“If you can make money appear with magic and use that, that’ll have to do,” Henriette said seriously. “If they use cards or their phones to pay, use that.” Phones?
“Phones?” Nix asked just before I could.
“Yes, the others reported back that humans use something called phones much like our slates, though theirs can’t change forms without magic,” Trise replied.
“Cool,” both Nix and I replied simultaneously, then shared a knowing look. We had been close since we were three, being neighbors until we moved out as adults, our parents still living next to each other.
“Well, boys. The others are getting back to the forest soon, we’ll tell them you’re staying. In the meantime, try to find out how to pay for stuff and get settled in,” Trise said, ending the call.
“I can’t believe we’re staying!” I laughed, feeling so damn happy and relieved.
“I know!” Nix beamed next to me, then he turned serious. “Can I ask you something?” The shyness in his tone had me turning serious too.
“Sure, everything okay?”
He nodded, “Yeah, it’s just… I feel at home here, you know, and we’ve only been here a few hours. Is that weird?”
He felt like me. The relief of knowing I wasn’t alone, that I wasn’t feeling something abnormal hit me. “I,” I swallowed, trying to find the right words. “I feel the same way.” His eyes lit up as I continued, now unable to stop voicing my feelings. “I honestly felt this way before we came here. Something inside of me told me to leave, to explore. Being here feels… right. Even just the thought of leaving has me gasping for air, it feels wrong to leave.”
“Exactly!” Nix jumped up from his bed and began pacing the floor. “I feel like I can finally breathe! Like I am where I’m supposed to be. For the first time in my life, I feel…home.”
“Home,” I agreed.
Nix and I left our room in search of some clothing stores, not wanting to use up all our magic on glamour. Our clothes weren’t too out there, but they were plain and boring compared to how people here were dressed. We also figured stores would be the perfect place to figure out how to use money.
“Do you think they use their phones?” Nix asked as we walked down into town where the stores lay. We had a map on our slates using our magic to combine their technology with ours, making it possible to access their maps and internet.
“You already figured out how to pay for stuff online, maybe we’ll just stick with that,” I said, ignoring the small detail of how we wouldn’t be able to pay for food online, unless food deliveries would be our only sustenance.
“Let’s just try,” Nix rolled his eyes. Soon after, a store appeared to our left, featuring male clothing. We entered and a woman with blonde hair glided over to us, effortlessly showing us everything we needed. When it came to paying, Nix used his slate and the woman didn’t even question it, likely just pleased to be paid for her service.
A few feet away from the store, Nix bumped his shoulder against mine, “See! It went perfectly!” I smiled at him, glad that he was pushing me to do things I felt awkward about doing. It always worked out somehow in the end every time. “Now, let’s find a place to eat.”
Chapter Three
Remi
I was late for work, which lately wasn’t new. I had, like many other times before, lost track of time in the library the night before, writing yet another brilliant idea down on what I could do with my life once college was over. It caused me to sleep through my alarm,again.
I’d had a few brilliant ideas, if I had to say so myself. Unlucky for me, those ideas always came to me at night, stealing away those late-night hours from me without me even noticing. Which was why I was late, yet again. My parents, and girlfriend, Hayley, weren’t as ecstatic about my ideas as I was. To be honest, they were getting increasingly more annoyed with me and fed up with my ideas. They were, according to them, “a waste of time”.
So, I often sat in the library jotting down idea after idea, although, unlike in the past, now I kept them hidden from others, not wanting my happiness to be tainted by their hateful words. I understood not all of us shared the same hobbies, but at least I showed interest in my mother’s sewing and gardening, my father’s cooking, and Hayley’s makeup and crystal obsession.Why would I need to know how to figure out your undertone? So, I could find the perfect foundation that matched my skin? I tried using makeup when I was riddled with acne as a young teen, but the feel of it on my skin was the worst, so I just accepted being the acne kid. Now my skin was normal and no makeup would touch it, not unless I had to dress up or wanted my eyes to really pop with some eyeliner.
Hayley had shown interest in my ideas at first, back when we were just friends. I could show her everything and she would match my enthusiasm and support me as I researched if they would work out. A week into dating her, I’d gotten the amazing idea for a machine that could make waffles and ice cream, so on one side you had the hot waffles and on the other side was the cold ice-cream. She had been so excited for me to figure out if such an invention was possible in real life and not just in theory. Three weeks later she was over it, and every idea I had ever since was turned down as being a waste of my time. I stopped sharing my ideas, lying about studying in the library instead of telling her the truth.
Hayley and I had been together a year now, and other than the lack of support for my ideas, she was the perfect girlfriend for me. I needed my space and wasn’t huge on touching. She seemed to respect that and gave me plenty of space to just be me. We’d been friends since we were kids, attending the same high school, until one day when our friendship changed into more. I hadn’t told anyone other than Hayley and my parents of my ideas, too afraid someone would steal them and make a fortune before I could. So having zero support hurt more than I cared to admit. And I hated having secrets from Hayley, but her thinking I was studying was sort of true, in a way.
“Get moving or you’ll be fired!” Hayley hissed, kicking me out of bed.
“Ow!” I exclaimed indignantly from the floor. “I was just about to get up!” I wasn’t.
“Liar,” she replied, no remorse in her tone about kicking me, as she simply went back to her beauty sleep.
She had an apartment close to college and I stayed here more than in my own dorm room. I had a rather interesting roommate, who I wanted to avoid as much as possible. Luckily, Hayley had given me a key, so her place was somewhat mine as well.
I got up from the floor and took a quick shower before sprinting to work. I worked at a coffee shop from seven a.m. to ten a.m. Monday to Friday. My boss Earl usually didn’t give me too much of a hard time over my tardiness, because he, too, had once been a college student with too much to deal with daily. But even though he was understanding, I didn’t want to take advantage of his kindness.
The short distance from Hayley’s apartment to the coffeeshop meant I only had to walk ten minutes before arriving at work. Campus was just another ten minutes from there so everything was close enough that I didn’t have to drive around daily and waste money on gas.
