Significance - Chapter Twelve

"This is so good, Rachel. Thank you," I said and then took another big bite of mashed potatoes.

The dining room was grand. The walls were a soft yellow with green floor tiles and a big oak table that could have easily sat ten. We all sat at one end together.

"Good, I'm glad you like it. It's one of Caleb's favorites."

"I can't believe how hungry I am," I mused.

"It's the echoling," Peter advised as he wiped his mouth with the white linen napkin and leaned back in his chair. "It drains you like I told you, but not only are you tired, but you're hungry. It also wouldn't hurt to drink some orange juice or take a vitamin when you get home."

"All that because a guy invaded my dream?"

"I'm afraid so. I'm sorry, Maggie, but unfortunately sometimes, we have to deal with these unpleasantries with our kind."

I nodded and sat back, stuffed. All I wanted to do right then was crawl back into bed with Caleb, but it was getting late and would be dark soon. I needed to get home if we were going to appease my father.

I looked at him and saw him watching me. When he saw he was caught, that dimple of his became more defined as his smile spread. He chuckled silently and I cracked a smile. But I didn't blush. Progress!

He leaned his elbows on the table. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah."

I thanked his parents again for dinner and everything else. Peter said he'd still be thinking about how to deal with the echoling and for me not to worry. He hugged me tight and then handed me off to Rachel who did the same.

"Be safe, dear."

I nodded and we walked to the bike slowly. As I was about to put my helmet on Caleb stopped me. "We can take my truck if you'd rather this time."

"Um...if you want to."

"You want to take the bike don't you?" he said smiling.

"Yeah," I admitted.

He laughed and helped me with my helmet. "You just keep getting better and better."

I shook my head at him as I slipped on his jacket and then climbed on behind him.

"You want to drive?" he asked suddenly.

"Uh...maybe, but not tonight. I don't want to add a timeline of pressure to my nerves if I'm going to be driving."

"Ok," he said amused, "next time."

We pulled out of the garage, then the gate and headed down the driveway to my house.

"So, if your uncle didn't teach you, how did you learn to play all those instruments?"

"Well, he wanted to teach me but I wanted to learn by myself. So I took piano lessons first, when I was six. Then my grandpa taught me to play guitar and the rest I just figured out on my own."

"Your grandpa. The one who looks so much like you?"

"Yeah, Grandpa Ray. He died four years ago."

"How?"

"Well...we aren't sure. Old age, I guess. Significants heal each other so we usually live a really long time. We never have to go to doctors or anything like that, except for babies. We just heal whatever's wrong without knowing it. But Grandpa Ray didn't wake up one morning. I mean, he was eighty five years old, but we usually live longer than that. We can see it coming, but him...it was just out of nowhere."

"I'm sorry," I said and saw in his mind that significants usually die together or nearly. For Gran to live this many years after him was unprecedented. I could feel his anguish, remembering Gran crying and inconsolable for months. I would have put my hand on his to draw those feelings away from him, but couldn't reach it on the handlebars so I improvised, needing to do something. I lifted the hem of his shirt and splayed my hand on his side. "I'm sorry," I repeated.

"Thanks." He pulled my hand in front of him, laced our fingers, his palm on the top of my hand. "It's ok. We still don't know what happened, but we just accepted it was his time. But now, with this echoling thing...I'm starting to wonder if maybe that had something to do with it. He was our Champion before my dad."

"Wouldn't Gran have been sleeping with him though?"

"Well, Gran said she'd been working on his birthday present. She was making him a jacket and had worked on it a couple nights in a row, waiting for him to fall asleep first, so she wasn't with him. That's why she was so upset. She thought he had a heart attack or something and she wasn't there to heal him. She blamed herself."

"Caleb. That's terrible."

"But she got better. And if Dad hasn't thought of the echoling thing as a reason, maybe it's not possible. Maybe I'm just trying to make something out of nothing."

He didn't believe that, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to open Gran's wounds or not.

"You'll do what's right. You guys are lucky to be so close to each other, your family."

"Yeah, we are. Most clans are this way."

"So, you said your mom was part of another clan until she met your dad. How do you meet other clans? Do you have an Ace's convention or something?"

He laughed and I was happy that the sadness of his grandparents was forgotten for now.

"Well...yeah, actually. Every year we get together in London. That's the central base for our kind. It's called reunification. Aces came over to America on the Mayflower, you know."

"Really?" I said intrigued.

"Nah." I bumped his back as he laughed. "But we did migrate here and all over the world over the years. We all make a trip for one week, every year, to London and get together to keep in touch and see the new couples, new babies. All the clans go, or use to, even rival ones."

