"It's probably been over five minutes," I frowned down at Tali with a heated face. Felt like eternity though. "You can stop laughing now."

   Talise merely used my body as support for her hands as she doubled over to laugh her heart out even more.

   She'd just finished listening to my narration of everything that happened at the Virtual Dance, when I escaped Zavlon on Liberation Week, Mr. Sacury's message, meeting Dorian, Rav and Camila, finding out the connection between the Virtuo glasses and the mind control device and our failed plan with wide eyes.

   For a split second, I actually believed I'd gotten to her when she stared at me with naked fear...until that transitioned to full blown laughter that hadn't stopped ever since.

   You know that kind of laughter, right? The kind whose sole purpose was to mock and hurt you to your very core? Yeah, that one.

"Not...until...y-you—hear yourself and realise what you're telling me!" She kept gripping my shoulder to steady herself from the never ending belly-laughter that showed no signs of ceasing.

   Why won't her lungs just give up already?

   I ventured over to the other three not too far from Talise and me. Giving them a helpless look, I cast another glance toward Tali and shrugged.

   I tried.

"Talise," Camila said, stepping forward. "She's not joking."

Tali didn't even acknowledge Cami as she responded, "Do you really expect me..." More howls. "...to believe you?"

"Yes. Because it's the truth," Dorian added. "Beth's not lying."

"Excuse me." She finally straightened to glare at him. "Just because you've been screwing my best friend for what, two minutes, doesn't mean you know her more than I do."

   My jaw went slack.

   Oh God.

   Daring to look toward the others, I took solace in the fact that Dorian's and Camila's eyes decided to find the ground interesting. Rav, on the other hand, had no intention of stopping his grin from becoming full-on creepy.

"What the hell, Tali?! We are not—you know what? That doesn't matter," I sighed. "They are not wrong."

"Hmhm, right, okay." She positioned her overly dramatic nod with a hand to her chin. "So you're telling me that if I were to go into Zavlon Academia, this very moment, I'll be met with doe-eyed students and 'Yunies' who will perform 'the placement' on me or worse."

"YES!"

   She remained unfazed by our unified shout.

"Let me guess, and it's up to us to put a stop to the machinations of the Yunies or so help us and humanity as a whole!" She chuckled in the superhero pose she gave. "Beth, as mad as I am at you, I'll give you free advice. Stay away from your crackhead friends. People aren't lying when they say what they say about bad company..." she trailed off upon realising the look I had on.

   I could tell my intense stare was making her uneasy but I needed her to understand how serious this was. We were running out of time and as much as I hated involving her in all of this, I couldn't think of anyone else perfect for the role.

"Tali, I'm so so sorry that I kept things from you," I said. "But you don't just know everything now, you can help. We need you. Please."

   For the first time since her breakdown, she stood up straight to look me in the eye.

"Beth, if you're making this up, you better tell me now," Talise warned, a slight quiver in her voice betraying her stern tone.

   I took her developing hysteria that unveiled after I shook my head as a good sign. Progress.

"Oh God." She gulped, grabbing at her hair roots and stepping away from us. "You're not kidding. This is real. Shit. Shit. Shit."

"Hey, hey, hey!" I moved to rest my hands on her pacing frame. "It's totally normal for you to feel this way. I know I did."

"No. It can't be." Talise whispered, taking her hair into her hands. "Something should at least seem off about Zavlon. Something that puts your high-profile school under scrutiny."

"That's the thing," Cami said. "They're too smart to let that happen."

"And that's what we're going to use to our advantage," I chipped in. "but... we can't do it without you, Talise."

"Why? What do I need to do?" She questioned.

   Okay, Tali wanted to know more. This definitely meant progress. Calm down, Beth. Curiosity didn't always mean caving. Don't victory dance yet, she could still say no.

"We need you to breakintoZavlon?" The last words from my sentence—question? I don't know—came out rushed.

   I cupped the lower parts of my face, my eyes never leaving hers, hoping anything, just anything, would give away what she was thinking.

   We jumped yet again when her dwindling hysteria was suddenly channelled into another scream of laughter. Much, much worse than the first one.

   Damn it!

"You know I clearly remember how you," Tali paused to poke me with one of her fingers. "talked about how you didn't think Zavlon 'would take a liking to a nonstudent in school grounds'. What was it you called me...trespasser?"

