The only sound was the faint rustling of his lab coat when he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. Closer to me so that his breath prickled warm goosebumps on the backs of my arms.

“Did you know an… alternate you was a part of Figueiredo’s team?” I asked.

“No.”

“You don’t seem super surprised.”

He shrugged. “More than likely, with a million different iterations of us throughout the…”

In the silence after he trailed off, the idea of a million versions of us, each like a cracked kaleidoscope mirror, spun my head.

“And about us?” I asked, bobbing my chin to the screen. “Them.”

“They’re together?”

“Looks like. Do you think they look happy?”

“I can’t tell.”

“I think they do. I mean, before the running and the screaming. And the gunshots.”

“Oh.” His beetle-shell eyes flitted from mine back down to the floor. “Should that… is that supposed to mean something?”

“I don’t know. I mean…” I was doing this all wrong, already. I stared at his intertwined hands and the way they squeezed, pumping like a heartbeat. “There’s something here, right? I mean, you hanging around with me when you probably have better stuff to do. And finding reasons to come visit. This is not me being weird or looking for something that’s not there, right?” Silence again, and I mentally whipped my back for pushing him too hard. “I like spending time with you.” I tried to ignore my jerky heartbeat, instead focusing on where our knees touched. The growing warmth there.

I scored a victory when one of the corners of his mouth tugged up a bit, though he still didn’t meet my eyes.

“I like it too.”

“Great.”

He opened his mouth a few times, bobbing for air like a goldfish out of its bowl and waiting for me to dunk it back in. I gave him the space to breathe.

“It’s just that I have a hard time explaining myself. Like everything’s scrambled. I’m not good at… I mean, I don’t know the rules for…” He trailed, squinting, and then flicked his hands between us. “This.”

“Fuck rules, Yusuf. I never know what the hell I’m doing, and you don’t have to explain yourself to me. Or anyone.”

“Alright.” The breath he gushed out swept over my skin, making me almost goofy with relief. “I can do that.”

“Cool.”

“Then what now?”

I shrugged. “Wanna head home?”

“Yeah.”