Eternity (Circle of Light) by April Margeson

quietly.
    “I have a girlfriend. Eric was saying as stood behind the girl. It was apparent that she had no idea that I was anywhere around.
    “I don’t mind.” She twirled a thick strand of hair around her finger. Right then I was glad I couldn’t see her face. As I looked at Eric I questioned my next move. Should I stand here and listen, or should I put an end to this altogether?
    “I’m not sure what you mean by that.” Eric said. He was clearly wanting me to intervene. He looked at me with those “come help me” eyes. I could hardly control myself. Almost choking on a laugh, I smiled and shook my head at him.
    More hair twirling and flipping. All I wanted to do was reach up and pull her hair out, but I contained myself. Although, I have to admit I was starting to have a problem doing it.
    “What I mean is…” she paused and I could feel my anger growing. She better not say what I think she’s going to say. Don’t do it. “She doesn’t have to know if you don’t want her to. I won’t tell.” Her giggle infuriated me. That was all I could stand. Without another thought, I brushed by her, bumping into her slightly. “Hey baby.” I said sweetly as I stood on tiptoe to reach Eric’s lips. After a quick kiss I landed back flat on my feet, turning to face the slutty intruder.
    “This is my girlfriend.” Eric boasted, trying not to laugh.
    With another lesson from my mother in mind, I smiled and held out my hand. “Hi. My name is Bailey.”
    The girl was clearly disappointed. “Hi.” She mumbled back. It was easy to see that she was no longer interested in the conversation.
    Leave it to Eric to end up being the rude one, but he done it with such tact that it was hard to tell. “I’m sorry. I didn’t catch your name.” He threw his arm around my shoulders. His hand came to rest on my collar bone.
    “It doesn’t matter.” She snarled and immediately walked away.
    She had a look on her face that reminded me of someone that had just been stung by a bee.  I swallowed my laughter until she was far enough away that she wouldn’t hear my outburst.  I actually felt bad for her.  Rejection is a bitch.
    Eric and I took our seats.  We sat beside each other in every class.  That made it easier to talk to him.  All either one of us had to do was fidget a little and we had the other one’s attention.
    We talked about the girl asking him to the party.  I made it a point to not say anything negative about her.  I didn’t want to be that way.  It was bad enough that she was rejected and for me to mouth off about her behind her back would make everything worse. 
    I never really liked to talk about people unless it was something positive.  Sharing other people’s secrets wasn’t high on my list of things to do.  I tried to treat everyone the way that I wanted to be treated in return.  That was the golden rule, right?
    The teacher called on Eric to help him go through some leftover test papers.  I sat at my desk and looked around the room.  Suddenly, I noticed I could hear the voices of people other than the students that were talking.  I was confused because the voices sounded so familiar.
    I looked around the room at everyone.  It reminded me of the day that I heard Eric in my mind.  I could read minds.  Not just Eric’s, but everyone’s.
    I concentrated hard to separate each individual person’s mind from the others.  I started with the row next to the windows.  After a while of listening to them, I moved on to the next row.  Everyone was pretty well thinking the same things.  They thought about food, graduation, and the parties afterward. And a few of the guy’s minds were a little x rated, so I didn’t linger.
    I noticed my mind was being pulled in a certain direction, but I couldn’t seem to locate where I needed to listen. It was beginning to become confusing in a bad way. I laid my head down on the desk and concentrated harder.  I was almost to the other person’s mind when