When All is Null and Void

Chapter Thirty-Four

"I was going to get cereal." Alexander disapproved, apparently; his face was impassive. "What?" Caleb said, "I'm starving." He was also well aware he would probably fall on his face if he stood, as a particular muscle in his butt had locked up, and he knew it wouldn't loosen for a while. Being fussed over made him antsy.

"I'll get it for you. Just stay here." Alexander walked into the kitchen with a heavy sigh.

A minute later he returned with a bowl of Lucky Charms. "What is fifteen plus thirteen?" Alexander asked Caleb before handing him the bowl.

"Twenty-eight," he said, only thinking for a second. Alexander handed him the bowl, and Caleb ate slowly, unsure if he was actually hungry or simply craving the comfort of sugar.

Alexander and Caleb sat on the couch for a long while in quiet awkwardness. "I'll be all right," Caleb said. "You know that, right?"

"I know," Alexander said. "Doesn't mean I'm not worried about you. Or that I'm not annoyed that this wasn't fixed when you were with Rhea."

"Yeah..." Caleb said. They fell into silence once again, and the TV played a live cooking show they both couldn't get enough of.

+++

Having finished her exam with a delighted flourish, Danielle found herself losing energy and focus as the morning wore at an interminable slug. At lunch, after eating a bag of salted vinegar chips and not much else, the reality of her morning settled in with acute understanding. She truly had been in Florida, had spent an entire afternoon with Caleb on a beach.

Caleb had magical abilities—or, not magical, but abilities.

Upon glancing in the bathroom mirror between APUSH and German, Danielle noted that her skin was darker than usual, but she seemed almost...luminescent. Hadn't there been a zit on her upper lip this morning?

Even Caitlyn noticed the subtle shift after school. She snuck up behind Danielle, snaking her arm in Danielle's so they were linked. It looked like friendship, but Danielle knew it to be a trap.

"You could have told me you were going tanning," she said in an overly saccharine tone.

"I didn't," Danielle responded a little too quick.

Caitlyn winked. "Right, you got this tan line," she brushed at Danielle's collar bone, "from the trip to Hawaii you didn't take. Your skin is already beautiful. I'm sojealous."

Danielle huffed air from her nose and untangled herself from Caitlyn. Ever since Jason Rivers' party the hidden fissures in their friendship had begun to crack and widen. Apparently, Danielle had left her friend at the party, but she had no recollection of ever leaving—thanks to Caleb and Alexander. The next morning she'd had to shamefully ask her mom to drive to Jason's house to retrieve her car, which was sitting in the exact spot she remembered parking it.

Caitlyn's allusion to forgiveness had been flimsy at best, and ever since Caleb and Danielle had started to hang out consistently, Caitlyn had countered by befriending Amelia Budro, a girl from the theatre department, and a royal jerk. She was another one of those girls who considered herself far above other students. Honestly, Danielle knew Amelia lacked drive, despite her incredible talent. It was Danielle's own drive that had clenched the leading female roles in the musical the last two years before she'd quit because of one comment: "Audrey is white." Amelia's spite for Danielle might have leaked into Caitlyn, but Caitlyn tried to operate outside the façade of pettiness that had grown.

As they walked to her car, Caitlyn brought up the rumor of the day. "Elsa said you and Caleb made out in the girl's locker room today. She saw you."