Home / Romance / Gifted Shadows / 9 - So Many Variables

Share

9 - So Many Variables

Author: Saree
last update Last Updated: 2021-04-12 02:40:57

Jace drove us to our favorite burger joint, and already knowing my usual, he ordered for me. Erik's lecture about being grounded ran through my mind, but I pushed it to the side. 

Jace seemed to eat out a lot, I never asked him where he got his money... I figured he had an allowance or something. I mean the makeup he bought for us alone was several hundred dollars. 

Jace leaned across the table and took my hand, I smiled and said, "there's no one watching, you don't need to do that now." 

He said, "but I do because it's an excuse to get close enough to you so no one can hear what I'm saying. I know exactly what I want to do." 

Without even a preface, I knew just what he meant. I have been dreading this moment since he first dropped the bomb on me abou

Locked Chapter
Continue to read this book on the APP

Related chapters

  • Gifted Shadows   10 - Fascinated With A Girl Named Noora

    The weeks fell away and I immersed myself in work from Professor Evans. I really thought hard about trying to go back in the fall and be a senior. The sooner I could finish high school the sooner I could get out of here.It's not that I hated being home, but it just seemed like it was time to move on. I was ready for the next big challenge, and honestly I was tired of living in Erik's shadow.He was done with school and going into the army. My dad was so proud and gushed about him constantly. The perfect son, good grades, good looking and never a shortage of girlfriends. At first dad was not happy about him wanting to go in the army, but Erik wasn't taking no for an answer.Since Erik was leaving, he was out partying with his friends every night, making the most of his final days. Dad was working all the

    Last Updated : 2021-04-12
  • Gifted Shadows   11 - I Can't Take Any Chances

    Jace sent me a text message a few hours later saying that he was going to pick me up for dinner. I packed a small overnight bag and made my arrangements with Tara. Apparently Tara had a big crush on one of Jace's other friends and wanted him to put in a good word.I got some chores done and talked to dad for a bit, convincing him easily that I was going to Tara's. The minutes seemed to go by incredibly slow, I was starting to get super paranoid.I was probably staring at the wall a good hour, totally lost in my thoughts when I heard Jace pull up.I asked him where we were going to eat and he just smiled and said, "the diner of course!"We settled into a booth a few minutes later, and even though we both always got the same thing we often would sta

    Last Updated : 2021-04-12
  • Gifted Shadows   12 - How Did I Get Here?

    A few minutes later I heard Mrs. Wheaton get home. The plan was to not let anybody know I was in the house. I was not allowed to sleep over and Mrs. Wheaton would definitely tell my dad.Jace went out to talk to her for a few minutes, and told her he wasn't feeling well and was going to go to bed early. He came in his room and locked the door. We settled into a movie and for a while I forgot about everything. Just shut it all out of my mind and chose to be blissfully ignorant.How did I even get to this point?A nice, quiet shy girl.Now sitting here waiting to kill somebody.We fell asleep halfway through the movie and slept undisturbed until about 7 am. I heard someone talking out in the hall, but I

    Last Updated : 2021-04-12
  • Gifted Shadows   13 - Keep Your Eye On The Ball

    It was dark, and quiet. I tried to move my hand but nothing happened.Was I dead?What was happening??I heard voices far off, but I couldn't tell what they were saying. I tried, and tried to open my eyes but nothing was happening. I gave up and fell back asleep.I have no idea what made me think of her, but I saw Noora, my friend from Qatar. She had a giant whiteboard just like I did, and we were laughing and throwing cheese puffs at each other.Did this mean I was going to meet her someday?Noora liked using notecards to write out everything so she could stick them to her board. We called her the card queen. She worked out a lot of things on n

    Last Updated : 2021-04-12
  • Gifted Shadows   14 - My Imagination Is Far Worse

    Over the next few months I went through every possible emotion. I was so angry at Jace. My initial reaction of course was to blame him. This should have never happened, there's so many other ways we could have gone about it.When the commotion happened that morning between his parents we should have just ran. I could kill myself forever on the what ifs, and I pretty much was.I went to his grave often, and most of the time I just yelled at him. I told him about all the things we could have done, seen and experienced together. Sometimes I would take a blanket and just lay there for hours, talking to him.Sometimes I would yell at the sky, sometimes I just cried myself to sleep.Jace's plan went right in some fashion at least ... his mom got $250,000 in l

