Another hidden menu, app tucked away in the background, classic tracking program - rich people were nothing if not predictable at times. Jerry could always count on them taking the most controlling option that they could find an excuse for. This time it would obviously be about kidnapping fears rather than the obsessive need they clearly had to monitor Danielle’s every move. Frankly, he was amazed she was let out of the house without a tracking collar, though maybe they’d gone for the subdermal chip. If someone had marketed it to them as cutting edge, they probably would’ve done it. Couldn’t let the Fulfillers in the next town get ahead of you.

Jerry fiddled with the last few settings he needed to permanently set the phone’s location to transmit as the Harp mansion, then set it aside. He’d never imagined using his tech skills on behalf of a Harp, but given that it was against two others he figured it more than balanced out. As much as it left a sour taste in his mouth to admit it, Danielle was a clear victim here. And maybe he felt bad about just how much he’d disdained her before today. Always strutting around like a queen looking at peasants, delivering condescending bits of advice that were basically proclamations, refusing to lower herself to mingle with the commoners. He scowled. He could admit he’d been wrong. Not everyone had his ability to give no fucks, and those with fucks left to give obviously wouldn’t risk pissing off someone whose parents probably employed their own. So she was more awkward than arrogant and her parents trained her for high society, not regular teenage conversation. It was a revelation, but not a secret.

By rule, Jerry hated secrets. It was why he’d taken up hacking in the first place. Governments, corporations, the rich and powerful, they all hid their dirty little secrets behind enough firewalls to burn the unwary to a crisp. They sat in their polished ivory towers and pretended the interiors weren’t as grimy as the worst inner-city alleyway. Someone needed to hold their feet to the fire and make them nervous to rampantly take advantage of whoever they could. Jerry was cynical enough to believe the worst and stubborn enough to find it. It should have been enough.

But no, fate had to throw a wrench into it all. There was only one thing Jerry hated more than secrets: Lists. It was the rhetoric of anarchists and Fatebreakers, disparaged as fringe conspiracy theorists spouting that gravity was just a theory and the Earth was flat. Why hate a fundamental fact of life? Because emotions didn’t always follow logic, and Jerry hated the idea of being controlled by some mysterious force that had plotted out his ideal life without giving him a say in it. He’d promised himself years ago that he wouldn’t be one of those people who mindlessly pursued his own List without a care in the world. He’d do everything he could to avoid it. After all, he’d seen what that kind of obsession could do to a person. He used to love his mom.

But no, Fate had to fuck with him in the worst possible way. Find the secret. What a joke. Thank you for your generous permission, Fate. Now that the universe’s omnipotent will was telling him it was a good idea, maybe he didn’t feel like it anymore. Jerry Martin wasn’t anyone’s lapdog. It couldn’t have been designed any better to take the wind out of his sails, but Jerry wasn’t a quitter. He was willing to do the dirty work, to set up others to take the final steps. He wasn’t in it for the glory.

So why was he here now? Besides the fact that Connor was going to get himself killed or arrested within the day if Jerry let him and Danielle go alone, Jerry was still curious. Connor was acting strange, stranger than a sudden friendship with Danielle Harp could explain. He was twitchy, always fiddling with something or bouncing on the balls of his feet. The Connor of two days ago wasn’t exactly a pillar of confidence, but he was steady. Something had shaken him up badly, and now he was making impulsive choices to go running off with the girl he’d had a hopeless crush on. Jerry held back a shudder. She was pretty, sure, but how anyone could have seen her ice queen persona in that light was something he’d never understand.

Connor was hiding something. It was almost certainly List-related, and from how he’d been acting it was probably just as bad as his own. Was that secret enough for his List? Was he being influenced down this path by some unfathomable cosmic force with unknowable intentions? Was Fate trying to manipulate him by putting his best friend in danger and making Jerry choose between his moral convictions and Connor’s safety? All signs pointed to yes. It was a shit situation no matter what angle he looked at it from, but Jerry wouldn’t abandon his best friend.

Said friend was just now emerging from the thrift store, bag in one hand as he used the other to hold the door open for Danielle. The real shock was her expression, in that it was there at all. Jerry had seen more emotion out of her in the last hour than he had in all of high school up until now. He shook his head. Lists were a hell of a drug, and it seemed like all three of them had taken too much.

They slipped into the car, and Jerry slid back into his lackadaisical front as he handed Danielle back her phone. “Your device, madam, with only the finest of formerly forbidden sites bookmarked for your perusal.”

Connor groaned. “Please tell me you didn’t spam her with the same sketchy websites you keep sending to me.”

Jerry gave an affronted noise. “Breaking the Yoke is far from sketchy! It’s a thriving alternative community full of fresh and dare I say revolutionary ideas!”

Danielle raised an eyebrow at him. “And are these ideas distasteful or pornographic in nature?”

Jerry choked, and Connor wasn’t faring much better in the seat next to him. If the looks they shot each other in the next few moments could be translated into words, the conversation would have gone something like this:

“Dude, since when could she make jokes?”

“Isn’t it great?”

“It’s jarring! I don’t know how to deal with this!”

