GRACE:
“What happened? You reek!”
Jackie came back to my dorm covered in filth.
“You’re not going to believe it. I’m so stupid.” She moved to sit on the couch, but I redirected her to the bathroom. Her wrists were scratched, her arms shaking.
“Take a shower. Tell me all about it after.” I pulled the faucet toward the perfect temperature setting. “Towels are in the bottom cabinet. Soap, shampoo, Life Rite face cream, anything you need. Use whatever. I’ll grab new clothes for you to change into.”
“Thanks, Grace. You’re a life saver.”
Jackie was shaken up, so I gave her privacy.
What the heck happened to her? My mind raced with wild theories as I pulled fresh clothes from my closet.
“She’s a magnet for chaos…” I contemplated all we’d been through in such a short amount of time.
I knocked and cracked the bathroom door to offer the new outfit. Jackie clearly hadn’t heard me over the shower because she was having a conversation with herself.
I snuck closer to eavesdrop over the pounding droplets against the porcelain shower.
“Beatrice, if you’re listening… Please help. The apocalypse is playing out as you predicted, but how do we fix it? I’m not a slipstream master. Guide me, B.”
I gasped. Was Jackie having an imaginary conversation with my dead mother?
Sensing my presence, Jackie peeped out behind the shower curtain.
“Fresh clothes on the counter.” I dropped the clean clothes, picked up the dirty ones, and left.
On my way to the hamper, Jackie’s last outfit made my throat burn. A sticky brown liquid caked the garments. The smell of human waste made me nauseous.
“Those were designer jeans.” I threw them in the trash instead of the laundry and washed my hands twice.
“Maybe Jackie is a filthy Duster, like Feraz said.” My cheeks blushed for using the word. Good girls like me to don’t like that.
Looking around, my apartment was spotless. The cleanliness of Jackie’s work stood in stark contrast to the pathetic way she showed up on my doorstep like a lost dog. What would become of her if I kicked her out on the street?
I brewed black coffee. Despite my apprehensions about Jackie, I made her a snack plate. Lost puppies deserve love, too.
“That was a top ten shower, for sure.” Jackie came out looking fresh and smelling like my favorite shampoo.
She caressed her cheek. “That Life Rite cream is incredible. I always wondered what it felt like.”
“You must be starving after… whatever happened.” We sat at the kitchen table.
Jackie stuffed her face. “This is amazing. Thanks, Grace. I needed this.”
“Are you really going to sit her and act like nothing happened? The apartment looks amazing, but you—”
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“Yeah, I know. After I finished cleaning, I went to the Twin Flames landfill…”
“The dump? Why would you go there?”
Jackie shrugged. “To throw away the trash.”
“There’s a bin in the alley.”
“Ah, okay. Should have asked. Anyway, I went to the dump, lost my footing, and fell in! Can you believe it?”
The strain in Jackie’s voice sounded disingenuous. She was lying.
“Wow, that’s crazy…. Isn’t the dump far? You couldn’t find anywhere else to ditch the garbage?”
“Well, sure. I should have taken it to campus, but… I’m a purist.”
“How did you get there?”
Jackie paused, thinking.
“I’m very resourceful and…” She stopped mid-sentence and looked into my living room with glazed eyes.
“What? Jackie, are you okay? What is it?”
Jackie stiffened like a statue and whispered, “Don’t move, Grace.”
“Why?” I looked around, baffled by Jackie’s strange behavior.
“Do you see the little red light over there?” She nodded toward a shelf in my living room.
“What? No.”
“Look, by the books on the left.”
Following Jackie’s description, I noticed a small red light peeking out between my favorite romance novels. “What is that?”
I walked to the shelf, moved the books, and found a tiny camera perched in the shadows.
“Grace, wait!”
Despite Jackie’s warning, I ripped the camera away, cutting off its power. I examined it. “
This is a covert surveillance camera. Where did it come from?”
Jackie stammered, “I… Well… You know… I don’t know.”
“I knew it. I knew they were watching me.” My heart jumped in my throat as I pieced together the puzzle.
“Who’s watching you?” Jackie asked.
I put my finger to my mouth to shush her and silently searched my apartment for any other recording devices.
Jackie signed to me that she was confused.
I used body language to tell her to chill and wait for answers. We couldn’t speak freely if they were listening.
I undid Jackie’s tidy-work and scoured the place, looking under tables, in nooks and crannies.
The rest of the apartment came out clean.
“Okay, we’re safe.”
“What was that all about?” Jackie asked. “Who placed the camera?”
“They… They don’t want me to find out about the Grid.”
Jackie crinkled her nose, confused. “Who doesn’t want you to learn about the Grid?”
She had no clue the complexity of my life and only saw the tip of the iceberg.
“They don’t want me to run the Institute. They don’t want us to succeed.”
Jackie shrugged her shoulders. “Who?”
“Feraz told me I was being paranoid, but my intuition is strong… about some things. It’s hard to explain.”
“I don’t understand,” Jackie admitted.
“The Life Rite Institute is very powerful, but there are other players to worry about. I can’t say more.”
Jackie’s shoulders deflated.
“Listen, you can stay in my apartment for spring break, but I have to maintain boundaries. Do you understand?”
“Sort of…”
“Forget all this. It doesn’t matter, anyway.”
“Having a hidden camera in your dorm doesn’t matter? Who’s spying on you?”
I took a sip of my black coffee. Time to change the subject. Jackie already knew too much.
“They’re not listening anymore, okay? Let’s lie low. I’m leaving tomorrow, gone for a week. You can stay here until I get back, but after that… Spring break should give you enough time to find another place to stay, right? Somewhere nearby so we can hang, of course. This isn’t goodbye…”
Jackie sighed. “Grace, your kindness knows no bounds. Thank you for your generosity.”
“Happy to help.”
Jackie leaned in. “You’ve done so much for me. Now let me help you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t have to tell me about the Grid, the Institute, or whoever put that camera in your dorm. You don’t have to tell me anything else about Feraz or the serum, but let me protect you from it all. Like a body guard bestie.”
Her proposal made me chuckle. “I don’t need a bodyguard. Father got me one in middle school after Jacob Chips stood me up at the dance. It was mortifying.”
“Cringe.”
“Major cringe. Even if I got a bodyguard, I’d go with some hot, buff guy. Best of the best.”
“No, you don’t want a buff bodyguard at your proposal. Mortifying, right?”
“Yeah. Exactly.”
“But you can have some back up. Someone inconspicuous. A friend there to celebrate your engagement. I take killer photos, and I’m stronger than I look.”
Jackie flexed her biceps, and I squeezed them.
“Impressive.”
“So what do you say, Grace?”
“Huh?”
“Will you take me with you to Bennu Island?” Jackie raised her eyebrows like a used car salesman.
“Oh, well… Um….”
My stomach flipped. I hated letting friends down, but Jackie raised major red flags.
“Feraz wouldn’t like it.”
“But having an entourage boosts confidence.” She elbowed me and nodded unconvincingly.
“This spring break trip will be life changing. Let me support you.”
I bit my lip.
Should I bring Jackie? Would my filthy friend help me navigate the seismic shifts, or would she ruin everything?