The perfect timing

“There you are,” a male voice said, in what I guess was a relieved voice.

Even if I didn’t see him with my own eyes, I knew the voice belonged to Reece Matthews. I either heard him talking in class or with some of his friends. So I knew how he sounded like even if I had never talked to him in person.

Shit, I then cursed mentally. Of all people who were at the party it had to be the host by himself. I didn’t associate with someone like Reece and he didn’t with someone like me. We were too different and had a different circle of friends.

“Yes, here I am,” Kitty answered him sassy and offended, “Alone in my room, because my oh so lovely brother doesn’t want me downstairs.”

Reece Matthews is Kitty’s brother. At the realization my eyes widened.

I heard him sigh audibly, before he answered. “How often do I have to tell you? You are way too young to attend a party.”

“I’m not,” Kitty argued and I could imagine her crossing her little arms in front of her chest and glaring at her brother.

“For God’s sake you are fifteen Kitty,” Reece now shouted out loud, and I flinched at his harsh words.

What a poor girl. It was hard to have Reece as an older brother even if he only wanted to protect his sister.

Kitty didn’t say another thing after his outburst and the only thing I could do was to stare at the white curtain in front of me.

“Don’t be like that,” Reece then groaned, probably pulling at his hair out of frustration.

“Come on look at me,” he demanded, and I heard him walking around, either just out of frustration or towards his sister to make her talk again.

I hoped for the second because I didn’t want him to come closer and discover my hiding place. If he finds me, it will be really awkward and I don’t have a clue what I’m going to tell him and why I was hiding in the first place.

“Get out!” was Kitty’s only response to him and I hoped he would leave the room so I could come out.

“Fine,” Reece said, and I sighed in relief.

But then he had to destroy my happiness and told her, “On one condition.”

Was this guy for real?

The girl laughed at her brother’s request humorlessly.

“This is my room and you are not allowed to set conditions,” I heard her saying.

“Oh, I actually do,” Reece spoke and the angry tone had left his voice and was replaced by a kind of scary one. What was he up to?

“Because my request doesn’t involve you.”

The moment his words left his mouth my heart started to beat faster and faster. He knew I was here and I couldn’t escape. I began to sweat, and I hoped Kitty would do something.

“What are you talking about?” she laughed nervously, and I wanted to slap myself. Even I could make out she was lying and hiding something.

“I’m talking about the person or more the boy...” he didn’t finish his sentence as he moved the curtains away to reveal me.

I didn’t know what to do, so I stared at him perplexed.

But Reece wasn’t any better than me and only looked at me dumbfounded. He was about to say something, but then closed his mouth like someone had put a spell on him.

Standing this close to him I could examine him more closely and damn was he looking fine. With his pink lips parted a little and from this close I could see his freckles. What was wrong with me? Now wasn’t the time to gawk at him.

Still holding the curtain in one of his hands Reece stated, “You are a girl.”

Irritated I raised my brows at him and said after crossing my arms in front of my chest, “Obviously.”

His words made me feel offended, and he seemed to notice it. He thought I was a boy after all.

“No, I don’t mean it like that,” he tried to explain running a hand through his thick, dark hair and letting go of the curtain.

“How do you mean it then?” I asked him smirking. I now understood that he thought his sister was hanging out with a guy and hid him in her room. But I think I was going to have a little fun with him because he was too harsh to his little sister. I even heard her snickering in the background and glanced past Reece to see her standing now next to her bed, instead of sitting on it.

I winked at her when her brother was too occupied starring at the ceiling in embarrassment.

Kitty gave me her biggest grin as she noticed her brother squirming. He was about to tell me something when it happened.

Like most of the time my extraordinary ability or the superpower, how Aiden called it, had terrible timing.

And I panicked. I couldn’t move, Reece was too close and would notice if my standing arrangement was different from before. Or maybe he wouldn’t, but I didn’t want to test him.

