“So what are you studying?” Danielle asked, doing her best act of making casual conversation. “Are you going into law like my brother?”

“Chemistry, actually. Human chemistry and biology… it’s weird, actually. I don’t technically have a real major, I just consider myself undeclared and take classes that I want think will help me understand the human body better.”

Some element, and Josh sincerely hoped it wasn’t what he thought it was, of Connor’s answer seemed to intrigue Danielle and she made herself more comfortable at the table.

“Oh, really? Chemistry? Why not just biology? Or medicine?”

“Medical classes are really hard to get into. And biology means I have to deal with a lot of other things, like non-human animal anatomy and plants and things.” Connor seemed to be comfortable answering her questions, though he glanced nervously to Josh as if trying to figure out if he should be more alert. “I just want to know about what I want to know about, you know? Like, why are certain people pee-disposed to diabetes? Why do some people have allergies that don’t match the patterns of allergens that other people with similar allergies have? Can anyone really eat cheese and be okay?”

“Connor has a lot of food allergies.” Josh offered, his eyes still keen on everything Danielle focused on. “I think he wants to play Frankenstein and make some kind of crazy cure.”

Danielle’s eyes were still fixed on Connor as she replied with a passive, “That’s interesting.”

She wasn’t staring at his arms any more, but she kept going back to them. It wouldn’t have worried Josh so much if they all weren’t sitting so close together. It could be easily dismissed as a casual glance at someone from a distance, but up close it felt kind of like she was scanning him it was so obvious. Part of Josh wondered if there was something more to it, perhaps he had a bar code mark on her arm and was simply waiting for the opportune moment to strike. That fleeting moment of unreasonable paranoia opened Josh’s eyes to the potential threat of everyone at the barbecue with long sleeves on—which was most everyone—and his eyes were no longer on his sister.

For a moment, and just a moment, Josh was distracted by everyone else around him and the two people closest to him faded from focus. And when Josh shook the fear off and told himself that if it was bad Connor would know because his mark would activate, he quickly realized that Connor and Danielle were gone.

That caused real panic.

Josh wasn’t sure how long he’d been looking away, but clearly it had been long enough. The back yard was an open space and big enough that he couldn’t quite see everyone at once. Even from the corner of the yard, the various trees and other obscuring elements made it hard to really filter through the people that were gathered. He could make his way through everyone, but that still left the very real possibility that they simply weren’t in the back yard and that that Josh would get stuck talking to someone or asking people if they had seen his roommate or sister. And any questions he asked would only serve to inform people—particularly, members of his family—that there was something happening under their noses. And there probably wasn’t, at least not really. Josh trusted Connor not to do anything stupid, but he couldn’t say the same for Danielle. Josh had felt the same familial social pressures she was now likely enduring and he knew that it could drive you to do strange and stupid things. Like maybe try to seduce your siblings roommate.

That was Josh’s working theory. Why Connor had left still confused him. But it had to have been a good reason. Josh hoped as much. And he hoped desperately that it didn’t have anything to do with marks.

He felt awful for thinking it, but he couldn’t help but hope that it was because his sister was trying to pull some stupid and desperate move on Connor. It was really the only conclusion that would keep her safe in the grander scheme of things, even if it brought the wrath of their parents on her. As long as it was brought to an end before it became any worse for all of them, because whatever it was that was going on it was definitely not low key. And at that moment, that was all that Josh wanted to be.

He wasn’t sure what he was hiding from exactly. Maybe it was some kind of artificial intelligence? Something that could see through the cameras of electronic devices. Maybe it was some kind of covert government agency carrying out domestic espionage operations. No one had really been clear on what this mysterious force was that enjoyed the lives of people so much that it killed to keep them happy and oblivious. But just thinking about it as Josh began to worm his way around the back yard made him anxious. Anyone there at the barbecue could have been another discrete and unnoticeable agent.

Thankfully no one was really noticing him and he looked around. Well, almost no one. There was one pair of eyes trained on Josh, and it was the most unfortunate pair he could have attracted. Saying he had attracted the gaze wasn’t entirely correct, as they had been watching the whole time. But his older brother Kyle had been waiting for his moment to strike at his favorite punching bag. And as Josh was about to circle back around to the kitchen door and check inside the house, Kyle made his move.