    Last Updated : 2021-04-13
  • Gifted Shadows   15 - Biding My Time

    I took Mr. Drew up on his offer of moving me to twelfth grade. Anything I could do to get the hell out of here sooner. I did exactly what mom said and I buried myself in my work.I still had so many unanswered questions surrounding Jace, but mom was the only one who could tell me and that seemed like a dead end.I spent a lot of time talking to the international group of math nerds. I told Noora that I had a dream about her, through the translator of course. She was slowly starting to pick up some English but she still had a long way to go.She laughed and asked what it was about.I said, “we were solving all of the world’s problems of course!”My curiosity got the better of me and I asked

    Last Updated : 2021-04-14
  • Gifted Shadows   16 - I Loved This

    One Saturday morning, I was sound asleep and snuggled warm in my bed. I was awakened to someone jumping on my bed. I opened my eyes ready to slap whoever was there, when I realized it was dad.“Wake up sleepy-head! We're going out today. You're finally going to learn how to drive.”I looked at the clock and immediately grumbled, “I could also learn how to drive at 2 in the afternoon, you do realize?”“Quit your bitchin' and get in the shower! I'm finishing breakfast now. Come on it's been a long time since the two of us spent the day together, it'll be fun!”Yeah, great.I forced myself up and got ready.Dad h

    Last Updated : 2021-04-15
  • Gifted Shadows   17 - A Hand Up

    The next months went by like a blur. I didn’t go to prom. First of all there was no one to go with, and secondly, I didn’t want to be the only sixteen year old at the senior prom.I threw myself into my work, Professor Evans was already on me like glue. He could not have been more excited. He introduced me to several other math professors who were just throwing work at me to see if I could do it. I loved the challenges.Professor Evans agreed to be my sponsor, we had filed paperwork to have me emancipated but I still needed to be under some level of supervision. I would be staying on campus, but I would not have a roommate. I was to meet with my sponsor several times a week for check-ins. Really, I’d probably see him every day anyhow.Dad also got me set up with my own checking account

    Last Updated : 2021-04-15

Latest chapter

  • Gifted Shadows   86 - She Sacrificed Her Dignity

    ~One Year Later, Rae’s Point of View~I was utterly and completely exhausted. I had been up two days helping finalize the new build for our D.C. village location. We really wanted to hit up L.A. next since the homelessness situation out there is beyond dire, but with a small baby we just couldn’t be back and forth like that right now.We let Marcus take the reins on L.A., and he was out scouting locations and getting conversations started to make it our third location. The guys were really flourishing and it just seemed like this what we were all meant to be doing.Even more time flew by and we were now about 95% finished with things for the D.C. location ... I was so ready for it to be done. We planned to take a long and much needed month long vacation once it was ready.

  • Gifted Shadows   85 - The New Best Night Of My Life

    Rae had on a sexy little dress that hugged her body perfectly. I was hard just looking at her, but I usually was anyhow. She got us a quiet booth in the back and had actually reserved the table in front of us too for a little privacy.I didn't like her being in public with so little covering her. Her body was only for my eyes, but she was so happy and with today's news I wasn't about to pick a fight or make her feel self conscious.I slid in next to her, instead of in front of her. This way, both of our backs were to the room and it was less likely anyone would see us.Unfortunately, that meant I couldn’t see anyone coming but I was willing to risk it. We ordered drinks and an appetizer even though I already wet my appetite a few minutes ago, I thought … licking my lips and still tasting her

  • Gifted Shadows   84 - I'm The Lucky One

    Javi and I got so busy over the next few months, as you can imagine … I forgot to renew my birth control shot until it was well over a month past its time. We still humped like rabbits every single chance we got and something just told me I was knocked up.I was desperately putting off taking a test because a test meant it was real. A test meant people getting excited and wanting to talk about it all the time. A test meant Javi probably sticking me in the RV and not letting me out.Part of me was pissed I let this happen, and part of me was excited. As I thought about letting myself get excited, all I could think about was mom. Having a baby without my mom. Man, that is going to be rough.Dad was now dating a nice lady and seemed pretty happy. He’s only met Javi now a few times, but he

