Secrets and Relationships

Someone came up behind me and covered my eyes. "Guess who?" Luca whispered. I laughed, "Gee, let's see..." He came around and kissed my cheek. "Oh come on, you could at least pretend." He sat on the table next to me.

"Whatcha doin' there?" he asked. I quickly shut my notebook. "Just some class notes." He gave me a quizzical look. "Mm Hm." "What?" "You know, we've been dating for what,-" "Two years." He laughed, "Right. Two years. In two years not once have you ever let me look in that notebook." "I've let you look in my notebooks." "No I mean that notebook." "You know Luca, some things are just better left kept to ourselves."

He squinted at me, but let it go. "So, did you wanna go to the lake party tomorrow?" "Yea, totally. Did you wanna meet there or drive together?" I asked. "It's up to you. I'm good doing whatever." "I'll meet you there. I'm not sure what time I'll end up being able to leave." "Okay."

The bell rang. I packed up my things and we walked together to class.

I felt horrible not telling Luca. But like I said, some things are just better left kept to ourselves.

******

"Come on Zara. Try." "I am trying." "Try harder!" Dad pulled the lever and a clay pigeon shot out. I screamed as I blasted lightning at it, shattering it into a million pieces. "See? You did it." I glared at him. "Don't give me that look." "Why do I have to do this?" "Zara, if you don't learn to control this, you will hurt someone." "But why this? Why not my fire or water or something else?" "Zara..." Dad sat on the log nearby. "Lightning is the most dangerous form your emotions can take. If you get upset, you will hurt someone." "But it's never come out before." "That's because you were younger. This won't come through until you're older." He stood back up and came toward me. "Fight me." "Dad, come on. I've got a party to go to. Can't we just be done?" He blasted me over the edge of the cliff. I caught myself with a bed of rocks. I came back up and shot flames at him. "STOP!" "WE DON'T STOP UNTIL I SAY WE STOP! IF YOU WANT TO GO TO YOUR LITTLE PARTY THEN BEAT ME!!" We went at each other with everything we had. It didn't take long before I had had enough. I jumped in the air and came down on him with bolts of lightning in my hands. I pinned him and it went through his chest.

When he stopped trying to fight back, I stopped. I stood over him. He propped himself up on his elbows. "Are you done?" "Are you?" He looked me up and down. "Don't let anyone see your marks at the party." He said. I looked down at my arms. I had scars going down my arms in a lightning pattern. "Stop calling them marks. They're scars."

******

I met Luca at the lake. It looked like the whole school was there. We took our sweaters off and left them in the bed of my truck. "Woah. Zara what happened to you?" I looked at myself. The scars were still pink and ran farther than I thought. From my collar bone, down to my wrists, down my back, down to my waist.

I tried to play it off. "What? You've seen me with these before." "Not that many. Last time they were on your wrists. What happened?" "You know what? I haven't worn my swimsuit in a while. I probably have some weird reaction to it. Don't worry, it'll fade once we get in the water I bet." "Okay..." "Come on." I grabbed his hand. "I smell BBQ burgers and I'm starving." He laughed and rolled his eyes.

We went to the lake shore and found a spot for our things. "I'm gonna go get food. Are you hungry?" I asked. "No, I ate earlier." "Okay." I jogged over to the food table and grabbed a plate. Once I had food piled on, I went back to our spot. I stopped a few feet away when I saw Abigail standing next to Luca. She was in the skimpiest swimsuit she could find. I rolled my eyes. Oh gag me. I went up to them and sat next to Luca. "Hey babe, they had watermelon over there so I got you some." I said and handed him the bowl. "Oh sweet. Thanks honey." Abigail scoffed and left.

Luca put his head on my shoulder and sighed, "Thank you." I laughed. "That bad? What'd she say this time?" He popped a piece of watermelon in his mouth. "She wouldn't stop talking about her swimsuit and how 'it was just the only one she could find the even flattered her figure'." he said in a goofy voice. "Like, dude, I don't care." I laughed. I watched her play in the water for a moment. I would get so grounded for this. I wiggled my fingers and brought a huge wave of water crashing on top of her and her friends.

She squealed in irritation. Luca and I chuckled. "Hey, did you hear on the news about that storm going on outside of town?" I whipped my head toward him. "No. What happened?" "Nothing really. It was just a random lightning storm. It lasted like, all morning until about an hour before you left your house." "Wow. That's weird." I calmly set my plate down. "I'm gonna go get some more soda. Do you want anything?" I asked. "Uh, sure. Surprise me." "Okay."

I took my cup with me. Once I was out of his sight, I called Dad. "Hello?" "Dad we can't go out to that spot anymore." "Why?" "Luca just told me that he heard about a freak lightning storm that happened outside of town today." "Okay. I'll see what I can find out." I hung up and went and got our drinks. Well maybe if he wouldn't piss me off to the point that I have to use my powers we wouldn't have this problem, I thought.

I got back to Luca and handed him a cup of sprite. "You're still on your no caffeine week right?" I asked. He sighed, "Yea. Last day though, woo hoo." He said unenthusiastically. I chuckled. I just looked at him for a moment. Dad was convinced someday I was going to hurt him and have to break up with him. No way. I could never. And he would never hurt me. I laid my head on his shoulder and drifted off.