An Unplanned Bonding

"Look," I said, "I'm going to do my best to figure out all the things we can do with the Bond, and I won't keep any of them secret from you. As soon as I figure out Blocking, I'll share the knowledge with you, okay? Just promise me you'll do the same if you figure anything out first."

I felt his mood brighten considerably. I knew with that knowledge, he could have a more normal life that didn't involve endless sharing of embarrassing moments.

Perhaps my Urging him to focus on driving was a little too strong, or maybe he was just not comfortable talking, because he didn't ask anything else. Instead, he reached down and turned on the stereo.

The radio tuned in to static. I could faintly hear a commercial under the fuzz. I felt Justin's irritation, and I didn't want him to be distracted playing with the tuning to find a better station.

Before he could reach for the dial, I hit the button to switch it to a CD, ejected the disc that was currently loaded, and put it away in the CD organizer he kept in the back seat. Flipping a couple pages ahead, I retrieved another disc and popped it in.

I wasn't even sure what it was that I'd grabbed. I knew it was the disc I wanted, but at the same time, I didn't recognize it. There was a blurry white face and something else, both were on a black background. Before the music even started playing, I reached up and bumped it ahead to track number eight.

I had to smile when I heard Justin start singing, "I wanted you to know I love the way you laugh..."

I recognized the song, but didn't know the words. It was Seether. I realized, rather suddenly, that none of it had been my idea... switching to a CD, putting the disc away, getting another one from the binder, and picking the song... it was all from him. I now understood how it felt to be Urged through the Bond. It was spooky, I hadn't known I was being directed.

My eyes grew even wider as I found myself singing Amy Lee's part. "The worst is over now and we can breathe again, I want to hold you high and steal my pain away..."

Holy shit. Who was really doing this? I felt his surprise, too. He hadn't expected me to start singing.

Fuck it, who cares? I simply grinned and kept singing along. We took our turns and sang along in perfect harmony for the chorus.

We sat in my usual spot -- a little booth by the window, and looked over the menu. I don't know why I bothered, I ate here so often I knew it all by heart. I loved this place, since it was close to where I worked and it served breakfast foods all day long.

Dropping my menu back to the table, I saw Abby trying to hide a grin by ducking behind her own menu.

"What?" I asked, mildly annoyed.

"It's just funny seeing you so comfortable. You obviously know the waitress, you ordered your drink before you even sat down, and you barely even glanced at the menu. Are you going to order my food, too?"

She was messing with me, but at the same time, I got the impression that she was also challenging me.

I just rolled my eyes, "Look, food isn't the real reason we're here. We need to talk. You weren't keen on having a distracting conversation while I was driving, and that's fine. I get it. Katie's the same way. She wouldn't let me drive the rest of the way home last night because she thought I was too tired to drive safely."

Her smile dropped as soon as I mentioned Katie. "Okay, I see your point. There are some things we need to discuss before we get ho... I mean, before we get to your place. We should decide how we're going to do this."

"Exactly. I haven't the foggiest idea how to get Katie to understand this situation. I know her really well. She's very protective, and if I just walk in the front door with you right behind me, she'll explode with jealousy or something. I need to explain what happened and how, and make it clear that neither of us really had a good choice about it."

"Well..." she mumbled, absently chewing her bottom lip. "Would it help if I sat down with her and explained things first? Like, maybe in a public setting?"

Before I got a chance to answer, our waitress returned with our drinks. I'd just asked for a glass of ice water as I was sitting down, and Abby had agreed and gotten the same.

The waitress smiled at me as she sat my glass down. "Who's this, Justin? New girlfriend?"

Startled, I stammered out, "Uh, no. Just a friend."

"Oh, well, I'm sure you already know what you want, but what about this young lady? Did you still need to look at the menu, hun?" our waitress asked pleasantly.

She was looking at Abby now, and I was focused on fighting down my embarrassment. It was pretty pathetic that this waitress knew me so well, even my first name and the fact that I wasn't here with Katie, but I didn't know anything about her.

