Oblivious...Until Now [Talen, Rhett]

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Adrianna had been crazy busy. She was going back and forth from dealing with the nurse and hospital to dealing strictly with school. It was overwhelming and it was taking its toll on her relationship. Her and Talen had barely seen each other since they made it official. She hadn't been able to really go out with him because of all she was dealing with. It was difficult being in a relationship when one had so much already to sort through.

Well today she figured she'd invite Talen out to the pond on campus. She wanted to do something. Rumors were going around about Talen and this Rhett Goddard kid. Some were violent, others were a little too close. Tal hadn't told her anything about him. Which was why she had invited them both to the pond. Something was going on and Adrianna wanted to know what.

She had brought several drinks, a few sandwiches and some chips. It was an innocent picnic to anyone else. But to Adri, it was a picnic to see just how the two boys would react. She didn't know anything about Rhett, she hadn't talked much to Tal, this was just how she would figure it out. Either they hated each other, or they were friends...why hide either one of those things?

Adri laid out a large blanket a few feet away from the pond and sat on it. Her hair was curled and flowing down over her right shoulder and her legs were out in front of her with a white sundress covering her body. She waited. Neither one of the two boys knew the other was invited. She had told Rhett she had seen him around campus and thought his power was cool, so she wanted to learn more about it. There was no guarantee he'd even show. Talen had been told that she wanted to spend some time with him. He most likely would show.

She hoped and waited.

[Rhett Goddard]

When a random person unknown to Rhett talks to him somewhere in school, he immediately thinks two things: first, 'what, the heck does he/she want?' and secondly, 'my powers should totally activate now'. It is, of course, very unlike that random people get close to him, it is most of the time the other way around, but it is by large much more unlike that his powers activate when he asks them too, his powers kept being as passive as they could. Fortunately for Rhett, there was the luck factor, and sometimes weird things happen... and when a random brunette approached him in the hallways, praised his powers and invited him to a picnic, an echo fueled by very appropriate information landed into his mind: 'Adrianna is lying to you'.

Now, what passed through Rhett's mind as she was there lying to him in his face was next: She is Talen's Addrianna, she probably knows about his involvement with the dark-haired boy and he should totally say no to her invitation and avoid her for what's rest of their lives if he wanted to avoid troubles. But he didn't want to avoid trouble, and so, naturally, he agreed to her invitation.

Just in time he arrived at the pond to see Adrianna sitting in the exact same spot where a month ago he had met Talen. Fitting. He walked up to Adrianna and without saying one thing, he sat in the blanket and directed at the girl his most fake smile, hoping she was bright enough to notice there was something wrong.

"So, you want to talk about Talen, don't you?" He crossed his legs and made himself comfortable. "If you are, don't be surprised, if you really meant it when you said you knew my power you have to know that knowing is my thing."

[Talen Trahan]

Everything was messed up for the boy.

His dad was sick with some sickness and Talen couldn’t fly down to heal his dad. His mother, a healer like him, was doing what she could to help his dad get better, but she wasn’t a people healer like her son; rather, she was a self-healer. Her power was useless when it came to other people getting sick, so she was helping the doctor with his father. Talen loved Hayden very much and didn’t want his father to suffer anymore.

Then there was Rhett. The blonde boy haunted his thoughts every single day, so much so that Talen couldn’t sleep without dreaming those hot, passionate dreams that made him wake in a cold sweat from a sound sleep. In his mind, he was cheating on Adrianna, but in the eyes of everyone else, he was merely sating his desires with someone of the same sex. It made him nervous and jumpy, avoiding Adrianna’s calls and text messages and staying away from her in school. Memories of Rhett’s kisses made his skin go bumpy and made his heart accelerate.

That’s when he had gotten the note.

Now he was walking towards the pond, ironic because it was tied to the first time Talen had ever laid eyes on the attractive blonde boy. The dark-haired boy was wearing dark jeans and a white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, the couple top buttons unbuttoned to show the expanse of his neck and the top part of his chest. His dark eyes spotted Rhett and Adrianna sitting on the blanket and the nerves claimed him again, making him freeze when he heard Rhett’s words.

She knew.

“Talking about me behind my back again, Goddard?” he teased in a friendly tone, trying to hide the scared part of him that wanted to run away. He approached and sat on the corner of the blanket, looking nervously between his girlfriend and his…well, Rhett.

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Adrianna felt that strange sense of knowing walking closer to her. That meant Rhett was the first to arrive. It was weird feeling as if she knew everything, when really she only knew a little. Something was tugging at the edge of her mind. Something bad, and something hurtful. She was scared to find out just what it was. Something. But what? Adri pushed back the feeling and continued looking out at the pond until Rhett came over.

She glanced at him, surprised that he had even shown up because he knew she had lied. She needed to know what was happening, the fact that she didn't was making her uncomfortable.

"Hello to you too," Adrian said in a darker tone than was intended. She didn't know why, but she was angry with him. "And yes that's why I asked you here, I knew you'd see right through me." She shrugged and looked down. What was wrong with her? She never acted nasty to someone she didn't know.

