Read Online Charcoal Tears by Jane Washington - Free Book Online Page A

forcing me to go with him, as I was still standing in front of him.
    “This is…” He trailed off, reaching out to touch the canvas. I snagged his hand, pulling it away from the painting.
    “It’s not dry,” I said.
    He tucked his arm around me again, and I tried to push down the alien feeling that accompanied it, but I was still on edge from the run-in with my father, and nervous sparks lit up in the pit of my stomach. Cabe stared at the painting for a long time, his brown hair falling over his eyes. He combed it back with his hand and slowly turned to face me. I melted in the golden-brown light of his eyes, relaxing back against the body behind me. Noah pulled me closer, his breathing changing against my hair, and Cabe’s eyes ran over my features, flicking back to the painting.
    “I see what you did,” he finally said.
    I’d never been so ashamed, or terrified, before in my life. These two strangers could see right through me, to the broken, weeping girl that curled inside. Had I let them do that? I didn’t even know.
    I started to tremble and Noah must have felt it.
    “It’s exceptional, don’t be embarrassed.” His voice rumbled through his chest, vibrating against my back.
    “You weren’t meant to see it.”
    “It’s what you looked like when you were playing games with us at Tabby’s house.” He laughed. “We’ve already seen it.”
    An answering sound of amusement fell out of me, causing the worried look to ease from the lines set into Cabe’s forehead. He stepped forward, blocking the painting out, and I relaxed further.
    “Sorry,” he offered. “Didn’t mean to pry.”
    “Yes you did.”
    His smile was brilliant, and for a moment I allowed myself to bask in it. Noah was a gravitational force, but Cabe was something pure and overwhelming, radiating happiness. They shouldn’t be in my garage, and I shouldn’t have let Noah put his arms around me. Did I have no regard for my own safety?
    Is it really so outlandish that they might simply like you? That they might want to be friends with you?
    Perhaps my own supernatural power had jaded me, and now it was all that I could see in these two boys. It was all I could feel when their arms brushed mine, when Noah pulled words from my tongue without me meaning to speak them, or even when Cabe cast his sunny smile upon a room and commanded attention with the easy snap of his fingers. 
    “Let Tariq drive himself tomorrow,” Cabe said, inching closer. “We’ll pick you up.”
    I hesitated, the bunching of muscle along my back and the pull of Cabe’s smile enough to cause an electric haze to descend in my head, itching uncomfortably along my consciousness and making me restless and drowsy all at once. I wondered why my electricity was trying to make an appearance, since nobody was directly threatening me.
    “I’ve got work tomorrow.”
    “Where do you work?”
    I didn’t want to answer, because I simply didn’t want them to know. The silence hung heavy in my small sanctuary, making the darkness outside even more ominous than it usually was. Cabe didn’t seem to mind, he was acting distracted. He gazed at my face, his eyes dipping gradually lower until he seemed to be staring at my lips, and then Noah grunted and swung me around.
    I found myself facing the outside of the garage.
    “It’s late,” Noah’s voice cracked, as though from sleep, and I wondered how long we had all been standing there quietly. “Time for you to go to bed.”
    I watched as they covered my painting, turned off the light and locked up the garage. Noah handed me the key and I hid it in the usual place. They walked me back to the house and I whispered goodnight before I slipped inside. When I looked out of my bedroom window, they had barely moved. They talked softly to each other, staring at my front door.
    I took a quick shower and fell into bed, locking my window and drawing the curtains for good measure.
    The next morning the boys weren’t there to pick me up,