, I could see Derek set his coffee cup down on the counter in the storage room. I could also taste the bitter sting of caffeine on my tongue. Everything looked a little strange from his perspective, since he was so much taller than I was. Withdrawing from his mind, I opened up my bag of candy and snacked on the chocolates. My eyes glanced at the clock in the bottom corner of the computer screen. My shift ended in approximately ten minutes. With a sigh, I reached down to get my book from my bag. Just as I was reaching for it, the chime above the door sounded for a second time.
"Ms. Bryson?" I froze at the sound of the voice. I had never heard it before, but I recognized it immediately. There was only one person that I could ever imagine sounding like that, a male who would be here at around twelve, always a few minutes early, never a minute late. I bit down on my lip, hearing the storage room door glide open. Derek had felt my heartbeat spike.
I sat up so straight in the chair that I startled both of them. Xavier, coffee in hand, glanced at the two of us. His upper lip curled in slight disgust as he shook his head and headed straight to my mom's office. He knocked on the door. I could hear her muffled answer as he twisted the knob and let himself inside. I dropped my book into my purse and glanced at Derek. I'd never had someone be that mad at me before.
Forget about him, Emily. If he can't see past his embarrassment to see how wonderful you are, it's his loss. You don't need to worry about him more than you already are. As he said the words, I could feel a bit of jealousy running underneath. I liked the fact that he wanted to prove to Xavier that I was his. But underneath that was the truth. I needed to stop worrying about Xavier. When he was ready, he would come back around again, just like he always did. Sure, this was colossal, the maddest he'd ever been at me before, but there would have to be an end to it eventually.
I sighed, and finished out the last ten minutes in my shift, where Xavier spent all of his time locked in my mom's office (which, had it been anyone else, would have been strange.) I knocked on the door and both of them looked up at me through the glass. I waved a goodbye, directing most of it at my mom before slipping back out onto the floor and tossing the bag over my shoulder.
Derek nearly always drove the Trans Am. It was either that, or his bike. I had the feeling that both of them were exclusively his, but he'd never said anything about it. He was being modest, I assumed. Their entire family had at least one car per person, if not two – including Madison, who only had a driver's permit. Since I'd donned a black pleated skirt, Derek had opted for the Trans Am. Or maybe he just grabbed that set of keys because he knew I wasn't looking forward to any day where I would have to ride that bike with a skirt on. It was not going to come unless it was inevitable.
Sliding into the car, I dropped my purse onto the ground and scooted across the bench seat, buckling up in the middle instead of at the far window, where I usually sat. What was the point in it, anyway? This made it easier for me to be close to Derek. I told myself that it was just because I wanted to be able to reach him easily if either one of us needed a calming dose, but in reality I just wanted to be as close to him as possible for as long as possible. He didn't seem to mind as he buckled up and turned the key in the ignition.
Okay, so this is a shorter chapter, since I cut out the last 2,000 words or so of this one to make it start the next one (which I hope you are eagerly awaiting.) Here's to hoping that the next chapter is longer, perhaps? (;
Thank you so, so much for taking the time to read this. I would really appreciate a review. Don't forget that you don't have to have an account, so please take the time to leave one for me in the box below. Once again, I thank you. Peace (: