That red devil’s presence was still hanging over me two hours later. It was 6PM and we had finally gone our separate ways with the other couple after stopping at a pizzeria near the campus. For some reason, I had gotten a lot of flak for getting mine Hawaiian style since Zoey and Jacob both believed that pineapple on pizza was some type of cardinal sin. Thankfully, I had Laura there to defend me, so it wound up not being such a bad experience. I was becoming fond of her, and I think Zoey had realized it after we left the church together.

I had been riding in the passenger seat of her car for about five minutes until I finally decided to break the silence.

“Did you find out everything you wanted to?” I asked.

“Hmm? Oh, I suppose he’s fine,” she said. “I don’t think Lawrence has anything to worry about. Jacob seems serious about marrying her.”

“Oh, that’s good.”

It wasn’t good.

Something about it rubbed me the wrong way, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

“You don’t seem too relieved,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

And now she seemed to be implying something, but I had no idea where she could have possibly been going with it. Still, none of this should concern me. I had done what was promised, and could now wash my hands of this girl’s ploys once and for all.

“Are we good now then?” I asked, “Are you going to stop bugging me with all this stuff?”

“Bugging you?”

“Yeah. I did what you wanted, so that means I don’t owe you anything, right?”

For a moment, she went quiet. Her eyes were focused on the road, but there was a hint of something sinister brewing beneath the surface of that cool expression. Was she actually considering letting me be? Even with everything we’ve shared with one another?

“Hey Tristan.”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Did you like Gwen?”

My heart skipped a beat. I nearly jumped out to deny it out of instinct.

“Like her?”

“Like, like like her.” She grinned.

When Lawrence asked me earlier in the week, I had denied it calmly because I hadn’t explored those feelings of mine as of yet. But that was before everything that happened on Tuesday.

So how did I really feel? Did I like her? Well, obviously I thought she was cute once I got past the smoking and the swearing and the overall aggressiveness of her demeanor. She’s relatable, funny, talented, and she was surprisingly introspective and open with me. It felt like I was forming an actual relationship with a girl my age when I hung out with her, much unlike whatever this skyscraper of lies and manipulation is that’s been built up between myself and Zoey. Regardless of how I truly felt though, I didn’t need to dignify her question with an answer.

“Why do you care?” I asked.

“What about Laura? Do you like her?”

“What are you getting at?”

“I’m just asking about what’s been showing on your face for the past week.”

“My face?”

“You’re an open book, Tristan. You’ve had no luck with women for your entire life and now suddenly you have options upon options littered at your feet and you have no idea how to handle it. Gwen, Laura, hell you’ve probably even thought about Jaz too, right?”

“You don’t know me.”

“You’re right, I don’t know you. I don’t know what you’re feeling. I don’t have Dream Paralysis like you do, so I can’t tell with certainty.” She went quiet as she took a right turn at a stop sign. “But on the off chance that I’m right, let me tell you something about girls. And this isn’t whatever grotesque advice Lawrence is filling your head with. This is just how the human mind works. Ready? Here it is: A man’s attractiveness to other women is infinitely higher when he’s seen together with an attractive woman.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“You don’t get it? Here, I’ll explain. For example, let’s take you, an average guy with seemingly no redeeming qualities. Someone who at first glance has very little friends, no talents, and doesn’t stand out in any conceivable way. Why is it then, that you’re suddenly being showered in so much attention? Which of these qualities has made all these girls take such an interest in you, exactly? Is it that they’ve just suddenly realized how charming and suave you are? Is that why Gwen’s friends were okay with you being there for her birthday outing? No, it’s because they want to know exactly what it is that I see in you. Why is it that Zoey, who hasn’t dated anyone up until now, has suddenly chosen to take such a big interest in this guy? What is it about him that’s so attractive to her? Think about your relationships with these girls. With Jazmine. With Gwen. With Laura. What was at the centerpiece of their fixation on you?”

“You’re being spiteful right now.” I was frozen. I couldn’t even look in her direction when I got the words out.

