Once classes were out, I found her a couple of feet outside the school gate surrounded by a small crowd of curious onlookers. There she was, spiked, black choker necklace and bracelet combination, black jacket hanging over her shoulders, black lipstick carefully applied to her lips, her black platform boots lifting her high off the ground as she knelt before the black kitten resting on the sidewalk.

  “Here, kitty kitty.”

  The kitten hissed as it was slowly backed into a corner by the unamused girl towering over it. The terrified creature’s cries did nothing to perturb her approach, however, as she slowly extended her hand out towards it.

  “Hey Tristy, why’d you leave all of a sudden?” Jaz gasped for air, leaning onto her knees as she caught herself. “Guess what? About that call I got at lunch, I-“

  She was interrupted, however, by the cat’s ferocious screech as it swiped repeatedly at Laura Young’s hand with a deftness that even trained athletes would have a hard time reacting to. The girl, however, remained unperturbed. She kept her hand out, even as small cuts began to form on her fingers, as her blood began drip down onto the pavement at her feet.

  “Is she crazy? What is that girl doing?” Jaz asked, standing up straight.

  “Here, kitty kitty.”

  Even as the group of about six or seven students gasped in awe at the attack and urged Laura to pull away, she kept her hand held out as if frozen in place. Her stillness put the Andrew Jackson statue at DVSU to shame. In fact, she was so still that, now that I could take a look at her hand, I noticed that she’d had something on the inside of the palm she was holding out. Taking a look at the other hand behind her back which was apparently carrying a small can. It appeared that she was holding out a small piece of some sort of meat for the cat.

  And even the small creature seemed to come to the realization that this was a chance to have a meal. The kitten lowered itself, carefully eyeing Laura as it sniffed at the food in her hand. Circling carefully over, it plopped its head onto her palm, still moving as if not to offend her in any way, and dragged the piece of fish off of her palm before running off into a nearby bush. The branches had all but shed their leaves, making it simple enough for anyone nearby to follow the cat’s movements as it hid beneath their cover.

  “Wow.” Jaz gasped in awe.

  “Do you remember her?” I asked.

  “Hmmm… now that you mention it…”

  The dark-haired girl in all black picked herself back up and walked over to the bush, where she placed the can of what I could only assume was tuna out of the way of the sidewalk. After achieving her objective, she glanced down at her fingers and walked over to the convertible Audi A5 whose gleaming surface was as dark as the clothes its owner had chosen to wear.

  But as she reached over the door to open the glove compartment, she caught a glimpse of us in the corner of her eye and she leaned to face us.

  “Tristan, hello.”

  “Hey.” I waved at Laura Young as she finally made eye contact with me.

  Jaz, whose hands were suddenly on her hips now, shifted her gaze between the two of us as Laura picked out two bandages from her car. Once she was done, she did a short sprint over to the two of us. “I need to clean up before we leave. Is that okay?”

  “Uh, sure. Take your time.”

  She nodded then headed off into the building, the eyes of the other students who were spectating the whole ordeal still glued to her figure as she slowly receded into the building. And, not surprisingly, Jaz was eyeing me with an amused grin.

  “Hmm, Laura Young, huh? You two… are you close or something?” She leaned in to whisper. “Did she steal your attention away from Zoey?”

  In a sense, she wasn’t wrong, but I shook my head nonetheless.

  “We have something important to handle today, so we’ll be heading out now.”

  “Something important, hmmm?”

  “Why are you grinning?”

  “’Cuz you’re blushing.” She poked my cheek.

  “I’m not.”

  “Yes you aaaare.”

  She withdrew her finger then sighed, checking her phone once more. “Still haven’t heard anything from Zoey?”

  “Not a peep,” I said.

  ‘Seriously…? Did she lose her phone or something? I wonder if she’s okay.”

  It seemed that the photography club was in serious trouble due to Zoey’s absence. Though, the club only mattered to me until the girl in question actually bothered showing up to school. Still, Zoey’s never been absent before. I knew as much. I made sure to look for her ever day for the past three years or so years, after all. I wasn’t sure if she was so much as good at keeping herself healthy or if she was just disguising any possible sicknesses, but there was never a reason for her to miss out on school.

  Whatever it was causing her absence was terrifying to me. After what she pulled with Gwen, I could only imagine that she may have been plotting something far more destructive. Should I hack her as a preventative measure? Or perhaps she stayed absent precisely because I would end up curious enough to hack her? If that’s the case, then I’m not going to do that. She told me never to do it again after all, and I had no interest in getting involved with her again. The past two days have been perfectly fine without her. I’d like to keep things that way.