“You, Mr. Sarcastic, have no idea how to deal with jokes?”

“Not from her of all people!”

“She’s not a robot or an alien. Just treat her like you would anyone else.”

“Easy for you to say, she already called you her friend. I’m just a weird tagalong.”

“And that’s a new status for you, how exactly?”

“That cuts me deep, dude.”

When Jerry managed to look at Danielle’s eyes again, she was sporting a goddamn smirk. He couldn’t help it; a huge belly laugh erupted out of him, so much more genuine than his usual sardonic chuckles. It wasn’t even that funny, but the sheer incongruity of prim and proper Danielle making even a vaguely dirty joke and having the audacity to smirk about it put him over the edge. If only everyone’s List could make them loosen up like that, he figured the world would be a better place. Too bad it so often ended up being the opposite. And there went his joy, shame.

“Um, are we good to go?” Alyssa asked.

“Right, right.” Jerry said. “Let’s get out of here before Miss Harp manages to upend my worldview even more.”

“I thought we were dispensing with formality, Jerry.” Danielle shot back.

Jerry just shook his head in response, a wry smile on his face. A few days ago, Danielle would have been gearing up for a lecture on propriety or something at the mere suggestion of anything scandalous. Now she was bantering back, albeit awkwardly at times. If this was really the personality hidden behind her ice queen front, he could understand Connor’s little crush a bit better. Maybe he hadn’t really known until yesterday, but Jerry was willing to bet on his friend’s instincts. Connor was weirdly perceptive sometimes when people were trying to hide things. It made it hard to lie to him about anything important, but that was more than made up for by how little Jerry ever had to ask him for. Connor would take one look at him and know he needed to be away from his apartment for the night and thoroughly distracted. If he was applying that same perceptiveness to Danielle now, her shell would soon be a thing of the past.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Despite his best efforts, the mood once again turned somber and contemplative as Alyssa dutifully ferried them onto the highway towards Charlottesville. Jerry caught Connor looking out the window like it was the last time he’d see his hometown, and equally caught Danielle eyeing Connor out of the corner of her eye. It was only natural; Jerry had been preparing for a journey like this for years in one form or another, while Connor and Danielle had uprooted their whole lives in less than forty-eight hours. Connor at the very least had a lot of good memories and things he was leaving behind. It did make him wonder briefly just how he was willing to put that all on the line for a girl he’d barely talked to before yesterday, but that was a stupid thought. It was Connor Blakely. Jerry didn’t want to call him a pushover, but he was definitely more selfless than was healthy. It was probably a good thing that Jerry was around to make sure he didn’t get roped into some other sob story along the way. One runaway Fulfiller daughter was enough.

Jerry mentally bumped the Harps up to the top of his priority hacking targets. If half of what Danielle had said about them was true, there would be some kind of digital evidence somewhere. Of course that ran the risk of bumping into the damn secret his List was so insistent he find, but that was a risk worth taking right now. Worst case scenario, he could deal with a tick mark. It was almost unheard of to go completely without one, after all. Only the woefully unlucky or the most dedicated Fatebreakers could pull that off, and Jerry was convinced most of the latter were using concealer to try to make themselves look more badass than they really were.

“We’re here.” Alyssa’s voice was soft, but it broke the silence the car had settled into. Jerry shook himself awake to find they had indeed pulled up in front of the Charlottesville train station. Jerry took a breath, cranking his mind back into gear with all the grace of a rusty lawnmower. He was just about ready to spout some faux-wise tidbit about a journey of a thousand miles starting with a single ticket purchase when Alyssa spoke up again, cutting him off.

“Connor.” Her voice was louder now, firmer. “Be safe.”

“Alyssa.” Connor replied, matching her tone. “No promises.”

“Don’t joke about this!” She snapped back. “I’m worried about you, you ass!”

Jerry nudged Danielle and stage-whispered. “I think we should give them a moment.” Danielle nodded and they both slipped out of the car as the siblings continued to stare each other down. Jerry would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little jealous of that bond. Being an only child had seemed like such a great deal for the first ten or so years of his life, only to take a sharp turn for the worst once his sorry excuse for a father went out for cigarettes and never came back. That kind of support in the tough times and knowledge that no matter how annoying they could be sometimes, they’d always have your back? Jerry envied that. Judging by the look on Danielle’s face, he wasn’t the only one. Her mom had probably thought that spending nine months pregnant again was an unacceptable delay in her schedule or didn’t offer enough return on investment.

As per their plan, Jerry paid for the tickets. He had split off his accounts from his mom’s at the first available opportunity, not keen for her to ‘accidentally’ use some of his hard-earned freelance programming money to fund her endless stream of psychic consultations. He’d been able to build up a bit of a cushion in the few years since he’d started taking commissions, even if he avoided anything associated with the big corporate clients. Small start-ups couldn’t afford to pay quite as much, but they also didn’t leave him feeling like he’d sold his soul to someone who would turn around and exchange it for an extra tenth of a percent on the weekly earnings report. Jerry liked to think his soul was worth at least half a percent, thank you very much.

