Aria Fields
I freeze as the starting screen lights up.
"This is crazy, you know that right?" I say dropping the phone on the bed and getting up. She looks at Jamie as though she's lost her mind.
"Do you even know the definition of crazy?" Jamie is completely calm as she picks up the phone and turns it over and over in her hands.
"Do you?"
"Crazy is to be mad, especially as manifested in wild or aggressive behaviour. Or appearing absurdly out of place or unlikely. Or even-"
"What, did you swallow a dictionary?" I retorts.
Jamie laughs in her cute, girlish way. "No, I just feel as though I can know anything. Almost as if my brain's the internet."
I don't know what to say so stay silent and walk over to the floor-length window, starring out at the typical white picket fence and freshly mowed lawn of my best friends house.
"Come on Aria. Out of everyone, you should be the one to understand what's happening to me." Jamie jumps off her bed and stands beside me. She's right but I don't want to admit it. With all the books and movies I watch, it's almost as if I were stepping inside of one.
"T-that's true, although I'm still just trying to get my mind around this." I shake her head and drops into the armchair to the side of the window. "This day could not get any weirder."
Jamie turns from me and goes back to the bed to pick up the phone again. She walks back over to me and practically shoves it back into my hands. "Please, just see it again and then you can decide wether or not I'm crazy."
"Okay." I sigh, turning the phone off and settling into the chair, hunched over the technology. "One more time."
Jamie goes back to her bed and settles into the comforter once again with her legs crossed underneath her. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Her hair falls down framing her face as a look of concentration crosses through her features. I take a breath and try to contain the confused wild butterflies flying around in my stomach as the tense silence begins. Jamie's mouth turns into a straight, tight line and the silence lengthens.
"It might've been a freak incident." I say hesitantly after a minute of nothing.
Jamie shakes her head and continues to concentrate. I look back down to the phone and stare into the black screen once more until I see a small speck of light in the corner. All of a sudden the starting screen lights up. Jamie lets out a triumphant shout and falls back on her bed while I continue to stare at the impossible thing in my hands.
Even the second time I can't believe it. It's just not real. This has to be some sort of a trick or prank she's pulling on me. But as she sits back up on her bed and looks at me for some sort of guidance I can't help but say goodbye to the world I once knew.
"What'd you think? Still crazy?" Jamie asks, literally bouncing up and down.
"I- Wha- Whe-" I can't seem to form a single, simple word. "When?" It sounded weak and shaky but the word was there.
"I don't know." She replies twisting her hair around her fingers.
"Wait. You mean to say this just began one morning. You woke up and were able to control technology?" Too many things are rushing through my head right now and my words come out sarcastically hostile.
"Hey, don't shoot the messenger." Getting up again she walks over and picks up the phone from my paralysed fingers. She places it on her bedside table, then turns back around and looks me directly in the eye. We used to do this when we were little; when one of us was being unreasonable or needed some stabilising we would look directly into each others eyes and hold that stare until someone looked away. I don't know why we did it or how it's lasted this long but that one action of staring into her deep green eyes pulls me back into the real world.
"Sorry Jamie, I'm just still getting used to it is all."
"I know, so am I. I mean suddenly I can control technology - I can know anything instantly or turn something on from across the room - and I have no idea how it is physically possible."
"You and your science brain." I joke, finding enough strength in my legs to stand. "I think one thing is obvious here." I add, flopping down on her bed, looking up at the ceiling.
"What's that?"
"You can't tell your parents." She freezes at the word parents as if she's been caught.
Jamie's parents are some of the most influential people in our town, with her dad being the mayor and all. There's even talk that he's the governments head of secret affairs; but of course that's secret - not even Jamie knows if it's true. Along with being influential, they basically expect everything out of their daughter - none of this trying your best thing - and I mean everything. Basically everything in Jamie's life is the typical parents dream - grades, curfew, clothes, house. She's one of the smartest, prettiest, and kindest people in our school - however also one of the shyest - but of course she doesn't even acknowledge it. With her grades always being A+, hair straight and blonde, bedroom a teenagers dream, she is the typical popular girl, yet she doesn't want to be. To be honest she's been this way her whole life.
She puts all of the 'perfectness' on her parents, saying they basically force her to be this. The only things she's really done for herself is pick her friends and I wouldn't put it past her parents to control that too. They're already on the fence about me. Because of this she doesn't like it when people talk about them, or even mention they're names or the word 'parents.'
If they knew that their daughter could tap into technology, no doubt they would send her off to get immediately fixed, no matter what the cost or consequence. Yes; they're those kind of people. They have to be in a way.
Jamie unfreezes, walks stiffly over to where I'm lying and sits beside me on the edge of the bed. "Right, no parents." The words are barely a squeal but I know that's the loudest she can go. Whenever we talk about her parents, she becomes distant and doesn't realise that nobody can hear anything she says.
I bump her and she jolts out of the daydream she was in. "But on the bright side, you don't have to study anymore."
She laughs her normal laugh and falls back to lie directly beside me. "If only I could gift this to you."
"Oh? I study."
"When was the last time you didn't get distracted while studying?"
"Okay, you win." I laugh and sit back, staring at the phone resting on the beside table.
"What's up?" Jamie sits up too and links her arm through mine. "Nothing has changed, only my brain." I can't tell if she's trying to convince me or herself but I can tell she's trying desperately to cope with this and just needs me to say I understand. But do I? Do I understand what is happening to her? Truely?
"Right." I reply, "only your brain." Being my best friend she doesn't push for any other sort of answer. She's too nice for interrogations and as I lie back with her I begin to wonder; how did she - out of all people - have to carry this power? She's too innocent for anything like this.
I look over at her smiling face, staring at the ceiling and wonder. What does this mean? Will it go away?
Or is it part of something bigger than we could imagine?
