23.

Frustration weighed Elliot down like a ton of bricks as he sat on his bed and tried to move Sheree's ball of yarn. It had been 2 days since they trained with Professor Klein in the woods and he had hit a wall. All the earlier steps came relatively easy to him. Creating the crackling energy without throwing a punch had only taken him a few tries to get right. Getting rid of the crackling effect so that it was just a wave of energy took him less than an hour to get right. Then he had to learn how to give it some direction. He struggled for a few hours with that one, but yesterday it suddenly clicked, and he could now push things away and knock them toward him. Now he had to learn how to pick something up and hold it. This was where things had stalled out for him.

He sat the yarn ball in the center of his bed and reached his right hand out in the direction of it. Memories of the countless hours Sheree had sat on her bed doing this exact thing flashed in his mind. She had gotten so much better at this since the night she dropped the ball on his head as a joke. I wonder if I'm capable of getting as good at this as she is? He thought as he continued trying to move the ball in vain.

"You're thinking too much, you have to clear your mind," Sheree's voice spoke into his mind.

He looked around and confirmed he was in the room alone. Sheree was in the bathroom. Over the last few days this had been happening often.

"Get out of my head!" Elliot thought as loudly as he could and went back trying to move his yarn ball.

The bathroom door opened and a smiling Sheree emerged wearing her towel. Elliot ignored her as he continued concentrating. Sheree felt a mixture of pride in him for how hard he was working, and jealousy at not being his biggest concern. She reflected briefly on how their relationship had changed. It wasn't that long ago that she hated walking out of the bathroom in her towel because of the attention she was now craving. She looked over at Elliot as he panted, his beautiful skin glossy from sweat and she wanted to jump him. She decided to give him some help.

The ball began to quiver as Elliot exerted all of his mental will over it. His eyes got wide when it slowly began to float into the air. He followed the ball into the air with his hand and focused as hard as he could on keeping it afloat. When The ball suddenly rocketed across the room and bounced off the door, Elliot looked over at Sheree. She did her best to stifle her laugh but she failed. She burst into laughter as Elliot sat angrily on his bed.

"Why would you do that, I thought I finally made some progress," he said and punched his bed.

Sheree quickly panicked when he did, as she expected destruction to follow, but it never happened.

"Why didn't your bed explode, or crumble or fall apart just now?" she asked, intrigued.

Elliot looked down at his bed and then threw up his hands.

"Oh, I guess I learned how to choose what I destroy when I punch things. It's not automatic anymore," He said nonchalantly.

Sheree was stunned at his growth. He had learned so much control over the last 2 days. All she had managed to learn was how to send her voice into someone else's mind. She was still struggling to do it around multiple people. It was too hard to target just one person and make sure they were the correct person. Yesterday she almost whispered some naughty things she wanted to do in Rayne's mind. That embarrassed her so much she decided to only practice in private.

Elliot got up from his bed to retrieve the yarn ball by hand. Sheree went and stood in front of her bed and spoke to him when he was standing in front of his own bed.

"Stop moving and face me," she said into his mind.

Elliot did as she said but with a skeptical look on his face.

"What is this about now? " he thought. Sheree smiled briefly at being able to hear his thoughts.

"I'm going to help you by offering a greater reward than yarn," she said with a smirk.

Elliot felt a wave of intrigue flow over him like a small tsunami. He raised an eyebrow as he looked up and down her body. She did make a far better reward than yarn, he was already more motivated just standing there.

"Successfully pull the towel off of me and I'll let you touch anything you see," Sheree thought as she spread her arms wide.

A determined look crossed Elliot's face just before he closed his eyes and focused harder than he had ever done before. As he did that, Sheree did her best to send him mental pictures of what she imagined the power to look like. She thought about an invisible hand extending from Elliot's mind to her. It gripped the towel and yanked it slowly off her and carried it over to Elliot. She wasn't sure if she could send mental images, but that was the trick she had always used to practice. After a few seconds the towel gave a soft, short tug. She looked down at the top of it and saw it lurching slightly forward. She smiled as she thought about trying to pull Elliot's blanket off him.

When the towel finally floated free of her she beamed from ear to ear. She was so proud of him for being able to do it, she had almost forgotten what she promised him. Elliot certainly hadn't. When the towel landed in his hand he flashed her a sinister smile and started moving forward.

"Wait! there's more to the challenge, If you can move me over to you, I'll let you kiss me wherever you want," she thought to him.

Elliot was so exhausted he could barely stand, but the offer was too good to pass up. He accepted the challenge and began focusing again. He pictured an invisible hand extending from himself and wrapping Sheree from head to toe. The image had just suddenly occurred to him the last time he went for the towel. It was extremely helpful. He had to make sure that he grabbed her gently, something made him feel like he could easily crush her if he wanted to. He let the image in his head play out, the hand slowly lifted her a few inches off the ground and carried her toward him. As it carried her, he felt a weight in his outstretched right hand. As if someone was holding onto it. He resisted the urge to squeeze it. When the image concluded, he felt Sheree's warm hand on his face. He opened his eyes and saw her standing less than a foot away from him.

Sheree kissed Elliot on the neck several times as she said aloud how proud of him she was. Elliot used the little strength he had left to remain standing. He wanted to return her affection but he was utterly spent.

"Don't worry it doesn't last long," Sheree said aloud as she lifted him onto his bed and stripped off his clothing.

Elliot could do little more than smile weakly as she did what she wanted to him. She had promised him an all you could kiss buffet, but her admiration for him got the best of her. She wanted to make him feel as good as she could. She wanted him to know that he meant everything to her.