Standing over the sink in the secluded school bathroom Aaradhya tried to breathe through their beating heart and shaking hands. With tightly closed eyes, Aaradhya's mind replayed the growing vines. The peppers that so suddenly grew and cascaded to the floor, their bright colouring disintegrating into brown soil only a moment later.

The echoing three and a half knocks tore them from the porcelain sink. It was Kai. “I’m fine.” Their voice was heavy as their heart continued battling in their chest. They were one movement away from replaying the moments with the Bible and the Peppers in their school bathroom.

Aaradhya heard him sigh from the other side of the bathroom door. The unorganized taps of his foot for a second before he spoke, “I can do it too.” A heartbeat passed and he began to ramble, “Well, not the same thing but, like the..-”

Aaradhya tore the bathroom door open, bewilderment cementing itself over their dark skin. “What? What do you mean?”

“I can do the weird things too. I saw what happened in class.” Kai stood in front of them, an awkward smile on his face like he didn’t know what to say after all that.

“Oh. You saw that?” They opened the door a bit wider and beckoned him inside. There was still earth settling over their sneakers and pants but that wasn’t really on either of their minds, “Close the door behind you.”

“Are you okay? I don’t really know what to ask in this situ-” Aaradhya promptly cut him off as the emotions seeped to the surface.

They pressed a hand to their forehead, “I have no clue what’s going on. I feel like I'm losing control and I hate it. Everything just feels so disorganized and I have no idea what to do.” Aaradhya slid to the floor, their back pressing against the tile. And despite their words, Aaradhya’s heart had stopped hammering.

Kai took up a spot next to them, his legs spread out next to Aaradhya’s tight crossed legs. He shrugged after an instant had passed, “To be honest, I don’t really know what’s going on either. But I think even though it's a bit chaotic right now, we just have to wait it out, continue on. You know?”

“I-I don’t-” Aaradhya trailed off, not finishing their sentence. Truth be told, Aaradhya didn’t think they could do that. To just...what? Embrace the chaos? That seemed to be the opposite of everything Aaradhya had been taught. But control was slipping through their fingers when these abilities seemed to come and go with random fluctuations.

“I mean...if God miraculously chose us for these powers, he had a reason, didn’t he? So you just have to have a bit of faith?”

Aaradhya chuckled, “Is that a statement or a question?”

The pair locked eyes for a moment. He was so close that Aaradhya could see the light reflect in his umber eyes and the faint freckles that dotted over his nose and cheeks. It felt like no matter how many times Aaradhya looked at his face, they’d always find something new to memorize.

They began to play with the edge of their lip but stopped as something caught their attention. “You’re- you’re bleeding.” Blood trickled down from Kai’s long nose.

He looked confused so Aaradhya elaborated, “Your nose. Your nose is bleeding. ”

“My..? He touched his nostrils and pulled red blood away. With furrowed brows he stood. Aaradhya mirrored him and grabbed some papers.

Both of them lightly touched hands as Aaradhya passed him a bundle of toilet paper. “Here.” Immediately the lights above them flickered before plunging them into darkness.

Kai popped out a meet  “Thanks. Sorry, that was me. ” but it came out a bit muffled as he pressed the napkins to his face.

“You can turn the lights on and off?”

“Yes-well, no. It’s more like I can control the dark and shadows…I’m not sure exactly but I've been trying to figure out more.” Aaradhya tried to imagine what that could entail but nothing came to mind. Perhaps, one day, they’d ask him. Somewhere not in their school bathroom, “From what I can tell yours is more along the lines of sudden growth?”

“Yeah, and destroying stuff. Almost like disintegration.” They didn’t elaborate on that point of disintegration and Kai didn’t ask. They looked down at the lines running over their palms and fingers tracing each one as they connected or faded into their skin. The moment of watching the almost tree-like thing disintegrate from the leather of the Bible felt more palpable in their bones.

As if that moment had taken something, changed something in the anatomy of their body.

“Woah, cool.” Kai said, an almost childlike wonder crossing his voice. Aaradhya was secretly very happy that they were sitting in the dark. They looked over at him, despite not being able to see but the blurry outline of him. They could feel their warm body heat and even though the lights still hadn’t come back on, neither tried to make a move to turn them on manually.

“And anyways it's not like it hasn’t happened to me.” Aaradhya’s eyes went wide at the sudden confession, vermillion burning the tips of their ears, “Sorry…I don’t know why I-” Aaradhya picked the dried flecks of mud off of the surface of their pants.

“Wait when?” Kai interrupted them, they could hear the rustling of his clothes as his attention was caught. Aaradhya began playing with their fingertips. Curling them back and forth since all the mud was gone off of their jeans. Their shoes were irreparable at this point but Gamal wasn’t a fashion show, no one would truly care.

“At the party, right after you left for a drink. It was like I spontaneously sprouted a full grown tree, it's still there.” The thin wind rushed over Aaradhya’s clothes like they were right back there. Sitting on the uncomfortable wooden porch as the muffled music replayed in the vibrations of their drinks.

His voice was light, “Yeah, I remember that night.” And even in the dark Aaradhya could feel the smirk on Kai’s face.