Page 17 of Solo Stan
Kai
Kai’s shins burned as he and Elias speed-walked through the warehouse district of the city, past the converted industrial buildings.
They had stark, angular designs with square brick exteriors and tall windows.
The streetlights cast an eerie light on the building facades, giving them a haunting quality.
Despite their harsh appearance, however, a romantic radiance emanated from a number of the windows.
Keeping his eye on the clock, Kai led them through the square, Elias quietly in tow. The hotel was only a few blocks from the theater and the restaurant where they’d eaten. Finally, they arrived, panting, desperate to get into the air-conditioning.
Elias opened his mouth to speak as he passed Kai, but Kai quickly put up a finger to silence him. “Whatever joke you’re going to make about me taking you to a hotel, just save it. It’s not going to be funny, and I’m not going to laugh.”
Surprised, Elias snorted. “Wow, you sure know how to make a girl feel special,” he said in an exaggerated Southern accent.
“Are you mocking me?”
“Yes.”
“Just get inside,” Kai urged, shooing Elias along.
A small group resembling the same sort of dejected and aimless concertgoers that had been left outside the Heritage Playhouse earlier crowded around one of the check-in desks.
After a brief exchange with the concierge, the group hurriedly headed toward the elevator as Elias and Kai approached the counter.
“CYPHR!” Elias barked at the concierge while Kai massaged his sore legs.
The concierge recoiled slightly. “Do you have a reservation?” he asked. Noticing their confusion, he cleared his throat and rephrased. “Under what name is your reservation?”
Kai turned to Elias. “We were supposed to name him to get to the top. Why didn’t that work?”
“ Naming me to get to the top, ” Elias murmured to himself, over and over again like a mantra, until suddenly his eyes widened and shone with excitement. “What’s CYPHR’s real name?” he practically yelled.
“Christopher Duke Kenney?”
The employee gave a small smile, then handed Kai a key card and pointed to the same elevator where the last group had gone.
Clearly proud of himself, Elias skated past Kai with his chin held high. Kai followed Elias into the elevator and rolled his eyes, but there was no malice behind it. The corner of his lip twitched with amusement he was reluctant to fully show.
Elias rested against the stainless-steel wall of the elevator, his arms crossed indignantly over his chest. “Are you going to scan the card, or do you just want to stand here and stare at each other until our time runs down?” he asked, one of his smug little dimples poking out.
“Maybe I just wanted to be in the elevator with you,” Kai said, mocking Elias’s accent.
He stretched across Elias to reach the elevator controls with the card.
Number nine lit up, and the elevator jerked into motion.
Kai held Elias’s gaze as he leaned against the wall as well, their matched eagerness to get to the top filling the small space.
There was only about a minute and thirty seconds to spare and no way to make the elevator go any faster.
Despite wanting to bolt from the elevator when it got to the ninth floor, Kai let Elias go first.
He watched as Elias fumbled through his phone looking for The Kindness Project app, then aimed his front-facing camera at the both of them, adjusting it to capture as much of the sky above them as possible as well.
Kai went to put an arm around Elias’s shoulder but thought better of it—it felt too familiar, too friendly.
He reached for the waist instead, but that didn’t feel right, either, so he ended up stuffing his free hand in his pocket.
They both tilted their heads back, gazed upward, and click .
Relief instantly set in when they were greeted in the app by a small envelope icon that bounced before opening to reveal a single number: 1 .
“Hm, a zero and now a one. What does it mean?” Kai wondered aloud.
“Is it a point system?” Elias asked. “I didn’t know we were getting graded on this.”
“Maybe our picture wasn’t good enough?” Kai suggested.
Kai was debating whether an arm on the shoulder or around the waist would’ve scored them more points when a second envelope, another random act of mindfulness, appeared with the simple instructions Enjoy the view of the city and a ten-minute timer.
Now, with a jumble of letters from the original post and the numbers 1 and 0 , Kai and Elias weren’t any closer to figuring out CYPHR’s message. At first, Kai thought it must be some kind of word puzzle, like sudoku or a crossword. It seemed unlikely now, however.
He decided not to wrinkle his brain too much trying to figure it out until they got more clues. Elias agreed, and they decided to enjoy the view as CYPHR directed.
There was a pergola made of industrial metal beams with café lights strung between the rafters.
The rest of the rooftop was mostly barren, concrete slabs running from edge to edge.
The disparity between the rigid design and the soft summer breeze created a calming balance.
Elias walked to the edge and leaned over the cable railing, inhaling deeply as he observed the view.
Kai followed his gaze to a few of the buildings that were brightly lit with a radioactive green.
“Why do those buildings look like somewhere the Green Goblin would fly out of?” Elias joked as Kai joined him.
Kai draped his arms over the railing and let them hang freely as he looked out over the skyline. “So, you do know a little something about comics,” he said, more of a statement than a question.
“If I do, does that mean I get a raise?”
“Can you name a publisher other than DC or Marvel?”
“Um…no?”
“Then no.”
The two sat with their legs folded in front of the view from the parapet.
