Rain droplets streamed endlessly down the window of 2 AM, a restaurant open late in the Laurier Section that Ana had suggested to meet me at tonight. She'd called up Malachi, who'd told Murl to come along, who invited Miles at the last second and when I heard they'd all be here, I could feel relief and a happiness swell in my heart. It was midnight, but every single one of them was awake still and up for food.
For some reason I was a little nervous to see them again (even Miles who I'd seen earlier today) and I wasn't sure why. It'd only been a week and a half since we crawled out of Hale, but it felt like a lifetime ago.
"Miss? Are you here alone?" The droid's question sliced through my thoughts. I looked up at its triangle eyes, glowing in the harsh purple, pink, and red lights of the restaurant. It was standing next to the booth I was sitting at, waiting for my answer.
"Um, no," I said, "I'm just waiting for four more, that's all."
The droid beeped and bobbed its head, trying to replicate nodding in understanding. "Okay. When you need me, call for M7!" it said cheerily, then rolled away down past the other customers. I couldn't help but smile when I heard the droid's number. The Hale building no longer needed its "servants," so all of them were transported to help out with anything around the city. It just so happened M7 was brought here.
Around five more minutes ticked by, then ten, causing me to think they weren't going to show. The rain thumped harder on the windows and one bass-filled song ended and another slower, calmer one began. I put my arms on the table and laid my chin down on them, waiting in anticipation, my whole body jittery. I hadn't had anything to drink or eat yet, but my nerves made my heart beat like I'd just consumed a bunch of sugar.
It wasn't until I heard a familiar voice carrying over from the 2 AM entrance that made me perk up, head lifting from the table.
"Shut up, I hate that," Ana teased Malachi, both of them bursting out laughing and striding over to my booth. "Hey, Cory," she greeted before plopping down across from me, her black hair up in two spiky buns.
"Hey," I said back, watching Malachi come around and sit next to Ana. "How's everything going with you guys?"
Malachi shrugged. "I'm doing okay. Kay's back to normal, so that's good. Been tiring though. My leg's still healing from all the work the doctors did on it," he explained, putting his leg out to show me the silvery metal attached to it. I could never forget what happened to Malachi, how he had been so close to falling to his death.
Malachi must've noticed my face go grim thinking about him because he smiled. "Hey, I'm fine though," he persuaded. "Once I get a good sandwich in me, I'll be better than ever." A smile crept onto my face too when I saw the thankful gleam in his brown eyes.
"Hey, what are you guys gonna order?" Ana asked, already deep in the menu, scanning all of the food options with narrowed eyes. "What's a good midnight snack?"
"I don't know, really anything sounds good right now," I said. Ana nodded, however I could tell she hadn't really been listening to me. She was more focused on skimming the different types of fries and milkshakes and I couldn't blame her; they sounded so delicious and there were so many kinds, the menu was basically a novel.
I found myself looking around the restaurant, absorbing the conversations of people around me and sounds of the droids rolling around on their wheels, delivering food to customers. I finally felt like I could breathe again, having been outside my apartment for half an hour at least. No more suffocating in my room, tossing and turning and trying to keep myself from sinking under that hopeless feeling.
My eyes wandered to the windows, streaked with rivulets of rain, the colorful lights of the city reflected in the droplets outside. It was hard to believe what kind of place our city was not too long ago.
"Hey!" I heard a voice interrupt my thoughts, over the chatting people and music. It drifted over to Malachi, Ana, and me from near the entrance of the restaurant and when I turned my head, I saw Murl and Miles approaching us down the aisle. Murl almost accidentally bumped into a droid that was speeding by, but he laughed it off with his cousin and they reached us in a matter of seconds, clearly in a rush to get here. Miles slid in the booth next to me and next to him, Murl squeezed in, slamming his hands on the table. "Don't order yet! We found out they have these drinks that fizz a ton," he exclaimed, unable to contain his excitement. "I've always wanted to try one of these..." he mumbled to himself, scanning the menu and finding a red, bubbly drink that supposedly glowed when you drank it.
Everyone looked at their menus, words popping out of the pages in little holograms. They were all picking out what they wanted and I tried to do the same, but there were a few things still on my mind, nagging at me. And not to mention, I was becoming increasingly aware of Miles sitting next to me. I thought about how he had showed up at my door earlier and though he'd said he'd just wanted to say hi, I knew there was something he wasn't telling me and maybe he'd wanted to.
"Hey," Miles said, tapping the table in front of me. My eyes flicked over to him. "Are you getting anything?" he asked.
My stomach began to churn suddenly and for some reason I lost my appetite then. "I don't know," I mumbled, noticing the small hint of concern cross his face when I said this. The others looked up from their menus too and their eyes were trained on me.
"Are you okay?" Murl asked, leaning to look at me from the other side of Miles.
I couldn't bring myself to speak the words at first. It was a mixture of different emotions that was making me so hesitant and they were all fusing together, creating a big block of confusion within me. The four of them all waited for me to speak and when I did, my voice was quiet. "I don't want you guys to go," I said.
They all looked at me then like I was nuts.
"Whoa whoa whoa," Malachi started, "why do you think we're going to go? Is there something I don't know about?"
Ana's brows furrowed from across the table. "Are we all gonna die right now?" She looked outside then, then turned around, eyes roving over the people in the restaurant like there was some assassin lurking nearby.
"No!" I interrupted, noticing everyone relax a little. "I just...don't want all of us to forget each other, that's all."
"Why would we forget each other?" Miles said next to me.
"I don't know..." I answered, looking down at my hands. I kind of felt silly now, thinking that we'd just abandon each other, just like that. How could we forget about what we'd experienced together? I'd really been stewing in my own thoughts for too long.
"Ana said she'd throw parties at her place for us every night, so you don't need to worry about everyone splitting up," Murl reasoned.
"Hey, I didn't say every night," Ana bit back, but Murl ignored her and we all laughed a bit. Murl, Ana, and Malachi broke off into a conversation, Ana swatting Murl's arm from across the booth, while Miles nudged me lightly with his elbow.
"You should get something," he told me, looking at my menu.
I nodded, the knot in my stomach slowly untwisting itself like a snake. Maybe Miles was right. We were all together right now, everyone talking about Hale and the city news and cracking jokes about the terrible song that had just started playing (Malachi said his mom was obsessed with it which the rest of us found really funny). I wanted this moment to be a good memory, one that I could think back on whenever I found myself playing through memories of Mom and Dad.
So I picked out one of those fizzy drinks Murl had mentioned and got lost in laughter and a conversation, rain pounding the street of Laurier Section outside.
YOU ARE READING
Retrospect
Science Fiction• • • • • • She knew it from the very beginning. And the disappearance of Cory's parents just proved it. The city she lived in wasn't kind and the building at the center of it all, Hale, teemed with secrets Cory was desperate to know. She didn't bel...