"Wh..." She got cut off when she felt another power enter the atmosphere. A healer. Adrianna winced at the sound of his voice as if it was a smack to her face. Something was off. She knew it was something they were both hiding from her. Something that made her hate both of them. That made her want to break down and just cry.

Adrian couldn't even look at Talen, even when she felt his eyes on her. It wasn't hate, and it wasn't a friendship...it was more. That's when the idea cut through her. But she was in denial.

[Rhett Goddard]

"Oh goodie, now we're all here." Rhett wasn't surprised with Talen's arrival, even if it was highly unexpected.

As Talen sat, every single image of their last meeting jumped into Rhett's mind. He wondered how Talen was dealing with it and if the last couple of days had been enough time for him to get his thoughts in order. It surely wasn't enough time for Rhett, he was still in pretty much denial about being attracted to the dark-haired boy, and his plan to find someone who could remove the memories of Talen from Rhett's brain was still being considered, even if he knew that meeting him more and more would just make it far more difficult. I'm screwed.

"So let's do a quick summary." Rhett ignored Talen's question and kept talking to Adrianna. "Truth is you asked me here to talk about Talen, and truth probably is that you asked Talen here to talk about me." He looked at Talen and then directed his view back to his girlfriend. "What you want is to talk to us... about us? Wait, no, don't bother answering, let me accelerate the course of the conversation by just saying what you want to hear... though I doubt it is what you want to hear." Rhett passed his right hand through his hair, he was probably about to wreak some havoc and he knew it. Unlike the many times he'd done it before, he was a little nervous this time. "We kissed. Twice. One included tongue action. There, whose turn to talk is now?"

[Talen Trahan]

Talen stared at Rhett as he spoke, his heart plummeting from his chest into the ground. Did he really just say that to Adrianna? With no pretense of trying to explain it or anything? Talen promptly let his head fall into his hands, horrified beyond all belief. How could Rhett just say that? Did he want Adrianna to hate him beyond all time? That was not what he had wanted.

Talen looked up and smacked Rhett on the back of the head gently, a frown on his face. “I never wanted you to find out this way, Adrianna,” Talen said, looking at the girl in question. In the dark pools of his eyes, shame and forgiveness were there, begging her to understand. “I wanted to talk to you, by ourselves, and discuss this like adults. I never meant for you to find out this way.”

He then looked at Rhett, letting those soft emotions be replaced by anger. “Did you really have to say it like that, Goddard? Really? Do you want her to hate me? Because I surely don’t want her to hate me.”

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Those simple words, put so harsh and blunt, were what she needed to hear. That was what had been tugging at her thoughts. She had known without actually knowing. That didn't mean it didn't hurt. Adrianna wasn't the type of girl who would burst out in tears and make a scene. She rarely cried in front of people. The tears that stung the back of her eyes were pushed farther back. She would not cry in front of him.

Adrian nodded, "Thank you for being honest with me Rhett. I rather hear it that way than sugar-coated." Her voice didn't waiver, it was kept under control, but someone who knew Adrian well enough would have picked up on the slight pain that leaked in. She still refused to look at Talen. How could she? After all those things he said about Luke being a bad guy for leaving her and then turning around and doing something like this? Luke had left for his family, Talen just didn't seem to care about her feelings.

"Save it Tal. I don't want to hear it. If you would have wanted to talk like 'adults,' you wouldn't have avoided me so much," Adrian finally looked at him with her blueish-green eyes filled with pain, betrayal and anger. Her tone held only the anger.

Adri looked back at Rhett, "How long ago did it happen?" She wanted to know just how long she had been lied to. How long she had thought someone actually cared about her.... And the worst part of it all was she had planned on taking him to meet her mother. That's how much she had believed the relationship would work. She had been wrong.

[Rhett Goddard]

One thing that always plagued Rhett's mind was how people could never be entirely good. To be good, you have to be honest, but being honest is not always good, and now Rhett, as usual, is the bad guy in this little story. He was used to it, he was an ogre, he would say. Even if he saved the princess, he'd still be blamed about everything else, right? Good thing I don't care. I. Don't. Care. Fuck, Talen.

"Just a couple of days, not even a week." He kept ignoring Talen's words, he was there to talk to Adrianna. "Maybe it will make you feel better, or maybe not, I don't really care, but mostly everything that has happened are my deeds." Rhett confessed. "We met because I approached him, I tackled him randomly once, we met because I knew where he was going to be, and the second kiss was because I jumped unto him." He turned his head to look at Talen... He could feel something tingling inside him. "Really Adrianna, I did it all, almost forced him. He doesn't like me, though I doubt he likes you."

[Talen Trahan]

Talen winced when Adrianna spoke. He could feel how she felt; betrayed. She was betrayed, and by the one person she shouldn’t have been betrayed by. He opened his mouth to answer her question when Rhett beat him to the punch, telling her what she needed to know. He was glad it hadn’t been too long, or else this would have fallen apart far sooner than this. Tal sighed and looked back at Adrianna, then at Rhett.

