“There’s no such thing.”
“Yes, there is.”
They say you can’t argue with crazy, but yet I try. “Okay, well if there is, then I’m not one of them. I can’t talk to the dead, or predict the future, or do any of those freaky things psychics can supposedly do.”
“You might not be able to talk to the dead, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you can feel them.”
Is he for real? I gape at him, but he just blinks back at me with those earnest brown eyes.
“Think about it. Haven’t you ever gone into, say, an old house, and felt weird vibes?”
How did he know?
“I don’t believe in ghosts,” I bite out.
“I’m not talking about ghosts, I’m talking about energy.”
I dig in my metaphorical heels. “What’s the deal? Are you guys some sort of New Age cult or something?” I think of Avery’s goth aesthetic, Aaron’s claim that he hears whispers. “Is that what the Tarot cards were all about?”
Leo sighs. “No, Betts, we’re not a cult. If you’d just stop arguing with me and listen?—”
I huff and fold my arms. “What do you want from me?”
His thick brows furrow. “Wantfrom you?”
I glare and wait.
“Nothing,” he says. “I just want to know you.”
“Why?”
He swallows and lifts his eyes to the sky. It’s the first time I’ve seen him look uncomfortable. After an eternity, his gaze returns to me. “Because you deserve to have friends who understand you. The friends you have now don’t. Not as well as they should.”
Um, excuse me? How would he know anything about my friends? Liv understands me. So does Zander.
Don’t they?
I narrow my eyes at Leo. “Andyoudo?”
He turns up his hands. “Did anyone else know you felt that guy overdosing, before anyone even knew what was happening?”
I suck in a breath, head suddenly spinning as I’m forced to face the question I’ve been avoiding. HowdidLeo connect those dots between my “panic attack” and Jason nearly dying downstairs? How did he, a stranger, understand what I was experiencing?
I meet his eyes. “But you did.”
He nods.
“How?”
“Because I understand clairsentience.”
Stubbornly, I point out, “I didn’t feel him overdosing.”
“Whatdidyou feel?”
“Just this sort of…panic. Like that sudden stomach drop you get when you hear terrible news.”
“That makes sense.”