Connor joined them in the little corner of the station they’d claimed after five minutes in which Danielle seemed to be trying every relaxation technique the internet could provide only to have none of them work until she saw Connor approaching and all the tension just drained out of her. Jerry suppressed a snort. That dynamic was probably going to get old fast, but right now it was hilarious. Connor would never attribute it to her liking him, thinking it was just the fact that she had a friend she could rely on now. Danielle would be far too awkward to point it out, and they’d orbit around each other until something knocked their thick skulls together too obviously to deny it any longer. Jerry just hoped he was there for that moment of realization and then far away once they started getting sappy. That was just too weird to imagine.

“Is everything alright?” Danielle asked Connor, who slumped into the seat next to her. Connor gave a weak thumbs-up.

“It’s the first time we’ll be far enough apart that she wouldn’t be able to come to my rescue.” Connor muttered. “It was one time and she’ll never let me live it down.”

“It was a lot more than one time. Just one time that’s embarrassing for you to remember.” Jerry pointed out.

Connor’s thumbs-up became an accusatory point. “And you will say nothing. I have a reputation to uphold here.”

“You do?” The innocent curiosity in Danielle’s tone was enough to provoke another genuine belly laugh from Jerry. She was really picking up on this banter thing quickly if that was intentional. If not, he thought that might be even funnier. Connor certainly couldn’t keep the smile off his face even as he tried to look betrayed.

Apparently there was still time for one more serious conversation before they got on the train, as the laughter was replaced by a much heavier silence. Jerry opened his mouth a few times, but immediately closed it again. Something about the atmosphere was telling him to wait. He could be tactless, sure, but he mostly knew when to push and when to let things play out. This felt like either Danielle or Connor or both were putting their thoughts in order and about to say something important. Probably something about how the first point on their List was nudging them toward a certain destination. Not information that was usually shared between friends, but friends didn’t usually all but kidnap an heiress and spirit her out of town.

“So,” It was Connor that worked up the nerve first. “There’s something I should probably tell you two, and I need you to not freak out.”

“Of course.” Danielle nodded seriously. Jerry just waved an arm permissively before she shot him a brief glare and he changed it to a slow nod. She was getting protective already!

“I also need you to know I’m not lying.” Connor kept his voice quiet, but firm. Jerry thought Miss Reinhart would be proud of the gravitas he managed to infuse into it, but merely raised his eyebrows at the actual content of the sentence. Connor was always good for a joke, but he didn’t make a habit of lying. Danielle had furrowed her brows, obviously thinking along similar lines. Where exactly was he going with this? It was suddenly veering dangerously close to potential secret territory.

“And you can’t tell anyone else.” That sealed it. This was a genuine, red-alert secret about to be dropped, and Jerry couldn’t possibly interrupt without looking like the universe’s biggest jerk. All he could do was grit his teeth and hope the oncoming train managed to miss him somehow.

Connor was staring intently at the floor as he spoke next, not daring to meet either of their eyes. “Yesterday, Fool’s Day… I woke up without a List.”

Whatever Jerry had been expecting Connor to say, it wasn’t anything remotely like that. He would’ve been less shocked to hear that his best friend was a Belgian spy, or was planning to drop out of high school and join the circus. The idea that Fate had left him high and dry was not an idea at all. It was unheard of. It was the kind of thing that would’ve seen him burned as a witch if he’d been born a few hundred years ago. It was so far out of left field that it came from a game being played the next state over. It was impossible.

“Are you a year younger than we are?” Trust Danielle to be the voice of reason, or at least the voice scrambling for a possible reason. But Connor just shook his head, still not daring to look up.

“I’ve seen my birth certificate.” He said simply, and that did just about clinch it. Unless Jerry’s Belgian spy theory was right and that certificate was a forgery, but he thought he’d have been able to detect a faint Flemish accent at some point in the past twelve years if that was the case.

“So… you don’t have a List at all?” Jerry asked, resigning himself to serving as the secret’s final confirmation. Damn Fate knew he wouldn’t be able to leave his best friend hanging. Connor just nodded in reply, and that’s when it happened.

It started small, a little tickle on the inside of his wrist. That tickle evolved into more of a pins and needles feeling after a few moments, like that little patch of skin had fallen asleep and was just now regaining circulation. Jerry looked down as the pins and needles became more of a burning, observing the way the mark didn’t seem to originate from any one point but rather actively pushed all light and pigment out of the tick mark area until it settled itself into his skin like a brand. It was uncomfortable, right on the edge of painful without crossing the line, but still somehow invigorating. It was like just that one tiny patch of skin had just had the best workout of its life and was now fully on board with going to the gym and making it happen again. Jerry could see how people got addicted chasing a feeling like that; it was heady, triumphant. He hadn’t even done any real work this time and hated the idea of chasing points on principle but still felt the draw. Fate was dangerous.

Jerry looked up to see Connor pale-faced and gaping, pointing disbelievingly at his arm. Danielle just crossed her arms and nodded with a satisfied expression on her face.

“You too, huh?” She gave a small smile. “Connor seems to have that effect on people.”