I tried to stand as still as possible and tried to concentrate on something ahead of me. But I had to look at Reece instead because he was blocking my way. One of his arms was hanging loosely at his side and his other one was on his head, about to go through his hair. It kind of looked funny, even when the boy looked like a freaking model.

This family had great genes, I thought also thinking about Kitty.

Unfortunately time didn’t seem to pass by as I waited in the same posture. Even when the time didn’t pass by, it felt like it was lasting longer than normally.

Maybe I was just imagining things, was my last thought before everything went back to normal. Reece finished his movement and then looked at me oddly.

My heart started to beat faster at this. Did he notice something?

“I don’t have to answer your question. What are you even doing here?” he asked me like nothing had happened.

Letting out the breath I didn’t notice I was holding I answered him relieved. “I don’t have to answer yours either.” He didn’t notice anything.

Reece glared at me and I openly glared back at him. But I also heard him mumble, “Touché.”

But who did he think he was?

“I’m Reece Matthews,” he suddenly said mimicking me, by crossing his arms.

I only asked him dumbfounded by his words and like an idiot, “What?”

“That’s my name,” he told me like I was dumb and an amused expression formed on his face.

As I realized what I had done, my cheeks reddened and Reece was now giving me a full-blown grin.

“Whatever,” I said, pushing him out of my way, so I could leave this room.

He let me through, but asked me, “Where are you going?”

“Away from you,” I called over my shoulder, not turning around to face him. Instead I walked to his still grinning sister.

“It was nice to meet you, but I have to leave now,” I told her and to my surprise she hugged me tight.

“Thank you and I couldn’t have done it better, putting him in his place.” she whispered. But only her first words, so Reece could hear the rest. I smiled at her method, this would only piss her brother of.

I made a gesture with my hand after she released me to show her that this was nothing. Then I walked out of the room, but not before stealing a last glance at Reece. It wasn’t hard to see his face, because he was already staring at me, if I was a puzzle to be solved.

After I closed the door behind me, I walked as fast as possible to the first floor to search for Aiden. We had to leave immediately. Something just felt wrong, and I didn’t want my “power” to appear again any moment.

I found Aiden at the place where I left him, in the kitchen. When he noticed me looking for him, he knew at one look at my face that something was wrong. Before I could even blink, he was at my side and asked, “Hey, are you okay?”

I pulled him at his wrist to a corner of the room and he let me drag him there.

“My power, it happened again,” I whispered staring into his eyes. Normally it only appeared once in a month, but now it happened twice in one month. This had never happened before.

“At this place?” he asked shocked by my statement.

I only nodded and in one swift moment, Aiden got to work. First, he told me to stay where I was and not to go away and then he walked towards a few of his friends, leaving me behind.

A nervous mess replaced the controlled and chilled person I pretended to be in front of Kitty and Reece.

During Aiden talking to Liam and some others, I tried to not look suspicious and tapped my feed to the beat, like I was enjoining the music.

After what felt like a too long minute Aiden appeared again at my side and pulled me outside.

“I sorted everything out and told them, you didn’t feel well and we had to leave,” Aiden explained and I smiled at him thankfully. He was just the best.

Finally outside, we walked towards Aiden’s car and he drove us to my apartment.

On our way home I calmed down and told Aiden about Kitty and Reece.

“I didn’t know he had a sister,” he commented after I had told him the story with the siblings.

“Me neither,” I told him truthfully, thinking about the sweet young girl and her obstinate but attractive brother. They were quiet a due.

“But are you sure they didn’t notice anything?” My best friend questioned, as we were getting out of his car and walking into the apartment.

I thought about his question, remembering the situation, but then shook my head.

“No, I don’t think so.”

Arriving in front of my door, I didn’t have to invite Aiden to come in, because he already declared in the car, that he wouldn’t leave me alone tonight. He wanted to be there when something happened, even when I told, he couldn’t do anything, because he would be frozen too. But he didn’t listen and so I let him stay.

