A Disease of Magic

A week after being discharged, I was cleared to resume normal activities. While going back to work wasn’t something I looked forward to, being able to get out of my room was a definite perk. Things had been awkward with Leo ever since the hospital. He hadn’t come back that night after leaving to chase down the doctor, and hadn’t really said a word to me since. Though I’d sent him a message thanking him, he hadn’t really encouraged any conversation with his short reply. I’d kept him updated on the two in-person follow-up appointments I’d had, one of which was this morning, but again his responses felt distant, cold.

So I made plans with someone else.

This time, Alex and I opted to meet for lunch on one of his off days. We’d been messaging each other back and forth over the past week. He recommended some movies or shows for me that I really couldn’t afford with losing a week’s worth of pay, but the internet had my back with summaries I could read. And honestly, I would probably enjoy some of them if I could actually watch them. In return, I recommended three books I viewed as classics, despite their old age. The only downside, Alex claimed, was that they took so long to read. For me, that was a perk. But he’d let me know his thoughts on the first several chapters after the main character takes her sister’s place to save her life.

What kind of person comes up with this world? he’d asked me. My reply was a link to an article about the political climate during the time in which it was written, and the author’s desire to have young people think about politics and its nuances. Regardless, he promised he was enjoying the book so far, even with children having to murder each other.

The blast of icy air pebbled my skin as I tugged opened the door, making me glad I’d brought my only cardigan with me. It served a dual purpose in also hiding my bio-screen. It was constantly flashing different things at me now, and I didn’t feel like Leo would be willing to help me with it. Maybe Alex could.

The little diner was mostly empty at the moment, allowing an unobstructed view of the bright yellow vinyl booths, green laser lighting dancing along the ceiling, and neon, geometric patterned carpet. Roller skates, photo frames, mini orange cones, and black and white striped shirts decorated the walls, paying homage to an activity I’d never tried.

“Welcome in!” the woman at the tiny bar greeted. A set of square, highlighter orange cubbies behind her held different liquor bottles on display. “You can seat yourself. Menus are on the table, or you can scan for it.”

I thanked her and picked a seat at a booth with a picture of a bunch of kids lined up in a row, twirling a hoop around their waists. I sat to face the door to keep an eye out for Alex. My phone buzzed where I’d placed it on the table, my heart sinking. Was he cancelling? Maybe I should have waited outside; now I felt pressured to get a meal anyways, even though I could get a cheaper one at a food cart or truck down the street.

It wasn’t Alex; it was Leo, finally sending more than the short

Leo: Hey, sorry for the short replies. Been swamped at work. I finally got one of my mods to work the way I want. As long as it doesn’t blow up my arm in the next 24 hours, I’ll add it to yours.

I grinned down at my phone, glad to have an explanation to why it felt like he’d been avoiding me.

Me: Nice. What’s it do?

Leo: Collects data from the environment. Noise levels, air quality, etc.

Me: You really think something like that’s causing it?

Leo: No, not causing. But a trigger for episodes? Maybe. Worth looking into.

Me: What’s your next mod going to be?

Leo: Who says I have another planned?

Me: You forget I know you.

Leo: Fine. I actually haven’t decided which will be next.

Me: Knew you had more.

Leo: I’ll run my ideas by you when I’m home. How you doing? What are you up to?

“Hey, Alex,” the bartender greeted. “Your usual?”

The door swung shut behind Alex, and smiled at her. “Not today, Jen.” He walked over to me, grinning. “Hey, Callie.”

“Hi, Alex.”

He slid into the booth across from me, pulling one of the menus loose and handing me a second. “How have you been doing?”

I had to keep myself from rolling my eyes. “I swear, the next person who asks me that is going to find out exactly what I—”

“Well, Alex knows me already, but hi, I’m Jen. How are you doing today?” the bartender greeted from the end of the booth. Alex lifted up his menu in a flash to hide his face.

I turned to Jen with a forced smile. “I’m fine, thank you. How are you today?”

“Just peachy,” she answered lightly. “You ready for drinks?”

We both ordered, Alex barely containing his laughter. The moment Jen walked away, it burst out of him in what I could only describe as a guffaw.

I fake glared at him, trying not to smile myself. He calmed down by the time Jen brought over our drinks, and we placed our orders; Alex went with ribs, and I opted for one of the house burgers. I’d been feeling more peckish than usual, and figured it was likely due to my body still recovering from my latest attack.

“So,” I started before Alex could get a chance. “How have you been?”

He leaned forward, resting his forearms on the tabletop. “I’ve been fine. Nothing new to report. You get that paperwork for your job sorted?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. It’s such a pain,” I complained. “They really shouldn’t make it so hard. I’ve got enough going on, I don’t need to be worrying about so much freaking paperwork.”

Alex nodded. “It is,” he agreed. “Like I said, I can get you a position where I work. Nothing glamorous, but it would at least have better accommodations. And if you start with the study first, it’ll boost your chances. No pressure, though. I know how hard transitioning to a new job can be.”

