Celeste had insisted we experiment with reraveling at her house. She had brought a collection of small boulders into her yard. It was impressive that she’d managed to move all ten of them by herself.
I studied the boulder sitting in front of me. The green thread I usually saw stuck out of the top, but after the reading I’d done I could see three other threads poking out from odd angles. According to the books, or rather the occasional references they had made to unraveling, pulling the red thread would make the boulder burst into flames, the blue would disintegrate it into water, and the purple… Actually, none of the books had mentioned that one. But purple strings were associated with poison.
“Will you just do it already?” Celeste cried impatiently, the journal in her hands gripped tightly.
“Fine!” I shouted back, reaching for the green thread. I pulled on it, careful to keep hold of the slick thread as I unraveled the boulder. Just like the book I’d accidentally unraveled, the colorful strings entangled each other in the loose shape of a boulder.
“Hm, interesting,” I heard Celeste say as I held my position. “It loeweriewfdsder has been erased but an outline is still visible. And,” Celeste squinted, “yes, I can see the strings as well.” She scribbled in her journal.
“Alright,” she said after she was done writing. “Reravel it.”
I did as she asked, pushing the thread back to make the other strings coil tighter until the boulder was reformed. Slowly, I released my grip on the green thread… and the boulder was fine. It was like nothing had happened. I glanced over at Celeste who enthusiastically wrote in her journal again.
“Do you want me to pull on the other strings?” I asked.
“There are other strings?! Yes! Do it!”
I chuckled. When I pulled the blue thread, colorful droplets formed in the shape of the boulder as if someone had paused the rain. And the droplets of the same color were connected by the faintest glow like beads on a necklace. When I reraveled, the droplets flattened out into the more familiar threads until the rainbow coiled together and reformed the boulder.
Then for the red thread, the partially unraveled boulder was made of tiny star bursts. Similar colored sparks were connected just as the droplets had been. Yet the outline of the boulder was more broken. It looked more like it was exploding from the inside out. Reraveling that led to each burst of color spiral into a more connected string.
I sat next to Celeste, still excitedly scribbling in her journal. The boulder I’d messed with appeared undisturbed. I didn’t mention the purple string. I had a bad feeling about that one.
“I don’t think I’m doing enough for Leslie,” I blurted out.
Celeste paused, looking up at me. “What?”
I turned to face her. “I… feel like I’m stealing something from them by being their partner. I don’t know what, I just am. Especially since the only relationship rules I know about are from the System.”
“What are you talking about?”
I bit my lip. Although I was glad to finally tell someone, I wasn’t sure how comfortable I was telling her everything. “Never mind.” I leaned back on my hands, looking out at the field of boulders.
“Dewoirwill have the medicine you got in recruit training?” Celeste asked.
“Huh? I ran out before the Strokes arrested me.”
“Well, then no wonder you’re so stressed about this.” Celeste gave me a playful push as she said it.
I stared back at her in complete disbelief. “What?”
“I said ‘no wonder you’re so stressed about this’,” she replied, slower this time.
“Oh, so I did hear you right. Yeah, that makes no sense. I don’t need it.”
Celeste frowned. “Yeworiuewiorofsdbly see someone about getting more. It might help more than you think.”
I shook my head. “The reason I needed it was because I was constantly worried about my defect being discovered. Not exactly a problem anymore, so I don’t need it. I’m fine.”
With a sigh, Celeste threw up her hands. “If you say so.”
To be continued…