Six Years Ago

  “How come your dad’s so mean to you?” As she asked that, ten-year-old Cassidy Evans was walking along the top of a narrow brick wall that surrounded one of several gardens on Anthony Tate’s family’s property. It was small enough that she had to place one foot directly in front of the other with each step, walking with her arms out to either side for balance. Still, the girl wasn’t moving slowly. Slow was never an option for her. It was full speed ahead at all times. Even now, as she wobbled to one side and barely caught herself before all-but sprinting onward once more.

  Paige Banners, walking alongside the wall on the outside, glanced up that way as Cassie briefly wobbled, ready to reach up and steady her. But the other girl caught herself and kept going, so she simply answered, “He has very high hopes for what he and I can accomplish together. We are going to make the world a better, safer place.” She paused then, as they reached the corner of the wall. “It is a noble goal, but also a very stressful one, with many… unforeseen problems that must be addressed. My father simply wants me to be the very best version of myself.”

  Turning from her spot on top of the wall, Cassidy hopped down to land easily in front of her. “But you are. The person you are is the best version, cuz it’s you. You’re Paige, and I’m Cassidy, and we’re the best Paige and Cassidy. Just like Anthony’s the best Anthony.” Her eyes narrowed as she squinted at the house in the distance. “Even if he is taking forever to get those Hot Pockets.”

  “There’s more than one Paige, Cassidy, or Anthony out there though,” Paige politely noted, a small smile playing at her lips as she watched the other girl curiously. “And some of them are probably smarter or better than we are right now. There could be a Doctor Paige who saves lives in a hospital, or a Professor Cassidy who invents a whole new sustainable energy source.”

  Cassidy made a show of considering that, head tilting one way, then the other. “Well, doctors and scientists are pretty cool. But what about Paige, Cassidy, and Anthony? I bet there’s not a single other group like that out in the world that’s better than we are. We can be the best of that.”

  Paige went still for a moment before straightening. “Let me see.” Her gaze became unfocused, as she stared off at nothing for a few seconds. Then she smiled. “Nope, I checked the whole internet, and no one else even comes close. If you take us together, we’re the best Paige, Cassidy, and Anthony ever.”

  “I knew it!” Cassidy declared excitedly, a bright, eager grin blossoming as she bounced up and down. “See, we’ll be the best Paige, Cassidy, and Anthony there ever was. Then your dad won’t be able to get mad at you anymore, cuz you’ll be the best, see? Anthony and me can help you.”

  “I don’t think he--” Paige started before catching herself. She watched Cassidy’s eager smile for a second, then bowed her head. “I mean, you are. You do. You already help me be the best me I can be. Every time I get to spend time with you and Anthony like this, I feel more… real. I feel more like me. A real version of me. I feel like a real person. Did I say real too many times?”

  With a giggle, Cassidy shrugged. “Real, real, really real real real. There, now I said it so many times it’s like a fake word. Really real real real. Reeeaaaaaal.” She stretched it out that time and crossed her eyes before letting her head tilt to the side, tongue lolling out of her mouth by the end. Then she peeked, squinting at the other girl. “Now real doesn’t seem real, does it? Is that a thing? Can you say a word so much it’s just sounds and doesn’t, um, mean anything anymore?”

  “Yes, it’s called semantic satiation,” Paige informed her. “That’s when you hear a word so often in such a short time, it starts sounding like nonsense. Real. Real. It’s just a strange sound now.”

  “It really is!” After getting that much out, Cassidy giggled. “Realuh. Ruh ruh realuh. And see, you know all sorts of stuff, that’s another reason you’re the best Paige. I bet you know more things than your dad does. You could beat the pants off him in a knowing stuff contest. Like Jeopardy!”

  Paige couldn’t help but giggle at that. “But he taught me a lot of the things I know. And I know other things because I can use the internet to learn them. But I can only do that because he gave me the ability. So, if it wasn’t for my dad, I couldn’t do anything. I wouldn’t be anything.”

  Cassidy considered that before shrugging. “Well, if my parents didn’t make me, I wouldn’t be anything either. Your dad made you, but that doesn’t mean he gets to be a jerk to you all the time. He could say nice things too. He could take you out for ice cream when you do good on your tests! That’s what my dad does. When I have to take a test and do my best, he lets me get a jumbo sundae, even though I can’t finish all of it without getting a tummy ache. He eats the rest when I’m done. Your dad should let you get a jumbo sundae, and then when you’re full, he can have the rest. Maybe he wouldn’t be so grumpy then, cuz he’d get to have some ice cream!”