“Let me guess, you think I’m saying this because I’m jealous? Don’t flatter yourself, Tristan. If you break it off with me, all those other options are going to fly out of the window along with me. You’ll go back to being the normal, boring Tristan who hangs out with Lance all day, barely getting by his classes, then goes home to play video games with Cheeto-crusted fingers all night. Oh, well I guess that’s not true. You could use your newfound powers to mess with some poor girl’s head until she falls in love with you. There’s always that. Though, I suppose you can’t actually open up about those powers to any women, can you? You know how talkative people can be with important things like that. Who wouldn’t want to brag about their boyfriend being some kind of comic book superhero? You should consider yourself lucky that I was the first person to find out about it. The second you tell another girl, whether it’s Gwen or Jazmine or anyone else, it’ll become common knowledge the very next day. That’s the hard truth that you’re faced with Tristan: Unless you feel like staying locked up in the Pentagon forever as a classified weapon of mass destruction, you’re going to have to stick with me.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Are you saying… it’s a choice between selling my soul to either strangers in suits or you?”

“I quite like our odds together, don’t you?”

It felt like something in my brain had snapped. It was the first time she had been so openly hostile to me. There was no room for misinterpretation anymore. She was the girl of my dreams, but I would only ever be a gun to her. I thought I had accepted it, but for her to finally openly antagonize me like this…

“Why are you like this?” I asked.

“Like what?”

I looked down.

“You’re not supposed to be like this. It’s not supposed to be like this...”

“Tell me what I’m supposed to be like then, Tristan. Please, enlighten me.”

“Not like this, not like someone who talks about me like I’m a worthless human being with as much emotion as a news person giving a weather forecast.”

“It kind of is, isn’t it? Cloudy with a chance of heavy rain, and Tristan is a dull, boring person that no woman could ever love.”

I eyed the pale nape of her neck. It would’ve been so easy to end her right then and there. I wondered how much Gwen’s fantasized about this? With how much havoc this girl brought into her life, I can’t believe that she wouldn’t have thought about it even a few times.

“Well either way, you don’t have to worry about being boring. Because as long as you have those powers, you’ll always be special to me.”

The car came to a stop.

“You sound desperate, Zoey.”

“Do I, now?”

“Yeah, I’m not gonna be led around by you anymore. Not after what you pulled with Gwen, and especially not when you don’t care about me.”

“You’re right Tristan. I don’t care about you. But if you really do want me to start caring, then you’re probably better off getting in line and continuing to use Dream Paralysis for my sake.”

“Use it for your sake? For what? What would you have me do tonight, exactly?”

“Tonight? Hmm, let’s see. Why don’t you try masturbating inside of Laura’s body?”

I got out of the car. I had heard enough from her.

“What? Her muscle memory should take over, so I doubt you’d need to know where the clitoris is.“

Her sense of humor was lost on me. She must have known the type of girl that Laura Young was. To bring her down to that level was just her way of getting on my nerves.

“You have no idea how terrifying this is, Zoey. You have no idea how it feels for your soul to get sucked into someone else’s world, having your entire view of everything just change overnight. I had to sleep with a demon out of some kind of fucking Lovecraft story hovering over my bed for three nights in a row. And I have to do it all for what, for you? Someone who doesn’t give a shit about me? Someone who wants me to use it for sexual pleasure?”

“You seemed to have no problems going through my underwear drawer. What changed?”

“That’s…” I turned away. She was right. If it weren’t for my own hesitation, whether its moral hesitation or cowardice, the number of reprehensible acts I might have taken by now would be far greater than just a single act of masturbation. But the fact remains that I refuse to use that power for something like that.

“Fine, I understand,” she said. “Give it to me then. Give it to me and we can both go our separate ways.”

“Even if I could, you’re the last person I’d ever give this power to.”

With just that parting, I made my way out of the car and walked through the empty driveway to my house. I was done talking to her.

“Tristan.”

“What?”

Spinning to face her, my mind was mesmerized by the image of her elbows hanging out of the car window, her arms crossed as she laid her chin down on the back of her hand. But what truly stood out to me was that same smile that had hypnotized me for the past three years.

“I’ll see you on Monday.”