It was sweet that he cared, but I was safe in my apartment and nobody would notice anything. But again he was too stubborn, and I didn’t mind his company.

So we both changed into more comfortable clothes, which consisted of sweatpants and a large shirt. Aiden wore the clothes he stored at my place for an emergency.

After that the two of us laid down. He on my couch and I on my bed, wrapped up in blankets. Aiden also talked about the party and how he knew I would have fun. I knew he was trying to made me forget about the incident, so I smiled at him and let him talk.

We didn’t have to be quiet because my aunt was still at work and wouldn’t be home until four in the morning. She also wouldn’t be mad, seeing Aiden sleeping at our place, because she loved him as a son and he was always welcome.

After a while we stopped talking and Aiden fell asleep and a few minutes later I followed him into dreamland.

For the first time in years I dreamed about my mother. She was standing in front of me with a smile on her lips. Her wavy brown hair were tied neatly into a bun and showed her well structured face. High cheekbones, crystal blue eyes and pink lips.

She then mentioned me with her finger to follow her and of course I followed her instruction. We walked for a while in silence before we found ourselves next to a beautiful lake. The sun was reflecting the water, and I saw a duck family passing by.

Everything looked peaceful and suddenly my mum talked. “I miss you,” she told me with a sad smile and I wanted to tell her, that I missed her too. But abruptly the scenery in front of me as well as my mother disappeared and was replaced by my room.

It was dark, but I still could see something, because of the moonlight that was streaming through the curtains. Even my best friend was in my dream, sleeping peacefully on my velvet couch.

I knew I was still dreaming because it was too quiet and Aiden wasn’t snoring. I laughed mentally Aiden always snored and didn’t want to admit it.

But why was I dreaming of my bedroom? Questioning what was going on, I tip toed towards the dream Aiden and shook him awake by his shoulder. Maybe he could answer my questions.

“What is going on?” he asked me yawning tiredly and rubbing on his eyes.

“I actually wanted to ask you the same thing,” I answered him crouching next to him. He looked at me like I had grown a second head and then mentioned at my bed.

“Go back to sleep Celia, you are acting weird.”

“But I’m already sleeping,” I told him frowning. Aiden sat now upright at my words and stared at me.

“Are you sleepwalking?” he asked knocking on my head lightly.

Annoyed I pushed his hands away and said, “No, I’m dreaming or how do you explain the silence? Or why the clock isn’t working anymore?” I added after I noticed it.

Aiden was now silent and looked with wide eyes around the room as if any moment somebody would appear and murder him.

“No Celia you are hundred percent not dreaming and I don’t know, what is going on,” he stuttered after looking at the still standing clock.

I was taken back by his sentence and realized that he was telling the truth. Immediately I got up and looked panicked around. Aiden followed my movement and the both of us stared around my room, but nothing was happening.

“The time is standing still,” my best friend suddenly screamed out loud, but instead of looking afraid, he was more excited. I on the other hand wasn’t excited. How was this possible?

“But you are awake and not frozen, like everything else,” I stated not understanding the world anymore.

“Maybe it is a new power of yours,” he exclaimed, walking around the room and smiling to himself.

“Maybe,” I mumbled and watched Aiden’s movements.

“Wow, this is what happens once in a month with you?” He asked and I only nodded, trying to figure out, why Aiden wasn’t frozen in time. But nothing I came up with seemed realistic.

Suddenly I heard a noise and looked to my side, to see the clock ticking again. Relieved I sighed and Aiden did the same, but more of disappointment.

“That was really weird,” I said with a frown and let myself fall on my bed.

“But interesting,” my best friend added sitting next to me.

After that we didn’t go back to sleep. First because I was sure, I couldn’t fall asleep again and second, because Aiden wouldn’t shut up. So we discussed and made theses why he was suddenly involved in my extraordinary ability. But in the end we didn’t come up with anything plausible.

And before we knew where we were, the sun was rising and my aunt knocked on my door and asked what we wanted for breakfast.