“I mean out of here, out of the Alloy.”
“We can… we can leave?”
“Well duh. It’s not a prison, dummy. It’ll just be until tonight. Martha’s going to be around in the pod to pick us up.”
“Martha?”
The driver turns around and waves with a smirk. Amy looks at me eagerly. I don’t think before grabbing her arm and allowing her to hoist me inside. Just for tonight. Just so I can grab a drink and buy a coat.
“That all of y’all?” Martha asks and a few cheers echo in the vehicle. The pod starts moving once I take my seat, sandwiched between Amy and a stranger on a bench.
“Aiden, this is my boyfriend, Hamid.” The boy beside me gives me a warm smile and friendly wave. He has a deep complexion and brown curls atop his head, eyes just as bright as Amy’s. He’s handsome, but not in the same way Alex is. While Alex is all intimidation and cold exterior, Hamid has a warm aura that hides nothing. I wave back.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Hey, I recognize you,” he says quickly and I fail to hide my cringe. It can’t be good if he knows me. I’m not exactly star student material.
“From that first day! You were the first choice rookie,” he says brightly. I blink. I guess that’s true. I never thought about it like that.
“Hamid’s instructor is Mizuki,” Amy explains and I sigh in relief. My reputation is salvaged at least for another evening.
“She’s scary,” I say without thinking. Both Amy and Hamid burst into laughter.
“Yeah,” Hamid agrees. “I definitely try to stay on her good side.”
We ride in silence for a bit, the three of us. It isn’t an awkward silence. It’s full of energy, anticipation. I’m going to go back to New York for the first time in over a week. It almost feels like months ago that I ran to the cellar of the candy shop.
“Do you guys do this often?” I ask, watching the trees dip past us outside.
“Sometimes,” Hamid answers. “It’s nice going back to the city. We go shopping and grab drinks. It’s good to get some fresh air, you know?” I nod. I do know. I could really use some fresh air right about now.
“You should join us!” Amy says brightly.
“Um, I don’t know-” I start. I’m unsure about being a third wheel on my first time back. But Hamid is just as eager when he agrees with Amy and I get caught up in the excitement.
“Ok uh sure, I will.”
They cheer and Hamid wraps an arm around me in celebration. My ears warm and I realize that this feels so mundane in such an extraordinary environment.
The pod stops and we hop out, finding ourselves back in front of the boulder.
“So how do we?” I ask, staring up at the rock. How do we cross over?
“Watch this,” Amy says with a grin and draws a run on the boulder with her finger. The imprint turns black and flashes gold. And then a door appears in the rock.
“Memorize that sigil,” she says to me. “It’s what you need to cross over.”
I do my best. I’m one of the last to walk through the door. I’m submerged in blackness again. And then I walk through a separate door and I am once more engulfed in light. But this scenery is different.
“Woah,” I gape. “What happened to the candy store?”
“Oh that old thing?” Amy asks with a scoff. “Only newbies use that entrance. They don’t know about the other ones.”
“Like this?” I ask. We landed in the middle of a shopping center, out of a door that says “employees only”. The shopping center is huge, full of name brand stores that I’ve never shopped at in my life.
“Exactly,” Hamid grins and steers me by the shoulders toward one of the first stores.
“Woah,” I say in panic. “I don’t have that kind of money.”
“Don’t worry, I gotchu,” Amy says with no hesitation. I give her a look that she dismisses with a wave.
“Daddy’s money,” she says and I can sense that that’s the end of the conversation.
She strolls on in like she owns the goddamn place, with Hamid quick on her heels. I follow meekly, feeling more out of place than ever.
“Here,” she says and throws a black coat at me. I check the price tag, failing to keep a poker face when I realize it costs about the same amount of money I would make in almost six months working at the cafe. “You needed one, right?” She asks and all I can do is nod at the thick fabric in my hands.
She strides over to the dresses and begins pulling some out of the racks at random, throwing them to Hamid who is already waiting with outstretched arms. I laugh. I can’t help it. It’s a ridiculous sight.
“This one matches your eyes,” she teases while holding up a green satin dress. I roll my eyes.
“If anyone from the division caught me wearing that I would be pulverized on the spot.”
“Not if you own it,” Hamid says with a wiggle of his eyebrows. The three of us fall into laughter before Amy begs me to try it on.
“Over my cold, dead body,” I retort. Instantly, My body feels like it’s been doused in ice-cold water. I look at them in shock and near horror.
Hamid winks and wiggles his fingers. “Thermodynamic heat displacement,” he says with a snottish smile. The temperature goes back to normal and I narrow my eyes at him.
“Fuck you,” I say while snatching the dress from a giddy Amy.
“I mean you can,” she says. “When I’m done with him.”
Hamid lifts Amy up into the air and swings her over his shoulder as she squeals. We run to the dressing room, ignoring the annoyed looks of both employees and customers.
I didn’t think this day would end with me playing dress up in a rich clothing store in the city with a few magic strangers and yet here I am. With a flick of my wrist, I swish the curtains out of the way and strike a lavish pose in my green silk attire. Hamid and Amy erupt into laughter and obscene cheers over the sight. I strike more ridiculous poses.
“Eight outta ten,” Amy shouts and I give her a look.
“I’m ten outta ten, babe.”
“Prove it!” Hamid shouts. My competitive side instantly wins me over and I sashay past the two, back to the dress rack. I pick out a sequined black dress with lace sleeves before bolting back to the fitting room. This time I am anything but embarrassed when I pull the curtain back.