“Hi little bro.” Josh was very accustomed to the sneering tone that contrasted his brother’s otherwise kind expression. If anyone was looking, they might think that Kyle was genuinely trying to help. But they would be wrong. “What’s up?”

Josh, not wanting to cause a scene, even though he knew it was probably too late for that now, tried to play along. “You haven’t seen Danielle recently, have you? We were talking and she disappeared while I was distracted.”

Kyle smirked, it was a lazy answer and he knew it. “Important conversation then? Commiserating about the boys you have a crush on?”

“I was going to tell her a trick to dealing with you, actually. Now that she’s going to have to do that more.”

“Oh? What kind of trick?”

“The best kind. The kind that lets me make you lose at your favorite game.”

There was a hint of worry on Kyle’s face, but he tried to play it off with a quirk of the eyebrow. “Are you—are you challenging me? To my favorite game… do you mean arm wrestling?”

“I mean, only if you think you can still beat me. I wouldn’t want you to look like an idiot in front of all these people.”

“Okay.” Kyle was interested. Mildly concerned, but interested. “Step into my office. And if you win, I’ll even tell you where you can find Danni and your boy toy.”

The latter part of Kyle’s taunt made the corner of Josh’s lip twitch slightly. Kyle had seen something, and he knew that it was probably what Josh was looking for. But he wasn’t going to tell. Even if he lost he’d still twist things in his favor. The only way Josh would really get Kyle off his back so he could find Connor and Danielle discretely was if he destroyed him. And that’s what he planned to do.

“You remember the rules, right? College hasn’t clouded your mind over with so much useless nonsense that you forgot how to handle yourself?” Kyle goaded as he sat down at a patio table and patted the surface.

“I don’t think you realize how common this kind of stupid game is at frat parties.” Josh retorted.

He tried not to make a big deal out of it, but rather than sit in the seat Kyle was facing at the table, he moved to the other side so that he could face him with the edge of the table on the left. They would only have so much room to put their elbows, at least if they were going to do it at a ninety degree angle without getting too close. There would be a perfect arrangement of things that would work in Josh’s favor, and this was the first step.

“Alright. Left hands down, right hands up. I don’t want you having to use your injured arm. It wouldn’t be fair anyway, you know, since I’m a lefty.” Kyle was already ready to lose, he was giving Josh a slight advantage he could use to play off a loss later. “How’d you get those bandages anyway? Handle some guys athlete’s foot a little too intimately and get an infection?”

“Actually, this is what happens when you slide on concrete going twenty miles an hour and land on your shoulder while you wear a tee shirt. I could show you if you like?”

“Maybe later. That can be your punishment for losing after trying to sound cool.”

“Alright. Just shut up and square up.”

Josh slammed his right elbow down on the woven metal table top and slid his left hand down so that he could grip Kyle’s hands; left hands beneath for stability, with right arms above for actually competing. Kyle’s grip was firm, but Josh wasn’t intimidated. Instead, he employed the second stage of his plan.

“You were really eager to hold hands, weren’t you…” Josh smirked.

Kyle wouldn’t show that the comment phased him, but Josh knew it was. That was his only real weakness. Despite his desire to be physically superior, Kyle didn’t like to be touched. It was also why he never stayed in relationships for very long. He’d never said as much, but Josh knew. Josh had known Kyle his entire life, how could he not have figured it out.

“On three.” Kyle growled, flexing his fingers and gripping tighter on Josh’s hand. “One, two, three—”

Kyle was cut off by his own forceful grunting as he applied all the strength in his arm immediately. That meant the second part of Josh’s strategy was a success. But part three had to kick off immediately afterward.

With as little noise as possible, Josh braced himself to stay put. Not to win, but to stay in the middle. He locked his shoulders, pressed his foot down on to the leg of the patio table, and let his whole body go taut. It was enough to stay just a little right of center, as even with all the power Josh could muster, Kyle was absolutely stronger. At least, he was for that first little bit. After about three seconds, Kyle had to take in a deep breath to refill his lungs and try again. Josh used that moment to tip things in his favor. Literally.

