Page 103 of Should Our Stars Collide

“You can learn to be sensitized to intrusion. It takes a bit of practice, but you’ll eventually get there. It feels like…” Gabe searches for the word. “A tickle. You know when you feel like someone’s watching you?”

“Yeah. Creepy as.” Interestingly, he’s never felt like that around Ash.

“It’s kinda like that. Sorry that I can’t explain it more clearly, it’s more intuitive than physical.”

“No, that’s okay. I think I get it.” Basically, he’s supposed to rely on his gut. Great.

“Wanna give it a go?”

“How do we know I’m doing it right?”

“Think of something that makes you feel a strong emotion. At the same time, imagine you’re surrounded by that forcefield. I’ll try to detect the emotion. Don’t worry, I don’t need to poke around inside your head for this.”

“Okay.”

Weirdly enough, knowing that Gabe is going to be ‘tuning intohim’ makes him more unsettled than when Ash does it. Kieran must be losing his mind.

He closes his eyes and focuses on creating the forcefield. Fortunately for him, he’s watched plenty of sci-fi to draw inspiration from. Plus, building impenetrable walls is something he has lots of experience with. Granted, those have been built around his heart, but the mind shouldn’t be too difficult.

And it’s not. At first, anyway. But when he tries to conjure up a solid thoughtwhileholding the forcefield, it becomes significantly more challenging.

Here goes nothing.

He thinks of the first—and last—time he tasted kombucha, which triggers an instant feeling of revulsion. His gag reflex kicks in as if that disgusting thing is actually in his mouth.

Hearing Gabe laughing his ass off makes him open his eyes, which, naturally, makes him lose focus.

“What?” he says irritably.

“I can tell by your face you’re thinking something gross,” Gabe manages between giggles. ”Maybe I should close my eyes too. Your face is very telling.”

“Great.” He forces his face to relax. Given how Gabe continues giggling, it’s not working. He waits until Gabe closes his eyes and gives it another go.

This time he thinks of Dawson. Of their early uni days, before Dickhead, when they spent most of their free time together, and all the shit they got up to. Although Dawson was too mild-mannered to cause any real trouble. He spent most of his time saving Kieran from his own bad decisions.

Kieran chuckles. Years later, and Dawson is still the same. Except now they rarely see each other.

“Nostalgia,” Gabe says.

Fuck. He got so caught up in reminiscing about the good old days he completely neglected to hold up the barrier.

“Not bad at all for a first try,” Gabe tries to placate him. “I couldfeel the pushback, but once I applied pressure, you caved.”

“My concentration is shit.” And he didn’t feel Gabe trying to get through at all, so his intuition is shit too.

“That’s what practice is for. Let’s go again.”

Kieran loses track of how many tries it takes, but with each one it gets easier. Gabe takes longer and longer to name the emotions, and, at some point, Kieran starts feeling his pokey presence too.

“You learn super fast,” Gabe praises him, impressed. “I could barely sense anything. I can’t even tell what that last emotion was, it was too faint.” He gives him a thumbs up. “Now, let’s try something that really makes you feel things.”

Right. Because big emotions mean big distractions.

Kieranknowsjustthe one.

The forcefield rises with little effort, now that he’s practiced properly. Then, Ash’s dumb face manifests in front of him. Kieran can already feel his blood pressure rising, his heart starting to beat faster.

Ash’s lips start to move, a bunch of frustrating words spilling out. Kieran only listens to them with one ear, not wanting to lose his grip on the barrier because fake-Ash got him too riled up.