Abby made things worse, though. She was chuckling at my reaction, now. "Nope. Justin's the expert on the food here, so I'm going to make him order for me."

My eyebrows shot up. I guess she'd been serious earlier.

I huffed. "Well, fine. We'll split the big breakfast sampler, then, with sausage patties, hash browns, and whole wheat toast. Oh, and we want the eggs scrambled."

I stared at Abby with defiance. If she was bluffing, I'd just solidly called it.

"I'll go put that right in for you two, then," the waitress said while picking up our abandoned menus and left us to stare at each other.

I broke first. Rather than return to our dilemma that had no clear solution, I changed the topic. "How'd you do that memory thing?"

She blinked at me. The question was too vague, I knew, but I didn't have a better way to describe it. Instead, I focused on the previous night, and was able to pass an image on to her. She was laying on her back on the sidewalk, and when her eyes opened to look at me, she'd immediately begun digging into my memories. My only attempt to do the same had been after she was asleep, and I was pretty sure I wasn't doing it right anyway.

She nodded in understanding.

"Yeah, I had no issue figuring that out, I don't know why. From the very first moment, I was so curious about you, about your life, your world, the technology that is everywhere.

"I don't know how to explain how I did it, but let me try something."

Her eyes unfocused, like I was transparent and she was staring at something through me. Then I felt her presence in my mind. Like last night, she was pulling up something.

Strangely, I could feel that she was there, looking, but I wasn't aware of what she was looking at.

A couple seconds later I felt her toss the whole experience back to me, but from her point of view. I was watching my high school graduation ceremony. Wearing my black cap and gown on the auditorium stage, I was reaching for my diploma while shaking the hand of the principal.

I could easily feel her intentions and the path she took to pull up that memory. Her method required a specific target. It was a bit like searching for a keyword on the internet. She'd picked my high school graduation and pushed it into my subconscious, and just looked at the first thing that I was able to recall about that. That meant, last night, right after our Bond was created, she'd immediately looked at my relationships and my family. That made sense.

"I think I understand..." I said, and went with something even easier and simpler to test it out. I tried to recall what her parents looked like.

The image that came back was instantaneous. It was like looking at a family photo. I could clearly see that she had her mother's blue eyes and dirty blonde hair, along with her father's nose and well-defined cheekbones.

Reaching for something obvious should have been quick and simple, but it came with a wave of emotional pain. I let go of the image quickly, but the feelings remained.

I frowned. "Do you want to talk about your family? I saw some pain and regret, maybe a fight? It feels wrong to dig into it without your permission."

She just shook her head. "Not here. Not now. But I'll have to eventually."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I tried to argue.

She shook her head again, even more firmly. "No, Justin, we need to accept this Bond for what it is. We can't have secrets, not really. At best, we can keep something a surprise for a little while, but that's about it. Even if we figure out how to Block specific things, we can't do it forever."

"But, why not?" I was quite confused, now. What was the point of Blocks, then?

"Because it's exhausting," she answered with a sigh. "You might not have noticed, because we haven't done much with the Bond, but working through it wears you out. After all, why do you think we're talking out loud to each other right now? We can communicate anything we want without saying a thing, but we'd both end up with a bad headache after half an hour or so."

I sat back, a little surprised.

She continued, "Emotions are different. So are physical sensations, like pain or cold. Simple stuff and instinctual stuff, things that are handled without having to think about it. Those are all sort of sent back and forth with no effort. It's the complex stuff, like memories and language that wear you out."

This made a lot of sense. It explained how I was able to immediately see myself through her eyes within the first couple seconds after Bonding, even though I had made no effort to do so.

I was lost in thought going over the events of last night and this morning when our food arrived.

I realized we still had no plan on how to approach Katie. Abby seemed to just be avoiding the topic, letting me think it through on my own. I should be the expert on how to approach her, after all, but I was still totally unsure of what to do.

It seemed clear to me that I had to go in alone, first. I'd ask Abby to wait in the Jeep for a while, and try to explain things slowly.

We ate in silence while I tried to figure out how in the hell to do that.