The bend in Josh’s left elbow was placed directly on the edge of the table, and the small bump of his folded arm joint was hooked ever so delicately on the lip. And that hooked bit of elbow was the first point where Josh was applying leverage and ever so gently moving Kyle towards the edge of the table. If it hadn’t been covered in gauze, the pressure directly on the thin and taut skin of his elbow would have been awful. It wasn’t the only point of leverage though. The foot Josh had placed on the foot of the table pushed simultaneously, moving the central column and point of balance for the table ever so slightly in the opposite direction he was pulling Kyle in.

In that moment of readjustment, Kyle had gotten his breath in and Josh locked up again. It was a more painful and tedious position to hold this time, since he had to balance the table and hold his elbow to the edge of the surface. But it wouldn’t last as long as the first time. Kyle was going to go all out, and that meant the force wasn’t going to last as long. Even as his brother pressed his own elbow down harder on the table, Josh was holding the whole thing up and waiting.

And as soon as Kyle took another breath, Josh put his force into moving Kyle’s arm for once.

It didn’t have to make it all the way, and it didn’t. Josh never felt the impact on his left arm that meant he’d actually won. But it was close. Close enough that he could let the balance of the table go and send Kyle toppling over. Which was exactly what happened. Kyle hadn’t felt the shift in balance and he’d put almost his entire body weight on to his right elbow to try and anchor himself. So when the table went, Kyle fell out of his seat and went down with it.

The maneuver was something Josh had been pondering since the last time his brother had forced him to arm wrestle and nearly dislocated his shoulder in the process. And while Josh hadn’t been confident he could win, it was still the fastest method to resume privacy. Kyle probably knew that Josh had cheated to a degree, but he’d been humiliated in front of other people and that would be enough. Winning and losing was only a pretense when you could scoff off either.

Kyle wasn’t exactly quiet in defeat though. Not in the way that Josh had expected.

“Holy hell, Josh. What happened to your arm?”

The comment brought to attention two things that Josh hadn’t being paying any attention to until that moment. The first was that the arm wrestling match had actually garnered a decent crowd of family and neighbors. The second was that all the force Josh had applied to his elbow had loosened the gauze enough to come mostly unraveled from the elbow to the wrist. He had been so focused on his strategy that he hadn’t paid attention to much else, and now he was paying the price for victory.

And the price was that all eyes were on him.

The crowd wouldn’t have been that bad if it weren’t for the uncovered wound. But the wound was uncovered and that made things very bad. Since Josh hadn’t reapplied bandaging to his arm in a while, or cleaned the wound out, the scabbing and partly recovered raw skin looked far worse than it really was. The surface was a mottled mix of dark purples where force had been applied and resulted in an ugly bruise, reddish brown glistening scabbed spots, and pink raw skin. The sight of it had brought everyone that was standing near the toppled patio table to an absolute silence. And that silence in turn silenced everyone else.

By some miracle though, some absurd twist of fate—or maybe it wasn’t fate, and Connor was just an incredibly perceptive madman—the voice Josh had been listening for prior to the arm wrestling match was heard over everything else in the back yard. And the words it spoke were powerful enough to turn everyone’s head towards the open kitchen door.

“I thought you said you were pregnant?”

Josh wanted to gawk too, but everyone else’ dismay was the perfect opportunity to slip away. Not even Kyle, stunned and prone on the the concrete patio as he was, noticed Josh slowly back away to the edge of the pool. From the cover of the pool to the back of a gum tree. And from the cover of the gum tree to the corner of the side hedge that ran along the farther side of the house opposite the kitchen.

There was shouting, Josh recognized his mother’s angry voice, but none of the words being said amid what was quickly becoming an awkward commotion could be distinguished. By the time anyone looked back to see where Josh was, he was already at the front door.

No one had been lingering inside apart from Josh’s mother and, apparently, Connor and Danielle. When Josh cracked the front door open to sneak inside, he began to be able to make out some of the shouting match that was going on.

“How dare you sneak around like a little harlot!”

“I’m not a harlot, mom! We’re dating!”

