System Nullification

Chapter 18

 "Hi...?" I said, looking back at Brianna.

 She made a neck slitting motion with her finger, and I flinched. "Your boyfriend doesn't seem to like me," Cole said. "It'd be nice if we could be friends though."

 "Er, he's not my boyfriend," I said.

 "Oh, oh right!" Cole said, as if he really didn't know. "He broke up with you, yeah that was... sad. Yeah, sorry about that."

 I gave him a look, and he said, "I'll go recite my thing now. Bye."

~

 "So, about the thing I wanted to talk about with you..." Zephyr said, sipping his smoothie afterwards to see if he caught my attention.

 He always tends to catch my attention. I looked at him slightly eagerly, noticing he was still sweating from the hand to hand combat training earlier. "What is it?" I asked.

 "I want to tell you the truth about what happened in middle school," Zephyr stated, putting his smoothie down and licking his lips.

 I gave him a weird look. "Why are we discussing something that happened in middle school?"

 "Look, Iris, I just want to verify something because I can't read your mind," Zephyr started. "You're aware of the dare Cole did on me, right?"

 "Yeah," I bitterly said, my heart sinking. "I remember exactly what Cole told me. He told me that he dared you to date every fucking girl in the class, Zephyr."

 "Okay, yeah... and... are you also aware of what I did it for?" Zephyr asked.

 "What you... did it, for?" I questioned.

 In the moment, a flurry of thoughts was going through my head and I completely forgot to read Zephyr's mind. "I did it for you, Iris," Zephyr confessed.

 My mind was a blank, yet a wave of thoughts like, "What?"

 "What do you mean by that, Zephyr? You broke my heart for me, seems legit," I blurted out.

 "Iris, that's not what I mean! Cole tricked me! He tricked me into—" Zephyr was cut off by the feeling of getting pulled right into an antimatter space.

 "CAMERON!" Zephyr squeaked, his voice cracking slightly. "I mean, uh, Cameron! What the hell?!"

 "Wait, sorry, were you in the middle of something? I wasn't paying attention... but I'm panicking a lot so—" Cameron stated.

 "We WERE in the middle of something but whatever," Zephyr pouted.

 I gave Zephyr one last look before biting my lip, turning away, and feeling curious about what Zephyr meant by that. "What's wrong, Cameron?" I asked.

 "Oh yeah, anyway, Anderson was in some kind of organization, right? What was it called again?" Cameron asked. "Just so I can verify something?"

 "I don't remember..." I said.

 "Neither do I," Zephyr stated.

 "Uh, you can text Will, I bet he'd remember," Cameron said, and before Zephyr could ask, Cameron added, "Yes, you can still text people even if you're in an antimatter space. You just don't physically exist."

 "Awesome," Zephyr marveled, staring at his phone in fascination as he texted Reed. "If only I could tell him I'm not even in the physical world and that I'm in the antimatter space. But SOMEONE wants to keep it all a secret even though we can trust them."

 "Is it really okay to text Will about Anderson?" I asked.

 "I'm sure it's okay," Cameron stated. "I know it. Will's pretty tough for his age."