From my seat I looked at Justin through the mirror on my side. He was hauling his luggage up the sidewalk to his apartment building. The outer door of the building had no lock, and I watched his back as he entered.

After that, I could only view his progress through our link. He passed the mailboxes on the wall and a set of stairs going up to the second floor. The hallway sloped downwards a few feet to the apartments that sat below ground level.

He unlocked his door and entered without announcing himself, putting his bags just inside and then heading towards the kitchen.

Katie came out to meet him halfway, drying her hands on a dish towel and beaming a smile at him. He stood for a moment, and I could tell he was gathering his thoughts and deciding what to say. I was able to finally see her as she really was. Justin's mental image of her was one of perfection. He effortlessly ignored any flaws she had, and in his mind she was a gorgeous sexual goddess.

It was very endearing to see the way he cherished her.

Finally seeing her in person through his eyes, though, I would have described her as more cute than sexy. I mean, she was definitely sexy. She was much shorter than Justin, with the top of her head below his shoulder height, which meant she was a few inches shorter than me. Justin's memories of her pinned her as a very confident person, which is something I admired. The endearing way she looked at Justin tugged at my heart. I could see her love and devotion to him in her eyes. She looked relieved to see him home and unharmed.

Justin opened his mouth to say something, but she interrupted him with a kiss and hug. At first, they simply hugged with their lips pressed together, but the passion flared, and then they were forcefully exploring each others' mouths.

It took only seconds for Justin to become extremely aroused by the intimacy. That was totally expected, and in fact was certainly Katie's intention. What came as a surprise was that my own body was reacting in the same way!

I wasn't sexually attracted to Katie, right? I couldn't separate Justin's feelings from mine at that moment. How did I actually feel about this? Katie's mouth felt as though it were on mine. Her tongue was sliding through my lips, caressing my tongue... and I wanted more.

I moaned softly just as I felt Justin do the same. I badly wanted to get out of my seat, march into that apartment, pull Justin off her... and take his place.

I gasped as he suddenly cut off the kiss. He was aware of what I was feeling, and it was confusing him, too. After having the feeling cut off so abruptly I found myself blushing with shame at the way I was getting into it. Rather than attempt to block off his intimate moment as I'd promised, I'd delved deeply into it and reveled in the carnality. Despite how badly I felt about what I'd done, a significant part of me still wanted more.

"Taking me to the bedroom, already?" Katie asked, smiling breathlessly.

"Uh, I wish. I mean, I really want to, but..." Justin replied, struggling to fight his own arousal to explain himself. After seeing her frown, he elaborated, "There's something I have to tell you about, first."

"What's that?" Katie was now clearly concerned. She'd put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow, showing some defensiveness at this perceived rejection.

"Yes, well, I... I brought someone... a guest home with me," Justin managed to stammer out. I could feel his frustration. He'd expected this response, but hadn't adequately prepared for it.

Katie didn't say anything. Her response was to cross her arms and cock her head a little.

"I met her at the motel last night--" he began.

"HER?" she angrily interjected.

"--she was in trouble and needed my help--" he tried to continue.

"You brought another girl home with you!?" Katie was close to yelling now.

I couldn't sit by and watch him get punished for doing the right thing. I owed him so much and at the very least, he deserved my support. It only took a couple seconds to run from the Jeep into the apartment.

The fight inside had escalated, I could hear her yelling through the door now, "--and you let her spend the fucking night in your room!?"

I knocked briskly to interrupt her tirade.

Through Justin, I could see as her head snapped over to glare at the door. He'd been struggling to calm her and she wasn't listening.

"Oh, and is this her? This is your new side piece!?" she practically screamed the questions at him.

I didn't see the point in knocking again. Instead, I just turned the knob and let myself in.

I gently closed the door behind me, and tried to stay calm as Katie fumed at me. I sensed her preparing to unleash her anger in my direction, and Justin was worriedly looking back and forth between us.

After a few awkward seconds, I opted to break the silence myself. Extending my hand towards the shorter girl, I said, "Hi Katie, I'm Abby. I'm... actually very pleased to meet you. Justin thinks the world of you, and he's said nothing but good things about you."