They erupt into cheers and whistles, much to the aggrievance of a nearby store attendant. I blow them both a kiss and ask, “How do I look?”
“Ten outta ten, baby!” They both say before the three of us fall back into laughter. I laugh so hard my sides hurt and tears press against my eyelids. I haven’t laughed like that in ages.
For too long, the three of us dress up in absolutely absurd outfits. By the time we check out, we’re all red-faced and breathless. Amy hands me my coat back and links one arm through my elbow and another through Hamid's.
“Where next, my friends?” She asks.
“I could go for a drink."
“You know, I was just thinking the same thing,” Hamid says.
“Shall we go, then?” Amy asks, grinning.
The bar is right next to the shopping mall. It’s raining cats and dogs outside and the three of us run toward shelter. We’re all in stitches again by the time we sit down.
Hamid is telling me the story of how he and Amy met when we order our first round of shots: a story involving booze, a tank of helium, and a rouge lighter.
“I didn’t mean to set the kitchen at the frat house on fire!” Hamid defends as Amy laughs so hard she’s doubled over on the counter. “I just wanted to impress a pretty girl.”
Maybe it’s the liquor but all this laughter makes me feel warm inside. I feel like I’ve known these two my whole life, and I can’t believe I ever thought I would feel like a third wheel. I just feel welcomed. And I’ve forgotten what that feeling is really like. They laugh at my jokes without forcing themselves to. They’re both equally as ridiculous and can keep up with my drinks. I don’t feel like I have to be someone I’m not around them. I can just be Aiden. Not the try hard or the slacker, or the kid that cried during his first big fight, or the applicant with the highest score or the boy with no gifts. Just Aiden. Just me.
“One time I was crowd surfing at this underground venue and this fool in the front literally threw me toward the stage-”
“No,” Amy gasped into her glass.
“Yup. Straight at the performers,” I laugh. “I hit the bassist so hard we both fell off the stage. And they weren’t even mad. The dudes fucking took me out for drinks that night, said I was the highlight of the evening.”
“No fucking way,” Hamid wheezed between laughs.
“Yes way. I drank so much I swear I blinked and was suddenly sitting on the metal slide in that abandoned playground in the projects, completely alone and half naked.”
“Oh you think that’s bad,” Amy says after finishing off her third drink. “Try blacking out and then suddenly waking up on a plane to Fiji. Fucking Fiji.”
“Thank God I never had enough money to pull a stunt like that,” I laugh. Hamid is laughing harder when he says, “And that’s not even the last time she’s done something like that.”
Hours pass but it feels like only minutes. Time itself doesn’t even feel real anymore, I’m having too much fun. Amy is trying to burp the alphabet when I look over my shoulder and see a woman in a form-fitting gold dress and sand-colored hair looking at me with a cigarette between her lips. Hamid elbows me hard in the ribs.
“Ow what the fuck?”
“Dude she’s totally checking you out,” he grins. Alcohol has made his speech a little slurred, but his eyes are still alert, just like Amy’s. “You should go talk to her.”
“What no, don’t be ridiculous,” I say before turning back to my glass. I order the three of us some water to sober up. It’s already late so I should probably slow down.
“Ah, not big into blondes?” Hamid asks. I shrug and rub the back of my neck.
“Something like that.” To be honest I’ve never been into most anybody, really. I’m not a virgin but I always felt gross after sleeping with women. I figured there was just something wrong with me and always suppressed those feelings. Then I thought I might be gay, but I never developed a crush on any of the men in my life. So I just gave up on that and didn’t talk to anyone about it. It didn’t really bother me though; relationships just never took the forefront in my life. They were always an afterthought because I never had anyone close enough in my life that I was attracted to. Not like the way I see it in movies, anyway.
“I know his type,” Amy says with a mischievous look on her face. I send her a warning look with my eyes but she happily ignores it. I know what she’s going to say. Because the same person randomly popped into my head when she announced those words.
“Oh yeah?” Hamid asks curiously.
“Yup,” she grins. “Tall, dark, and handsome. Black hair, brown eyes, muscular, name starts with the letter A.”
If I could set people on fire with a look, Amy would be doused in flames right now. But I can’t. So I just glare at her.
“Oh word? Right on man,” Hamid grins. He’s quiet for a moment before his face scrunches in thought. “Although that kinda sounds like Instructor Alex.” Hamid looks at me as though waiting for me to deny that assumption. I don’t though. I don’t know why but I don’t. I just can’t bring myself to.
Hamid’s warm expression crumbles into something resembling horror. I brace myself, expecting the worst. I expect him to get disgusted by the accusation, by the thought of me possibly being interested in another man.
“Oh my god,” he says in shock. “You’re a dead man.”
“H-Huh?” I ask and Amy bursts into laughter. Hamid’s eyes go wide as he absorbs this bit of information. I should really correct him before he goes on, tell him I’m not actually into Alex like that. But I don’t. I sit there, confused and afraid.
“You and your instructor…” he says softly. “Bro he’s going to kill you.”
“Aren’t you grossed out or something?” I ask dubiously.
“What? No. I’m just scared for your life, dude.”
He’s being completely truthful and I can see it in his transparent eyes. I soak this information in for a moment. And then the ridiculousness of it all hits me and I, like Amy, keel over into laughter.
Hamid does a double take at the two of us and then he, too, joins in.
“Come on,” Amy says when we can all breathe again. “Martha will be waiting for us soon.”
<<<>>>
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