“No, you’re right,” I sighed, resting my chin in my palm, elbow on the table. “You said the study offers compensation, too, right?”

“Yep. I’ve signed up. Though how much compensation depends on what you’re selected for, and they’re not picking everyone. I don’t know the specific requirements they have, but it takes, like, five minutes to apply. Here.” He gestured to my phone on the table. “May I?”

I handed it over, and he pulled up the website for the study before handing it back to me. “You mind if I do this right now?”

“Not at all.”

He waited patiently while I filled out the information, though it did only take a few minutes. Before placing my phone back on the table, I noticed two more messages had been sent to me. A quick check told me they were from Leo. I glanced at them quickly, and when there was no “SOS,” put my phone away without reading further.

We chatted about the movies I had ‘seen’ and the book Alex had started until our food arrived. After, Alex paid for the entire bill, despite my protesting, and we left to head towards our second destination. Alex had picked the lunch spot, and I the dessert. There was a little confectionery a couple blocks away that served the best gelato and macarons, and even some specials of gelato with mini macarons. It was heaven.

I kept a close eye on Alex’s face as we entered. As he beheld the mammoth menu mounted high above the counter, his eyes widened. They stayed that way as he perused the gelato choices, ranging from pistachio to vanilla to rocky road.

“It’s going to take me forever to decide,” he whispered in awe.

“Or, you pick a flavor to start with, and work your way through the menu whenever we come here,” I offered instead, a little nervously. He caught my meaning and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer and tucking me into his side.

“Perfect.” He leaned in and pressed a kiss to my forehead, and I blushed from my toes up through my hairline. He noticed, and smiled. “What’s your favorite here?”

I ordered for us, and as we sat at a high top table in a corner, my phone rang. I flipped it over and then silenced the call. Leo. He could wait.

Or could he?

Second-guessing myself, I excused myself to take his call. Alex waved away my concerns and assured me he was in good hands with the cherry gelato and chocolate macarons I’d ordered him.

Stepping outside, I answered before it could go to voicemail.

“Hey, Leo. Everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s great,” he answered enthusiastically, clearly in a happy mood. “I’m getting out from work early today to quote unquote run tests on my mods for the company. Meaning, going out and doing random shit to see what this thing picks up on.”

“Nice,” I answered a bit tersely. “Hey listen, I’m actually pretty—”

“So I thought I’d swing by that dessert place you like so much. Pick up some macarons. I know it’s been a while since we last had some.”

“Oh, that’s not necessary, but thank y—”

“It’s really not a problem. I’m nearly there already. Plus I fell in love with their peanut butter and marshmallow gelato they had, and I wanted to get some for myself.”

“How about I pick some up for you, and—” I started panicking, though I wasn’t sure why, exactly. I glanced around at people milling about on the sidewalk, going to or coming from work for the lunch rush. It would be impossible to see him.

“No need. I can already see the place. Just have to cross the street. I’ll see you at home, okay?”

He didn’t wait for my reply before hanging up. I looked across the street, finally spotting him, and darted back inside.

Well. Time for the roommate to meet the…not boyfriend. Guy I’m seeing? That wasn’t great either, but it was the most accurate.

I plopped down in my seat across from Alex. He took another bite before looking up at me.

“Seriously, Callie, this is amazing,” he muttered around a full mouth. “I’m glad you’ve found your one true love,” I teased. “Real quick, it turns out my roommate is swinging by.”

Alex paused for half a moment, before putting his spoon down. “Oh. You invited her?”

“No, I didn’t. And actually, my roommate is a he. He just decided to stop here, I guess. Funny coincidence.”

Alex nodded slowly. “Sure. It’s all good.”

Leo walked in at that moment, and I sat back in my seat, crossed my arms, and waited to see if he’d notice us over here. He peered up at the menu, brow furrowed, and then pulled out his phone and held it to his ear.

My phone on the table buzzed. I caught Alex’s eye and pointed to Leo and then my phone.

I picked it up, and let it vibrate in my hands a few times before answering with, “Today’s s’mores brownie macaron is really good.” And I hung up.

Leo glanced down, frowning at his phone, before finally looking around. I stuck out my tongue at him when he spotted me. He shook his head, smiling, and walked over.

“Alex, this is Leo. Leo, this is Alex. We met at the LaShoul’s group,” I added.

Leo stuck out his hand to Alex, which he took. “Nice to meet you, Alex. Callie and I live together,” Leo said. “It’s nice she has a new friend. I’ve been trying to get her to get out there for a while.”

I cleared my throat when they didn’t drop hands, Alex’s expression looking…strained. “Don’t say it like that, Leo. It sounds weirder than it is,” I tried clarifying. “Leo and I just share an apartment. With both of us basically on our own, it seemed safer for us too look out for each other by sharing an apartment.”

Alex nodded, looking more relaxed once their hands dropped. Leo, on the other hand, seemed more tense. Was it because I outed him as also having LaShoul’s? Or was mentioning his lack of family support a touchy subject for him?

