True Colors (The Masks #1)(22)

I followed his pointing finger and took in the guy about ten yards away. He was good-looking and knew it. His smile was near blinding as he chatted to a perky blonde who didn’t know how to stand still. She kept bouncing on her toes as she talked.

Taking a breath, I studied their faces. “He’s into her.”

“Obviously.”

“But he doesn’t want to be. I mean he does, but he feels guilty, like he shouldn’t be flirting. They’re not a couple. He’s hitting on her, because she talked to him first. She’s totally into him. Like stalker into him. She’s...” I paused.

“What?”

“She’s scared he’s going to reject her and she doesn’t know if she can handle it. She’s doing everything she can to impress him. I don’t know why, it’s almost warped, like maybe he reminds her of someone or she’s trying to make up for something.”

I looked back at the guy and felt angry as I watched him touch her cheek. His eyes were filled with that hungry lust Stella studied Eric with. I squeezed Eric’s hand and made a move to turn away.

“Wait.” He pulled me back around. “Keep looking at them.”

“I don’t want to.” I frowned. “Why’s he feeling guilty? He’s probably got a girlfriend already, one he cares about...sort of. With this girl, he’s after one thing and she’s after everything. She’s gonna end up hurt. It just makes me sad...and annoyed.”

“I know.” His sincere look was so sweet I didn’t want to pull my eyes away from it. “But keep looking at them. I want you to try something.”

I turned back with a huff. “What?”

“Put the layers back on.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the longer you looked at them, the more you saw, so just put back what you saw.”

I’d never thought about it that way. I guess I'd kind of done it accidentally a few times when the power first hit me. One big blink had seemed to reset my vision. I closed my eyes and tried to picture them the way I originally saw them and opened my eyes, but no luck. The masks slipped away in a nano-second and I was back seeing open emotions that hurt to look at.

“I can’t do it. I can't hold onto the image. Tell me what you see right now.”

“I see a guy flirting with a girl who obviously likes him.”

I closed my eyes again and tried to empty my brain of anything I'd already seen. Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes and gazed at the couple, willing the snapshot to hold.

“I see it.” I grinned, but it didn’t last long. The layers started falling away and I was once again back to guilt and desperation. “I’m losing it.”

“Don’t.” Eric squeezed my hand. “Hold on to it. Put the layers back on, but don't close your eyes this time. Try to do it while you're looking at them.”

Squinting my eyes, I ordered my brain to see what I'd first captured. Painfully slowly the guilty expression morphed to one of carefree flirting and the girl’s desperation eventually ebbed back to pleasure.

“How’s it going? Is it working?”

“Yeah, yeah I guess so. I’m trying to work backwards. It's really hard, but I think I can see what you're seeing now.”

“Excellent.” Eric spun to face me. “So if you can do that, then you just need to focus on what you see first...before that mask slips off. I know you only get a second to take it in, but if you can practice holding on to what you see in that second, then you can put that back on and not be swamped by all these emotions and secrets. Do you think you can do that?”

I nodded, feeling calm for the first time in days. A smile crept over my lips and I nodded again.

Eric's solemn gaze made my smile slip a fraction.

"Caity, I'm not helping you so that you can ignore this amazing talent." He squeezed my shoulder. "I just want to give you a strategy that will stop you from bolting to Wyoming. You're gonna have to face this at some point."

"I know." I nodded, not wanting to hear it right now, but knowing that he was right, and he would want me to agree.

His gorgeous eyes studied me for a beat too long before he was finally satisfied. My steady gaze must have put him at ease, because he eventually grinned. “Okay, cool, let’s go practice on someone else then.”





Chapter 10




Eric pulled me around campus for the next hour, working my brain and eyes until they were aching. By six o’clock, I’d managed to read and unread eight more people. I saw nothing sinister, just little secrets, and it was refreshing to find that at least one of those eight had nothing to hide. It gave me hope in humanity, if only for a moment.

As a thank you, I took Eric out to dinner. He wasn’t happy at all about me paying, but I could be stubborn when I wanted to be. He then told me the only place he wanted to eat was In-N-Out Burger. I thought that was a lie and he was just trying to save me spending too much on him, but he was telling the truth. So we sat at In-N-Out Burger dining on fries animal style and juicy, beef burgers.

I slurped up the last of my vanilla shake, making a ridiculous noise. Biting my lips together, I pushed the cup away from me, willing my cheeks not to turn red yet again.

Eric grinned. “So, you feeling better?” He wiped his hands on a napkin and balled it up.