Seven Billion Years [UNFINISHED]

Chapter 2

85 DAYS

Ding!

The elevator opens as it gets to the ground floor, and I step out, walking at a leisurely pace, falling behind the bustling businessmen probably wondering why there's a schoolgirl living in a fancy apartment block.

I nod politely to Erin, the receptionist that seems to always be there when I leave and get back from school. She has her hair tied back in a bun, and with her uniform, she looks official as always.

As I reach the exit, there are people filling the street on the outside. I walk through the large arch that is the way out, and begin my walk to Town Hall Station, dodging people left and right.

"Veda!"

I hear a high pitched squeal from behind me, and I already know what's coming.

Laila is dashing up to me, and when she finally catches up, she's out of breath.

"You know you didn't have to sprint, right?" I ask jokingly as I stand to the side of the footpath.

"Yeah but-" Laila pauses and gulps in some air. "I saw you come out of that."

She points to the apartments I just came out of.

"Yeah...?"

"It looks like a fancy-ass hotel! I didn't know you lived there!" Laila exclaims, glancing up at the sign that says 'Reif Apartments'.

"Um, yeah. I do. They're actually apartments by the way," I say, making sure she actually read the giant sign.

"Yeah. But wow!" Laila is easily astonished by things, but I guess you wouldn't expect a 16-year-old to live in a place that looks as if it were meant for snooty slightly rich people.

"Anyway. Let's go, we can't miss our train," I say, and Laila nods as we head off.

"Damnit," Laila says, seeing all of the people waiting for the train in front of us. "It looks like we'll be standing again."

"What a surprise!" I say sarcastically as we begin to board.

"Pfft, shut up," Laila says, rolling her eyes.

We find a place to stand, and Laila makes conversation.

"Child, why did you leave at the concert last night?" Laila asks, clearly she knows something is up. "It felt really sudden."

"I thought I told you? I had to deal with my lady thing-"

"Yeah, that's what you said, but what were you doing?"

It's happened before, Laila's personality switch. It still catches me off guard though. It isn't at all like dissociative identity disorder or anything, it's just that after dealing with me for a while, she learnt that I sometimes don't always tell the truth, so she decided she wanted to 'get serious', and she got good at it. Sometimes I forget I'm chatting with my best friend instead of being in an interrogation.

"Do you want me to give you a full rundown of what went down in the toilet or...?" I ask, mostly jokingly, enough so that Laila might assume I actually went to the toilet.

"Well it was a long time, so yeah," Laila shrugs, seemingly unaware of the people around us who would be severely questioning this conversation.

I sigh, looking like I'm in defeat. I can't keep going with this lie, I'll just have to half-ass another.

"Fine, I just saw someone I knew from a while back, I wanted to say hi," I explain, only now releasing I've used this one before. "I didn't want to seem like I was abandoning you or the concert, so I just made up the toilet excuse. It took a while because they were about to leave and were almost at the exit."

Laila looks at me quizzically for a moment, but then her stern face turns back into her usual excited 5-year-old expression.

"Maybe next time you could bring me along to say hi too, ok?" Laila says with a smile, and I nervously smile back. No one could accept that so easily. I don't know how she acts so nice, knowing that I lie about things constantly without her knowing why. It's not like I don't want her involved with me, or that I don't trust her, I definitely do. It's just that I'm scared of how she'll react if she knows who I am- what I am, what I do and have done. She just seems... too nice and pure for that. How I ended up with this muffin is a mystery to me.

Before I know it, we've already arrived at our stop. Laila and I, along with a bunch of schoolkids from our school rush to get off the train as quick as possible.

We head out from the station, and our school is in sight, along with a boy with glasses and black gauges.

"Eli!" Laila yells, running over to him.

I walk over, arriving after Laila, raising my hand with a slight wave. "Greetings fellow human being."

"Hey Veda," Eliott says with a smile. "What's Laila's deal with saying hello to people by yelling their name and sprinting towards them lately?"

"I was wondering the same thing."

"Oh! How was the concert last night?" Eliott remembers, asking both Laila and me.

"It was AMAZING!" Laila is the first to perk up and voice her opinion. "It would've been even better if Veda hadn't disappeared for 10 minutes during Never Going Home."

"It was just because I saw someone, nothing more," I explain to Eliott the same lie I told Laila.

Eliott gasps, his eyes lighting up. "What if she was lured away by the Ze-"

"NO." Laila and I both shout as quickly as possible.

Why I befriended a conspiracy theorist, I don't know, and it probably wasn't the best idea. One, it's kind of annoying, the way he ties mostly everyday events back to aliens, and two, occasionally he actually does get things right. I know most species in the galaxy and their traits, and I'm surprised Eliott can describe some of them perfectly, just not by the same name.

But the reason Laila and I abruptly told him to stop is different for both of us. For Laila, he's just gonna be annoying. For me, I run the risk of him accidentally explaining my race, daemons, without fault.

Laila and Eliott are talking, but the school bell interrupts them. I begin walking towards the school building while Laila and Eliott slowly approach behind me.

"UGH I have humanities first," Laila complains when she and Eliott catch up. "Medieval times are the worst."

"Eh, I think they're pretty fun to learn about," I counter. I mainly enjoy it because I didn't research Earth but around those times, by then I was caught up in other business.

As we're walking through the corridors to get to our PC class, there's a guy that Laila spots walking towards us. She immediately puts her head down and doesn't make eye contact, as this guy was James, one of her previous ex's. Eliott and I make eye contact after James passes, and nod to each other like a secret signal.

"Soooo..." I begin playfully, raising my eyebrows.

"It's been exactly one week since Damien dumped you..." Eliott continues in the same tone of voice.

"Which means that this has been the longest gap between your boyfriends to date...." I say, and clearly Laila already knows where this is going.

"So the big question is..." Eliott says with a purposeful dramatic pause before I come in.

"Which asshat from the basketball team are you dating next?!" I say in a game show host-like voice as Laila mutters the same thing slightly out of time with me. This is a thing Eliott and I do now, and it's happened enough times for me to make it a weekly game show. It's kind of our way of 'making fun' of Laila's dating game. It's not like Eliott or I have a right to talk, we've never dated anyone, but that doesn't stop us.

Laila sighs as we head into PC, and we sit down with her as we eagerly await her answer.

"You'll find out at break," she says, and I can almost hear the in-studio crowd booing.