It was the second period of math and Rowan was bored out of his mind. As he stared at the board, the numbers and letters seemed to blur together to form a senseless mush in his head. It was approaching one hour of math class and he was ready to give up and walk out. He gazed out the window and started thinking about the book he was reading last night. It was about a beautiful girl who was savagely thrown into a world of danger, murder and destruction. The way she survived? Mind-reading. Just for fun and out of pure boredom, he wanted to see if it could be real. He laughed to himself as he breathed in deeply and let out a sharp shriek in his head. He was expecting no reaction from anyone and he could go back to daydreaming. But lo and behold, someone flinched. His best friend, Lilith.
Rowan and Lilith have known each other since childhood. Their parents were very good friends in college and decided to move into neighbouring houses. Ever since they were born, Rowan and Lilith have been inseparable. They went to school together, they went out for movies together, they went to parties together and if one of them was with you, you could be sure that the other was soon to follow.
And now, Rowan's world was rocked. Lilith stared at him, the fear in her eyes clearly visible at her secret being exposed. His best friend, a mind reader, and she didn’t trust him enough to tell him even after knowing him for all 16 years of their lives.
As soon as the bell rang, Rowan ran out of the room and Lilith followed, trying to catch up to him. She wanted to explain herself. She wanted to tell him that she herself had only figured it out a few weeks ago. She couldn't bear him being mad at her, even though she knew he would eventually forgive her, like he always did. He could never stay mad at her for very long. As she finally found him hiding in the old music room, she approached him silently. He was sitting at the piano, lazily pressing the keys, playing one of his favorite songs, Claude Debussy’s Clair de Lune.
Over the years, she had watched him practice all the piano classics, Fur Elise, Moonlight Sonata, Beethoven’s Symphonies, and she had watched him become really good at playing the instrument. Every birthday, he would take out time and learn Lilith’s recent favorite song, and play it for her exactly at midnight, and he had never failed to impress her.
Now, he was here, playing the piano, upset because of her, and she felt infinitely guilty. She knew she could have told him. He wouldn't judge her. But she was scared, scared of her own power, and she had transformed that into a fear of anyone else finding out. So she hid it. And now she had hurt her best friend.
As the song came to an end, he turned around, startled to see her there. “You probably read my mind to see where I was going, didnt you?” he asked bitterly. But no, she hadn’t. She just knew him that well. “Of course not, I wouldn’t do that Rowan. I’m so sorry, I wish I had told you sooner but I only found out a few weeks ago and I was afraid that you’d be scared of me for it and that’s why I didn’t tell you. I would trust you with anything I was just scared, I’m sorry.”
Rowan looked up at her. He could see that she really did feel bad and she didn’t mean to upset him. “It's okay,” he sighed. Lilith smiled widely, “thank you. I have to go for class now, you should get going too” she said. “I will,” he replied. He smiled back at her as she turned and ran off to class.
Rowan sighed. It was hard keeping secrets from his best friend. He got such a scare earlier. Her being a mind reader was more dangerous to him than it was scary. At least she didn’t search too far. At least she didn’t find out about the murders.
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