12. Half-Baked Potato

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"Do you remember when I asked you what superpower you would chose if you had the option?" I put the brim of my coffee cup up to my lips, feeling the warmth and the soft recycled cardboard as I spoke. 

"Yeah." Ade replied.

I had to take two strides to every one of his just to keep up. It was a minor problem, really, one that I realized how bothered I was by it ever since we began to walk. Making our way down Brooklyn was always an adventure, but not when Ade was rushing to get to class and I was tagging along to turn in my NYU application. 

"Well, I change my mind about my answer." I said. "Flying would be a fun superpower, but I'd rather have the ability to time travel. Change the past if I don't like the events that led up to whatever future I experienced. Prevent accidents. Stop whatever bad thing from happening before it was going to happen. Remove unnecessary stress or...people...it's all wishful thinking, I know, but I like thinking about it. Imagine how different your life could've been if you could time trav- are you okay, Ade? You've barely said two words to me all morning."

After a few awkward days, Ade finally replied to my messages this morning. It wasn't because he was avoiding me, like I initially assumed, but because he was so coped up with the midterm coming up that he had went on a 3 day study binge and ate nothing but those cups of Instant Ramen noodles. Still, I was a bit miffed that he couldn't find the time to send me one measly text, but instead, let me suffer in silence. Here I was, thinking our friendship was totally over because of one stupid kiss but Ade was just too enamored by the diet of newborn kittens to find time for me. 

I hadn't even told him what happened or that we were now associates to intercontinentally famous criminals (I did more research. The history of the Crowns wasn't just in the US, their criminal activities also exceeded past the borders. They had several adventures with law enforcement in Germany two months ago, where Wolfe Sterling broke out a friend of his from a high-security prison before sending someone to kill him in front of the embassy to send a message to some dirty politician the Crowns had beef with.) Wolfe Sterling wasn't just wanted in New York, he had targets on his back all the way to Europe. The way I saw it, it was just even more reason to despise the man and our unfortunate association.

Ade seemed conflicted with his thoughts and I had problems of my own, so we kept mostly silent during the walk to the university. After asking what was wrong several times and getting a mumbled response, I gave up. Ade would talk when he wanted to. He was always funny like that.

"Where do I turn this in?" I asked, pulling out the application. For the hundredth time, I checked over to make sure I hadn't made any mistakes. My future depended on that paper.

"To the administration office near Lincoln Park." Ade said. "It's a big grey building, I'll point it out when we get there."

"Okay." I gripped the straps of my bookbag, hurrying to keep up with his long strides. The sidewalks and crosswalks were filled with people. Some were walking in a leisurely pace, others were dodging passersby and rushing to get where they needed to. Shops and local businesses lined either side of the streets, with cold grey buildings and sleek skyscrapers behind them. 

My legs were no match for Ade's and I had to almost jog to stay besides him. "Hey, you wanna do something tonight?"

"I can't." Ade shrugged. "Study session with a few friends. We're going over the procedure on how to identify broken bones in a domesticated pet. Fun stuff."

I couldn't take it anymore. Ade was my best friend, perhaps my only other friend besides Clancy. I wasn't going to lose him over something so stupid. Grabbing the sleeve of his sweater, I dragged him to the edge of the sidewalk and out the paths of anyone walking by. "I'm sorry-" I started off huffily. "-but am I missing something here? Did I do something wrong? I understand you're busy with college and all, but please don't use that as an excuse to completely shut me out of your life. Dude, I've known you, for what, six years now? What's up, man? Talk to me-"

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