Football practice was a drudgery of soul-numbing drills. Punishment for our loss to the Phoenices. That was okay. I needed a little soul-numbing. And running defensive drills meant we didn’t even come in contact with the offensive players today. I was far away from Layton, and I was more than fine with that.

Truth be told, he was never actually my friend. He was just a football buddy, and, because he was our quarterback, we had to exhibit loyalty. In general I’m not a hater, but in all honesty, I can’t remember a time in my life that I despised another human being as much as I despised Layton. Not just for humiliating me and threatening me, but for how he treated Katie—a girl who, even in betrayal, was only trying to help me.

As soon as practice was done, I left. I didn’t even hit the showers, I just wanted to be out of there. I’d shower at home—or more likely take another EMP bath. But as I crossed the parking lot toward my car, Norris came running after me.

“Ash, wait up!”

I figured he wanted a ride home, and I didn’t know if I could endure his blathering today. Still, I couldn’t just ignore him, so I slowed down and let him catch up with me.

“I’m feeling sick, Norris,” I told him. “Best if you stay away; I might have the flu.”

He paused for a second, then said, “You’re lying. Why are you lying so much all of a sudden?”

I really had no strength to deny it, although I was surprised that Norris’s powers of observation could pick it out. “What do you want, Norris?” I asked bluntly.

“Just checking in with you, man,” he said. “I mean, Layton says you’ve been having hallucinations and stuff.”

I didn’t even know there was a deeper level of hate I could feel toward Layton, but here it was. “Really? Layton said that? What else did he say?”

“Is it true?” Norris asked.

“Yeah,” I told him. “I’m seeing flying elephants and a talking mouse. Oh, wait, that’s Disneyland.”

“I’m being serious.”

“You haven’t been serious a day in your life, Norris, why start now?”

He backed away. Maybe I shouldn’t have snapped at him, but he picked the wrong day to experiment with compassion.

“You wanna lose your friends, just keep it up, Ash,” he said, then stormed away.

But the joke was on him. I had already lost my friends a world ago.