ONE Human

Part 10: Reconciling

(Liam's POV)

There was a lot of confusion, considering there were so many people and I couldn't find Bryce in the crowd. Once everything settled, I tried looking around for him but that's when I heard sobbing. I then follow the sound and surprisingly, I found Summer, she was on the floor curled up and crying. I went over to her and called over to her. She looked but immediately turned away with an angry look. I asked her what was wrong but she replied with "Don't bother with me...go talk about your death to your world somewhere else." She sounded emotional talking about it, which made me remember what happened earlier, I forgot about her when I ran off to the tower and she was just left in the rain when I last saw her. She was still upset about all of that, and being the person I am, I sat beside her to try and make up with what I did to her.

"Look..I'm sorry about what happened. And listen, Bryce most likely didn't mean what he said to you about being human. I believe you are a human and-" She suddenly looked more mad and cut me off "Don't even try to apologize." I was a bit weirded out by what she said so I asked "What?" She then replied with "...I'm not good enough for anyone...am I?" This made me even more confused, since even on the plane, she was never like this. I then asked "What are you talking about?" She looked over with tears still in her eyes and said "You don't care what I went through, so why bother caring about what you went through anymore, both of you!" I started getting frustrated since I did care for her, that's why we went to North Carolina in the first place. So I argued back "Summer, I do care! There's just-" She then cut me off again and started yelling. "No! My trauma doesn't matter anymore to you guys! I don't matter! I'm just too different!! YOU HAD YOUR WORLD BACK AT LEAST!!!! HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL, HUH?!!!!! IM NOT ALLOWED TO GO BACK TO MY WORLD!!! IM NOT ALLOWED TO BE HOME!!  YOU MAY BE DEAD TO YOUR WORLD BUT IM DEAD THE WHOLE UNIVERSE AND MORE!!! IM DEAD BACKPACK!! IM DEAD!!!!!!"

I was shocked by her outburst, and her essentially melting down in the same way I did. She took a few shuffles back, realizing what she did and curled up once again, sobbing. However, through her tears, I heard her apologize over and over again. I decided to finally speak after watching this for a few more seconds. "Summer..listen to me. You don't have to continuously beat yourself up like this. And look..you were kinda right. I should've taken you into consideration when I argued with Bryce, especially after he yelled at you. I'm so sorry what happened hurt you. But let me tell you this, none of this is your fault. I do care about what you went through. No matter what goes wrong, I will always be there to support you. We can get through this mess together, and if an argument like what happened ever happens again, I will be there to comfort you if you need it." She looked up at me and said "...if we can get through this..we can get through anything, right?" I nodded and gave her a hug. It was made clear that she stopped crying once she hugged back. I'm glad things could be resolved with her.

(Summer's POV)

Finally my rage had subsided, I was ready to continue going. Liam said "Come on, let's look for Bryce." I agreed but when I opened my eyes, I was somewhere else. I wasn't in my old apartment anymore, I saw a blank area. I asked "Where are we?" He told me that this is where he went when he drowned. I was so confused as to why we suddenly made it here, but I didn't wanna question it anymore so we both got up. After looking for a bit, we saw Bryce looking off in the distance. I decided I would stay while Liam went to get him, since I still wasn't happy with Bryce. After waiting a bit, they came back walking over to me, and I looked away, not wanting another argument to start. "Summer?" I heard Bryce say, I didn't look back but I asked what he wanted. He said "Listen...about what I said, I honestly didn't mean it. I do believe your a human. It was just in the heat of the moment." He then stuck out his arm asking for a second chance. After consideration, I looked over and accepted the handshake.

But that's when the scenery changed to a suburban neighborhood, and I took steps back. "W-why do I keep switching locations?!" I explained to them what was going on and they looked weirded out not knowing what was happening either. I then saw a place that had a radio with it, we all went over and Liam pulled out the notes as well as the laptop. I asked what this meant and Liam said that this could lead us to Stone. I then said "Stone is still alive I think. Bryce said "What do you mean?" I replied with "I saw this Stone Person in my dream. He said he wanted to help, maybe he can help me return home I guess." We then talked about what the radio does and started going on our many misadventures in different worlds. After many tries of trying to get to where Stone supposedly was, we eventually found the place we were looking for, although it was very dark.

My Lava was glowing surprisingly and I used that to guide my way and find the others. Unfortunately after looking around, we couldn't find anything significant and we went back to the waiting room. I watched Liam and Bryce discuss for a bit and we decided to try somewhere else. My vision started to change back into the blank room, which is when Bryce told me he didn't see the suburban area anymore. I still had no clue why I was able to switch settings of this place so quickly, but at this point it didn't matter. I remembered the kill code Texty did to send us back and I had a thought of doing the same for someone else. However there was a possibility that all of us could be transported back to the object earth in order to help Texty recharge, maybe we could even go to San Francisco. Once we got the radio dials in, we were standing on the Golden Gate Bridge.

I looked around, amazed we were able to get back to the object earth. We then went to a convenience store to get a charger for Texty. As Bryce looked around, I just decided to just wait. I then saw someone who seemed to have recognized Liam from before this whole mess, and they started chatting, basically catching up. And while I still felt homesick and not fully healed from the outburst I had, I was still incredibly happy and relieved seeing Liam starting to get his life back together. We then went to a coffee shop and started to talk about what to do next. As we were discussing on what to do next, Bryce made amends with Liam, which made me relieved that what happened had fully been resolved. Meaning we were finally back on track. I still felt homesick and despite me still being happy things were getting smoother for Liam, I started to let my homesickness show.

Liam then noticed my homesickness as much as I tried to hide it, then he said this. "You know Summer, you can stay with me if you want after this." I felt a bit surprised and asked if he was serious. He replied with "Yeah, you've kept determined to help us despite everything that's happened. Honestly, the least I could do is return the favor." I didn't know how to feel about since I still wasn't that used to the idea that I could pass off as a person in this world. So I said "A-are you sure? I-I mean I.." He replied with "Of course, I know you might not get home, but this could be the opportunity for you to start over. You can stay with me as long as you need to and I can help you give your new life a start." I then finally decided that maybe it's time to let go of what happened in the past and move forward with people who are willing to help me along the way. So I replied with "I'd like that." I then decided to crack a joke to kinda cope "And hey, if I do go back, just wait till I tell everyone I've been to San Francisco." I chuckled a bit and so did Liam and Bryce. We then made a toast with our drinks, promising to save the others and stop Airy. Texty got recharged and nightfall came. That's when went to a very specific alleyway that Liam states that he went here when he got back. After a bit of conversation between all 3 of us, we've decided to go back to the waiting room. However, Bryce disappeared before we went to the waiting room. Leaving me Texty and Liam off to the waiting room.

To be continued