Submerged in Water

"Yeah, we're at the clearing near her house now." Rune was talking on his phone to Robyn. "She's fine for whatever reason but I have to be near her, is that right?" He asked me.

I nodded. "If you leave it comes back again."

"It should be gone before school actually starts, I'm going to bring her back to her house and tell her parents we were just out by the river together. Tell them we were making out or something." He looked at me. "I hope that's alright?"

Another nod. "Yeah that's fine."

Robyn said a few words and then Rune flipped his phone shut with a "kay, see you."

I watched his body move as we walked through the forest towards my house. The frenzy had somehow formed into something else. In a sense, it was stronger than had ever even stronger than the previous lust I had for him but it wasn't a frenzy any more. It reminded me of an unrivalled devotion to someone. This emotion seemed to tie me to him as strongly. I was still under the effects of hydrangea but it transformed into a lesser but more prolonged demon.

"You don't need to act until we get to the house." Rune told me.

I blinked. "What? Act?"

"The way you're looking at me, it's like you would throw yourself in front of a bullet for me or follow me to the ends of the earth." He chuckled.

"I would." Did I just say that? "Sorry, I think that's the hydrangea talking."

"Hmmm, Robyn didn't say anything about that."

I shrugged, not knowing what to say. I looked down at our conjoined hands. He had such strong hands and I felt comfortable being with him.

"I have some clothes hidden in the shed in my backyard. I don't want to show up in just my bathing suit." I told him as we arrived to the back of my house

"Okay." He agreed and picked us up to fly us over the fence that I usually just jumped.

We went into the shed and I took out the extra pair of jeans and t-shirt that I had hidden. I didn't have underwear or a bra to go with it. He shut the shed door behind us and peeked out the window to make sure that there was nobody else. His wings were already back to being invisible, but he was still bare-chested.

Since the part of my brain that controlled shyness and embarrassment seemed to be over ridden with something stronger, I started stripping off my bathing suit just as he turned around.

"Whoa." He said, turning back. "Could've warned me." He complained.

"It's okay." I told him.

"Are you sure the frenzy isn't coming back?"

"Nah, something stronger has taken over now, it's different."

I saw his shoulders raise with the deep breath he took to steady himself. "I see."

I giggled. "You don't see anything, you're staring out the window."

He placed his hands on the tool desk that was facing the window and leaned into it. After a few seconds of staring out the window, he brought his gaze down to the desk just as I finished stripping down and was starting to put on the jeans.

I started humming a tune that I remembered hearing one day from my Aubrey's iPod. I couldn't remember the name of it but for whatever reason it made me feel calm and it reminded me of the sense of security I felt with Rune.

"You done?" He asked.

"Yeah." I answered just as I pulled down my shirt.

He turned around, gave me a quick once over and took my hand again before pulling me out of the shed and to the front of house without being spotted. My eyes were still glued to Rune. I was still obsessed with him and it was hard to imagine that just the hydrangea alone had caused this.

When I walked through the front door. My parents, being the over protective type, rushed from the living room to the entrance. "Emele!" They exclaimed together.

Aubrey and Scott followed behind them. They all seem worried, Aubrey especially, since she knew the real truth. Scott seemed surprised, but nothing else.

I gripped Rune's hand tighter and said. "Sorry, but I snuck out this morning to see Rune and we ran into some problems." That was putting it mildly. "Before we knew what happened, it was late and I couldn't get back in time."

Mom sighed dramatically and said, "it's okay if you wanted to see Rune but you could've told us... we didn't know where you were and we got worried when we didn't find you in your bed this morning."

"I thought something had happened." Aubrey stepped forward to say. "But you look alright..." The statement was left open, like she really didn't believe it.

"Well you missed breakfast." Dad came in to say. "School starts in half an hour, we can drive all four of you."