“I tried telling you on the phone, Leo, that I was already here and could bring something back for you,” I said into the quiet.

“Nah,” he answered. “I need to expose myself to as many different places as possible to see what it picks up.”

Alex seemed confused, though trying to hide it. “Leo,” I started, “has been working on some mods for the bio-screen. He’s testing it out.”

“That’s super awesome,” Alex said. “Callie let me play with hers a bit last week. It’s amazing tech.”

“It is.”

“It’s too bad that so many people were denied the clinical trials,” Alex added. “Would have been cool, and obviously useful. Callie promised to let me check out what hers caught during her last attack.”

Leo glanced to me, and I shrugged. “The damn thing was going off on me last week, and Alex shut it up for me. He works with tech.”

“Oh, yeah?” Leo prompted.

“I work for Hubert Industries,” Alex informed him. He didn’t elaborate any further on his job.

“Ah,” Leo responded. “I’m Farly Tech.”

“I assumed, since you’re doing work with the screens.”

Leo cleared his throat, briefly glancing back towards the menu. “Do you mind if I join you both?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but Alex beat me to it. “Actually, we’re on a date, and while you seem like a cool guy, I’d rather be a little selfish since you get to see her every day.”

Leo looked to me expectantly. “We are on a date, Leo,” I confirmed. “But we’ll catch up later, okay?”

He took a couple steps back, nodding. “Yeah. Sure, okay. Sorry. I didn’t realize.”

“It’s no problem,” I reassured him. “I’ll see you later.”

Leo placed his order and promptly left, leaving Alex and I alone with a few other strangers scattered about.

“Sorry about that,” I apologized. “That was a bit more…awkward than I thought it would be.”

“It’s not your fault,” Alex said. “I think Leo and I have an understanding.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

Alex huffed a breath. “It’s nothing, really. Just that we were sizing each other up a bit.”

“Why?” I wondered.

“The way he introduced himself as living with you. He made it seem like you two were a couple.”

I almost choked on my macaron. “What? There’s no way he meant that.”

Alex held up his hands in surrender. “I’m just saying it how I saw it. He was acting a bit…possessive, if I’m being honest.”

I laughed then. “He was not being possessive.”

“If you say so. You know him better.”

That was true. There was nothing between Leo and I, and never would be. Maybe Alex was misinterpreting things.

“Anyways. This screen here. Can you help me with it? It won’t leave me alone.”

It was the perfect change of topic. Alex jumped at the chance to play with it again. He cycled through the five tabs across the top: home, basic, advanced, trends, and settings. He patiently showed me how the home screen displayed any stats that I marked as favorites, and even suggested which ones would work best and would likely give me the most information. The basic tab was another that would be useful for me, showing other baseline information that would be easy for me to interpret. Advanced we left alone, most of which was just raw numbers that would be useful only for a doctor or scientist. The trends tab was interesting, showing graphs or charts or tables, depending on what I wanted, all the data averaged out for any length of time I wanted, and displayed visually or numerically for me to see.

“That’s interesting,” Alex said, pointing to my temperature trends from a week ago. “You can see how your temperature started to rise, peaked for a moment, then dropped suddenly before rising slowly overnight. You woke up that morning in the middle of an episode, right?”

“Yeah, I did.” I peer at the stat, pinching to zoom in closer.

“Something happened to stop that episode for a little bit,” he concluded. “Because looking at these other trends, your blood pressure, oxygen, and all that… it follows that same trend. They all start to shift and then jump back to normal.”

No fucking shit.

I had told Leo what had started happening that night, and he hadn’t believed me. In the moment, I hadn’t considered making him look at what data my screen was collecting to prove I was right.

“That’s strange,” Alex said. I was inclined to agree.

With what I hoped was a solid handle on this screen, we began wrapping up our date. It was mid-afternoon, and I was beginning to feel tired, my body still recovering.

“Thanks for today,” I said as we exited the confectionery. “I had a really nice time. And, hey, I learned some things.”

“It was my pleasure,” he answered. He stepped into my space, wrapping his arms around me in a hug. I felt my heart skip a beat, and then pick up in double time. He smelled nice, I noticed, and I felt safe. I wasn’t exactly sure what to make of that feeling, but it made me giddy.

Alex pulled back slightly, keeping his arms around me. “We’ll do this again soon, okay?”

“Yes. Definitely.”

“Let me know when you hear back about the study. Hopefully we’ll end up in the same group, or something.”

“That would be perfect.”

He grinned down at me before leaning in. It was quick, over in just a moment, but the kiss he gave me sent my heart into overdrive. My arm tingled with a new alert, and I was again grateful for the cardigan hiding the evidence.

We said our goodbyes and parted ways. Walking down the street back towards the subway, I pulled up the sleeve of the cardigan. Armed with knowledge, I tapped on the little plus sign next to my heart rate stat, silencing the notification all by myself.