~18~ All at Once

(Joey’s POV)

“No one gets it, you know?” Angel continued.

“Well I’m sorry you feel that way, but there’s nothing you can do,” I said to her in a quiet voice as I continued to look down at the pool’s water, where our feet dipped into. I moved my foot in a circular motion and the water swirled around it in the opposite direction. I was controlling my powers easier now than with heated emotion.

Apparently this compassion triggered my powers in the first place. And all it took was her telling me about how it she hated what her and her best friend, Lulu, was going through all because of Zac of all people. The thought of him made me sick and the water stopped.

It continued to swirl only when my heart skipped a beat when Angel leaned her head on my shoulder.  

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“No problem,” I said back as I laid my head on hers. “Even though you go back to your school on Monday, I’ll still be here for you.”

He stopped leaning on my shoulder and I looked over to her. I searched her face and then started to lean in.

I pressed my lips to hers and a sensation started to rise within my body. I kissed her and she kissed back, thankfully. I wanted to laugh in the kiss, but I started to open my eyes when I would pull away and then saw the entire pool rising. How the h3ll do I think hated thoughts when I’m kissing her, so the pool would drop?! I put my hands on her waist and pulled her on top of my lap, so that if the kiss was lifted, she wouldn’t see the pool.

But only, when the kiss was broken, it was because her phone was ringing. She ran her hand through her hair to get it out of her face as she looked down to her phone and sat on my hips. Then, she held her phone up to her ear.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered to someone. “Zac—calm down. Zac—Zac! Tell me what’s wrong…”

Zac.

The pool dropped quietly at the thought of him.

Angel started to climb off of me, causing me confusion. She was leaving.

“I’m sorry. I really have to go…” she told me. I sighed and hung my head. She grabbed the front of my hair and pulled it lightly so where I’d look up at her. She gave me a puppy-dog face. “I’m sorry.”

“Prove it,” I challenged. She connected her lips with mine and then pulled away. With my eyes still closed, I replied: “I’m not convinced.”

She started to giggle and kissed me once more, wrapping her arms around my neck. Her phone started to ring again and she sighed when she parted from me, but then looked down at her phone. I covered the screen with my hand.

“Screw Zac,” I figured, not wanting her to go.

“It’s not him,” she said as she continued to read something and stood up. She looked down to me.

“Hello?” she answered her phone. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Lulu. I can’t…fine…whatever—no. I can’t just go—”

I took the phone from her.

“This is Joey,” I told her. “Angel will be there shortly.”

“Uh…thanks,” I heard a girl sniffle. I hung up her phone handed it back to her.

“I’ll deal with Zac,” I smiled, convincingly. She gave me a confused look, but I reached over to grab her hand and tow her to my car so I could drive her to Lulu’s.

***

“Who the h3ll is this?!” I heard Zac yell over the phone.

“Where are you?” I asked, the dark night’s bright lights bounding off of the hood of my car and shading over my vision. I heard Zac scoff. “Don’t make this difficult, bro. Just tell me where you are.”

He sighed and then decided to tell me where he was. I put the address into my phone’s GPS and it brought me to a dusted old, deserted junk yard. I parked my car and looked to see flames dancing off of some hoods of cars. I also heard profanity to go up with each fire.

“What’s up?” I greeted. Zac sized me up as flames danced behind him.

“What are you doing here?” he spat.

“We’re united, remember?” I smirked at Devin’s words. “And if there’s a chance at a wild fire starting, I can put it out."

“I can control it,” he said, another flame sparking in his hand now. He was angry. I took a seat on a front seat of a junk car, but there wasn’t really a metal car frame around it. Just the seats.

“Obviously,” I smirked with sarcasm. He kept blowing up cars. “Now, what’s wrong?”

“Where’s Angel?” he asked immediately, turning to me and putting out the fires.

“I don’t see why that matters—”

“Cuz I know you were with her earlier,” he stated. I shrugged.

“I told her to go help Lulu and I’d help you,” I informed. He literally threw a fire ball at me this time.

“Why the h3ll would you do that!?” he yelled at me as I patted the tiny sparks. I stood up.

“You rather her see this?!”

“We both know that if she was here, I wouldn’t even be able to do that!” he yelled. “And she needs to know about me—”

“No,” I denied. I didn’t want her to find out. About me, or Zac, or even Brian. I didn’t even want her finding out that Devin gave the drug to anyone.

“Scared that she won’t love you then?” he hissed at me. I shook my head. He’s so stupid…

“What do you think you’ll do when she finds out? She’s gonna have to choose between you, me, and Brian. You think she wants that—”

“She already had to choose! She already chose!” he exclaimed with reason. “She’s not choosing Brian again and it’s obvious that she’s your girlfriend so then that’s it. Alright? That’s it. She likes you for you, so then do the right thing by telling her who you really are.”

“No,” I replied quietly. She won’t accept.

“I know Angel. If she likes you, she’ll continue to like you because she sees past what most people don’t,” he stated, now in a calmer voice. “Maybe she’ll even love you for it, seeing as she loves water and all…”

“Why are you helping me?” I asked him, confused.

“I’m not,” he said, backing up. “I’m helping her.”