  “Cassie, you--” Paige started, before going silent. There were so many thoughts going through her processor right then, she couldn’t pick one to focus on. In the end, she settled on the only one that actually mattered, when all else was said and done. “I’m really glad you’re my friend.”

  “That’s me, your friend!” Cassidy chirped, holding a hand out as though indicating invisible words written across the sky. “When I’m the most famous daredevil parkour ninja skydiving skater in the world, they’ll say, ‘That’s Cassidemon, she’s best friends with Anthony and Paige.”

  “Cassidemon?” Paige couldn’t help but echo after hearing it, raising an eyebrow that way.

  The smaller girl’s head bobbed quickly. “Every good daredevil’s gotta have a cool name. Cassidy, Cassidemon. Or maybe Cassidevil? Hmm, nah, I gotta come up with something better.”

  “You will,” Paige assured her. “And when you do, maybe we can all get ice cream to celebrate.”

  “Ooh.” Looking intrigued by that possibility, Cassidy announced, “Okay, then I’ve definitely gotta come up with the best name ever, something that’s actually worthy of being CAP ice cream.”

  “What--” Paige stopped herself abruptly, realizing, “Oh, Cassidy, Anthony, Paige ice cream?”

  “See, you are really smart! And your dad didn’t teach you that at all.” Grinning once more, Cassidy gave her a poke in the stomach. “You’re my friend, and people don’t get to be mean to my friends. Even their dads. If he’s mean to you again, you tell him I said he has to knock it off.”

  Paige was quiet for a few long seconds, just staring at her in silence. Then she reached out and took Cassidy’s hand, interlocking their fingers. “I want to help my dad make things better. He says if we can make this work, if he can make enough like me, then no one in the world will ever have to die again. It’s really hard to do something that important. That’s why he gets frustrated. But it’s okay, cuz I have you and Anthony to talk to.” A bright, visible smile came. “I have CAP.”

  “Ooh.” Cassidy squeezed her hand while declaring, “We should get hats. A hat that says CAP. A CAP cap!” Doubling over a bit from giggling, the girl added, “But we’re the only ones that can have CAP caps. Just you, me, and Anthony. They’re not for anybody else, or it’s not as special.”

  Paige nodded sagely. “Well, of course, if anyone else had them, we’d have to add their initial too. Then it wouldn’t be a CAP cap. It would be… CAPS, if we found someone with an S name.”

  “Or CAPG, with a G name, like Greg,” Cassidy put in. “Or CAPFTUNREVKA, if we made friends with a baseball starting lineup and their names were Frank, Tom, Uther, Norbert, Roger, Eric, Victor, Kennedy, and Alvin. We can’t really do that though, cuz I don’t think it’d fit on the hat.”

  It was Paige’s turn to giggle. “Okay, if we make friends with any baseball teams, or any other groups, they don’t get to be on the hat. That’s just for the three of us, because we’re special.”

  “That’s right!” Cassidy gave a firm nod. “We’re super-special, you, me, and Anthony. And even if you and your dad haven’t changed the world by the time we’re grown up, Anthony and me can help. Then, if your dad’s still a grumpy old jerk, we can all tell him to knock it off together, right?”

  The last thing Paige wanted was for Cassidy to say anything at all to her dad, let alone a thing that would make him even angrier. He was… sensitive and stressed, that was all. When they made his dream a reality, things would be better. Until then, it was best just to stay out of his way, and not make him feel even worse. She could do that much, even if she wasn’t quite as good as he wanted her to be, yet. She was getting better every day, especially the days that she spent time with Cassidy and Anthony. It was like she’d said, just interacting with the two made her feel more human.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Shaking off those thoughts for now, she focused on the girl in front of her, meeting her eager gaze with a nod. “Don’t worry, at the rate you’re helping me be better, we’ll be finished with my father’s project in no time. Then we can work on making you the world’s best and most famous daredevil parkour ninja skydiving skater. And Anthony-- what does he want to be this week?”

  “A chef,” Cassidy replied, before squinting toward the house once more. “But I dunno how he thinks he’s gonna be a chef when it takes seven billion hours for him to get some Hot Pockets!”

