The boy inside the matrix box

10

No, I could not want you more than I did right then,

As our heads leaned in

Kiss Me Slowly – Parachute

Sitting cross-legged on her chair in the study hall, Nessie has her nose glued to her mobile phone screen. Nataniel occasionally looks up from his history notebook to look at her. Beside her, Sam regularly does the same. She confirmed them when they said hello that morning that she had broken up with Charles. Again. Not a problem, she said.

Indeed, it doesn't seem to be a problem.

"Oh my God," she suddenly breathes.

She leans over the table to stick an earphone in each of the boys' ears. "Do you hear that?" she asks. That fucking phrase! They're going to kill Newt in the movies too."

She falls back in her chair, stunned.

"No way!" shouts Sam. "They hardly follow the books anymore, but as for killing him, yes?"

"I feel betrayed," sighs Nessie. They had one job, only one. Not to kill him. And what do they do? Oh, no, no! I refuse to pay to see this in the cinema!"

Nataniel gives her back her headphones with a grimace. "We'll watch it on the Internet. It's better for Sam, he'd burst into tears in the middle of the cinema otherwise." With a soft smile, Nataniel pats his friend's head.

"Sorry for being sensitive!"

"When you cry because the last male turtle of a species has died, it's more than being sensitive."

"Then he's hypersensitive," Nessie shrugs. "At worst, it's not wrong to cry. It should never be wrong. No one is ashamed to smile, no one regrets having laughed when they were happy. So, let's cry. Even if it's for a turtle, even if it's for a fictional character, let's cry."

"Says the girl who has probably never shed a tear in her life." Nataniel smiles softly.

She watches him intently with her two large ebony eyes. "Maybe I don't see as much of the world's sadness as Sam."

"You see hope," says the latter.

Nessie opens her eyes with surprise.

"It's true," insists Sam. "You have so many plans to save the world! And, Nat, he sees the beauty."

"Beauty?" Nataniel repeats mockingly.

"Yes, of all of us you are the one who is most sensitive to the beauty of things. You are the one who will read us a sentence from a book because you find it beautiful. You are the one who stops in your track to look at a beautiful cloud."

"That's true," smiles Nessie. "It's a good thing that you always manage to see what's beautiful."

"It's a good thing to always see hope, too, Ness," laughs Nataniel. "In the end, it's only Sam who is unhappy, he who feels all the pain in the world!"

"Let's not exaggerate," laughs Sam, "I could almost pass for a melancholic, listening to you!"

"You should start writing some spleen," smiles Nessie. "Maybe you'll manage to create some nice rhymes."

"I doubt it! I prefer to solve equations."

"They're crazy, these math brains!" shouts Nessie grandly, which owns her stares from a few students around.

Nataniel and Sam roll their eyes at her, which only manages to make her burst out laughing. Nessie may be annoying the other students, but at least Nataniel feels relieved. She definitely looks her normal self. After all, as Paul has said over and over again, this is not the first time she and Charles have broken up.