“Sidekick I need you to go meet me down outside the apartment.” Elio’s transceiver spoke loudly.

“Fine.” responded the boy who was going to ditch our movie night together.

“Wait!! Why do you just do everything she asks you to do?” I blurted out annoyed.

“What’s wrong with doing "everything" that my partner asks me to do?”

“It’s just that… never mind just go! But you owe me a hangout got it?!!!” I shouted and made demands for him to fulfill soon.

“Owe you a hangout? Why are you acting jealous?” Elio asked nonchalantly as if he was testing my patience.

“I’m not jealous!!!” I quickly grabbed and threw a nearby teddy bear at Elio, and unsurprisingly he just tilted his head and dodged it easily.

“Fine, what do you want me to do to apologize?” Snickered Elio and walked a bit closer to me.

“Hm... how about we go to the beach together next time!" I walked up to hug the annoying assistant of the world’s finest detective.

“I’ll think about it, you can have the chicken wings just save me 3 donuts to have later.” Elio hugged me back.

“Alright, Stay safe okay?”

“You too.”

The door closed behind Elio as I returned to my seat and reluctantly started watching the film marathon alone.

For as long as I could remember, it almost felt like... It felt like I didn’t have a view of myself… or that my entire life from the day I was born felt like a fever dream as if all my memories were manufactured, were they artificial, or even fake… it’s like I remember them happening but at the same time I don’t ever remember physically experiencing those memories themselves.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

It didn’t feel like I had a purpose in life. As if I wasn’t really “Me” but was someone else with fake memories. I genuinely believe that my childhood was like a blurred-out fever dream.

My parents were very loving enough that I didn’t feel like I was being neglected, we always ate breakfast and dinner together, spent the holidays with each other, went on many trips as a group, and even joined many events together, however, they were very secretive about their own lives.

My mom was a very successful lawyer and that was as much as she told me, while my father never even hinted what his job was… at least I never found out until after I received the help of Elio.

When I finished middle school, My heart felt heavy, as if it was demanding that I go and meet up with someone…I initially just ignored it, but when a few months had passed, the feeling got stronger over time, I felt weakened and restrained, and it got so frustratingly severe that I dropped out of high school for an entire semester, I was bedridden for a while, it was like my youth was gone.

To make matters worse, My family and I moved across the country leaving the friends I did have when I was in our old state so that both my parents could provide me with better living conditions even though my family was already very wealthy.

When my father started disappearing every other day to even weeks on end, it felt like my heart was at the constant brink of collapse until one day… I saw him on the news, Elio was on the news and the tremors my heart had somehow stopped indefinitely, like my heart was guiding me to meet with this boy, maybe it was fated for him to help me solve the mystery of my father’s job and disappearances.

When my body recovered, I was able to walk freely again, I didn’t need the aid of a wheelchair or crutches, and My mom didn’t have to feed me herself again, after a year of being bedridden my life was… back on track.

I realized if I didn’t meet up with this boy then I might regress back to that pathetic state, and I didn’t want that, plus he seemed like the only person who was able to help me with my father’s disappearances.

When he and I finally met, I couldn’t help but act confrontational with the boy, as if I was hardwired into being “mean but playful” with him... Or was that just in my nature or I was nurtured into it?

“W-wait the movie’s already over!?” Did I just completely space out?

I looked outside the apartment complex and into the city.

When my father died, and my mom was hospitalized it felt like I had been abandoned then and there, but Elio gave me a pep talk and asked me to move into the same building he and his partner did, maybe fate was guiding me to work alongside them.