I’d never seen this side of him before. He looked thoroughly unimpressed with me. People in the corridor hurried around us as Tony stood there, arms crossed, eyes narrowed in anger.
“I don’t know if I can tell you,” I faltered.
“Since when?” he barked. “Since when have you been unable to tell me anything?” His eyes bored into mine.
“I want to tell you everything, Tony,” I pleaded. “I just need some time. Or – just not here, not at school.”
“Take all the time you want,” he snarled and stormed off, smacking open the doors at the far end.
That didn’t go as I’d hoped. I didn’t follow him. There was no point. There was no talking to him when he was in that mood.
* * * *
Tony wasn’t waiting for me at the usual spot when school finished. In fact no-one was. We had always walked home from school as a group, as we all lived relatively close to each other. Something was very wrong.
I waited for a few minutes until it became obvious that no-one was coming. I suppose that in hindsight I had left my last class a little late. I’d been daydreaming and hadn’t noticed that the final bell had gone off. But surely they’d have waited for me. They used to wait for me. I nodded glumly to myself and I resigned myself to the inevitable and began the walk home alone. It was the same path as always. I walked across the road from school through the shopping centre and then down the hill and up through the park. It wasn’t very long, but the walk always seemed longer when you were alone. When I walked this way with my friends it didn’t seem to take any time at all.
It was a cold and lonely walk home. I am sure that the shopping centre was packed with people, but I didn’t notice them. I’d taken my time as I had no particular need to be home and I was not in the mood to hurry.
The final leg of the journey was to walk through a reserve that led to my street. Trees lined the reserve on both sides and thus it was always a little dark inside. I’d always liked this part as it reminded me of walking through a forest, something that in the suburban landscape we didn’t do all that often.
I made my way through the shopping centre and made my way down the hill towards the little reserve that led to my house. It was nice little reserve through a residential block. It probably cut about ten minutes off the trip home, but I probably would have gone that way even if it were longer.
I was about half way through the reserve when I felt a thud on my backpack. I turned around only to see a figure dart behind the trees to my right. My shoulder hurt slightly and I looked down to see a rock at my feet behind me. Someone had thrown a rock at my back, but they hadn’t thrown it very hard. This wasn’t about hurting me.
Was this another of Renee’s games? If so, this was awfully obscure. However, making me chase her halfway across the city had seemed pretty odd at the time too. I looked around the reserve and I couldn’t see anyone. I was completely alone.
A quick burst of awareness told me otherwise, there was definitely a figure hiding behind a tree to my right about ten metres away. The figure definitely wasn’t a mage however as there was no mana aura. It wasn’t Renee.
“Come out,” I demanded angrily.
I was feeling very sure of myself. If this was someone trying to mug me then they would come out very poor from this encounter. I could see them crouched against the far side of a tree, glancing furtively in my direction.
“Catch the rock, Apple Boy!” a familiar voice yelled back. “The next one will be aimed at your head!”
Tony.
He quickly spun out from behind his tree and lobbed a rock in my direction. He had no idea that I could tell exactly where he was due to my earlier awareness blast. I could see him lurking behind another tree a little distance from his original hiding spot.
Without my mana sight I would have been hard pressed to see into that dark thicket of wood. I smiled grimly. This was another useful trait of awareness even in this limited range. The rock wasn’t even thrown properly. It was thrown as if you were skipping a rock across a pond. He obviously had no intention of hitting me, only coming close enough to make me think he was serious. The rock landed a few metres to my right.
“That was hardly my head,” I said dryly.
“Don’t force me to do it,” Tony yelled as he leaned/leant forward to scoop up another rock.
“Force you to do what?” I replied, getting annoyed.
Tony moved positions, swiftly moving behind the trees. God he was fast. I turned slightly to face his new direction. This must have disconcerted him somewhat as nothing was said for a few seconds.
“This is stupid,” I declared abruptly. “I’m going to go home now. If you could kindly not take my head off when I leave, that would be great.”
I was about to turn to leave when Tony emerged from behind a tree, his face grim and a small stone held, ready to throw, in his hand.
“Don’t make me do this,” he repeated.
“I’m not making you do anything.”
“How long have we been friends?” He was almost pleading now.
“About five years, long enough for you to know my aversion to having rocks thrown at me,” I said. He still hadn’t thrown the rock yet; however, he had yet to put it down.
“Long enough for you to trust me?” he asked.
“Hard to trust you when you’re throwing rocks at me.”
Damn him, he was going to do it, I could see it in his eyes. He knew it, and he knew that I knew it too. Damn him.
With an exaggerated movement, he drew his arm back.
The whole thing was so stupid. It was like one of those moves you see baseball pitchers use where they ham up the move to get the audience more hyped. It was exactly like that. In any other situation it would have been funny, except it wasn’t. Tony was plainly telling me he was going to throw a rock at my head and I needed to do something. The stone left his fingers and hurled towards me. Unlike his previous throw this one was true, if I did nothing, it would probably hit me right between the eyes. Strangely enough I wasn’t angry and I wasn’t shocked. I wasn’t even particularly scared. Time appeared to slow down into moments. I saw the resignation in Tony’s eyes and saw his muscles tense. The stone left his fingers and began its inevitable journey towards my head. I sighed to myself and raised my hand to telekinetically grab the stone.
