Afterward

"GOD DAMN!"

Metal shrapnel whizzed in the air. Olice dexterously stopped them before they could hit anything, splaying his hands out to control their flight with precise movements. He then moved them with a seemingly invisible force into neat rows on the floor.

"Fuck this, I'm not doing this anymore!" I cried in exasperation.

Olice looked at me in that way I hated, the way where I knew that he was thinking I was doing terrible and not as good as the other people whom he went to school with. (Though it wasn't really a look of disgust, it was more of disappointment. Maybe I'm just making it too dramatic.) My mentor, a man somewhere in his twenties (with graying hair too), had given me an impossible assignment: I had to tectrix chunks of metal within a sphere of other chunks of metal. Which mind you, the sphere was supposed to be made of MAGNETS. And I had to do that without letting the stupid things get attracted to or repelling each other so bad they flew out of control, so that meant knowing which ends were which and shit.

"You've got it down, basically," Olice said, frowning, "but you need to focus your mind more, you get distracted easily."

I let out a groan, but simmered down and let my hands hover over my imaginary plane, like a conductor about to conduct a band. I blew out my breath. Luck was probably the only thing that was going to help me out with this.

I focused my mind and let the power wrap over the metal. With one hand, I lifted the non-magnetized metal and formed a neat ball in the air, and with the other, I carefully picked up the magnets. This was the hard part. I divided my mind-threads (that's really the only way I could describe this part of tectrixing) and held each of the magnets individually. I tested the sides. If they stuck, then one side was an opposite. The only problem with that was that the magnets were stronger than usual magnets, and I wasn't used to magnetic force...

Then my cell phone rang.

I lost focus and the magnets I had bunched together and plunked to the floor. The other ball of metal rolled apart like a fallen bag of marbles.

Olice sighed. I sighed. Then I answered the phone.

"Hey, Ray." It was Matt's voice.

"I'm kind of in the middle of a torture session." I said grimly. "I'll call you back later."

"It's important." Matt said. His tone of voice made me paranoid. He had been acting really off lately anyway, so this was probably going to be the "big reveal" and it WOULD be important. Olice would be pissed (silently; he wasn't much of a big explosion type person) if I called this out, but it had to be done. I'd pay for it later.

"Olice, could we this tomorrow?" I said and gave him a look. Olice gave me a hard look in return. He wasn't happy about it and I was almost certain that he'd make me hang up, (or perhaps just make my phone short out in my ear) and I'd have to continue doing this. But somehow we made the connection that this was super important.

Olice grudgingly left and I went to my room (we had been practicing in the living room), and I flopped on the bed. "What's up, Matt?" I asked.

"It's about Char."

My blood ran cold. "What the fuck about him?" I said sharply.

"He's been living at my house for a while."

"Whoa, whoa, WHOA!" I exploded. "Did you forget about EVERYTHING he did??? Um, Matt, reality check, he's a freakin-what do you call it... SEX OFFENDER. Molester. Fuckin', I don't know how to label him... PLAYER? Maybe, do you get what I mean???"

Matt didn't answer.

"And ON TOP OF THAT, he was a druggie-"

"He's on heroin right now."

"Fuck, STILL a druggie," I was quivering. "And don't you hate his guts? Get him the hell out of your house!"

Matt didn't answer for a while. Then he said, "Look, I know. I do hate his guts. I hate every fiber of his being. But you know what? I'm trying to forgive him now. I don't know what I'm going to do now, but I'm just gonna let life run it's course. But you know, if something happens, I want you to be there, okay?"

"Okay." I said, tightening my fist around the phone.

"I don't think hating him is going to help him." Matt mused.

I thought for a bit, I thought about Char. That dark haired, pasty white-ass boy with the burned hands and the droopy eyes. Then I thought of him on heroin. I thought of my parents. I think they only did heroin once, in front of me at least, and it was the weirdest freakin' experience of my life.

"Look, if anything happens, you call me. No matter what time." I said, and I knew that there was gonna be a whole bunch of bullshit gonna happen next.