I heard Rune let out a sigh of relief. When I turned and looked at Scott, he was looking at me like he was expecting me to explode at any minute. I raised my eyebrows at him, but otherwise brought my attention back to Rune. Even still under the effects of the hydrangea, Rune was still my number one and I'm glad that it didn't change when Scott came into the setting.

Scrambling to get ready and make it to school on time, just before we left the house, Scott came up to me and said, "are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, why?" I lied.

He shrugged. "You seem different."

I smiled. "Just had a tough morning."

"What happened this morning?"

"Uh..." I started to laugh, partly out of nervousness and to let myself have a few seconds to think of a legit response. "I just wasn't feeling well."

"Oh, you're medical condition?"

"Yeah."

Scott nodded and then ran to catch up with Aubrey who was in front of us. For Scott, him showing any concern for me was a bit strange. I decided to write it off as just curiosity. I turned my head to notice a yawn escape Rune.

"Tired?" I asked him.

He nodded. "Just haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately."

"What? Why?"

"Well..." He breathed out and leaned closer to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. "Dale thought it was strange that I wanted to stop our morning training sessions, so I told him it would be a good idea to do it at night to avoid seeing you again. So I've been up late with him training and then meeting you early..."

"Oh." Wow, that took dedication. "I'm so sorry, we can take a break for a bit if you want."

He chuckled while rubbing my shoulder. "Meeting you in the morning is the only thing I look forward to now. I'm not taking that away."

I smiled at him and then leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. When I pulled back, he seemed a little surprised but there was a red tinge emerging on his cheeks.

"Get a room!" Aubrey shouted from the car.

Rune and I both laughed and crawled into the crappy mini-van with everyone else. When we got to school, I started to notice myself calm down more, the strong affection that I held for Rune was still there but it wasn't controlling and consuming any more. I could see and notice other things now and was getting a firmer grip on my reality and the situation I was in.

Rune was still there, but he had his own reserved space inside of me now.

"Are you okay now?" He asked before we were about to split for first period. "We can skip first period if you want."

I shook my head. "No, my Dad would kill me. I think I'm fine, it's going away, I think it's gone."

"Okay, don't be afraid to book it out of class if you need to." He worried about me.

We waited until the last bell rang and then we finally split up. By this time, I was fine and back to my normal self. No more horniness, no more intense overwhelming feelings for Rune. Emele was back in business and better than ever.

Lunch came around and I met up with Layla to go meet with the rest of them in the cafe. When we walked in, I noticed Layla stop dead center as we walked in and lock her eyes on someone.

I looked at who it was and almost gasped. Layla was right. He was heart-throb worthy.

I could only assume that it was Jonathan Hendrix, Scott's younger brother, that had at least three girls surrounding him at a table near the entrance of the cafe. They were all giggling over something and Jonathan was totally eating it up the attention he was getting.

Jonathan was taller than Scott, he had to have been at last six foot three or four but it was hard to tell when he was sitting down. He had this thick curly brown hair and the same heart-stopping smile that Scott had, but even better because his eyes seemed to light up with his smile. His eyes were a deep green that reminded me of the sun breaking through the trees in the middle of the forest. His jaw line was prominent and made him look all-male and just breathe sensuality and masculinity.

"Holy shit." I breathed, staring at Jonathan.

"Bet you wish you agreed to that date now, huh?" Layla laughed.

"It-It wasn't a date." I objected. "They were just trying to set me up."

"Better than nothing."

As if I could sense him from a mile away, I turned to watch Rune walk into the cafe just as I finished eye-screwing Jonathan Hendrix. He looked at where he was and then shook his head at me, like he couldn't believe I was just staring at him.

He strolled over to me, looking a little like he was jealous. "You sure the frenzy is gone?" He whispered to me so that Layla wouldn't hear.

"Yes." I only had eyes for him and as soon as he walked into the room, Jonathan could've been a zombie for all I cared.

"Good." He took a brief glance at where Jonathan was sitting and sighed. "Anyway, looks like things are about to change around here."

I wish I could've objected.