“You didn’t tell me you were dating anyone! So, no. You aren’t dating! And you won’t be dating anyone else until you graduate high school and move out from under my roof.” Josh’s mom’s voice was quickly transitioning from a roar of anger to a loud hiss of contempt. “My roof, my rules, and that means no more boys.”

Danielle had some other colorful things to say, but Josh could only make out bits and pieces. Danielle was loud, but Josh was focused. He had all his things gathered back into his backpack when he noticed Connor creeping into the bedroom behind him with the small bag he’d left in the bathroom.

Neither of them spoke. Josh raised his eyebrows, as if to question what was going on, but Connor just shook his head and pointed back towards the front door.

With as much silence as they could muster, they made it back out the front door of the house and part way down the street before even turning back to see if anyone had seen their departure. To the best of their knowledge, no one had.

Two blocks away at the nearest bus stop, Josh finally paused to try and secure his bandages again. After fumbling for a few minutes in silence, Connor shooed away Josh’s hand and did it himself. It took far less time for Connor to accomplish the task, and before the next bus showed up, the two of them looked almost normal.

“Pregnant?” Josh finally asked after they had boarded a bus. “Really?”

“I guessed.” Connor shook his head, still dazed by the encounter. “She was asking a lot of questions about chemicals in makeup and stuff, like if scented lotion is bad for your skin, and then she jumped right into the topic of sushi and raw meats. If I hadn’t had an assignment on teratogens, I wouldn’t have even noticed. It was basically the kind of thing I was already talking about, like my allergies.”

Josh had to think about that. If Connor had just been guessing, than there was a chance it wasn’t true. And Josh hoped it wasn’t, for Danielle’s sake. It didn’t matter what she did about being pregnant, if she actually was, but his parents were going to make her life a living hell. They’d found Josh reading a comic book rated above his age once, and because he’d been doing it in his bedroom with the door closed they took his bedroom door off the hinges so he couldn’t hide anything.

It wasn’t until they had made it from the next bus stop to the subway station that Josh finally managed to ask the question that was really bothering him.

“She pulled you inside to talk about that?”

“Oh, no.” Connor almost chuckled, but the topic was still too serious. “She was trying to put the moves on me. She was trying to inch me towards he bedroom. And I have the most paranoid idea that it was probably so she could blame me for being pregnant a little later down the line and offload part of the blame on you.”

Josh groaned as the theory clicked into place. “That sounds about right. But why on earth did you let her lure you in that far?”

“She was eyeing my arm, right?” Connor almost sounded confused that Josh hadn’t put two and two together. “I saw you clock that. I needed to make sure if she could see my mark or not.”

“That’s why?” Josh said, a little too loudly. “Even if she could see it, you weren’t going to do anything… right?”

“It’s a big deal, Josh. If someone sees your mark, and you confirm it, that person is partly your responsibility. You need to make sure that someone makes contact with them, if not you, that can help ease them into a position where they can make an educated decision about whether or not they want a mark too.”

It made sense, and Josh didn’t like that. He didn’t exactly want to be responsible for other people just because they could see something. And it felt like a good way to get caught by someone that suspected you had a mark but couldn’t prove it. But what else could you do? If it meant you could help someone, lighten the burden of the inevitable weight of being forgotten and hunted down. It might even save someone’s life.

“So—”Josh stared down at his hands uncomfortably. “Could she?”

“As far as I could tell, no.” Connor shook his head, reliving the relief he’d felt after his line of questioning. “I think she was just looking at my arms.”

Though it was initially to joke about Connor’s arms, Josh grabbed hold of Connor’s bicep and gave it a mocking shake. But it was solid.

“You do have good arms.” Josh muttered, joking. “Pity you missed these guns though.”

“Oh, I saw.” Connor burst out laughing, ignoring everyone else around him on the subway car. “That’s why I made that distraction.”

“Well, thank you.”

“Couldn’t let you upstage me.”

“Sure.”

It was dinner time when Josh and Connor made it back to campus. It was dark out and the city lights were a welcome sight that felt safe and familiar. Even though they’d witnessed an attempted assassination not five blocks away and forty-eight hours ago, it still felt like a reprieve.