“I do like you, Adrianna,” he retorted, glaring at Rhett before looking at the girl. “And yes, what Rhett said is true. I don’t like him like that, even though he likes me. Yes, he forced me into kissing him. I almost choked him once because he made me angry.” He looked away. “Rhett forced me to do all this.”

Yes, better to blame the boy in question than face it himself.

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Adrianna nodded absently. She was close to tears, but she tried to push them back. Rhett seemed to be telling the truth. She did believe him, but even though he blamed himself...she couldn't really hate him. Talen hadn't told her, he had cheated on her, but she still really liked him. She didn't want it to end. She didn't want to feel this pain again. She just wanted someone to care about her. Was that so much to ask?

"I want to believe that Tal...you know I do. But if it happened twice, then you couldn't have been completely forced into it. If you really did like me, you would have told me as soon as it happened. Not like this." Adrianna looked up at Talen. She could see that he was genuinely sorry. That was what made it harder to be mad at him. Adri was always so nice, she only hated a few people...and she couldn't make Talen one of them. That would be putting him into a category with Zachary LaRousse. He wasn't that bad.

It was getting more difficult to keep her emotions controlled. She was breaking inside. Who would care about her now? Who would help her get through this mess with her mother? She felt alone. Utterly and completely alone.

[Rhett Goddard]

Talen's words made Rhett's face wince. The so-called southern gentleman... He called for it, Rhett blamed himself and all Talen did was continue the show. At least Adrianna was at least sort of seeing things objectively: reasons didn't matter, actions did. He tried to point fingers in his mind, is he really the sole guilty soul in this soap-opera? Even if most of his interactions with Talen happened because of Rhett, Talen didn't just say no and run away. They were both equally guilty of breaking the Taldrianna item, and the way Talen pushed it all unto Rhett just showed his true cards, Talen was most definitely a player. The same way he is always flirting and making everyone feel appreciated, the way he was angered by being called a manwhore since his cover was being blown, and now how he was attempting to keep a good image, even if it was hardly impossible, by damaging someone else's, taking advantages of their honesty and forward-way of saying things. Despicable.

"He's a charmer, Adrianna, you should keep him." Rhett said before standing in the spot. "Now you have all the time in the world, TNT." He referred to the Talen's request the last time they met. "It's been a very pleasant evening, I hope we can do it all over again." He started to walk away from the other two. "Next time let's spice things up and you two be pregnant and husband and wife so I can break a marriage up instead of a silly cellphone-boyfriend-girlfriend thing."

Rhett closed his eyes, mind and ears to everything around him, trying to get as far physically and mentally from the scene. At least this time nothing hurt, this time it was the cold Rhett in action all over the place... and that Rhett doesn't feel.

[Talen Trahan]

Adrianna’s words cut him like a knife, one that his healing abilities wouldn’t be able to save him from. Before all this, he had been the gentleman to a lady, kind and considerate and affectionate. He had been everything his mother had raised him to be, and then Rhett had to step in and change everything, make him out to be the bad guy, when that was the last thing he wanted.

“I was scared to tell you, Adrianna,” he said to the girl. “I was afraid that you would be disgusted and turn away from me. Well now that’s happened, and I can’t change it. I understand if you want to walk away from this with a clear relationship, because it is obvious that I cannot give that to you.”

Rhett’s words, however, made the sorrow go away, anger flooding in again. How was it that the blonde always managed to rile him up at the worst times? Talen stood and walked after the boy, turning him and grasping his shirt by the collar, letting Rhett see the flames licking in his eyes. “And you,” he said in a voice so low it was a growl, “Find that memory person soon. It would be better if I never saw your face again. You screw everything up in my life, and I never want to be this close to you ever. Again.”

With those words said, Tal released the blonde and walked slowly back to the blanket with Adrianna, using the time to calm himself down and get his temper under check.

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Adrianna winced at Rhett's words. She understood that he was hurt, but why take it out on her? How was any of this her fault? Tears spilled over finally and wouldn't stop. She wanted to get up and run away, but that wasn't fair to Talen. After all he had done to her, she still did care about him. The way he had made her feel was different, not that she was going to feel that way anymore. She couldn't with him. He wasn't hers any longer and she needed to accept that, but he deserved the chance to explain. No matter how much he hurt her, she still wanted a friendship with him.

Once he spoke she kept her eyes fixed on the blanket. He had described how part of her felt. Disgusted, betrayed, but she wasn't one to give up on a person just like that. Everyone made mistakes. She tried to stop crying, but his words were just making it harder.

Once Talen got up and went after Adrian's eyes snapped up. She had never seen Tal that mad. It was scary really. She watched him carefully. He was clearly upset with the boy and that just made her feel more sympathy for him. It must be so confusing, something she'd never understand. How could she hate him when he was making it so hard to? He walked back slowly and her eyes never left his face.

Once he was close enough she spoke quietly, "Tal...are you alright?" Worry and concern filled her voice. Adri never stayed mad at people, not unless they didn't care about her feelings at all...much like LaRousse. The tears slowed slightly once she started worrying about him instead of the situation at hand.