Denouement

FOUR

Grant's daily rapping on her bedroom door, signaled the start of another repetitive day. She was half way through brushing her teeth when her phone buzzed. She quickly spit in the sink, dashed back to her room and grabbed her phone from her nightstand. There was a text from Rachel, hey can you come in early today?

Almost instantly the wheels starting turning in Aurelia's head, what could Rachel want that couldn't wait till second period? Did she know something, did something happen and if so was she okay? So, shoving past her fears she typed back sure where should I meet you? Rachel replied within a minute, by the courtyard. Aurelia sent a text back confirming and finished getting ready hastily, throwing on a sweater and jeans, grabbing a light jacket. She bid goodbye to Grant before he could ask questions that she didn't have answers to.

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Rachel was seated on a bench in the courtyard, anxiously wringing her hands in her lap. Aurelia approached her cautiously, worry written clear as day on her face.

"hey what's up?" Aurelia asked.

"My brother is getting relocated from Luminae Labs to a military base in the middle East." Rachel blurted out. Aurèlia was confused, her curiosity ebbing.

Brows furrowed, she asked, "what do you mean?" She hoped to coax more out of Rachel.

Some higher power answered her plea. "My brother disobeyed some moral code the physicists abide by. I don't know the details but instead of firing him, they're sending him to continue his research in the desert. They said that he's 'too crucial' to be let go. I don't what work they're doing over there...but it must be life changing." She said, and deflated a little.

Aurelia understood now. But what could she do, except console her friend. Rachel and her older brother Ethan were very close. They were only a year apart but had endured so much together. When they were young their parents went through a very messy divorce. There were accusations of abuse and Aurelia knew that had scarred Rachel. How far though, was indiscernible.

Aurelia, never one to openly show affection, wrapped her arms around Rachel. Rachel was surprised, but accepted the gesture. She whispered a humble thank you to Aurelia.

But then Rachel asked Aurèlia question that she hadn't anticipated.

"Do you think you could talk to your Uncle..." she began.

Aurelia cut her off. "Rachel, you know I can't do that. My uncle always keeps me in the dark and-"

This time Rachel cut Aurèlia off. "But he's the head of the Department! He has a lot of sway and you know that."

Aurèlia stared at her friend. There were certain things Aurèlia knew she shouldn't unravel and this was one of them. Rachel leveled her gaze to meet Aurèlia's steely one. Rachel wouldn't beg or plead, she was above that. But her eyes were desperate, like a someone with nothing left to lose.

There was one common thread between Shade and Aurèlia and it was this: they both cared too deeply for those close to them, and couldn't bare the thought of hurting them.

Rachel still held Aurèlia's gaze, Aurelia couldn't risk herself to even Rachel. So shoving past her worry, she glared at Rachel. "I can't Rachel, and that's the end of it." Rachel blinked, dazed a moment. Aurelia had never outright refused her of anything. Heart beating quickly, Aurelia left Rachel on the bench in the courtyard alone.

Aurelia rounded the corner, strode down the corridor quickly and went into the bathroom. She took a stall and sat on toilet lid defeated. Rachel and Aurelia had been there for each other through hard times. It had created a strong bond between the two. Whether is was a bad grade on a test, boy or girl trouble Rachel had been there to lend an ear and offer advice. It was tearing Aurelia up inside. She coarse by nature, but in brief moments she was just as human as everyone else.

After wallowing in her own self pity for ten minutes, the warning bell for first period rang and she started to pick up her belongings. She left the bathroom and her emotions behind.

She took all of three steps before someone bolted into her, sending her to the ground. Aurelia fell forearms first to the ground. Her anger boiled to the surface quickly replacing the sadness that had resided in the bathroom. The person who had crashed into her war Soren. Of course.

"What the hell Soren!" She shouted at him, eyes blazing.

Soren looked sheepishly at Aurelia, as he began to pick up her things that had fallen. "Sorry, I was coming from the physics room because I needed help on the problems from yesterday. But then I lost track of time and..." he realized he was rambling and stopped before Aurelia could point it out.

Aurelia closed her eyes as she let out an exasperated sigh. "It's..." she started. Soren braced himself for a verbal onslaught of insults on how clumsy and boneheaded he was but it didn't leave her lips. "Fine. And if you needed help, you could have asked me."

"Really?" he asked in disbelief. He handed her her books, and she nodded in thanks. "You aren't usually this open towards anyone else but your friends."

"That may be true but I've been looking to make strides to a new path." she said bluntly.

"Well, if that's the case, then how is your physics experiment going?" he asked, catching her off guard. She hadn't anticipated that he remembered or for that matter, even cared about her little 'project'.

They began walking to Aurelia's first period, advanced english, which conveniently Soren also had. "Shitty," was her quick reply.

Though Soren wasn't very good at solving for vectors, he knew a decent amount about theoretical physics. It had always held his interest over anything else. It was the uncertainty that drew him in; anything was possible. If you had the cleverness and determination for it, that is. "Instead of applying the anthropic principle to the molecules you're using why not try quantum entanglement?" he suggested.

Immediately Aurelia was confused, it hadn't occurred to her to even attempt quantum entanglement. "Could you explain how that works again?" she asked.

He nodded as they reached their classroom, and today Aurelia chose to sit next to him to carry on their conversation. "Do you have an extra paper I could draw on for visuals?" he asked her. She nodded and handed him a ripped out paper from her notebook.

"Okay," he began "so you know the basis of teleportation; molecules can be rearranged, scrambled, or whatever. But, whatever is created in a new spot must be destroyed to maintain equilibrium. So there's none of that cloning nonsense. The particles in something from quantum entanglement need to be an opposite imprint of each other. You can't know the superposition of the particles without compromising the entire teleportation process," he paused briefly, and looked at Aurelia to see if she was following. She looked utterly lost. "Hmm, alright. Think of it this way; you need to project the negative imprint of the particles you're teleporting to where they're going to go."

He sketched out a rough draft of what he had just explained. Granted, it wasn't a very good sketch but it somehow clicked in Aurelia's head. But it hadn't crossed her mind that Soren was talking about particles, not living states of matter.

"Does that help?" he asked.

"Yeah," she nodded "it does a lot. Thanks." she said and genuinely meant it.

Soren smiled, happy to help Aurelia. He hoped this would be the beginning of a new page for the two of them. They had always been in at least one class together since elementary school. He was generally friendly to her, but she never reciprocated. Then again, it was right around the time she had began to lose sleep and something else entirely was beginning to awaken in her. Soren for all his well meaning couldn't seem to make a dent in their relationship in the six years they had known each other.

The things he had noted over the years were this; she was unbelievably stubborn, smart as a whip, and kept people, even those closest to her, at an arm's length.

So why she was being so open to him, after all this time, was utterly puzzling. And in a way, she was a puzzle. Constantly rearranging herself to fit in spaces he wasn't sure she necessarily belonged. But, it seemed that she always missing a vital piece that would complete her.