“Maybe we should have brought Shock with us.” Her foot taps, too quickly for boredom, and I squeeze her hand.
“We’ll know soon enough on our own.”
She watches me as we descend. “You move a little differently here than the others do.”
“Do I?”
She nods. “Is it because you know no one’s going to bother you, so you can relax?”
“There are more voices for Arc to hear and more futures for Shock to see. The city is like a minefield for them…”
“It’s not for you?”
“Not in that way.” What I know doesn’t bother me any more here than it does in the Zone.
When the door opens, I hold it for her and step out into the small space after her.
The woman behind the small counter-like opening turns to us with a smile that changes instantly when she sees Chrys.
“You’re back!” Kari looks from Chrys to me and her brows furrow.
“I thought—” she doesn’t finish that remark, but I’m sure she remembers that an orange Sian was with Chrys last time. “Andrea told me about the mix up, I amsosorry! I don’t know how that happened.”
She doesn’t. Whatever happened, she wasn’t a part of it.
“Yeah, it was definitely one for the books.” Chrys laughs uncomfortably.
The woman looks at her screen again and says, “They did swap you out, you know about that right?”
“Yep.”
“Cool.” Kari looks beneath her and grabs out a small bag that rattles when she hands it over. “I still can’t apologize enough.”
“You didn’t pack it,” Chrys offers, trying to ease the woman’s discomfort.
“No, but… I still feel like I’m responsible somehow.”
“You’re not.” When I say it, Kari’s head jerks toward me.
“Um. Yeah…” She watches me warily for a moment.
Sometimes knowing things makes me forget I shouldn’t sound quite so sure when I speak.
Surety makes people nervous.
“Well, is there anything else I can help you with?”
“Nope. That’s it!” Chrys smiles a little too brightly. “Thanks so much!”
“Then have a nice day and… hopefully everything works out this time around.”
Chrys looks at me and I take her hand again, squeezing. We’ll look at the pills when we get out of here.
But when we step into the lift, I punch the button for the hundredth floor instead of the garage and she glances at me with quirked brows.
“We’re going to talk to a friend… it’s easier to just take the train instead of going all the way down to the car, driving half way across the city and then coming all the way back up.” I tug her closer. “And you’ll get to see the city from the top.”
“Okay, sounds fun.” She unzips the back of the fuzzy creature at her side and puts the new medication inside it with a jumble of other things.
