10th June 2019

NOAH

Sir Claudius wanted to bully me again, but I had somehow convinced him that I had been working for the past twenty-four hours and that I needed a break.

He shut his mouth after that. He didn't try probing into my mind either.

I knew that the peace was temporary and that he would be watching me closely. Which meant that I had to take extra precautions the next time I went to see Renee.

It was almost dawn when I opened the door to my room. I could hear the chinking of glass bottles and tipsy giggles and I mentally groaned, I didn't have the strength to deal with Shay after this. Sure enough, she was sitting against the foot of my bed, a mountain of bottles lying next to her.

"Why are you here?" I hissed. My parents had no problem with Shay turning up in my room at odd times. We were practically siblings.

Shay lifted her head, her white mop of hair obscuring the look in her eyes, so all that I saw was a grin.

"Noah!" Shay laughed drunkenly. "You won't believe it."

"Believe what?" I asked her, tossing my hoodie into my cupboard.

"R-Renee was here! She came searching for you!" Shay slurred, trying to pour more alcohol onto her mouth.

"What?!" I spun around, stunned. "She came here? To the Spirit Realm?"

"Yeah, she's so stupid right-"

"Why was she here?" I asked Shay urgently, wondering if Renee was in danger. Maybe I should go to see her...

"Something about her brother naming his business MBTN. And she mentioned Sir Johannes too." Shay said flakily, emptying the bottle over her mouth.

I pulled the bottle away, and with a single thought, I made all the bottles vanish. It took her a moment to notice what I've done, and when she did, Shay howled like an animal.

"You freaking piece of..." Shay got up and tried to punch my nose. I grabbed her hand and gave her a pathetic look, as she tried to punch me again.

Finally, after multiple failed attempts, Shay groaned and sat on my bed.

"Do you even remember what today is?" Shay barked, and I noticed that she was slowly getting sober.

My eyes flicked to the calendar. It was the 10th of June, and realisation slowly hit me.

Exactly one year ago, Isaac had been severed from the Spirit Realm.

"It's been a year, you dimwit! I've been up for hours, hoping you'd return, and you turn up now? I can't believe you forgot about him so soon!" Shay spit out at me.

I'd been so focused on collecting Spirits, that this had completely slipped out of my mind.

"Shay, I'm -" I started awkwardly, but she cut me off.

"On top of this, Renee arrives in broad daylight, worrying about stupid things that are of no real concern... Does she have any idea of how painful it is to lose someone you love?" Shay shouted, her face red with anger.

"Shay-"

"And you! Don't even get me started," Shay threw me a glare.

"Look, I'm all free now, we can still..." I spoke up hurriedly, but Shay just shook her head.

"It's no use, Noah. It's just that he's never coming back, and..." Shay sighed.

I gave her a hug, and she placed her wet face on my chest, sobbing uncontrollably. Shay never cried, so I could see how devastated she was.

How she wished to see Isaac again.

Shay pulled away quickly, now giving me a forced smile. "I'm sorry, I've been drinking for six hours straight, and..."

"There's no need for reasons, Shay," I smiled at her, and she nodded.

"Thanks," Shay said simply.

Then without me asking, she told me all about Renee's visit, and even apologised to me for insulting her.

"Then she left because she was getting late for her date," Shay explained, and my eyes widened at her words.

"Her date?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, she's seeing this guy from her class or something like that," Shay told me, her voice light. "I don't know much, but I did manage to find out that it was some geeky guy."

"Some geeky guy?" My jaw dropped. "Shay, please tell me that you're making this up!"

Shay rolled her eyes. "Why would I make this up? Do you really think I have nothing better to do?"

I narrowed my eyes. "That's what you say every time you lie."

"Well, I'm not lying," she shrugged, looking straight at me. "I'm sorry Noah, but your girl is smitten by someone else."

The smile dropped off my face. "I can't believe it. Renee called me hot!"

"And so does every other girl. You need to do more than that, buddy. Renee isn't someone who falls for a guy because he's hot." Shay said knowingly.

