I flinched in anticipation of an impact but nothing happened.

I was back in my school somehow. I was back on the floor on top of Quentin, and I realized I couldn't let him go. I grabbed onto his hands and stuck my elbow in the small of his back. The campus police arrived moments later and arrested him.

I was questioned by the police, the actual police. I never thought that would happen.

I omitted anything that had to do with what I had actually seen, you know, with what had actually happened. I knew no one would believe me so what was the point, also?

Besides, I figured, I have no guarantee that it was real. I probably blacked out for a second. Um. Okay.

I was thinking all of this as I did my homework. School goes on, even if it was shut down for a while. I hated to admit it, but I gave into Dania's grade politics.

At home, my parents didn't ask me about it. They didn't care. There was nothing in the world I could do that would get their attention. That's how it was since I was outed to them as gay.

I could do my homework after I was attacked at school and they couldn't care less. I could call them to pick me up from school and they would cut off the police when they were explaining the situation. They'd say flat out, if I wasn't in trouble, it didn't matter.

It didn't matter. I didn't matter.

There was no point in crying over it. Crying wouldn't get me the scholarships I needed to go to college, and it definitely wouldn't bring my parents back to me.

Crying would be a waste of time, especially now that I had four free days before we went back to school.

-----Ipsiota Anteibos-----

When I saw the news report for the humani that stepped onto the lowroad in the middle of Magai City, I thought nothing of it. That was until I saw his face. The holocams caught his image and it was played every couple of minutes alongside the news report. Somehow the safety shields had failed and he walked right onto the lane. He disappeared the moment an X Flier hit him. It was a teleportation maneuver worthy of the best-trained magicians.

He was the one person I couldn't find in any of the Magai Empire even with my system privacy hacks. The boy that haunted my dreams since my dad died. I swore I would finish him. I swore by the suns and moons of this planet and I found him, if even for the slightest fraction of a minute, I found him. He might have teleported away, but now he was registered onto the public database.

His profile was saved onto my register and although it was blank, I would be able to find him soon enough.

-----Carlos Galván---

Stacey's birthday was on the weekend, and I decided I should go. You know, I couldn't let all her party plans go to waste.

Of course, as a friend of mine she only wanted me to go if I brought my cousin Marco with me. I assumed she had a crush.

"I think it would be a chance to make a new friend" she laughed when I called her out on it when she first invited me a couple of weeks ago.

"Excuses!" I shouted dramatically.

The thing is, I absolutely abhorred him. He is my complete and total counterpart. He is taller, buffer, and much more athletic than me. He is also a jerk. A total douche. I messaged him an invitation with the highest amount of passive-aggression possible.

Everything bad happens to me, and he said he would come.

On Saturday, I left the house on foot and walked to Marco's place. He came out and we walked in complete silence to Stacey's house. It was so infuriating, honestly. Why didn't he say anything? Why couldn't he bring his face out of his phone and ask me how I'm doing? You know, seeing that I stopped a massacre from happening, practically. We were at the same school, it's not like he didn't hear about it!

We got to the party and Stacey opened the door enthusiastically. Being Vietnamese, she made him take off his shoes. I already knew the process, so I smugly put them in the last cubby.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, "Give that one to him."

"What?" I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Do it," she pointed.

"It's fine," Marco responded, blushing.

"Do it," Stacey repeated. So I bent down and emptied the cubby and put my shoes on the floor next to it.

"Happy birthday," I said unenthusiastically when I was done. I hugged her and so did Marco. I think maybe they stayed hugging a bit too long.

I went to go see everyone else already there. Jozeey, Grady, Dania, and Daniela were in her room playing a first-person shooter on her gaming console.

Dania pat the space next to her on the bed and I sat there.

"Literally, I suck at this," she whined.

"Literally," I replied. It was our best friend thing.

"Literally take it," she handed me her controller.

"Literally okay,"

The second I grasped it in my hands I felt my body trembling again.

I lost control and Dania was hollering. Oh, right, because I was spasming on the bed, but Marco still didn't care.

The last thing I saw before I blacked out was him, of course, rolling his eyes.