One (One Universe)

pissed off at you.” I launch myself off the bed, stand in the middle of his bedroom, arms crossed over my chest.
    He clenches his jaw, shakes his head, and looks out the windows.
    “Merrin.” He looks back at me. “I didn’t mean to hide anything from you, okay?”
    “Oh, yeah?” I say. “Because you’re doing a pretty shitty job of it if that’s what you were going for.”
    Then I think of what we’ve been doing together and what the Hub has been trying to get at by testing Elias. My eyes narrow.
    “How much does the Hub know about what we can do?” I ask, my gaze so intense I imagine my eyeballs on fire. Maybe I should get Leni and Daniel over here and see if I can make it happen.
    “I didn’t tell them anything.”
    I look at him, dubious.
    “Nothing, Mer, I swear. I was…”
    “What? You were what ?” Asshole didn’t listen to me when I told him to call me Merrin. I’m kind of glad. This just fuels the rage.
    “I was waiting to tell Dad until I had worked out a theory as to why exactly it was working with us.”
    “So I was going to be your little prize experiment at the end of this whole thing? Is that it? You found me on my first freaking day at Nelson just to try to make this happen?”
    Every moment of our relationship flashes before my eyes. Was any of it real?
    “Oh, Mer. We were going to be awesome. Be stars together.”
    “You mean, test subjects together.”
    He nods, his lips set in a hard line. “Yeah. After the Symposium…yeah.” His voice gets softer, and he leans toward me. “Yeah. Now, I’m really worried. That’s why I want us to get out of here.” He stands up, just a foot away from me. The buzz clouds my thoughts. “Seriously. Screw everyone else.” He reaches out and lifts up my hand, holding it gently in both of his. “You’re the only thing that matters to me now.”
    My mind seizes. All I ever wanted was to have an in at the Hub. But since Elias came along, even though I wasn’t exactly imagining a future with him, it just hadn’t seemed so bad to not be a normal Super anymore. Being a One, and an awesome One together with him, had felt okay. Enough for me to ditch Mr. Hoffman in the library at least.
    Now I have no idea what feels okay because nothing does. My skin crawls again. Back to freaking square one. I yank my hand from his and stalk out.
    I’m so mad I almost don’t even realize he’s followed me out to my car. I whirl around and glare at him.
    “Do you have memories?” he asks. “Memories of the Hub? Of being there when you were little? Of being…examined?”
    “Elias. No. I mean…our parents would have had to…”
    He nods, slowly, and I don’t want to believe it. “I remember, Merrin. This has been a reality since we were little. It has nothing to do with me, with my decisions. Nothing at all. Me…knowing about you… Well, yeah, at first I wanted to find you. But then I fell in love with you. And now I just want to protect you, okay? Protect you like I can’t protect my sisters.”
    “I don’t need protection. I need honesty, Elias. I need someone who actually cares about me and not my One. Not what I can make them do. And I guess I’m not getting that from you.”
    I get into my car, slam the door so hard I think it’ll break off, and drive through the narrow country roads for a long time, until the shaking in my body transfers to the rumble of the tires along the road.
    It isn’t until I pull in the garage and rest my forehead on the steering wheel that I really hear what Elias said.
    He loves me.
    And now it doesn’t even matter anymore.

TWENTY
    A few hours later, my fury has dissipated —thanks in large part to my rickety drums and the abuse I gave them. Now it’s just solid, brooding anger.
    I call Leni, and she comes over within a few minutes. She lets me put my head on her lap and runs her fingers through my hair. That soothes me enough that I just feel mortified and empty.
    When I think of Elias, that look in his eyes when I yelled at him, I totally lose it.
    We sit there in my room on the floor together for what seems like a long time, me sobbing and gasping and snotting on her jeans and her not saying anything because she knows it wouldn’t help. Nothing would help. I can’t even eat ice cream — ice cream! — because my stomach turns and flops and twists so much.
    Even though there’s no way I’d tell Leni everything, I do tell her about how we got in a fight, then Elias told me he loved me, and I