Free Trouble Comes Knocking (Entangled Embrace) by Mary Duncanson

sophomore year, where we’d been assigned to write a paper together about reality and why it might be different for different people. Working together to not only write the paper but also present it to the class gave us plenty of late nights spent huddled over books and brownies.
    I gained ten pounds during that time, but by spring our relationship was in full bloom, and I didn’t have anyone I’d rather spend time with.
    A knock broke through my memories. “Lucy, open the door. We have to talk.” It was Ana.
    “Go away.”
    “Lucy, I didn’t mean for this to happen. I’m sorry.”
    “You should have thought about that before you started seeing him.”
    Bobby was a blond JFK Jr. who wore confidence like a sword and arrogance like a shield. A jock, though I’d never gone for those, and brainiac all rolled into one straight A-earning package. Once upon a time I’d imagined him as my Prince Charming, the one and only guy I’d want to spend the rest of my life with. I’d loved him so much.
    Not wanting to be the strange one in our relationship, I never told him about Arkansas or my family or ability. I’d never brought him home to meet my aunt Dolores or told him anything about me. And it worked. We had fun. I pretended to be normal. No one knew about me or my sideshow-freak capabilities.
    Then he asked me to move in with him, which, of course, I did.
    Ana shuffling on the other side of the door caught my attention. “I did. I swear. I didn’t even ask for his phone number or to see him again after the movie. But then I saw him at the grocery store. Then the dry cleaners.”
    “Sounds like he stalked you.”
    “Lucy, I gave into fate when I realized we live in the same apartment complex in the same apartment number, one building over from each other. You have to admit that’s a lot.”
    Knowing Ana, it was. She’d always believed in fate, always said she didn’t need to settle down until the universe told her to. So if she ran into Bobby in all those places, saw all those things in common with him, she would see that as fate nudging. But knowing Bobby, it was probably also very calculated.
    Not telling him the truth from the beginning had been the biggest mistake I ever made. Only how was I supposed to know how to tell him? I’d worked hard up until that point to keep my secrets. I bit my lip so often trying to hold back what I do that I had permanent teeth marks. It was exhausting.
    I suppose I wanted to have a confidante. And since I loved Bobby, I wanted him to be the one who knew.
    “You know what he did,” I said through the door.
    “And he says he’s sorry,” she answered.
    “I loved him and he destroyed me, Ana.”
    “I know. I’m sorry, too. I’m so sorry, Lucy.”

    It was the Christmas before my last semester in college, and I had no idea what I wanted to do after school, except become Mrs. Bobby Moriarty.
    “Bobby, it’s so nice to meet you,” my aunt Dee greeted when we arrived at the house. “Lucy tells me so much about you.”
    He kissed her cheek, and she ushered us into a winter wonderland of decorations. By this point I’d finally started telling him little bits. Trying to ease him in, feel him out. He knew my parents were gone, though I didn’t elaborate. He knew I’d lived with my aunt since I was sixteen.
    We laughed through dinner and dessert, protesting when Aunt Dolores tried to foist extra pieces of pie at us. When we went upstairs for bed, Bobby and I said good night to Aunt Dee, who vowed to spend the next day, Christmas, getting better acquainted with “my beau.”
    I spilled everything on him that night. The entire truth about my family. My ability.
    “I can’t believe you would keep all this from me,” he said, light disappearing from his eyes. He paced back and forth in my teenage bedroom surrounded by posters of boy bands and hand-painted flowers.
    “It’s not like I chose this life. I didn’t know how to tell you all of this.” Every part of me ached to