   I winced when she returned to her laughing state. The annoying thing about this was that I remembered when I said those exact words to her. Vividly remembered.

"Rav!" Dorian admonished him as Rav released squeals of his own.

"I'm sorry," Rav snickered his reply. "But was I the only one who just heard Talise's spot on impression of Beth? She got the whines and everything. You have to teach me that."

"The irony of situations tend to bring out the best in me." Talise bowed with a chuckle.

"So you'll help us?" I tried again.

"Yeah." She scoffed out her reply. "I've never been able to stay mad at you for more than twenty hours, anyway."

   I latched onto her in a suffocating hug, muttering thousands of 'I'm sorrys' and 'Thank yous', despite the grunts and eye rolls she gave.

"Nice to officially meet you guys." She told Rav, Dorian and Cami, struggling to give them a little wave under my hold.

   After my sanity and self-awareness returned, I freed Talise from my hold and said nothing more.

"Beth wouldn't stop talking about you, Talise. It's easy to tell how much she admires you," Dorian remarked.

   I shot a grateful smile his way even though his eyes remained on Tali.

"Oh," The heat which overtook her face couldn't be concealed. "That's nice to hear. I'm sorry about the whole screwing thing by the way. Beth can screw anyone she wants. In fact, you two—"

"I think he gets it, Tali."

   I ignored the looks that she cast toward me when he and Cami focused on getting Rav to stand still after he suddenly tripped over his feet. It appeared whatever he had drank wasn't backing down just yet. I can't believe we'd let the whole Rav falling off a tree thing slip our minds already. Or the fact that we'd only just escaped the bunker from the Yunies.

   It was crazy to think how all this had occurred within a single day.

"I think it's time we got back to the motel," Dorian said, grunting from the extra half-drunk weight of Rav that showed no mercy on his shoulder.

"Yeah, the plan will have to wait for now." Cami took Rav's other loose arm. "You guys can come in early tomorrow morning so we can sort things out."

"Our Ride car will be here soon." Dorian tapped his phone.

   As Camila and Dorian focused on steadying Rav, we were surprised by the figure that approached us.

   A person whom I knew, but couldn't decipher who exactly he was or how I even knew him in the first place.

"Yo, Tali, Kemi's ready to go... wait..." The pumps in my chest began to feel erratic as the stranger before us stopped talking to scrutinise me. "Simmons?"

   Then it clicked.

"Duck—" I recoiled when I realised what I would've said. "Hey."

"Landon," Talise smiled at the tall, light-skinned boy facing us. "You remember Beth."

"Tali told me you moved back months ago." I attempted to conceal my shock with a grin of my own. "Landon Charles."

   Whom I'd almost called 'Ducky Chucky'. Those striking blue eyes seemed to have caught my almost mistake.

   Funny enough, he was smirking.

"It's been a minute," Landon said.

   Long enough for you to morph out of your geeky, runs like a disabled duck state. I mean, damn, he had changed. What had happened to those floppy, lanky arms? All I was seeing now was toned, toned, toned everywhere. And where was the unusual bass-shrill pitched tone? I was hearing all bass here.

   Why didn't Tali tell me he looked(and sounded) like this now? He was a member of her secret hackers school club, after all.

"Our ride's arrived," Dorian announced to no one in particular.

   It was only then that I noticed I'd been gawking at Landon this whole time.

   As we exchanged goodbyes with the departing trio, Dorian directed an uncharacteristic glance toward me like he had something to say, but his gaze flickered toward the Tali and Landon beside me before tending to Rav's passed out state once more.

   Without uttering another word, he and Camila proceeded toward the vehicle stationed at the dusty road that had led us to Clearwater River.

"Hey, Beth?" Tali nudged me.

"Yeah?" My eyes were still trained on the last spot of the cab that had Dorian, Rav and Camila even after it was long gone.

"Kemi is leaving. She's going to drop us close to our street. We've got to go."

"Okay."

A/N: Now as we end on that note, 

Why don't you drop a vote?🥰

Sooo...what do we think of Landon😌😏? Do we like him? If you go back a few chapters, you'll notice he was mentioned in Beth and Tali's conversation about the school club she'd formed.

Today's chapter is dedicated to @nafisaaaa1612. She was a silent reader until she voted on the previous chapter just yesterday! Know that I appreciate you❤️!

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