I stopped the stone in mid-air and kept it floating slowly between us. It was amazing how quickly it all happened and how easily I had intercepted the rock. I could have dodged or I could have thrown myself to the ground. I could have even let the rock hit me. However, in the end I’d chosen to do what Tony obviously wanted me to do. There was something in his expression, a desperate need – he had needed this from me and that perhaps was why I had capitulated. He was my best friend and he had needed this. I couldn’t deny him.
“I knew it!” he whispered in awe.
I let the rock fall to the ground with a dull thump, which probably sounded louder to my ears than it actually was. I nodded grimly to him as he approached and turned to leave. There would be no more thrown rocks. He caught up to me several seconds later, pulling up beside me with his usual ambling gait.
“You can now justify my trust in you,” I stated without looking at him.
“We’ll never speak of this again,” he replied, grinning.
“Good, because this could end me,” I replied somewhat coldly. This was exactly what Renee had told me not to do. But I was positive that if there was anyone I could trust it was Tony.
“Can I ask you some questions though?” Tony pressed.
I nodded.
“How long?”
“Since my birthday.”
“Where did you learn it?”
“It’s not something you learn, it’s something you are,” I said.
“Does this have anything to do with that girl from the club?”
I turned to look at him silently. He’d obviously been thinking on this for some time.
“I keep forgetti
ng how damned clever you are,” I replied. “But I can’t talk about that – it’s not my secret to keep. No matter how many rocks you hurl.” I ended with a smile.
“Fair enough,” he replied.
“Now some questions for you,” I said. “What gave me away?”
“I saw you pull a pencil across the desk the other week, without seeming to touch it. I thought I was imagining it or it was some trick, but then after today with the apple in the cafeteria, kind of hard to explain that.”
“Yeah, that was stupid,” I agreed.
“Wouldn’t have expected anything else from you.” He laughed and suddenly the tension was gone and everything was back to normal.
“You should have told me though,” Tony said when we had finished laughing.
“I wanted to. But I was told that no-one can know.”
“Is it that dangerous?” he asked.
“Life threatening – almost died, still might,” I replied callously.
He nodded slowly, his expression unreadable; however, I knew then with certainty he would never betray me and that he would, true to his word, never speak of this again. He knew now how serious this was. And I felt so relieved to have my friend back. Hopefully things could now return to normal – or at least as normal as they could be with this power.
* * * *
The next morning I awoke refreshed, more invigorated than I had felt in a long time. Meeting up with Tony and Garry on the way to school was just like old times. We joked and laughed on the way to school and made the obligatory donut stop at the supermarket.
I realised just how much I had missed this. I had been focused so much on the mana recently that I had alienated my friends. I resolved not to do so any longer. I smiled gently as Sarah and Tina walked through the school gate and lazily threw my arm around Tina as she snuggled next to me.
“Well, Devon.” Sarah smiled. “You look very comfortable.”
Her eyes twinkled with delight as Tina and I snuggled against the wall together with our knees side by side.
“I feel very comfortable.”
“He is quite comfortable actually,” Tina quipped, giggling slightly as she nestled into my shoulder.
“Aww man, that sounded like one of Devon’s jokes!” Tony drawled loudly. “You’re catching his sense of humour.”
“Soon, there will be two of them…” Garry intoned in an eldritch voice, “...and the world will be damned forever.”
“Join us ...braaaains,” I groaned, my hands stretched forward like a zombie. My impression was disrupted as Tony threw his bag at me.
We dissolved into laughter and just like that everything was alright until I noticed that Sarah was sitting off to one side, a calculating look on her face. She stared straight at me with the strangest expression on her face.
My gut went cold. What had Tony told her? She had obviously known that something was wrong. The two of them obviously spoke regularly. Had he told her? I glanced at my best friend, my eyes shifting slightly. He was still laughing as he recovered his school bag.
Could he have told her?
I turned to stare back at Sarah, watching her face change from a look of calculation into concern and then into confusion. She brushed her hair away from her face then she quickly turned her head to look away, unable to meet my gaze. She knew! How could he have told her?
Tony was talking away to Garry about something else, but I wasn’t listening. I turned my attention to Tony and noticed he was oblivious that anything was going on. Sarah turned and gestured across to the other seats about ten metres away.
She wanted to talk.
I took her meaning and quickly excused myself from Tina and carefully made my way across to her. I’m not sure what the others thought as we both went off and I didn’t care.
“What happened with you and Tony?” Sarah asked as I approached.
“Nothing,” I said.
“Tony was pretty upset with you yesterday, but now everything seems fine.”
“It is fine. Nothing to talk about now.”
“What was it?”
“Nothing, it doesn’t matter.”
“I’ve never seen you guys fight like that,” Sarah pressed. “It must have been something.”
“It’s a guy thing,” I stated, getting desperate.
