PARADOX

twelve

Vega: A District

October 2037

Kennedy Winters

I hadn't spoken to Damon since that night. He had left shortly after our conversation about what came first; the egg or the chicken, as he was going to be late for his meeting with his father. It was a nice conversation, and whilst we debated over different topics we weren't arguing. Just sharing our opinions. We hadn't had that before, that sense of peace that washed over the two of us. Something had shifted with us; we were no longer enemies and instead had become companions? I didn't quite know what we were.

My mum had come to me that morning upset that Jason had left in a hurry the night before and wasn't answering any of her texts. She was distraught over it, my mum has worse abandonment issues than me, so I couldn't bring myself to tell her that Jason must've been the one to sneak into my room that night.

Sickness swirled in my stomach over lying to my mum but knowing the way she gets when men reject her... it was for the best.

Damon was there; and Jason wouldn't come back after seeing Damon there as well. I just hadn't expected my mum to like Jason that much. He just wouldn't be there every night. How was I supposed to sleep if my mum invited Jason over again?

That thought kept me up for the rest of the weekend. I barely slept. Every creak on the floorboards startled me awake. The days became senseless until it was Monday morning and I hadn't gone to the library to get the books for the project. Nightmares would startle me awake as horrific images flashed through my mind of things that could happen to me. My overdramatic mind could be a curse sometimes. Instead I felt like I needed to get my act together putting all my focus onto my schoolwork.

The expectation that I was letting everyone down burdened my shoulders. It was an expectation I had set myself yet I was unable to free myself from my own self-imposed shackles.

It was why I hated group projects. When it was just me, I could leave everything until the last minute no one would care if I did that. Having Damon and Marcus follow up with me emphasised just how scatter-brained I had become.

Now the only thing I had to worry about was Mr Walter shouting at me in class.

Dread swirled in my stomach just thinking about it. There was still three hours until my class yet I was too busy stressing over Mr Walter's to pay attention anywhere else.

"Hey," the brunette boy beside me nudged my shoulder lightly, nodding his head forward in the direction of the teacher who was staring back at me.

Uh-oh. I was in English class and I had completely zoned out not hearing what the teacher had said for the past several minutes.

"It was about the apocalyptic nature of the poem," the brunette boy muttered under his breath as I stared gobsmacked at the teacher. Quietly I repeated his words, watching carefully to see if my answer was acceptable, breathing a sigh of relief when the teacher nodded her head turning back to her whiteboard.

"Thank you," I whispered, as the teacher moved on to her next victim asking difficult questions around the room.

"It's no biggie, you're Kennedy right?"

He was a shifter. It was easy to tell through their mannerisms which I had picked up on from studying in a classroom full of shifters. They had a nimbleness about them as every move they made was silent as a mouse.

He was attractive. Adam had the sort of smoothness to his voice that felt like whiskey sliding down your throat. Then burning your insides. His dark hair was styled back in a trendy fashion and he wore their school uniform like it was made for him.