In a futuristic society where people are differentiated and valued based on the purity of their genes, can a person define for themselves who they really are? Or does The Gene Test provide the answer for them?
Depression... Addiction... Criminality...
I mean, the last time I was here, I ran out bawling like a malfunctioning water fountain. Not my finest hour.
You also don't exactly expect to be looking straight at someone who said not too long ago that they never want to see your face ever again, especially when you yourself would rather be at a one-man circus than in front of him, but said person was the one who basically kidnapped you on the way to lunch.
And I have to say it's... awkward. Like really awkward. Family reunion level awkward, and that's saying something for me, given that just on my mom's side of the family there are two bipolars and one coded with insanity, my grandma had my mom at sixteen out of wedlock so my Aunt Lynn and her have different fathers, and the man my cougar Gran Selena is currently with is not only neither of the fathers of her children but only a few years older than her first daughter.
Yup, that's how awkward it is. He's staring at me, I'm staring at him, and neither of us are saying anything. We're so silent that I can hear the swishing of water as one of the swimmers practices in the pool outside.
I clear my throat uncomfortably. "Did you bring me here to have a staring contest? You know I always win those anyway."
"I beat you that one time..."
"That's because I sneezed."
"It's still counted."
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"Whatever helps you sleep at night." I find myself smiling, but then remembering the current relationship between us, it quickly fades. So does his, albeit a little later.
"I brought you here to ask you something." He suddenly sounds so serious, and it makes me nervous. I raise my eyebrows in question. "Why have you started hanging around Sterling Crawford so much? You two suddenly became inseparable in school and both of you eat lunch together in the cafeteria every day... Then recently I haven't seen him around but he's been replaced by some other guy who doesn't even look like he's a student here. Who is he anyway?"
"He's Sterling's friend. He's just looking out for me while Sterling's away. It's... complicated." I sigh. "I know you don't like complicated things, so I'll spare you the confusion."
He looks at me for a while without saying anything, then suddenly breaks out in a slight smile. "Still always thinking of others, aren't you, Julie?"
Julie? My hazel eyes snap to his sparkling blue ones. I don't think I've ever been this happy to hear that aggravatingly affectionate childhood nickname.
"Huh?"
"Look, I know I've been an asshole since you've been back. I was angry with you for leaving and being gone, and to some extent, I still am. But... I can't change what's already happened, and all I know right now, is that I miss you, Julie." I suck in a breath and blink a few times in a daze. I know he'd said this to me that night when he was drunk, but I didn't expect the words to ever leave his mouth when he was sober.
