It’s awkward, but in a good way. For now, it seems like I can be myself.

“Your teeth are very white,” I tell him.

He laughs. It’s a miracle I made him do that. Usually I’m too awkward to say anything funny.

As the bell rings, he rolls his sweater sleeve back over a silver watch. “Welp. Guess we should get to class now that the bell’s already rung. Nice meeting you, Jake.”

He winks at me, so fast I wonder if I imagined it. He waltzes out of the bathroom, determined to get somewhere more important. Did this whole interaction not make his heart hammer a million beats a minute? I guess it’s just me.

I think of him on my daily walk through the stacks in the library as I munch on my sandwich.

Allister . . . what a name. Like an alchemist from an era long past.

How long would it take to call Allister a friend? I don’t want to rush things, but I feel comfortable with him.

There’s a flash of movement at the end of the stack. A blond-haired person disappearing around the corner.

Sawyer.

I follow him as he walks down the next aisle. From behind I can tell that it’s Sawyer, because he’s stuck in that hoodie-jeans combo. He’s stiff but unrushed as he walks, his feet nearly invisible and landing on nothing.

He stops once he reaches the end of the aisle, and I pause behind him, fearing he’ll turn around and do something . . . shoot me, somehow, with a phantom weapon.

Instead, he begins to float, slowly, like an angel, toward the ceiling. Up and up, through the lights and through to the next floor. Like an elevator.

I bolt down the aisle and slide around the corner, the bookshelf labels flying in colors around me. I bust through the library doors. Someone bumps into my shoulder on their way through the lobby.

“Hey!”

“Sorry . . . sorry . . .”

The hinges rattle behind me as I dive into the stairwell and jump the steps to the third floor.

Third floor. An empty tunnel of lockers. And then, a red and black smoke trail disappearing behind the corner down the hall.

“Where the fuck are you going?”

I keep on running, the straps of my book bag heavy on my shoulders, the weight of the whole thing stabbing my lower back. I have to catch him, to know what he wants.

The lights go out, leaving a darkness packed in by sunlight at the ends of the hallway.

Gasping from the classrooms—everyone is thrilled for the moment of sudden darkness.

The lights flicker back on, blinking up the hallway, like something’s turning them on one by one. I yank my phone out of my pocket and click on the flashlight—a source of light to keep myself here should another outage come.

I find my feet and start running.