The perfect timing

“Celia,” Aiden began, when it was only the two of us, because the rest was either taking away the garbage we made or in Eric and Kitty’s case were doing something alone.

“Are the Matthews like you?” he asked me straight away, and I bit my lip from spilling out something stupid. I knew it was okay for me to tell him about myself, nevertheless it was a different case with Reece and Kitty. I didn’t know if they would be mad if Aiden knew about them as well. So I stayed silent though it seemed that Aiden took his own guesses by my silence.

“You don’t have to tell me, I think your silence says everything. But don’t worry I won’t say anything to them and it will be a secret between us. It only makes sense now why you spend so much time with them so suddenly. I mean you are not really the person to make new friends so easily. No offense by that,” he added, and I laughed to show him that I wasn’t mad at all.

“Hey you two,” Liam then came into the picture. “I think it is time for us to leave now.”

“Alright,” Aiden answered with no argument and smiled at me. “By the way Reece and I decided it was the best if you stayed another night at their house to recover.”

This though surprised me more than everything. “You and Reece decided this together,” I repeated to make sure I heard him right.

“Don’t be so surprised, it seems that we both have one thing in common.”

“And that is?” I asked thinking, about their angry glares they shoot each other, while they thought nobody was watching them.

“Your well being,” Liam answered for him and my gaze landed on him to see him smiling at me.

“And don’t worry about everything, we will tell your aunt your staying at my house for another night,” Aiden added before he and Liam left the house and said their goodbyes.

Then I was alone for a moment. Well, not technically alone, because Ares was still in the same room with me, eating his food happily in the corner. However you could only hear his munching and so I could think again about all the things that had clattered my mind. My mother was the first thing. I didn’t even know where to start searching for her. Maybe my room was a good idea because she told my bracelet was important. Maybe she also left another clue for me to find her. On the other side some part of me still said, this is dump she is dead. Why would have people lie to me about her. My aunt was the one who told me about everything and she would never lie to me. But maybe she didn’t even know it as well. And they lied to her too. That was probably the case.

“Ughhh,” I then groaned frustrated. “This is just too much.”

“Reece,” I then heard Kitty exclaim and my eyes shoot to the open door in Kitty’s room. In the corner of my eyes I could see that Ares had stopped eating to look up.

“No. Liam and Aiden left and so can Eric,” he told Kitty. And I knew that tone he was using on her. It was final, and he didn’t want you to argue back.

“You don’t have to leave Eric, he is just being difficult,” Kitty said to Eric, probably ignoring her older brother.

“No it’s fine, I have to leave anyway,” he told her with a laugh. It was a good thing that he didn’t seem to mind Reece overly protective behavior.

After that I only heard them walking downstairs, shutting doors and Kitty shouting, “You scared him of.” Which was followed by, “Good” from Reece’s side.

I laughed about that heartily and Ares barked once too, to join me. Only these two.

Tonight I got early into bed and like Aiden had told me, I stayed another night at the Matthews. Kitty was happy about that, because she told me it was good to have another girl around and not only her stupid brother.

The next day though when I woke up I was alone. They wrote me a letter that they both left to school and I should feel at home. I didn’t mind them leaving because I didn’t want them to get in trouble. The good thing was I felt perfectly fine again and so I even took Ares for a walk that morning. He deserved it and I wrote the siblings as well a letter that I would be back soon and just went with Ares for a walk after I took a shower. Just in the case if they came back earlier from school.

Ares was happy about my decision and wouldn’t stop jumping around as I took his leash in my hands. Today was also a beautiful day, not too warm and not too cold. Perfect for a walk and Ares was behaving perfectly. He was admittedly excited though still a good boy and listened to me. He was actually more acting like a few years trained dog than a little puppy. But everyone is different, so I didn’t think much about it.

In silence we walked through the city and in the end we found ourselves in front of Nancy’s bakery. I must have let Ares into that direction without noticing. Through the window I saw that the bakery was still closed. The woman, who worked for Nancy’s was still too afraid to work again after the accident and I couldn’t blame her. She didn’t know about super humans, but she was still smart enough to be sure that it was someone she should be afraid of.