I turned away and walked into the house. Was Zoey capable of change? No matter how much I doubted the prospect, I couldn’t say for certain that it was impossible. So, on the off chance that it is, I needed to set a firm boundary from her manipulation. She’s a liar and a cheat. But still, surely there had to be a reason that her head was screwed up so badly, right? Was it her mom? Her dad? Something else? I didn’t know. But either way, if I wanted to escape her grasp, then I needed to find it out. Or, at the very least, stall her until I graduated. At least then I’d be able to move away from her. Somewhere far away like Hawaii or Europe or South America.

Once I closed the door, I slumped to the ground and felt the liquids pouring out of my ducts. I thought I had run out of tears to give that woman. Why? She’s right, I didn’t know her. We hadn’t had a genuine conversation before until homecoming week. So why did it feel like my entire body was smashed to pieces? Was I just so hopelessly infatuated with her? I should have been over her, but I still didn’t want to escape from her, I wanted to fix her. I wanted to hold her and cherish her like we were lovers.

My phone buzzed and my screen lit up. Was Zoey apologizing already? An apology that quickly couldn’t have possibly been a genuine one, so I wasn’t holding my breath for whatever it was.

“Oh…”

But the name that showed up on the screen was like an arrow through the chest.

Gwen!

It was Gwen!

She had sent me a text message.

I looked away from the screen and gathered myself.

It was the first time I’d really be hearing from her since the incident.

I was excited, but also terrified.

Terrified that my screen would encompass her words of admonishment and disdain for me.

But then I thought about Zoey’s words.

About how her interest in me was the only thing that made me interesting to others.

It hurt to think that it might be true.

People probably did only find me interesting due to Zoey’s association with me.

She was right about that.

Ben, Jaz, Gwen, Warren, Lawrence, Penny, Jacob, and Laura.

One way or another, all these interactions I’ve had in the past month are due to my association with Zoey.

The only reason any of them are interested in me at all is probably because of her.

As much as I could call her jealous or whatever, she was right.

I looked down at the notification.

My relationship with Gwen was something I treasured a lot.

Did I love her? I don’t know.

But I enjoyed her company.

Isn’t that enough?

Who cares how I got my foot in the door?

I had fun with her, and I think she had fun with me too.

That’s really all that matters in the end.

And if opening this text message was how I’d get my closure, then no matter how scary it is, I decided that I would see it to the end

My finger finally tapped the notification.

I stared down hesitantly at the message, my hands shaking still.

“Oh.”

At first, I was silent.

What had I expected, exactly?

Some dramatic soliloquy on how my betrayal had hurt, maybe?

A request where she asks to talk to me later?

No, it was nothing like that.

All that was attached was a single file.

Tristan Screenplay.pdf

A smile stretched across my damp face. Come to think of it, she did promise to get this to me on Saturday. Had she been working on it all this time despite everything that had happened? Despite my betrayal, despite the trauma of her experience with Zoey, despite how hectic her transfer must have been?

Was it just something she’d done out of obligation? Or did she really not resent me for what had happened back then? Either way, I decided to call her immediately so that I could apologize. However, after just two rings the line got cut, and I received another message.

I’ll call you when I’m ready to talk.

She still felt iffy about talking to me, then. It was understandable considering my proximity to Zoey and how traumatizing that must have been. The guilt I’d been feeling still clung to me like burrs to my clothes. It felt like nothing would be enough to finally get rid of it all. But at the very least, I knew that she would be willing to talk eventually, and that was enough for me. I could go on knowing that much.

I tapped on the screen to open the script she’d written, interested in its contents. My eyes scanned the lines, carefully considering not only the quality of the content, but also how I’d end up bringing it to life on screen.

“Oh.”

Halfway into the reading, I quickly realized what she had intended with this script. A subliminal message, but it was there. She had casted the actors for this film a long time ago. I was a little jealous since I had been interested in it myself, but the perfection of the casting was undeniable. I decided then and there that this film had to be shot as soon as possible. Not just because it would be shown on Monday, but because the two actors needed to play their parts as soon as possible. Not for the club’s sake, but for theirs.