Tribe (Tribe 1) by Audrina Cole

wanted it to. If I told Alex the truth, I risked exposing my family. If I lied, Alex was sure to pursue the truth, and that risked exposing my family in a very public way.
    Which would be infinitely worse.
    “I just…I don’t know what you want me to say.”
    “How about the truth?” He remained motionless, a statue.
    I looked away, biting my lip.
    “Fine. If you won’t give me answers, I’ll find someone who—” he turned to walk away.
    “Wait!” I heaved a sigh. I didn’t really have a choice. “Sit down.”
    He returned to the picnic table and sat across from me, hands steepled beneath his chin.
    “I’ll tell you. But first, tell me what made you think I had anything to do with you getting better.”
    “Well,” he gazed off into the distance, watching the children play on the playground. “I can’t say for sure. Just…when you touched me, I felt myself start to relax. And trust me, that never happens when I get bad pains like that. It lasts and lasts, and when they finally start to pass, I’m exhausted and weak. But the pain started fading shortly after you laid your hands on me. Then I felt warm all over, especially where you touched me. It felt like a wave of peace came over me, and I got sleepy. I don’t think I ever fell completely asleep, but it felt…I don’t know…like I was in a hazy daydream. It was nice.” He turned his face away, but I thought I saw a hint of a blush on his cheeks.
    He cleared his throat and looked back at me. “For the rest of the day, I felt good. In fact, instead of feeling worn out at the end of the party, I was sorry to see it end. Even though I knew the fundraiser had been a bust, I didn’t care. I was still a little tired, but nothing compared to how it had been for the last couple of months. And it’s gotten better every day since.”
    “Why did you go in for new scans? I thought the doctors had pretty much written you off.”
    “They had. But I was feeling so good, and my mom was driving me crazy all week, trying to keep me in bed. I told her I thought I was in remission. She didn’t believe it, even though she wanted to. I felt so different, I knew something was happening to me. My dad was kind of mad and felt like I was holding on to false hope. Mom was worried I’d kill myself, trying to do stuff that I shouldn’t because I thought I was getting better. So when I begged them to run some tests, they eventually agreed, and after arguing with the doctors, they finally approved it.”
    This boy wasn’t just observant…he was persistent as hell. Those tests couldn’t be cheap, but he finagled a way to get his parents and his doctors to do it, despite the risk of complaints from the insurance company, and all on his whim. I saw him in a new light. Despite the illness that ravaged his body (and still left his body weak, even in the wake of his healing) he had a fighting spirit like none I’d ever seen. And he’d managed to put me in a position where I was considering telling him my family secret. I was awed by it.
    “So…” I realized I was staring at him, and looked away. “What did the doctors say?”
    “What could they say? You know doctors. They think there’s a rational explanation for everything. First they said my scans must have gotten mixed up with someone else’s. Then they claimed it had to be the machine, that it must be on the blink. So they put me in a different machine, and got the same results. Then they tried another. Eventually they gave up trying to explain it, and mumbled something about needing to recalibrate the machines—all of them.”
    I laughed. “Boy, I wish I’d been there for that.”
    Alex watched me while I laughed, a small smile curving his lips. As my laughter died away, there was a moment of awkwardness, and in that silent moment, I felt it.
    He was attracted to me.
    Oh...wow. I hadn’t expected that. Knowing how people felt about me—or at least having an inkling of it—created many awkward moments for