Elias’s skin glistened as it pulled all the purples and greens and blues from the city lights.
They leaned back and had full view of not only the bright city lights but also the stars above.
They were faint, but the formations were unmistakable if you knew where to look.
“So, why did you go to the concert by yourself? I hope you don’t mind me asking,” Kai said after a few minutes of comfortable silence had passed.
Elias wet his lips with a flick of his tongue. “Still asking permission to talk to me?”
“Tell me why you went to the concert by yourself,” Kai said, more sternly this time.
A satisfied grin spread across Elias’s face. “I like CYPHR, and I didn’t have anyone to go with. Moodie also gave me a curfew, and I knew it would piss him off.”
He really is a little shit, Kai thought, remembering what Moodie had said.
“What about you?” Elias asked. “Why’d you go to the concert alone?”
Kai twisted his necklace around his finger as he spoke. “I had tickets for me and my friend, but he bailed last minute. Now it looks like I’m spending the summer by myself.”
“What the hell am I, a ghost?”
Kai pursed his lips. “I’ve known you for less than a day. I’ve known Bobby for over a decade.”
Elias raised an eyebrow. “You and this Bobby guy seem really close.”
“I feel like you’re suggesting something, and if you are, you’re wrong. We’re just friends.”
“Are you sure?”
Kai glanced over to see Elias’s reaction as he said, “We kissed once,” but Elias remained stoic, so he conceded.
“It was years ago, though, and it made sense at the time. We were playing video games and eating a bunch of junk, and he kissed me. Honestly, it was awful, and it tasted like Swedish Fish, and it never happened again.”
Elias looked like he might say something for a second, but he just laughed instead. Then he pointed toward a cluster of stars, tracing a shape in the air as he connected the points. “That’s my zodiac sign.”
Kai incredulously followed Elias’s gaze and nodded. “Libra, huh? Tell me more.”
“Well,” Elias began, “Libras are known for their beauty. We’re also ruled by Uranus, the planet of humility.
” Emphatically pointing toward the sky, Elias explained, “My Moon is in Gemini and my rising sign is also in Gemini. That’s why my face is so symmetrical and I’m twice as attractive.
Gemini is ruled by twins, after all,” he continued.
“So, your beauty is written in the stars?”
“You tell me.”
“You’re not even a Libra, are you?” Kai said dryly.
“I have no idea. I didn’t think you’d let me talk for that long.” Elias’s expression became discerning. “What sign do you think I am?”
“Based on all that nonsense that just came out of your mouth, Pisces,” Kai replied without hesitation. “When’s your birthday?”
“March fifteenth.”
The corners of Kai’s mouth slowly drew into a smile. “I knew it.”
A moment of genuine shock reflected on Elias’s face. “How did you know?”
“The symbol for Pisces is two fish swimming in opposite directions, which represents the separation between reality and fantasy, meaning you’re the king of illusion and delusion.”
He immediately turned to observe Elias’s reaction—amused affront—and smiled to himself, pleased.
Elias’s eyes betrayed a pointed interest. “You really believe in this kind of stuff, huh?”
“Even if the formations don’t tell us anything, isn’t it cool to know exactly where the stars and planets were the moment we were born? It’s weird to know they’ll never be like that again. Who am I to think that something as big as the galaxy doesn’t have an effect on something as small as me?”
“You’re not that small.”
“Shut up,” Kai said, pushing Elias, who rebounded like a free-standing punching bag.
“But to be honest, I don’t know what I believe anymore.
Bobby’s been telling me for years that all the astrology, tarot cards, palm readings, and stuff I do are bullshit.
He’d never let me do any readings for him because ‘There’s no scientific basis for it.
’ Maybe I’m starting to think he’s right. ”
None of his readings had indicated that his friends would be leaving him that summer, and he’d been wrong about the instant connection he thought he’d felt with Elias as well.
Looking back, most of the actions he’d taken in his life because of the stars or the universe had led him to heartbreak.
Because he always looked up at things that were bigger than him, he didn’t realize how narrow he’d allowed his thinking to become.
The definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over expecting different results, so perhaps all the times Bobby had called him crazy, he was right.
“No offense, but your friend Bobby seems like a dick,” Elias said, knowing full well that his words would indeed cause offense. “Read my palm. I’ll tell you what’s true or not.”
Kai studied him, taking in his restless energy, the way he seemed to constantly switch between a teasing half smile and a full-body frown. Stop trying to psychoanalyze him, Kai thought.
With a shrug, he asked, “Can I have your hand?”
“Like…in marriage? You really do fall fast,” Elias joked, earning a deep sigh steeped in disappointment from Kai.
“Relax. I’m only kidding.” He showed Kai his palms, revealing several calluses running parallel to his heart lines.
“I’m not sure what you’ll see, though. Except that I dunked a basketball a bit too hard a few times.
” He hesitated briefly before finally extending his left one.
His skin was rough against Kai’s palm. There was a warmth that passed between them, that intense red energy that Kai had felt earlier.