“Do you really expect me to believe that?”
“Umm… no, I guess not,” I stammered. “But trust me – it’s better if we just leave it alone.”
“Tony wouldn’t tell me either!” Sarah pouted.
He hadn’t told her. I immediately felt my shoulders relax and my breath come a little easier.
“Just let it drop... please?” I said.
Sarah didn’t say anything, just stared silently back at me.
“Please?” I repeated.
“Okay,” she whispered back eventually.
“Thank you.” I smiled and pulled her into a quick embrace.
“Hey! That’s my girl you’re mauling there, buddy!” Tony’s voice called out from across the path.
I smiled back with genuine mirth – trust Tony to lighten up a tense moment.
“I’m done with him now,” Sarah loudly declared, playfully pushing me away. “You can have him if you want him!”
I laughed and she grabbed my arm.
“Tina’s my friend,” she said solemnly. “And she’s never had a boyfriend before. She really likes you.” She stared in my eyes. “Don’t hurt her, okay?”
“I don’t plan to,” I squeaked, and coughed, looking at my feet.
“Do you actually like her?” Sarah pressed.
There was a pause and we locked eyes.
“Let’s go back,” I said.
We walked back to the group silently.
CHAPTER FIVE
There is a theory that time is relative. It was quite a popular theory in its day and it is indeed true. Anyone who has experienced the joy of an afternoon maths class will be able to testify to this.
Time plays havoc on the mind, making a forty-minute math class seem like it has lasted for three weeks. Seconds drag into hours as you watch someone scrawl semi-legible markings onto a white board. Minutes turn into weeks as you struggle keep your head aloft with a look of semi-intelligent concentration plastered onto your face. All the while your eyes keep flicking across to a clock whose hands never seem to move but made angry ticking noises nonetheless.
The ticking of the hands on the clock reverberated across the room in relative loudness defying the actual noise. Each ‘tick’ was followed several seconds later by the inevitable ‘tock’. The room quickly became a cacophony of ‘ticks’ meeting ‘tocks’ as soundwaves met bouncing from wall to wall. After a half hour of this, which seemed like a week and a half, my brain had shut down and my mental processing capabilities had slowed to the speed of a bowl of pudding. When the bell finally rang I didn’t react immediately as I mistook it for a particularly loud ‘tock’.
I knew with experience that it would take at least twenty minutes to wake up again after the class.
“Do you want to go to the pub tonight?” Tony called out as I turned into the locker bay.
He had already packed away his books and was waiting for me, in the five minutes it took me to get to the locker bay.
“It’s Thursday,” I replied in way of disagreement.
“What? Are you afraid you’ll miss your beauty sleep?” Tony drawled back, punching me in the arm. “Besides, tomorrow is a public holiday!”
“Well, I am feeling pretty ugly today,” I quipped, mockingly flouncing my hair and pretending to preen myself.
“You’re lucky,” he replied, deadpan.
“Oh why?”
“You don’t have to look at you,” Tony replied dryly.
“Fair enough, see you at the pub.” I laughed and punched him in the shoulder.
The pub in question wasn’t too far away from either of our houses. It was the local for Tony’s older brother, Greg, who was a bit of a boozer, but I�
��d never been there myself. I’d need to go home first to get changed.
Tony was already at the pub when I arrived. He was chatting with Greg by the bar. There were several bored looking barstaff serving drinks and a stereotypical looking barman lurking behind the bar.
“Devon,” Greg greeted as I approached. “Does your mother know you’re here?”
Greg was a good three or four years older than us and had picked on us both quite unmercifully when we were younger. Now that we could hold our own and were getting of a similar size and strength, the teasing had degenerated into taunting and childish insults. This isn’t to say that Tony and I didn’t like spending time with him. He was often a good source of entertainment when we were growing up.
“Does your parole officer know where you are?” I retorted.
“Nice.” He grinned. “Get this man a beer, and put some lemonade in it, he’s only twelve!”
“Going to need to see some ID there, son.” The barman nodded at me.
I’m not sure if Greg’s comment had made him nervous or if he genuinely felt the need to card me. I produced my passport and passed it to him. He seemed a little amused that I was using a passport, but let it pass.
“I’ll assume the lemonade was a joke,” he commented gruffly as he passed over a glass.
“Kinda strange to see you two in here,” Greg commented as I took my first sip.
“Why?” Tony laughed back.
“Well, it’s kind of like you’re stealing my local,” he replied, grinning.
“No, it’s not stealing. We’re just borrowing, like those magazines of yours Tony borrowed when he was fifteen,” I insisted, smirking back.
“Yeah... The difference is… I didn’t want those back afterwards.” Greg chuckled.
“Ha ha, shut up, the both of you!” Tony chuckled, finishing his beer.
The bar was relatively quiet. It hadn’t quite gone six o’clock so most people hadn’t finished work. There was the occasional worker like Greg who worked just around the corner and the pub was a short walk on the way home, but the main evening rush hadn’t started yet.
There was a TV mounted on the wall broadcasting horseracing , but other than that it was quiet. In actual truth I was getting a little bored.
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