"I bet you have a lot of imprints that week," I mused.

"Kind of. Imprints are a private thing and mostly, you won't imprint in front of anyone else, or at least not in front of someone you don't know well. Most of the imprints happen when they are saying goodbye, or when they meet up later for a visit or something. We've all known each other since birth so, it's not usually like it was with you and me, where we've never met before."

"I bet there's a line a mile long of Ace girls who hate me now," I joked.

"I doubt that." He laughed. "Kyle is the ladies man, not me."

"I don't believe that. I think you just don't know the effect that you have on people."

He sighed in embarrassment. I saw glimpses in his mind of a big golden room and him being followed by girls of all ages throughout the days when he was in London. Then he pushed it away.

"Well, anyway. That's where my parents met, even though they both were from Tennessee. They got together after the reunification for a bi-family lunch and that's when it happened. Some of the clans that are close in geography will get together sometimes."

"So are there like...rituals they're going to try to perform on us at this thing?"

He laughed. "We're clans, Maggie, not covens."

"Ok," I conceded. "So is there like a million people there?"

"Nope. There's really not that many of us, only about three hundred around the world. There are three families here in Tennessee. There are two more families in the United States, in Chicago, and then two in London, one in Sydney, Australia, two in Paris, and one in Prague."

"Wow."

"Yeah. Some of the other families are a little eccentric, but for the most part, they're all pretty normal and want to seem as human as possible and with loads of cash of course." I laughed and he did too. "The next reunification is in six weeks, right before school starts back."

"Will I go to this with you?" I asked and felt timid about it, like I didn't belong or something.

"Of course you will, you're family. We'll work something out with your dad by then. From what I hear through my gossiping aunts, everyone in London is pretty anxious to meet you."

"Why? Because no one has imprinted in a long time?"

"Yes, that but also because you're human. There are only three humans imprinted out of three hundred people. You, Gran and a man named Philippe. He's a genius. He can name any capitol of any city in the world."

"What's his ability?"

"That is his ability. He can remember anything. He brings new meaning to the phrase photographic memory. Anything you say to him, he'll remember after only hearing it once. He's a walking dictionary."

"Hmm. That'd be useful."

"Yeah. I'd kill for that one for mid-terms."

"Ditto. So, I'm gonna be a freak show on display at this reunion thing, right?"

"Reunification. And no, you won't be a freak," he soothed and swirled his thumb over my knuckles. "They're just happy for us and hoping that the imprints are coming back. There are a lot of single people out there, but the other clans don't have the no-dating rule like us. A bunch of them have married since this whole thing started, without imprints. Now, I think they're afraid the imprints are coming back and they'll imprint on someone else. A lot of these people have kids and stuff."

"Hmmm, wow." I didn't know what else to say.

"Yeah. But don't worry about the reunification. Everybody's great. You'll see for yourself and I can't wait to go. I hope this is the start of something for our kind. They've been worried for too long."

The rest of the ride was cold but I could feel his warmth through his shirt. I leaned my helmeted head on his back and held on as I tried to relax and not get worked up again about everything. It didn't work a few times. Thoughts would creep in about how impossible it all seemed. I mean, I couldn't go to sleep. What was I supposed to do? And what about this reunification thing? I didn't like crowds and he was talking about a crowd of three hundred all staring at me like I was somehow the answer to all their problems.

But he would touch my hand, rubbing my knuckles with his, when these thoughts took over and I'd be instantly brought back down. Once he even brought his hand over his shoulder to caress my neck. I didn't remember Chad ever being like this.

Chad kissed me, yeah, but not hungry kisses. We never used tongues, they were more like pecks. He touched me, but it was just hand holding. He never caressed my face, never tried to go up my shirt or under my skirt, never tried to have sex with me. He never even kissed my neck, ever. And I realize I should be grateful for those things, for him not pushing me too far, but he should have wanted to do those things, right? I mean he didn't even try, he never talked about it, and I never saw passion in his eyes when he looked at me.

I hadn't realized what it was I was missing until Caleb.

So when we pulled up in front of my house to see Chad sitting on my front steps, I was more than a little blown away.

Caleb tensed when he saw him, then he pushed down the kick stand. I climbed off and let him help me take off my helmet but I kept the jacket.

"I have no idea what he's doing here," I whispered.

"I'm sure I have a pretty good idea," he muttered as he took his helmet off. "You want me to go?"

"No," I said quickly and then smiled at his smug smile.

"Well, at least there's that."

