Page 27

everything means nothing

“ W hat’s gotten into you?” Lin asked.

I played with my lunch. “Celestine is so irritating.” I had been meditating more frequently to calm my mind and gain control over my emotions, but it didn’t seem to be working.

“What’s she done now?”

I couldn’t tell them I started training her, and she was making it so difficult for me. “I’ve just had enough of her.” I muttered as I took out a cigarette and lit it up.

They exchanged looks and changed the topic.

“What are your plans for the formal, are we going?” Jamiel asked.

They already knew I wasn’t showing up to that. And it was too early to even think about it.

“I got a new suit, guess who I’m asking?” Lin stuck up his nose.

“Eloise,” we all said at the same time.

“Did I already tell you?”

“Only about a hundred times, but you still haven’t asked her.” Jamiel rolled his eyes.

It was ages away, he had plenty of time.

“I’m working on it!” he argued. “What if she says no?”

“She probably will, you’re a creep.” Iri laughed.

“Excuse you! ”

“Nah, she won’t reject him because he looks like a creep,” Jamiel said.

“Thank you,” Lin said.

“It’ll be because he’s an idiot.”

Lin’s mouth fell. “Coming from you? I’m sitting at number one of this school.”

Jamiel rolled his eyes. “I mean you talk like an idiot.”

“You’re both the worst, at least Cinth likes me.” Lin put an arm around my neck.

“Don’t touch me,” I growled, exhaling smoke. “You smell like shit.”

He dramatically released me, as if he’d just gotten shot, quickly sniffing the inside of his shirt. “Why am I always the one being picked on?”

“You make it too easy,” I muttered.

Lin shot me a glare then gasped. “But Iri, you’ve been getting quite close to Eloise recently, haven’t you?” Lin leaned towards her. Iri was friends with everyone.

She squinted at him. “I’m not going to ask her for you.”

“Can you just suss her out? Put in a good word for me?”

“You’re so desperate, it’ll turn her off.”

“I am desperate, please.” Lin clasped his hands together. "This is our last year, I may never see her again!"

Iri let out an exaggerated sigh. “Okay, fine, I’ll talk to her.”

Lin let out a small cheer. “Yes! Thank you!”

I cursed. “I just remembered I have to drop off some library books,” I said, standing up before heading to the library before lunch was over.

I had borrowed a few books on dreams, since I had been having constant recurring ones.

For the last decade or so, there had been some recent phenomenon about people experiencing being in an endless hallway, but I hadn’t found anything on the meaning of the salt flats.

Maybe I needed to look into the history and formation of the salt flats to gain some sort of insight into what my mind was trying to tell me. Is it a warning ?

As I was returning my books, I spotted Reaper searching for a book. So, this is where she goes to hide from everyone else. She stood on her toes, too small to reach the top shelf. I walked towards her, before she started jumping for it and pointed at the book above. “This one?”

She shook her head, adjusting her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. “Next to it.”

I pulled out the book and handed it to her.

“Thanks,” she mumbled. “Thought we weren’t talking to each other anymore.”

“What makes you say that?”

She gave me an annoyed look.

I rolled my eyes. “Just because we had a small argument last night doesn’t mean I’m going to stop training you.” I wanted to, but Niko convinced me to try and after some thinking, I could use her to get closer to Silias and figure out his weaknesses.

“But maybe I don’t want you to train me anymore.”

“Don’t be so stubborn.”

She ignored me, skimming over the first couple of pages of the book.

“You’re really going to give up this opportunity to train with the best over one bad night?”

“Yeah.” She flipped the page. “You can leave now like you did yesterday.”

“I shouldn’t have left you,” I admitted, but I wasn’t going to apologise. It wasn’t my fault, she drove me to do it.

She began walking away.

Nope, I wasn’t letting her get her way. I pulled her back to me. “Meet me after school.”

“Busy.”

“With?”

“Not you.”

I rolled my eyes and left.

** *

If she were going home or on an assignment, she would have just said so. So, who was she meeting and why was she carrying such a large bag?

She didn’t say anything as I followed her.

I’m not one for stealth nor did I have any shame in this.

I don’t think she quite cared honestly. I sat directly across from her on the train and stayed just two steps behind her.

It was a bit of a walk from the station to the upper West side, but eventually I realised she was headed to the only ice-skating rink in Soulesity.

