Venice (bxb)

10. The Panel of Beck

          LINK'S MOTHER DROPS HIM off at school the next day. He waits at the quad for Chris and Beckett, and more recently, for Venice and Jason.

          He'd been reading something about how consciousness could be explained by quantum physics when Jason voiced his presence.

         "Hey, gang," he slaps the wooden table, "whatcha readin'?"

          "I'd explain but then you might not understand."

          Jason squints at him, sucking his cheeks in, "low dig but I'll allow it." He takes his seat in front of Link, staring intently at him.

           He chooses to ignore it. "Where's Venice?"

            "Parking the car," and almost strikingly asks, "what's your cousin doing?"

           He's visibly shook and Jason is marinating in Link's nervousness. His eyes jump from his computer screen to meet Jason's. "He went back home. He just dropped by for lunch."

          "Oh, I thought you guys were family. Why didn't he stay over?"

          Link stares him dead in the eyes and acknowledges, although subtly, the fact that Jason was onto him, "it's a school night."

          Jason nods, mainly because from the side of his eyes he could see Venice approaching and behind him Ginevra Beckett, even though he doesn't seem aware of it.

          Link looks at them and they look at each other, instantly entering this force field of mutual connection.

          He smiles at Venice, "hey," and giddily turns to Beck, "I have an article for you to read." He pushes the laptop towards her, "so it's like about wave function and superposition and how that actually proves the existence of consciousness. They're sort of saying that you need the element of consciousness to resolve superposition that is posed by the entire Schrödinger's cat paradox—"

          "Boy, don't get me started here," Beck had this irritated look that made you feel like arguing back. "The entire godamn purpose of the paradox is to refute the absurdity of claiming that the quantum state is dictated by the conscious observer, so literally how are you coming at me with this liberal agenda nonsense and acting excited about it?"

           For a second, it felt like Venice, Link and Jason were equally lost in this conversation. Venice breaks the silence first, "okay, I don't know shit about quantum states."

          Link glances at him and then back at her, "and supposedly neither do I."

         "Link, just know that your article is wrong. The Geiger counter existed for a reason. The world doesn't need consciousness to run it. Don't take yourself too seriously." Beckett nods at him and walks towards the entrance even though they had around an hour before classes started.

          Jason takes the bait, "Beckett, where are you going?"

          She turns around, "I don't know, but it feels appropriate to walk away after that."

          "Can you come back here, you info-slut?" Link chides with a roll of his eyes, "you don't need to be dramatic about every godamn thing, Ginevra."

          "What's poppin'?" Chris strides in with a pair of sunglasses perched on top of his nose, "why do you all look dead?"