"Yeah, I do actually." Blake said.
Jess turned her head and stared at him curiously.
"Liar." She accused.
"Excuse me?"
"I'm empathic Blake. You can't lie to me."
Blake opened his mouth, then closed it, opened it again, closed it and looked away.
"Heck you know, normally I might say if you didn't like me, just say so… but… but I know that's not the case the same way that I know you were lying."
Tears started pricking at her eyes.
"Blake, I know you like me as much as I like you. You can't hide that from me. Why, why can't you admit it?"
Blake turned his head to look at her again. He studied her face for a moment.
"You know, you should be careful who you confront about their feelings. But I suppose you also know when someone's in denial huh?"
"Yeah… but you're not in denial."
"I know that. I was just stating a fact."
"You're stalling."
"And I know it." He replied ruefully. "There was this girl I really liked last year. But uhh, her older brother didn't like me."
"So?"
"He was captain of the football team. The local college football team."
"Oh."
"Poor girl. I'm surprised she managed to date anyone."
"What's this got to do with me?"
"You have three older brothers!" he exploded. "And frankly, I don't know them well enough yet to know if they're gonna bash me if we start… if we start…"
"Is that what this is all about?" Jess asked incredulously. "You're freaked out about getting bashed? By Ike, Tay and Zac? Get real!"
Blake let out a short laugh and Jess flirtatiously put her arm around him.
"C'mon Blake. First of all, Tay's empathic too! If they had a problem with us dating, Tay would have known about your interest and warned you off already."
"I didn't think of that… I guess… these powers are kinda weird to get used to huh?"
"Yeah. Some more so than others."
"One thing is for sure, I never wanna get into a fight with Ike. Who knows what he'd shape shift into to kill me."
Jess laughed.
"Don't worry about them. They'd only bash you if you bashed me, and I know you're not gonna do that."
Blake smiled.
"No. No, I never would."
And on that, he leant over and kissed her.