Free Glimmer by Stacey Wallace Benefiel, Valerie Wallace Page B

taking my elbow and leading me around a pointy rock that jutted up in our path.  “You look like you didn’t sleep for shit.”
    I pulled the hood on my parka over my head.  “That’s because I didn’t.”
    “Thinking about Avery, or something else?” 
    He was being awfully nice to me and it wasn’t his fault that my life sucked big time.  I attempted to act cordial.  “I was thinking about Avery.” I blushed, his dream popping into my head. “About our situation.  I just wish I could--”
    “Find a way to be together without him dying the way you saw?  You are definitely not the first Retroact to wish that.”
    “ You wanted to stay with your trigger too?” I said, surprised.  Ben wasn’t what I thought of as romantic or faithful, that’s for sure.
    “Of course I did,” he said, chuckling. “It’s devastating for all of us, not only you and your mom, you know.”
    Great, now I felt like a butthole. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply--”
    “That I’m an unfeeling man-slut?” He chuckled again, shaking his head. “You remember what my trigger’s name was?”
    “Yeah, Connor, whose sister Kiely ‘was kinda hot too’ if I remember your exact words,” I said, raising an eyebrow at him.  “Don’t know where I would get the impression you were an ‘unfeeling man-slut’ from.”
    He smiled. “Ha.  Okay, yes, I did say that, but that’s not exactly how it was.”
    We’d reached the edge of the stream.  I sat on a fallen log that some member of Avery’s family had dragged over years ago.  I motioned for Ben to sit down next to me.  “Tell me how it was then.”
    He sat down, jamming his hands into the pockets of his coat and flipping his hair back out of his eyes. “So she wants to hear the tale of Ben and Connor and ‘kinda hot Kiely,’ does she?”
    “Well, when you put it that way--”
    “It was the summer before 8th grade,” Ben began. “My friend Drew and I were hanging out at the local public pool, when I spotted 14-year-old Kiely O’Hara in the concession line.” He leaned into me, confidentially, “At this point I’d never even considered liking a guy. I was strictly a ladies man with no hope of inheriting any powers from Mom.
    “Anyways, so I saunter on over to Kiely and offer to buy her a Sno-cone.  Of course, she’s delighted and invites me to come and sit with her family at a picnic table.  As we approach the table I see Connor.” Ben literally sighs like he’s a twelve-year-old girl. “I’m not kidding you. The guy was a fucking 16-year-old Adonis.  His thick black hair was all slicked back from swimming, drops of water still clinging to his chest. I was instantly attracted to him and lucky I had a towel with me because I totally popped wood.”
    I shook my head. “Dude, ick.  This is not a very romantic story.”
    He snorted.  “Yeah, and getting caught giving your boyfriend a handjob in his truck is?”
    My face flamed all the way to the tips of my ears.  “That’s not--” Ben raised one eyebrow at me. “Point taken. Please continue.”
    “As I was saying, I was instantly attracted to him and although it had never occurred to me to even think about liking a boy before, I didn’t suffer from any of the fears that usually accompany that revelation.  Even though I was fourteen and a virgin, I knew I wanted him.”
    “And he wanted you back?” Ben was definitely good looking now, but what was he like at fourteen?  That was Melody’s age, and to be so sure of yourself? I could never.
    “Of course he wanted me back, that’s how it works with triggers.  Sure, maybe normally he wouldn’t have gone for someone two years younger and a guy, because he hadn’t come out to his family yet, but it was meant to be.”
    I understood that feeling.  Avery was several rungs on the popularity ladder higher than I was and normally wouldn’t have looked at me twice.  However, since he was my trigger he wanted me like I wanted him.  It used to