We walked up to the walkway. I grabbed Caleb's hand as he was giving me space. He didn't want to seem like he was claiming me or grandstanding that we were together now, though, in his thoughts, that's exactly what he wanted to do.

"Chad."

"Mags," he said and glared at Caleb.

I was shocked. Chad was never aggressive. He was nice to everyone and he never thought twice when someone else looked at me before. Why now?

"What's up?" I asked and he looked at me, his expression softening a little. "What are you doing here?" I asked, not unkindly.

"I wanted to come see you before I left to set up my apartment in Gainesville," he stated and glanced at Caleb nervously. Then he sighed. "I was hoping we could talk."

"Well," I said and didn't know what else to say.

"My dad is letting me go alone for two weeks to get settled in and then I'll come back to pack. I leave in a few days." He clucked his tongue. "Maybe we can go get something to eat?"

"I already ate at Caleb's house."

He scoffed. "So, first Kyle, now this guy? What are you doing, Maggie?" he asked sweetly, like it was an intervention or something.

"Chad, this is Caleb. Caleb, Chad."

"Hey," Caleb said smoothly, but Chad ignored him.

"Caleb is Kyle's cousin. I wasn't on a date with Kyle that night."

"It sure looked like one to me."

"Well, it wasn't. It's always been Caleb."

"Can we talk," he said exasperated and glanced at Caleb again. "Alone."

"I'd rather not."

"Maggie," Caleb said and pulled me a little bit away. "Maybe you should talk to him."

"What?" I scoffed. "Why?"

"Because you need to fix whatever it is that's wrong with you guys and this way, he'll go to school and not feel like he needs to apologize anymore. He feels guilty."

"He should," I insisted and felt my heart spike.

"I know," he insisted and framed my face with his hands. I sighed. "I'm not saying you should forgive him and run away into the sunset." He chuckled. "I'm saying it would be better for both of you if you have some - at the risk of sounding cheesy - closure."

"I guess," I conceded, "but I don't want you to go."

"I'll just go wait at Kyle's and let you guys talk for a while. Then I'll come back as soon as he leaves. Give me your cell."

I handed it over and he pulled his out, too. After a few seconds of pressing buttons he gave it back. "There, now I'm in yours and you're in mine. I can't believe I didn't have my soul mate's phone number," he said jokingly.

"Yeah, pretty crazy," I said and wanted to feel happy and secure like he did, but I just couldn't.

"Maggie," he said softly and I looked up at his face. "Are you scared to be with him?"

"No. He wouldn't hurt me."

"Then you're scared of Marcus? I'll be right back. You won't have to worry about falling asleep without me-"

"No, it's not that. I just don't want to do this with him right now. He's leaving and he doesn't want to leave with me mad at him, but if not for that, he wouldn't be apologizing to me right now."

"Hmm. I'm sure it's more than that," he insisted. "I'll be three minutes away. If it gets too bad just call for me and I'll come running."

I cocked a brow at him. "Why do you think he's here?"

He looked at me closely. "I think he saw you with Kyle and freaked. He's never seen you with anyone else and it made him jealous. I think he's coming to ask you to work it out with him, to give the long distance thing a shot or come to Florida with him for school."

"Nuhuh. He wouldn't ask that."

"We'll see," he mused.

"You're not worried?"

He shook his head. "Nah," he said, but looked at me crookedly. "Should I be?"

I smiled and shook my head. "Nuhuh. No way."

He smiled and pressed his face to mine. Once again, noses, foreheads and cheeks touching, lips so close, not even an inch between them. His hand came up to my cheek. I breathed him in and nuzzled his nose with mine.

"I want to. So bad," he whispered.

"Then why don't you?" I whispered back. I knew we were talking about the ever out-of-reach kiss.

"I told you I'd let you set the pace."

"You've been waiting on me?" I realized that was exactly what he'd been doing. He never did anything I didn't want to. He never pushed me to do more. Every time he'd pressed his face to mine, he had been waiting on me to close the distance.

"I never wanted it to be said that I pushed you into anything," he said and leaned back a little to look at me.

"I wouldn't think that," I insisted.

"I know, but you already gave up so many choices. I wanted you to have the choice as to when and if we kissed or not."

"If?"

"Yeah."

"So, if I never kiss you, you'll be perfectly fine with that?" I teased.

"Well," he grimaced, "not perfectly fine, but I'll live." He smiled. "I just want you to be happy, Maggie."

This was it, I was going to kiss him. I got closer, licked my lips. He saw and I enjoyed his reaction as he sucked in a breath. I smiled and really liked the idea that I could cause him to be so shaken. He leaned down and put his lips against my ear, making me shiver.