  Snickering, because she knew the other girl was playing up her annoyance for effect (that was a thing she’d had to learn from interacting with these two), Paige assured her, “He’ll be back soon. His mom wanted to have the seamstress measure him for a new suit jacket before their trip.”

  “Holy crap, dude, you’ve got really good hearing!” Cassie exclaimed, gazing at her with wide eyes. “Can you hear my heart beating right now? Can you hear that bird’s heart beating over there?”

  “I-- well, yes, I can hear your heartbeat if I listen carefully,” Paige replied easily. “No, I can’t hear the bird’s. And I know what Anthony and his mom are doing because I checked the security camera feed when you said you thought he was taking a long time. He’ll be done soon, though.”

  “Oh, okay.” After saying that, Cassidy regarded her briefly, then promptly asked, “But you can hear my heartbeat sometimes? Even without a stethoscope? You’re totally like a Star-Touched!”

  “I can only hear your heartbeat when it’s pretty quiet,” Paige informed her. A small smile tugged at her face as she teasingly added, “It doesn’t happen very often with you. Hardly ever, really.”

  “Ah-- hey.” Cassidy huffed a bit at that before insisting, “Being quiet is boring. I’m not boring.”

  That was something that Paige could immediately agree with. “You’re right, Cassie. I don’t think you could ever be boring.” Her gaze shifted down, only then realizing that they were still holding hands. Slowly, she lifted them and looked at their interlocked fingers. A few seconds passed like that, as they stared at their hands. Then Paige spoke softly. “Hey, I can hear your heart now.”

  “Oh.” Cassidy lifted her chin. “Maybe I can be quiet a little bit without being boring. With you. That can be our thing. I’ll try to be quiet sometimes so you can hear my heartbeat, okay?”

  There was a lot Paige wanted to say to that. But in the end, she just nodded. “Okay. But Cassie, don’t try to be quiet too often. Only let me hear your heart like that when it’s a special time.”

  ***********

  “Cassie.” That single, softly whispered word cut through what had been near-silence save for the sound of my breathing as I stood with my fingers tightly clutching the front of Paige’s red turtleneck, just above what was left of her armored vest after all the damage it had taken.

  It took me another moment to even process my own name. When I finally did, my eyes opened, and I found myself staring at the girl herself, from only inches away. We were still so close to each other, after spending those past few seconds… after we had just been… after I finally…

  “I can hear your heartbeat.” That was another barely audible whisper from Paige. We were so close to one another that, as she whispered, I could actually feel the air from it against my face.

  My mind shifted back to those memories, the memories I had only recently recovered after having lost them for so long. Memories that were taken from me in an effort to help me. “Well,” I managed in a voice that squeaked a little, making me blush, “this… is a special time… um, isn’t it?” Oh boy, even I could hear the uncertainty and nervousness in my own weak voice right then.

  Paige didn’t say anything at first. Her mouth opened, but nothing came out. Instead, she lifted her hand and touched the side of my face gently. That simple touch sent a jolt through me. Now she could really hear my heart. We both glanced down in that direction, then met one another’s gazes once more, as she replied, “There’s never been a more special time in my whole life.”

  The words sent a thrill through me, making me shiver. “Oh. I-- Paige, I… I… you’re a-- I’m just--” I had no idea what I was trying to say. It didn’t really matter, honestly. I could have been an expert in every language that had ever existed on the face of the planet, and there would still be only one true way to express what I was feeling in that moment. And it wasn’t with any words.

  Instead, I tightened my grip on Paige’s collar and gave a little tug. She came willingly, our lips meeting once more. And then… then everything bad, everything stressful, everything wrong seemed to melt away into nothing. I had never felt quite as… right as I did in that moment.

  Paige… Paige… I was kissing Paige Banners. The girl who had been an enemy for so long, thanks to my lost memories. The girl who was one of my two closest friends before that. The girl who remembered Anthony the way I did. The girl I had just come so close to losing forever, just like I had lost him. I was kissing a girl. The girl. This girl. Paige Banners. Nothing else mattered. Not the fact that the others were waiting for us, not all the things I still needed to tell everyone, not even how exhausted I was after all that. Nothing, nothing mattered except this one moment.

  Not that it only lasted a moment. I had no idea how long that first kiss had lasted before we’d parted briefly, both of us recovering from the surprise. And I had no idea how long this second one went on. I really didn’t have a clue how much time passed while Paige and I were wrapped up in one another like that. Actually, if I was being totally honest, there was a solid chance I wouldn't even have been able to remember my own name from the second our lips had met that second time. I wouldn’t have been able to say anything, really. Nor did I care to try. All I could do, all I wanted to do, was lose myself in this moment and make it last for an entire lifetime.