  “I’m sorry, but could you tell Lance and Naomi I that I have something important to take care of?” I asked.

  Jaz folded her arms and tapped her feet as if pondering something, but she eventually sighed and gave me a tap on the shoulder. “Sure, fine, yeah, whatever. Just so you know though, today we’re going to be going into more detail on aperture stuff so don’t be disappointed if you get left behind, playboy.”

  I smiled. “Okay, thanks.”

  I decided that I’d ask Lance and Naomi about what happened at club the next day. Regardless of whether or not I’d need knowledge of Aperture or ISO or any of that stuff in the future, I do feel a bit remorseful about missing out on quality time with those three.

  It took me a moment of standing outside the gates to realize that today was Tuesday, and that I had an appointment with my psychiatrist. Calling it off was going to invite questions from mom, but I decided that it was better to be upfront about it.

  “Tristan? What’s wrong? Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah. I’m gonna be hanging out with my friends today again, so…”

  “Again? But you have your therapy, remember?”

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Yeah, but it’s urgent. Someone’s kind of… going through something. And I want to be there for her.”

  The line went quiet for a moment. I felt as if she was going to come down on me for missing out on something so important, but I decided to seep in the silence and accept whatever was coming next.

  “Okay, but you need to accept whatever rescheduling Ms. Santana agrees to, okay?”

  I smiled. “Alright, I can do that.”

  “Alright. I’m proud of you for communicating with me. It means a lot. By the way…” From the sound of her voice, I had a feeling I knew where she was going to go with this. “This ‘her’ wouldn’t happen to be Zoey, would it?”

  “No, this is Laura,” I said.

  “Laura? Who’s Laura?”

  “Laura’s just a friend, mom.”

  “Just a friend?” she asked. “Does Zoey know about this friend Laura?”

  I sighed. “Yes mom, she’s the one who introduced us.”

  “Oh, so she knows about this?”

  The conversation had taken a turn for the painful. And speaking of Laura, the girl had just emerged from the school, so I believed that it was past time I ended the call.

  “Gotta go mom, I’ll be home later.”

  “Wait, Tris-“

  I hung up and slid the phone in my pocket. I had a mission to attend to, and I wouldn’t let her misunderstandings distract me from my purpose. Though, the person trailing behind Laura had caused me some concern. She stopped right in front of me and tilted her head at the car…

  Right before the eyes of her little brother, who was wearing a bewildered expression at the sight of the two of us standing next to each other.

  “Tristan…?”

  She walked past me and towards the car. Her vanilla scent wafted through the air as her hair trailed behind her as she opened the door and slipped in. I felt a multitude of eyes on us, including that of Lawrence Young’s. Why did it feel like I was being picked up by a celebrity?

  “I’m gonna find out what happened,” I said.

  Lawrence’s eyes widened for a moment, but he squinted them and resolved himself.

  “Hey Tris, do you know why I decided not to ask what the two of you spoke about yesterday?”

  His words had come out of no where, and had given me pause for a moment.

  “No, I don’t.”

  “It’s because I trust you, man.”

  He was anxious, no doubt. But for whatever reason, he had decided to believe in me for this. Or was it that he had no other choice? I was carrying his trust in the same way that Zoey carried it just two weeks ago. That he had found it in himself to utter those words to me at all just showed how hopeless the situation was for him.

  In any case, there was nothing I could do for him now. My goal was to help Laura with her reckless mission. My diplomatic skills were lackluster compared to someone like Zoey’s, but at the very least, I could prevent Laura from being taken advantage of.

  Once I got into her car from the passenger side facing the curb, she started the car’s engine, and we drove off in the direction of Deer Valley State. The two of us sat in silence as we took in the sounds and sights of the autumn forests surrounding us. It hadn’t been my first time alone with Laura Young, having spoken to her in the church and in her room, but this time felt different. It wasn’t just a segue a couple feet away from people I knew, this was us actually sitting alone together.

  “Can you take this for a sec?” she asked.

  “H-huh? Oh sure.”

  I accepted the phone she handed me curiously, staring down at the thing in my hands.

  “There’s a meditation playlist on my Spotify. Would you mind putting it on for me please?”

  “Sure…”

  I followed her instructions and put her meditation playlist on. The slow, melodic humming poured out through her car’s speakers and filled out ears, almost in contrast to the edgy, convertible vehicle the two of us had been seated in. Is this what she listened to in her spare time? It suddenly made sense why she was so open to other people all the time.

  “Could you close your eyes please?” she asked.

  I blinked twice. “W-what’s this all about?”