"It wasn't my pulse that just jumped from 70 to 120," he said smugly in response to my thought.

I smiled wider and laughed softly, tipping my head to him in agreement. Then I put my hands on his upper arms and pushed myself up on my tiptoes, feeling his nose against mine and...remembered Chad sitting on my steps. I turned and saw him eying us with clear disdain and disgust.

I pulled back with a sigh and heard Caleb do the same. "I'm sorry, Caleb. I forgot all about him."

"It's ok. I'll take that as a compliment."

I reached up and kissed his cheek, almost the corner of his mouth really, right on his dimple. "See you in a little bit?"

"Yeah," he said gruffly and nodded.

"I don't plan on hashing this out for very long, so come back soon, ok?"

"You got it."

I turned to go to Chad and heard Caleb behind me. "Uh, Maggie?"

"Yeah?"

He looked a little embarrassed and smiled bashfully. "A little help here."

"What- Oh, really?" He needed me to release him, to help him leave. "But why?"

"The tables have turned. I guess since you're the one walking away this time, it's my turn to see what it feels like."

"And so far?" I joked.

"It sucks."

I laughed and so did he. I walked up to him closely and peered up at his face. He looked amused. "Caleb, I want you to go home and pine for me until I'm done with this other guy." He groaned and grabbed me around my waist making me laugh. "Ok, ok. Go to Kyle's and wait a while until I'm done here. Then come back and I'll be waiting for you."

He laid his head against mine, his hands on my hips. "I can do that," he said softly.

"Bye."

"Bye, gorgeous." He left with a crooked smile, his dimple flashing at me. I waved and turned to see a very pissed Chad.

"Took you long enough. You act like you'll never see him again," he spat as I made my way to him.

"Jealous?" I got right to the point as I heard the bike crank and drive away.

"Yes!" he yelled. "You never acted like that over me."

"And neither did you."

"Look," he stepped closer, "I wanted to talk to you, seriously. Can we go inside?"

"I'd rather not. Dad's acting weird," I said though I was cold, I just wrapped Caleb's jacket tighter around me.

"Since when do you ride motorcycles?"

"Since Caleb drives one."

"Where did you meet this guy anyway?"

"This guy goes to Tennessee, but he was in town for Kyle's grad party."

"You just met him the other night?" he asked loudly coming to stand in front of me. "You don't even know him, Maggie!"

"Yes, Chad, I just met him. Why do you care? What do you want to talk about?"

"Us," he admitted softly. He closed his eyes and put his hand behind his neck, sighing. "You were always just Maggie. I'd been with you forever. I didn't want things to change but when I thought about going to college without you, I didn't hurt." I looked at him sharply. "I'm gonna be honest, Mags. I knew I'd miss you but I wouldn't ache for you. I thought we'd still be friends, still talk and eventually...I don't know. So I figured it would be easier on you if I broke it off. But you totally did the opposite of what I expected and I've spent all year suffering for it."

He grabbed my jacket clad upper arms gently in his hands. I tried to pull away but he held me firm. I sighed and gave in.

"Look," he continued, "I know I messed up but I didn't see how much until you weren't there anymore. I missed you so much. I didn't expect that. I've wanted to get back together all year but you kept blowing me off so I figured I'd just wait until I left for college and you'd eventually come around. I never thought in a million years you'd start dating someone else."

"Why is that so hard to believe?"

"It's not- well it shouldn't have been. That's what I'm trying to tell you. I took you for granted. Everyone here knew you were mine this whole time. I knew no one would go after you. Kyle sure shocked me though. But I just thought you'd wait for me. That one day we'd be back together, where we belong."

I wanted to scream. Was this not exactly what I wanted not five nights ago? Was this not what I'd hoped and wished for? Once again his timing was horrible.

"Chad, I'm sorry. But I don't want that anymore."

"Come on, Mags. He doesn't know you." His hands moved up a little. "He doesn't fill up your life of seventeen years like I do. It's always been us. Can he remember every time you've ever been sick? Can he count how many bones you've broken? I used to throw mud at you when our parents took us to the beach when we were four, can that guy say that?"

"No. But that guy didn't dump me for college football either." Chad leaned his head back to look at the sky in frustration but I kept going. "He didn't dump me to save me from myself. Chad, he does things you never did. You never touched me, I mean really touched me. You never looked at me the way he does. You wanted nothing more than a comfort zone girlfriend."

"I know that and I was an idiot for not seeing what I had. All I want is a second chance. I can touch you, I want to," he insisted and reached for my face but I backed away.

"You can't, Chad, not now. I'm sorry that things ended up like this for you but I'm happy. Don't you want that for me?"