  Obviously, all of that shit with Casura was still horrible, and I would never, in a million years, want the people that I cared about to go through it, if I had the choice. But this? This was… wow.

  “Wow?” Hearing Paige say the word out loud brought me out of my daze a bit, and I belatedly realized I’d been the one to whisper it first, while our lips were still touching. “Is it a good wow?”

  A shiver ran through me. Paige… Paige sounded so vulnerable right then, so uncertain and even fearful. She sounded… afraid of how I was going to react, of what I would do next. When I heard that, when I recognized the vulnerability in her voice, my eyes opened once more. She was staring at me, and all I saw was how she braced herself for rejection, for being let down.

  “Paige…” I whispered her name, hearing the somewhat subtle crack in my own voice. It was enough to make me gulp, as my blush spread. “This… I… you…” I was trying to say a full sentence, connected, coherent words that would reassure her. But they didn’t come out right. I couldn’t think properly in my own head, let alone put those thoughts out into the world. All I could do was stammer like an idiot while feeling that pleasant, buzzing tingle that had risen in my stomach before expanding outward. It wasn’t nausea, or fear. Well, okay, there was a little bit of both of those things. But mostly, it was a heady sensation. It was like the feeling I had right as I jumped off a tall building and let myself sail freely through open air. I felt electric, even giddy.

  What was this? Why did I feel this way? Was this adrenaline, the rush of surviving what I had, of escaping that whole situation alive, and with my friends? Yes, yes, but it was more than that. It was so much more. More than I could even hope to process or understand right now. What I was feeling wasn’t just about surviving the impossible. It was about this girl, right here. It was about being here with her, after all that. It was about knowing I had almost lost her forever right after barely getting her back, and that if I had, I’d never have the chance to tell her, to say that…

  “You’re amazing.” The words finally came, in the proper order and everything. Sure, it was just two of them, but I’d take what I could get at that point. And they were just the start. A visible shiver ran through me, as I saw the girl give a surprised smile reflexively. I did that. I made her smile. I made Paige feel like that. The thought alone was enough to send that heady, tingling feeling through me. Or maybe that was just from looking at her like that, from this close. “Pretty.” That word came next, before they came pouring out. “You’re so pretty, and smart, and cool, and strong, and-- and I almost lost you. I almost lost you forever, you were with her, and I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again, I didn’t know if-- I couldn’t-- you were--”

  I couldn’t see her anymore. The tears that had sprung up were blinding me. As I started to blink them away, Paige gently moved her thumb there and helped brush them off my cheek. Her own voice cracked as much as mine had. “Cassie. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t-- that all that time--”

  My head shook. “No. No, no apologies, no more. I don’t need an apology. I don’t need anything but…” I faltered slightly, my eyes closing briefly before opening once more. “You. I don’t need anything but you.”

  A breathy, exhilarated, kind of giddy laugh escaped the girl in front of me. Then we were kissing for a third time. My arms wrapped around her, and I lost myself in that. I was rising above the city, rising above the world. I was floating away, drifting through empty space, and I didn’t care. I didn’t care if I ever came down again. I was with Paige. That was all that mattered.

  I had no idea how long that went on before a soft cough cut through everything. We both blinked at each other, then turned a bit. Irelyn. She was standing a little bit away, looking at us with her helmet and mask held under one arm so we could see her raised eyebrow. “Sorry, I really didn’t want to… interrupt, but they’re wondering where you are. They’re getting pretty anxious, actually.”

  “We-- um…” Oh God, now I really was blushing. It spread across my face and left me feeling warm all over. “R-right, we should-- I should-- um, right.” I snuck a peek at the girl beside me. “More later?” As soon as the words escaped me, I realized the implication and my eyes widened. “I mean-- talk later, I mean discuss later, I mean--”

  “More later,” Paige agreed, giggling softly. “Definitely.”

  Irelyn coughed again. “Yes, well, put your masks on. And uh… just… take it easy while we’re in front of all those people, okay? Don’t forget, they think Paintball is twelve.

  “So, I really don’t want to have to try to explain why my sister is making out with him.”

  Joke Tags: Oh Great? We All Survive Casura’s Evil Plan Only To Die From A Sweetness Overdose After She’s Gone