I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling. It was January 9th and I didn’t really trust Mason to go buy snacks on his own, but he insisted. I was worried they might have killed him or kidnapped him.

I waited anxiously for his arrival. I wasn’t feeling too good. I was sweating and I had a strong headache. That was probably the reason why Mason had gone on his own.

“Man, this PTSD really sucks,” I said out loud.

I thought about Rebirth. It was the ability to return to a certain point in time to fix one’s mistakes. I looked at my right hand, half expecting the purple writing to appear but nothing happened.

Rebirth was given to me by the cult. Could it really be that they did rituals and granted people powers, watched them grow, only to murder them? Did that mean that they themselves had powers as well? I couldn’t understand it at all.

I heard the door downstairs open. I sat up. I heard someone coming up the stairs. The door swung open. It was Mason.

“I brought the snacks,” he said, dumping potato chip bags on the bed.

“Did you bring drinks?” I asked, closing my eyes as I did.

“Yeah,” he replied.

I opened my eyes to find an ice tea in front of me. My favorite kind.

“How did you know that was my favorite kind?”

“Well, I do know you pretty well so I picked what I thought you would like most. It wasn’t hard.”

I smiled at him. “I guess I should give you your bed back.”

I stood up and lay on the floor on my futon. “Alright, so tell me. Where is the cloak?”

Mason pointed on top of my closet. I could see a small box and purple fabric hanging from the edge. I got up and grabbed the box. I put it on the floor.

“I want to try on this thing,” I said.

I slipped on the cloak. Instantly I could feel the power that emitted from it. It was light but sturdy. I rubbed my hand on the fabric. I slipped the hood on my head. I could see everything, even though half of it covered my face. 

“This is amazing!”

Then a thought came to me. I took off the cloak and looked at the back. I reached for the pentagram and touched it. Instantly my hand lit up with the purple writing that read Rebirth. I instantly realized my stupid mistake. Now I would have to hide the writing from Mason. 

I had expected it to hurt but it didn’t. Maybe the cloth had something to do with it?

“Let’s turn off the lights to watch the movie on your computer,” Mason suggested.

I hid my hand quickly behind my back.

“N-no let’s keep them on. The darkness kind of scares me,” I replied.

The truth was, the writing I had on my hand glowed in the dark. It would’ve easily been spotted by Mason.

Mason nodded his head in understanding. We then proceeded to watch Pirates of The Carribean on my bed.

…………………………………

“Christopher! I’m going to set you up!” Giampi said.

It was January 10th.

“What?” I asked.

“I’m going to set you up with a girl!”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me!”

“I’m not really interested in girls right now…”

“You’re going to change your mind when you meet her, “ he said with confidence.

“What?! You invited her here!?” I couldn’t believe it.

The doorbell rang. I was annoyed. My mind was focused on saving lives and I really, really, wasn’t interested in meeting girls.

The door to the base swung open. Giampi walked through with a girl.

“This is Christa!”

Jett, Fernando, Sebastian and Mason all clapped. Christa was a girl with long red hair, blue eyes and red glasses. She wore a red sweater and a green skirt.

I immediately swallowed a load of saliva. I was in love.

“N-Nice to meet you,” Christa said shyly.

She extended her hand for me to shake. I gulped. And shook her hand. I could feel that I was blushing deeply.

“S-so...how old are you Christa?” I asked, trying to act cool by taking a sip from my tea.

“I-I’m 14,” she replied.

I knew I had seen her before and was trying to connect the dots. I finally did and realized she was in some of my classes.

I coughed and almost spat out my drink. Real smooth, Chris.

“So umm, what did Giampi tell you was the plan for today?” Mason asked. 

He didn’t take his eyes off me and was smiling the whole time. He knew that I was in love.

“W-well, he told me I was going to meet Christopher and maybe get to know him a bit more. He said that Christopher is a great guy and has a lot of the same interests as I do.”

“What kind of stuff do you like?” Fernando asked.

“I love to read light novels and manga.”

My heart was racing and as I looked over at Fernando I could tell his was too. I sent him a look that said: Screw off, she’s my girl. And he responded with a: Sorry, I got a little too into it. This girl’s amazing. Do your best.

I relaxed a little.

“S-so what do you like Christopher?”

“Well, my favorite series is The Emperor of The Sun! I think it’s very funny and I love the main character!”

Christa walked towards me and sat between Mason and me. There wasn’t enough space so she was right next to me. My heart started pounding harder. Her eyes shone with excitement and I could see that her shyness had faded.

“Really? The Emperor of The Sun! is my favorite series as well!”

My eyes lit up. This indeed, was the perfect girl.

“Who’s your favorite girl from The Emperor of The Sun!?”