She clenched her jaw and stared at my offered hand for a few seconds before finally taking it. I felt a flood of relief from Justin, so I glanced at him and mentally threw a warning at him that we weren't out of the woods yet, and he needed to keep his mouth shut.

"Abby..." she said, trailing off in anger, with an undertone of confusion. "You knew about me... but you spent the night in his motel room? You even came home with him?" By the end, she was practically hissing the words through clenched teeth.

I released her hand and took a step back from both of them.

"I didn't have a choice. He saved my life, and I'm eternally grateful, but due to the way things happened, I'm stuck with him. I'm going to do everything I can to make things right. Don't blame him, please, this is all my fault."

Katie seemed to be listening selectively.

"I see!" she turned and angrily barked towards Justin, "This pretty young girl is in trouble and you drop everything to help her out? You totally forgot that I existed the minute you saw her and wanted in her pants."

"No, that's not--" Justin started saying.

"Shut up, Justin," I said, out loud this time. They both looked at me, and I continued, "You're only making things worse."

Katie snapped at me, now. "Who the fuck do you think you are? You have no right to talk to him like that!"

"But she's just--" Justin started to defend me.

I only looked at him, repeating my warning mentally, which cut him off mid-sentence. Saying anything in my defense was a really bad idea.

He took a breath, then started over, "Look, can we just talk this over? Let me explain everything."

"Yes, I think you'd better start talking. This had better be fucking good." Despite my efforts, Katie wasn't really any more calm since I'd come in and tried to help.

The couple headed over to the living room to sit and talk. As I tried to follow, Katie focused her fury on me again.

"I think you need to leave. Just because he 'helped' you doesn't mean you can come into our home. Get out."

She jabbed her finger towards the front door.

With watery eyes, I nodded and headed back out. I wanted to tell her that having me leave would be pointless. I was going to see and hear everything going on in there, but this had to be Justin's show. Opening the front door, I only stepped into the hallway and pulled the door closed before leaning against the wall. I had nowhere to go, and didn't see any reason to be very far away.

This was going to be a lot harder than I thought, and I could see now that trying to intervene in their argument had only made things worse. I could only sigh at the situation. It was painful to feel Justin's frustration and not be able to help.

"...and she told me that the magic will come eat her soul or something if she doesn't become Bonded when she reaches 240 months old, I think, and I thought she was nuts until I heard these evil sounds that came when she walked out the door of the motel so I followed her out and she was passed out with these gray ghostly things trying to eat her and..."

I knew I was rambling, and I couldn't stop. I wanted to rehash everything from the past twelve hours in a way that Katie could see that I had done the right thing. I'd never been tempted to cheat on her and the fact that she accused me of it had put me into a panic.

At some point during my ramble, I'd reached over and grabbed her hand. She didn't reciprocate, but didn't pull away, either, just letting me hold her limp hand.

I made no attempt to hide or gloss over anything, I even admitted that the Bonding was invoked with a kiss, and tried to explain the weird thing that happened in the shower this morning. Gratefully, I realized as I was describing the experience that it involved no physical contact. From Katie's point of view, it was basically a case of Abby unintentionally spying on a private moment... something that was going to be unavoidable as a result of the connection we now had.

I eventually fell silent when I realized that I had said everything and was now just repeating myself.

Abby was quietly crying in the hallway, and Katie wouldn't look at me. She was glaring at the floor and clenching her jaw repeatedly while thinking. I decided to just wait it out.

After a few minutes, Abby eventually ran out of patience, becoming increasingly depressed at being left alone and feeling rejected. Her distress was obvious, with wet cheeks and bloodshot eyes, but more than that, I could feel her need to extricate herself. As she stood, she sent me a message to pass on before heading to the parking lot.

Taking a deep breath, I squeezed Katie's hand to get her attention.

"Abby wants me to tell you that she's really sorry that she got us involved in her problems. She says she doesn't belong here, so she's going to find somewhere nearby to live and she'll stay out of our business. She's just getting her stuff now."