Awaken | ✔️

5. Illusions

A few days later when I roamed the school halls with Tab, I couldn't get out of my mind what had happened. I hadn't felt sick again, except for the nagging anxiety in the back of my mind at the thought of confronting Cecilia about her lies. The hallucination was the least of my worries. I'd convinced myself it had everything to do with how sick I'd been and nothing to do with Clark's presence.

Luckily, I had two free periods at the beginning of the day, which meant I didn't have to come to school until later in the day. I only had one class before lunch, and it was with Tab, making it even more bearable.

Reaching our lockers, Tab leaned against hers as she waited for me to get my books out. "How did the research go this weekend?" She used one finger to push up the glasses on the edge of her nose. Usually she wore contacts, but today she wore red glasses and a black scarf as well to accessorize her boring uniform. If she knew how to do anything, it was stand out and look good doing it.

I wasn't quite sure how to answer. Oh, I don't know, I found out my parents were eerily murdered and that I'm actually from an original family in town, I thought sarcastically.

"My mom is helping me with most of it," Tab started when I kept silent. "She's got access to lots of things because of my dad, so she's happy to help, since she wants me to learn more about the town history anyways." She flipped her hair over her shoulder and smiled. Today the blond strands were loose and straight, completely natural.

I rolled my eyes. "I feel like we already know all there is to know about Fallen Hills." The town's history had been drilled into us for years, from the founding to all the important events. "Cecilia wasn't much help, of course. Clark was able to get me into the archives at the library though, where I found a lot of interesting things." I coughed once. I had forgotten I hadn't told her yet about my experience with Clark at the library, and I was sure she would scold me for leaving that out of our conversations over the weekend.

"Clark McCarley?" she blurted, shock ebbing in her voice. Her eyes widened. "I wasn't sure he was being serious about his offers last week."

I shrugged. "He just happened to be there when I was, and he offered to get me in the archives when the librarian wouldn't, since he already had pre-approved access," I said, attempting to play it off. I wasn't actually sure if he'd gotten approved or not since he'd been so forward about it, but I wasn't going to tell Tab about my weird suspicions. "Do you think it's a bit weird how he's been so interested in the last week?"

"Well, maybe he's just being nice." She shrugged as we walked through the hall. "I wouldn't complain, though. Why can't he help me with my homework?" She let out a huff of breath and rolled her eyes.

I nodded in agreement, though I still felt like it was odd, especially what had happened in the archives. I wanted to tell her about everything that had happened. The way his touch made electricity form under my skin. How when I closed my eyes color appeared behind my eyes. There was something in the back of my mind telling me to withhold the information. He had found a picture of both of our parents, though, and that could be just a good enough reason to start talking to me.