Another two months of fruitless effort passed before Aaron decided he needed a guinea pig. After his loop with Alice he entered the white room to find the computer thing had changed again. In a way it answered Alice’s question. The list of ‘friends’ updated with Alice. Not alice as a character in Aaron’s time loop. The Alice who he had drugged and cooked dinner for. The one who asked what would happen to her.
While the space let him know that he could ‘activate’ her and bring her into the next loop he didn't know what would happen if she died. Alice had never done him any harm. He couldn’t use her to find out what would happen. Thankfully Aaron had enemies for that.
The problem with using an enemy was that there were some requirements for preserving someone's mind across loops. The first requirement Aaron knew about was that the other party needed to know about the loop. Second, both parties required a level of mutual trust. The third was that they needed to be in close proximity to each other when Aaron fell asleep to begin the loop. Thankfully he did have an enemy who he could use to fulfil all three requirements.
Across the hall from Aaron lived a student by the name of Lawrence Grover. He had bit of an arrogant streak and liked to get into fistfights. He was also something of a righteous bully. He had a pet phrase “you're on the wrong side’a Law.”
Aaron and Law had a level of mutual respect. To Aaron Law was pragmatic and was always trying to do the right thing. He had a temper to match Aaron’s and a violent streak to go with it. With the Incident at the school it would be easy to convince Law to put aside their differences to stop whatever is happening.
Law on the other hand recognized that he couldn’t corner Aaron. Add to that the fact that Aaron did not actively cause problems and you could understand why Law tolerated him. Finally, Aaron had never lied to Law. If Aaron took the time to tell Law something was truth that's how Law took it.
If there was an issue it was that Law was in the same class as Aaron. This is what caused Aaron to walk past Law at breakfast. Law had just finished making some intolerant remark and Aaron took the opportunity to lash out at Law. “Law. I’m tired of your dumb ass remarks. I have things to take care of. When I finish I expect you to be here.”
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“Well Jess, it seems I'm coming down with a cold. Tell the teacher for me would you?”
“Sure, Aaron has been a peg too high for too long.”
At 11:40 Aaron walked into the Dormitory cafeteria to have his fight with Law. The fight went exactly as Aaron expected, with him on the ground and Law delivering his punishment. At 12:10 Law had finished. Aaron had managed not to pass out, he was uncertain if that would take him back to the white room or not.
Law picked Aaron up and began carrying him to the infirmary. “Now that you've learned you’re lesson I expect you to behave.”
“Naw, I’m just getting to what I intend to tell you. The only thing I learned here was that I was right about your punches; they hurt like hell. Next time we have this talk I think we should skip the fight.”
“What are you on about?”
They had made it to the front entrance of the school by time Aaron finished his explanation. Aaron walked the rest of the way to their classroom.
“Alright Aaron. If you mean what you say then I believe you.”
“Every word.”
“I know… this Alice went to school today, why didn't you save her?”
“I could say that this alice isn’t my alice however, the true reason is that I couldn't both stop you from coming and get her back to the dorm.”
“Fair enough. Why me then? You had to take a beating, we basically hate each other.”
“Are you forgetting that I just beat you in a straight up fight by taking a beating?”
Law took a moment to consider this. “Well damn. Alright, next time we have this talk call me out by saying you want to talk about ‘Emily South, fourth grade.’ I can’t guarantee it will work the way I think but it's the best I can offer you.”
The loop ended with the awkward scene of Aaron falling asleep holding Law’s hand. Aaron wasn’t quite sure how close the two had to be so he repeated what he knew worked.