When I said that I realized what a huge mistake I made. She obviously didn’t care about who was the “best girl.”

“I think Sunrise is the best girl.”

I was caught off guard. I then realized that this girl was an angel.

“We do have a lot in common don’t we?” I said.

“We sure do.”

We were both staring into each other’s eyes at that point. I was sweating and my heart was beating. But just as soon as the moment started it ended. It was getting late and Mason and I had to head home. As we walked we stayed in silence until Mason spoke up:

“Do you like this girl?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“That was fast.”

“I didn’t realize how lonely I have been until now.”

“Hey! You have your best friend!”

“I guess we all need love sometime.”

I realized at that point how lonely I had been sharing the secret of Rebirth. I couldn’t tell anyone about it. They’d think I was crazy. I sighed. Even though I couldn’t tell Christa about Rebirth, maybe she could fix the empty hole in my heart.

“Are you going on a date tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I’m going to hang out close by while you’re on your date. I need to protect you, I need to stay close to you.”

Again, I realized the irony of the situation. I knew that my mission was to protect Mason but I also wanted to be happy and experience something “normal” for a change.

…………………………………

“Christopher! Over here!”

I turned my head. I spotted her. Christa wore a dress that reached her calves, with frothy chiffon layers on the skirt and a tight, long-sleeved top. It was at that point I realized she was very feminine.

“Sorry did I keep you waiting?”

I shook my head.

“What are we going to do today?”

“Well, I thought since we both like books, we should go to this huge bookstore i know of!”

“Intriguing! How will we get there?”

That’s when my world crashed. I hadn’t thought about that. We had met up at a restaurant near both of our homes. The bookstore was probably a ten minute drive away. I felt embarrassed but I made a decision.

…………………………………

“So, where are we headed?” Giampi asked.

We sat in the back of his car. He turned to face us with a smile on his face.

“I’m sorry you have to drive us around, Giampi!” I said sincerely.

“No worries. I’m always ready to help a friend!” Giampi gave me a thumbs up.

We drove in silence and I could feel the awkwardness in the air. I decided to cut it and ask a question.

“So Christa. How far are you in The Emperor of The Sun! book?”

“I’m as far as the English translations go.”

“Do you collect light novels?”

“Yes! I have a bookshelf filled with them. Do you collect them?”

“Well, I have a box with tons of light novels inside but no bookshelf to place them on top.”

We arrived at the destination and got out. Giampi waved us goodbye and we walked inside the huge bookstore. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Mason walk into the store. He really is taking this seriously isn’t he? How did he even get here?  I thought to myself.

We walked to the light novel section and started browsing books.

“I think it’s sweet you took me here but I really don’t have any money to buy books. I want to help you with the check or maybe even pay it myself, if I use money on books I won’t have enough.”

I, being the smart boy I was, predicted that was going to happen so I decided I would bring some extra money to buy some books for her. It was my treat.

“How about this, I pay for all your books and you pay for the coffee we’ll have at the shop here. How does that sound?”

She smiled. “You really are a kind boy aren’t you Chris?”

That caught me off guard. No one had ever called me that before. I blushed and my heart started beating.

I ended up buying the first four volumes from a series called: An Adventure in Some Fantasy World! for myself, and I bought Christa the first three volumes from a series called Wolf Attack!

We paid and headed up to the second floor to eat. We sat down at a table and ordered our food. I had a coffee and Christa had a smoothie.

“So, what made you interested in Wolf Attack?”

“Well, I really love wolves.”

Despite her vague response, I realized she really was perfect. We spent the rest of the date talking or reading our books. At 4pm we wrapped it up. She paid for the check and we walked down the stairs, side by side. I was in my thoughts when suddenly she brought me back into reality by grabbing my hand.

Whoa whoa WHOA! Play it cool Christopher! Don’t sweat it! I thought. We walked downstairs and out into the parking lot.

“Do I need Giampi to come pick us up?” 

“No. While we were reading I told my mom to pick me up here at four.”

I didn’t tell her I needed a ride home because I didn’t want to meet her parents yet. I was extremely nervous.

I smiled at her. We stayed put until a car pulled up. It stopped in front of us.

“Well, I’ll see you later!” 

She walked to her car but stopped halfway. She walked back to me and leaned over. She kissed my cheek.

“T-thank you for today!” she said, her shyness returning for a second.

I held my cheek as she got into her mom’s car and drove off. I stood there, shocked, until I heard a familiar voice.

“You’re really lucky, you know that?” Mason said.

I turned around to face him. “You really stayed with us for four hours?” 

“I said I would protect you.”

“True.”

“Do you happen to have a ride home?”

“I don’t have a ride. Your mom dropped me off here.”

“I’ll call Giampi.”