  • Gifted Shadows   83 - The Village

    We first had to decide what city we wanted to be close to, and we all decided on being between Philly and NYC for our first spot. That would also put us a bit closer to Corey’s cabin. We decided to let Corey in on it, and he and Javi both were putting up $10 million each.As we started to get plans together, we were hopeful this initial investment would be enough to fund maybe three or four villages until we could start getting other donations. I had never been so excited and consumed by something, it gave me such hope and it was the breath of fresh air we all needed.Corey’s dearest Perry, of course acted as our counsel and was helping with the paperwork to begin a non-profit. Javi had a lead on a 70 acre lot in Doylestown, just north of Philly and only about three hours from Corey’s cabin.

  • Gifted Shadows   82 - I Know These Guys

    The day after the presser we were all just exhausted. I was beat from the incessant questioning from dad and Erik. Chris and Mary were leaving in the morning and going to spend the rest of the visit on their own.I finally got dad and Erik to leave us alone and I was so ready for some quality time with my husband.Dad hadn’t even been gone for five minutes when the doorbell rang, and I thought maybe he’d forgotten something.Javi answered the door and there stood two men … one was older and the other looked like the Hulk. Javi must have been expecting them because his eyes lit up and he welcomed them in. They came in and the older man sat at the kitchen table with a briefcase, handcuffed to his wrist.What the heck?

  • Gifted Shadows   81 - Care To Comment

    The death of Maziar reverberated through the region and the other actors who were also working on the bomb intel were backing away. There was really no other option.Javi said before they left Maziar’s house, they threw cooking oil and liquor on his white boards and lit them on fire, after taking pictures of it all. I didn’t care to look at any of it, I wanted to forget it desperately.Noora had to die for their stupid bomb.They gave the information to Scott, and whatever he was going to do with it, I wasn’t sure I cared. Various news outlets were already reporting wild stories, some true and some nowhere near true.The agency would not be releasing that I killed Maziar and Hashem, and I

  • Gifted Shadows   80 - Good Luck With This One

    After Fletch left I sat by myself on the couch for a few minutes, and tried to process what just happened. My head was spinning and I felt like I was going to throw up. I knew Javi would press me to know what we talked about, and I don’t know if I could tell him Fletch wanted to propose.Would he second guess himself?Would he always wonder in the back of his mind if that was who I really wanted?He was always so nuts whenever another guy was around, knowing that another man offered me a ring, whew that’s heavy shit. I was torn, but I also operated under the assumption I would likely never see Fletch again.In the end of my own pep talk, I decided not to tell him. I picked the rubberband up off the arm of the couch and wrapped it aroun

  • Gifted Shadows   79 - Rubberband

    I tried to figure out how to ask Javi to marry me while we were in Europe. I didn’t care if he put a rubber band on my finger, I was beyond in love with him and that was all I needed.There were sandwiches waiting for us on the second plane and we pretty much inhaled them. I also had an ice cold coke, and it was phenomenal. With a full belly and a hopeful mind, I fell asleep with my head in Javi’s lap.“Wake up baby, we made it,” Javi said whispering in my ear.I opened my eyes and looked out the window, the sun was coming up.“A new dawn, a new day,” I said.“Exactly why I don’t want to wait baby, I had Toby find a pastor on base, if you’ll s

  • Gifted Shadows   78 - Run

    None of us slept, we were all just running on adrenaline at this point.The pilot on the plane was going to meet us and smuggle us on. Javi said the pilot, who was this businessman’s usual guy, was actually retired Air Force and happy to help us. Javi didn’t think it was fair that the pilot not know what he was getting into. I couldn’t believe the lengths people were going to, for us ... for total strangers and it kept bringing tears to my eyes.Marcus arranged for a van to take us to the airport and my heart was racing. Javi didn’t let go of my hand and he was making me hot and sweaty. We were on a dirt access road and it was pitch black, but I hoped that would work in our favor.I could see the plane, it was about a only about a quarter mile away. There was a van with the

DMCA.com Protection Status