I was sad about the fact that it was closed, but this wasn’t about me, so I just took a deep breath and wanted to leave. But then I heard something. First, I thought I was just imagining things, but then I could make out noises. They were coming from inside. My eyes widened what was going on? Silently I made my way towards the back entrance, Ares followed me surprisingly quietly.

Slowly I put my ear against the back door to get a better observation about the noises. My heart was hammering loudly, but I tried my best to ignore it. I could make out two voices talking to each other and one sounded quiet familiar. The first one was more feminine, so I knew it was a girl speaking and the other one was more masculine, so it had to be a man’s voice.

Listening to them for a while, but not really understanding what they were saying I could finally make out the girls voice. It was Haley’s. Rage was building inside of me and I was on the verge of storming into the bakery. However a nudge to my leg stopped me. I looked down seeing Ares watching me with his big eyes. I couldn’t just run in there without him. What was I thinking? He could get hurt and if something would have happened to him, I wouldn’t forgive myself.

Suddenly the noises got loaded and my eyes widened. They want to leave through the back door. Shit. As fast as I could I took the puppy in my arms and hid myself behind the next dumpster, trying to be as quiet as possible.

For a few seconds you couldn’t hear anything and then the door opened, revealing Haley. After her the second person walked through the door. But I couldn’t make out his face because he was wearing his hood over his head. Though by his stature and high I knew it was indeed a man I had heard.

Stretching my head a bit higher to get a better look at them I tried to get another glimpse, but suddenly a hand pressed onto my mouth. Immediately I tried to remember everything that I had learned to free myself from such a position and was about to knee my attacker with my right leg, holding tightly onto Ares.

“Don’t move,” the person whispered still covering my mouth and when I heard his voice I immediately relaxed.

Slowly he removed his hand and then positioned himself right next to me, watching Haley and the mysterious guy. I on the other hand was also paying attention to him. What was he doing here and how did he found me?

“They left,” he then said and pulled my out of my hiding place. Ares jumped from my arms and let himself be stroked by him.

“How did you find me Reece?” I asked him, crossing my arms in front of my chest.

“No, the better question is why are you here?” he questioned me, throwing me a glare. He was really angry at me, so he didn’t even let me answer him.

“Do you know what could have happened Celia?”

“I can protect myself perfectly fine Reece,” I fired back, getting now worked up by myself. Why was he suddenly so angry at me? I didn’t know that Haley would be here of all the places.

Reece laughed humorlessly at my words, shaking his head in disapproval.

“Only because you are training now for some time at the M.E doesn’t mean that you are a superhero,” he spit back taking a dangerously close step towards me.

“Why are you so angry?” Nothing happened and I.... “I couldn’t even finish, because Reece interrupted me angrily.

“Because you are so reckless!”

“Reckless? You are not serious right now?” I said also taking a step forward, so our noses almost touched. I didn’t even notice how close we were, I was just so angry at him for throwing assumptions at me.

“You are the most frustrating person I ever met in my life, “he glared at me and I immediately shot back at him, “the same goes for you.”

By now we were just giving each other dirty looks, staring at each other’s eyes. We were so close now that Reece was practically in my face and our lips almost touched. And when I noticed that he stopped staring daggers at me and was looking at my lips, I had to do the same thing.

His lips looked so inviting and I could see that Reece was coming closer if that was even possible. He was only one move away, and I didn’t stop him. But then I got myself together and took a big step away from me.

As I did, I immediately felt like I was doing the wrong thing and when I looked into Reece eyes, I could see the hurt flicker from my rejection, though it was quickly covered by a blank expression.

He then walked a few steps a head of me, taking Ares with him. I still stood there frozen. Only his “Are you coming?” said in a monotone voice shook me awake.

I followed him, walking just next to him, but Reece wouldn’t even met my eye.

What have I done?