Project Oxygen

09 | neuromodulator

          "I—"

          "Can you get him on the phone, please?" Rhiannon nods, even though the woman cannot see the gesture. "And this isn't open for discussion; your parents might feel like it's a chore to help their own daughter live her life like she's supposed to, but Sean and I certainly don't share their beliefs. We'll transfer the money to your account later today."

          Knowing pretty darn well arguing with Samantha Sargent is fighting a battle she decidedly can't win, Rhiannon simply thanks her one final time before handing Jude her phone. He winces as soon as he leans the electronic device against his ear and Rhiannon feels a quick slash of guilt go straight through her heart, remembering she's the one who brought this upon themselves.

          He didn't have to sign up for the damn thing. She's the one who can barely pay for her daily cup of coffee in the morning, and the one who spends the last two days of the month trying to come up with new ways of saving the misery still left in her bank account. She's the one who doesn't give a flying damn about Project Oxygen or whatever its name is.

          She's as immobile as an ice statue as Jude tries to talk his mother out of calling the university to get that experiment cancelled, insisting it isn't dangerous (even though Rhiannon doesn't know why Samantha thought it was or what kind of information people are spreading, but it most likely isn't positive information) and no one is running any risks, especially since they can drop out whenever they want without any negative consequences.

          Sighing, Rhiannon stares out of the window, wishing Isla was around instead of having disappeared to do God knows what. She's still pissed at Rowan for having yelled at her in front of all those people in the cafeteria a few days ago and Rhiannon understands that, but she doesn't dare to say anything about it; if she did, she'd tell Isla they should talk things through, as he'll be here for a while and they'll inevitably, run into each other or even be in the same room for a relatively long period of time, but that would only make her a hypocrite.

          She's the one who never deals with her problems headfirst—Isla isn't. Therefore, it's best if Rhiannon continues to keep her mouth shut and let Isla solve everything, as she's the one who usually figures things out, knowing exactly what she wants and where she wants to go.

          Isla Guerreiro wants to change the world. She certainly has the brains, the skills and the ambition to do it.

          When Jude finally hangs up, he announces he wants to stop by the library, throwing Rhiannon her phone. She misses it and it slips from her hands to her bed, bouncing twice before finally resting on the mattress, and her muscles feel too heavy to pick it up.

          She doesn't like the library, even though most people talk wonders about it, because some shelves are always so dusty she spends most of her time there sneezing her lungs out; once, the sneezing was so violent she coated an entire paragraph of a textbook with blood.

          They say that's the place where Taylor Morris was seen for the last time before having gone missing, which might mean someone from Crowcrest might be involved in her disappearance, and Rhiannon can't exactly be blamed for wanting to avoid that place as much as possible. Jude tries to convince her there's nothing wrong with the library per se, much like he wanted to tell Samantha the experiment is completely safe, but she's not like his mother.

          Thankfully. Though the woman can be lovely sometimes, it would be mortifying if Jude hung around Rhiannon because she reminds him of his mother.

          "We'll be there along with plenty of other people," Jude reminds her, walking backward, hands shoved in his pockets. Rhiannon truly envies him, noticing how seemingly cool-headed he almost always appears to be; a girl has just gone missing and he has barely said anything about it, but, when he does, something changes in him. Everything becomes so much darker and Rhiannon knows him well enough he's scared too. How wouldn't anyone be, really? "It'll be okay."