  “Just trust me.”

  I didn’t know where she was going with this, but it didn’t hurt to follow her instructions. I closed my eyes and leaned back in my seat. I felt like I was lost in the middle of nowhere. I had no control of anything around me. I was completely vulnerable and alone, with nothing but the sounds of the car and the forest, and the feeling of being pulled forward in space by the car to prove that I exist.

  “I want you to focus on the sound of my voice. I know there’s lots of other sounds to hone in on right now, but I want all of your attention to be focused on my voice, and the words coming out of my mouth.”

  Certainly, from the tires gliding against the asphalt, the birds tweeting about in the trees above, the occasional sound of her blinker going off, and the cars nearby driving past us, there was a lot to get distracted by, especially in an open-roofed car like hers. But I’m sure she had her reasons for telling me to do this. So for her sake, I did my best to focus on her voice.

  “I want you to think about my brother right now.”

  Her brother?

  “Lawrence Young, Think about his face. About the time you two spent together yesterday. Think about what he said to you and how you feel about it. Think about how he must have felt about the things you said. Do you think he dislikes you? Does he enjoy your company? Are you only a friend of necessity, or are you someone important to him? Think about all of these things.”

  Lawrence Young. ‘The Law’. Despite the rumors of his relations with multiple girls, he had a presence that made it difficult for you to dislike him. He was personable and it didn’t feel very difficult to talk to him about things. Of course, my perception of him had changed when he got angry at me yesterday, but I couldn’t blame it for him after what had happened. Lawrence loves his sister. That was what had drove him into the arms of Zoey of all people for help in the first place. That’s why, regardless of how he truly feels about me, I can believe in at least that part of him.

  Lawrence cares deeply for her, doesn’t he?

  ---

  My vision had been blurred. My sense of sound fuzzy. This wasn’t like any other dream I’d had before this one where it was like I was watching a high quality film. This was more comparable to a shoddy video shot on the camera of a phone from fifteen years ago.

  I could somewhat tell what I was doing, though. I was walking into the gym where… who was that… Warren? Yeah, Warren and a few other students had already been warming up. There was a sinking feeling in my stomach, and a heaviness in my chest that I was oddly familiar with. What was this? Why was I here?

  “Yo! L..w!”

  Someone came up to me. No way, was I…?

  “H … man, you fee..ng ready … next week?” Lawrence asked.

  “I dunn…” He scratched his head. “I fee.. like we’d be bet.. off if Ben was st… on the t... I mea… we’d ac…lly have a sh… at winn… it all, y’know? I know I’m … repla…ent and all, but…”

  A smile tugged at Lawrence’s lips. “What, you thi… you’re only a ..plac…t? We’re a tea… you know.”

  “A team…”

  “Ben’s strength was his grea… scoring power, but it’s also that, at some point, teams end up dedicating two or three peo… to defending him alone. That usually opened the cou… up for the rest of us to take shots. Without him, we’re just going to have to rely on our point gua… a little more, that’s all.”

  “Our point guard…”

  Their eyes settled on Warren, who was already dripping in sweat despite the school day ending just about half an hour ago. He was doing drills on his dribbling while passing to his two teammates so that they could take quick shots at the basket.

  “You’re not alone, man,” Lawrence said, tapping the boy’s chest. “Believe in your team.”

  Leaving Ben’s substitute with those words, Lawrence jogged past him and slipped his shirt off so that he was in his basketball vest. “Hey Warren! Pass me a good one over here!”

  ---

  I gasped for air as if I’d been drowning just moments ago. My hands flailed out in front of me as I erupted into a fit coughing after my throat gave in from the pain of my gasp. What was that?

  “Did I just… fall asleep? How long was I out for?” I asked.

  “Two minutes,” Laura said.

  “Two minutes? But…” Certainly, if I had been asleep for long enough to reach REM sleep then we would have long since arrived at the school, but… then what? What does this mean? “Laura… did you know that I would hack Lawrence if I…?”

  There was a brief silence. I couldn’t tell if she was deciding on how to tell the truth or whether she should bother doing it at all.

  “Have you ever heard of astral projection?” Laura asked.

  “Astral…? I think I’ve heard that name before…”

  “It’s the idea that you can take your consciousness and project it as a sort of separate body from your own and into the world. After you left yesterday, I did some research on what you were describing and this was the closest thing I could compare it to. But while it is true that one can perform astral projection in their dreams, it’s also possible to do it while fully conscious through meditation.”

  “Meditation…? Then…”

  She nodded. “Basically what I’m saying is, it’s possible to hack others while you’re awake.”