It’s not the most popular sport, no one wants to be cold in a city that’s already cold.

“You still skate?” I asked as we entered the building, the temperature only slightly colder inside than it was outside.

“Just for fun now,” she said sitting down on one of the benches before changing out of her shoes and into her skates. Her skates were worn, the laces fraying near the aglets, the off-white leather was tearing at the toes, and the sides were greyed with scratches and use. “Want to join me?”

I had never stepped on an ice rink before. “I think I’d break something.”

She gave me a slight smile, stood up and headed towards the door to get to the ice. She transitioned from the ground to ice so smoothly, like it was natural.

Half the ice was blocked off for lessons that included a teacher and four young children, learning to spin.

The other half was available to the public, but only Reaper, an old woman who looked like she shouldn’t be on ice, and another girl around the same age as Reaper and I were there.

Reaper warmed up with a few laps of forward strides, twisted and continued backwards.

The parents on the other end of the benches, yelled encouragement towards their children, causing me to take my attention off Reaper for a brief moment.

I glanced at the kids who began pointing in awe, and followed their gaze back to Reaper who was currently spinning on one foot, slowly grabbing the blade of her skates up over her head.

Wow.

It was beautiful to watch.

In a graceful manner, she exited the spin, continuing off, and I had no idea how she wasn’t dizzy from that many twirls.

She circled the half of the arena and glided past me.

Then turned, skating backwards and I could see the slight concentration on her face as she prepared herself.

She lifted one of her legs behind her and with her toe, picked the ice, using her momentum to jump and twirl in the air.

“Triple!” the other girl skating near her shouted. “Where’s your triple?”

Reaper shook her head. "I can barely do my double anymore."

“Come on, Cel. We all know you can do better than that!”

Reaper bit her bottom lip, glancing at me and turned once again, preparing herself to do a triple. When she jumped this time, she hesitated and though she made it around three times, she landed too much on the side of her blade and fell.

She quickly got up, dusting the ice off her. I stood up and went over to the barrier and as she skated past me, I stopped her. “You hesitated.”

She shot me a glare. “You don’t think I know that?”

“Why did you hesitate?”

Reaper just rolled her eyes, ignored me, and skated away.

I headed over to the only two staff members I could see working in this place. They were sitting behind a counter with a hundred skates behind them available for rental that looked like they were hardly touched. I told them my size and put them on, already regretting my decision.

How hard could it be? Reaper noticed me walking towards the entrance and rushed over, stopping smoothly just in front of me with a beaming smile .

I put one foot on the ice and felt absolute terror. “Now what?”

She laughed. “Now, your other foot.”

I gripped onto the barrier, shifting my weight and standing on the ice with both my feet. Oh shit, shit, shit. “Okay, now what?”

She bent down and readjusted the straps for me. “Take your time, let go when you’re comfortable.”

I already wanted to get back on non-frozen ground, what in me thought I should do this? No one forced me. She wasn’t pressuring me, she only asked me once and probably as a joke.

Reaper showed me how to glide forwards and I attempted to copy her, but it wasn’t as easy as she made it seem.

“Oh, gods. He’s going to break his ankles,” someone said from behind me.

My ankles were bent inwards, and I didn’t even realise it, so I quickly fixed them straight.

The girl who spoke skated around to face me, stopping me from continuing forwards.

I stumbled a bit not knowing how to stop, but I also wasn’t really going anywhere in the first place.

She was quite pretty, with long wavy dark hair, dark eyes, and deep skin.

Wearing a school uniform from one on the West side of Soulesity.

“Who is he?” she asked Reaper.

“Some creep from school, he followed me here.”

The girl let out a laugh, revealing the gap between her front teeth. “I’m Osiria, but everyone calls me Ria.”

“Hyacinth.”

“Oh…” She turned to Reaper with a knowing smile. “Finally a face to the stories.”

Stories ?

Reaper grabbed Ria’s hand and pulled her away from me. They held each other close as they skated away, whispering and giggling together. Then they parted and Reaper came back, offering her hands.

“What?” I asked.

“Trust me.”

I hesitantly took her hands, and she began to skate backwards, guiding me away from the sanctuary of the barrier towards the middle of the arena. She was doing all the work for me. “You can’t see where you’re going.”

“I assumed you would tell me if I was headed towards someone,” she joked, glancing back to check.