Free Into the Deep by Lauryn April

beating just by thinking it. It was in that moment that I realized I could choose not to hear the voices. I just had to will my body not to. I simply hadn’t known how to do that before, and I still wasn’t sure that I knew it then, but I did know it was possible and that I could figure it out.
     Ivy , I heard.
     If he had thought it or said it aloud I didn’t know. What I did know was that it brought me out of my meditative state. My eyes burst open and I felt like I’d come crashing down from the cloud I’d been sitting on to land ungracefully on hard cement. I suddenly felt like my bones were made of lead, and I took a deep breath to calm myself. Brant stood in my room and my eyes narrowed in on him. He stepped toward me and shut my bedroom door behind him.
     “What are you doing here?” I asked him.
     He held up a green spiral notebook, “Psych homework,” he said and threw the notebook into my lap, “wouldn’t want you to fall behind.”
     I stared at him skeptically.
     “’Kay fine,” he caved, “I was wondering how you were doing with,” he held his hands up to his head and wiggled his fingers, “the thing. You weren’t in class so…”
     “So you were… what, worried about me?”
     “ Please , I’m… mildly interested in your… weirdness.”
     “Gee, thanks, but seeing as I don’t care about keeping you entertained with my freak-show abilities, you can leave.” I stood up then grabbing the notebook, tossing it onto my bed.
     “Hey, come on now, don’t be like that.”
     “And how should I be? The only reason you’re talking to me is because you think I’m weird. Before this you were just that guy that got out of trouble ‘cause his daddy’s a big shot lawyer and screwed over one of my best friends.”
     His eyes narrowed, “What did Tiana tell you?”
     “Does it matter?”
     His lips thinned. “Look, I realize you don’t think very highly of me, and I realize that’s because I’ve… well I’ve given you reason not to think very highly of me. But I’m realizing that there’s a lot more to you then I used to think, and I’m not just talking about the mind reading thing. You’re not just some goody two shoes sheep following around Christy Noonan, you’ve got a mind of your own, you’re willing to stand up for your friends. You’re willing to leave Christy alone on a beach when she’s being a pushy bitch. Yeah, I heard about that, gossip you know.
     “I’m just saying. Maybe there’s more to me than you used to think too.”
     I sighed. He looked at me with bottomless eyes that were a turbulent blue. His expression was hopeful and he pursed his lips for a moment.
     “You haven’t told anyone else about what you can do?”
     “They wouldn’t understand,” I said and he nodded. “They wouldn’t believe me.”
     “No, they wouldn’t, but I do. Maybe you think I’m a dick and feel like you can’t trust me, but I haven’t told anyone about anything that’s happened to you. That should count for something… So, it’s up to you. You can kick me out but you’ll be alone in this; or you can talk to me. I’m not gonna lie, yeah, I think this is strange and interesting, but at least you won’t be alone.”    
     I sighed and thought for a moment. Brant’s intentions were far from noble, but he was honest. I looked at him, his eyes searching me, eyebrows just slightly downward turned and his lips drawn thin. He was waiting in anticipation. I didn’t want to be dealing with this alone. I didn’t want to be dealing with this at all, and Brant wasn’t the person I wanted to share my thoughts with on the subject. But he was right about one thing. He was the only person I had who knew about my gift, and he didn’t think I was crazy.
     “Fine,” I said.
     He smiled a cocky grin then quickly wiped it from