eunoia ; malum

12

TRACEY WANTED TO KNOW WHY HER SON WAS DISAPPEARING SO MUCH. Every time he came back, it was late and he had either a frown or smile on his face. She wanted to ask, but she couldn't bring herself to. She was probably over-reacting.

But there she stood in the doorway of his room. He was shoving his cupboards shut with an absent-minded expression on his face. She wished she knew what was going on inside his head sometimes.

"Michael?" He looked up, raising his eyebrows. "Where do you go all the time?"

"Parties, Luke's, tutoring, hanging out with friends . . ." he listed, lying about pretty much everything.

"What friends?"

"Luke and his . . . friends . . ." he answered awkwardly.

She narrowed her eyebrows at him. "What are his friends' names?"

Knowing that their computer had crashed, and all data of diploids had been erased, he knew his Mum wouldn't remember any names. "Um, Calum, Jackson, Ashton and Stacey."

"Are you sneaking around with a girl?"

"Mum, I'm gay." He said bluntly, not even looking at her. He had told her this before.

"Oh. A boy, then?"

"Nope." Michael answered quickly, giving her a smile.

"Let me meet your friends." His mother demanded, and reminded Michael of a six-year-old.

"Nope." He repeated with the same tone and speed.

"Why not?"

Michael looked at her, a blank stare forming. "'oh, what a lovely gun you have in the kitchen.'" He deadpanned.

She looked at him, appalled, as if she wondered where he got that from. "I would never leave a gun out in the open. They are for safety purposes only and – fine, we'll do it at a restaurant." She huffed, giving up as she walked away.

Michael chuckled, shaking his head, although panicking on the inside. He didn't have any other friends that he could get to pretend to be Stacey, Jackson, Calum and Ashton. But, then again, his Mum or Dad didn't have any pictures of the diploids anymore, so . . .

No. It was too risky.

He was on the fence about it. He wasn't sure how he was feeling.

His family, and everything he had ever known, was fighting against the one thing he truly was. But the one thing he truly was, had a whole group of people that he barely knew tied to. He wasn't sure who he was going to follow anymore.

He wasn't sure if he would rather risk his mother's life or a group of people's.

Then came a chilling thought;

His mother would kill him in a heartbeat if she found out he was a diploid.

He put Jackson, Stacey, Ashton and Calum in a group chat. (Jack had upgraded Ashton and Calum to iPhones rather than the Nokia phones they used to have just to keep in touch with each other so they could actually do things. Jack never told them where the money came from, and it led them to be suspicious, but they didn't question it.)

Michael: please have dinner with my mother she doesn't know you're diploids but she knows you're my friends.

Calum: what the fuck

Stacey: dude

Ashton: um shes gonna kill us any way

Jackson: exactly