"I think you're angry at me and letting this guy come in and tell you everything you want to hear."

I wish I could tell him how wrong he was but it looked like I'd have to settle for looking like the sulky ex-girlfriend hell bent on a rebound relationship.

"I'm sorry, Chad. I've gotta go, ok? I promised I'd keep in touch and I will. I hope everything works out great for you at Florida."

I started to walk around him. I should have seen it coming but I didn't. He grabbed my arm to halt me and swung me around. His hands gripped my arms and his mouth came down on mine gently, but with force.

My mind screamed at me to make him stop. That little thing I'd felt when Kyle held my hand, that feeling that I was doing something wrong, was a full force assault on my senses now. I tried to push him away but he held me tight. He pulled me closer and opened my mouth with his, brushing his tongue against my teeth, searching. He groaned when he found my tongue. I was so confused. Chad had never kissed me like this, with passion and whole bodies, and now he was trying to prove a point.

That he could and he wanted to.

But I didn't.

I pushed him with all my strength but he held me still. I focused my mind and tried to think of something. My mind cleared a little and seemed to lead the way as he continued to press and when his hand came up to tug in my hair I knew I had to end it. I pushed the thought through to stop. I thought it red hot and angry for him to stop. Then he released me with a gasp and grabbed his lip.

"Did you bite me?" he said in shock.

"No," I answered and rubbed my lips, as if to rub him off.

"It felt like you...shocked me."

I held in my smug satisfaction, knowing I'd caused whatever it was he felt. I had no idea how but didn't doubt that I'd done something.

"I don't know, Chad. Maybe it was the universe telling you that you shouldn't keep kissing a girl once she tries to push you away."

He paled.

"That's not what- I wasn't. I just wanted to make you see that I do want you."

"And you did. Maybe if you'd kissed me like that last year, we'd still be together," I said softly and made my way to the door. I turned once. "I really do hope everything works out for you, but I'm happy where I am." And then I closed the door.

"Maggie Masters." I startled at the harshness of my father's voice. "I did not raise you to behave this way."

I turned on the light in the foyer and but didn't see him. So I peeked in the kitchen. He was standing at the sink in front of the window. Aha. So he saw Chad's little love display. Great.

"That was Chad, Dad, not me."

"You let him."

"Did you see what happened? Because if you did, you must have seen him grab me."

How was I being blamed for this?

"Maggie, I'm not just talking about Chad. You can't lead these boys on like this."

"What are you talking about?"

"You leave with one guy this morning and not too long after another boy comes by, the Jacobson boy, Kyle, and then tonight, Chad sat on the steps for over an hour waiting on you. You can't do this, it's not right."

"Ok. First, Caleb is the one, ok. He's the only one I'm interested in. Kyle is a friend. And Chad dumped me. How was I supposed to know he was sitting here waiting for me like that?"

"Ok," he conceded and sat in one of the chairs at the table. "So Caleb. What can I expect with you two?"

"I don't know what you mean?" I asked as I jumped to sit on the counter.

"I mean are you going to get silly about him and try to follow him to college or something."

I sat and looked at him. There was no point in lying. He couldn't stop me from seeing Caleb; it was literally life or death.

"Maybe. I haven't decided yet."

"So...being boy crazy is what it's gonna take to get you to go to college?" he said dryly and his mouth turned up in amusement.

"What?" I asked, stunned by his question.

He actually seemed happy about the idea.

"You always had such big plans until last year, always had good grades, I assumed you'd go but after this year I wasn't sure if you still wanted to or not. You've barely made it to high school everyday, let alone thinking about college."

"I do want to," I admitted, "but no college is going to accept me, Dad. I blew it."

"Well, you won't know for sure until you try."

"So. You're saying you won't have a problem if I enroll at Tennessee with Caleb next semester?"

"Well, you won't be enrolling with him, you'll be enrolling in the college that he happens to attend, one year ahead of you. But yes, I'm saying, I wouldn't have a problem with that. In fact, I'd be thrilled for you to go to college. That is if Caleb doesn't mind you tagging along, of course."

"He won't mind," I said grinning.

"Well, still, I think I'll have a talk with him. I planned to anyway if you're going off to college alone together. He needs to know the boundaries-"

"I get it, Dad. You want to put him through the ringer about my virtue and respectability, sex and parties and staying at his place. I get it. I understand. Go ahead."

He scoffed and sat looking at me like I was blue or something. "Ok," he finally said.

"Ok," I agreed. I jumped off the counter and bent to kiss his cheek. "Goodnight. Love you, Daddy."

"Love you, too, baby girl."