She was right. I had to improve my game if Renee were to notice me.

"Well, I really need to leave now," Shay yawned. "Time for work."

And with that Shay left, while I was still digesting the news about Renee's new date.

An unidentifiable faceless stranger with my girl.

It made my insides burn.

*****

13th June 2019

I reached the Realm, my eyes scanning to see if Renee had arrived. To my relief, she hadn't.
Time for Operation 'Impressing Renee : Part 1'.

I pulled out my leather jacket and paired it with my black t-shirt and jeans. I'd heard girls saying that leather jackets were hot these days, and maybe that would help me impress Renee. For an extra measure, I spiked up my hair, into a cool funky pattern. Then I pulled out my black shades and admired my reflection on the stream.

I looked freaking awesome, like a biker dude. I also didn't look like myself, but who cares. The whole point was to look different.

"Noah, wow," Renee was standing next to me, catching my eye in the reflection in the stream. "What's up with the costume?"

Costume? She thought it was a costume?

I ignore that part.

"How do I look?" I tried to give her a smouldering look, or whatever they called it these days.

Renee turned away, her cheeks red. "Very good, you should totally try modelling if it were a thing in the Spirit Realm."

I lowered my shades, and I saw Renee stifling her laughter, which doubles as she glanced at me again.

Wait, she was laughing at me?

"Renee," I complained. "You think this is funny!"

"No, I don't," Renee said quickly, her cheeks still pink from laughing. "I just... Don't you think this is a bit too much?"

"A bit too much?" I asked, confused.

"Yeah, maybe you don't need the shades," She removed it gently, standing on her toes to reach up to me. "And you could lose the jacket too."

I shrugged the jacket off and stuffed it into my bag. Anything to impress her.

When I turned back, I saw Renee staring at me, wide-eyed and slightly red. I hoped she was not secretly laughing at me again.

"You look... Good." She breathed. "Shay would be impressed."

No. Shay would laugh her head off and tease me about this for weeks.
That girl had committed her life to make me miserable.

"Are you impressed?" I asked, nervously biting my lip.

"It really shouldn't matter," Renee shrugged, avoiding my gaze. "But, yeah. I am."

I smiled. That was all I had needed to hear.

We started with the fifth dimension, which was all about the creation and destruction of the Realms. Renee aced all that I told her to do, and we soon found ourselves with a lot of free time.

Time to start Operation 'Impressing Renee: Part 2'.

And this involved jokes, which was going to be a piece of cake because Renee already thought I was funny.

"What do you tell a person who doesn't give up on reaching the White Realm?" I asked as we settled down on the soft grass in the meadow.

"I don't know," Renee looked expectantly at me.

"You say, 'That's the Spirit!'" I delivered the punchline, and to my horror, Renee still looked confused.

My joke was lame, wasn't it?

I knew that I should've started with a better one.

"Did you get it?" I asked anxiously.

Renee laughed mildly. "I got the joke, Noah." She reassured. "I just don't get what's up with you today."

"What do you mean?" I asked her with bated breath.

Did it look too obvious that I was trying to impress her?

Great, now I'd ruined my chances.

"Why do you seem so nervous?" She asked softly. "Is your work getting to you?"

She locked her fingers through mine and gave it a gentle squeeze. Her fingers were so tiny compared to my gargantuan hands. They were also soft and delicate, unlike my rough ones.

I looked up and saw Renee watching me with a warm smile on her face. And I knew that was how I wanted her to look at me every minute of the day, every day.

"Yeah, I'm stressed from work," I replied. "Besides, Shay told me that you had come to see me. She didn't give me the details because she was drunk."

At the mention of Shay, Renee stopped smiling and gently extricated her hand from mine. She avoided my gaze, and her shoulders stiffened, now glaring at her feet.

"Did Shay insult you a lot?" I guessed, judging by the sudden change in her behaviour.

"Yeah," Renee spit out. "She called me an idiot, stupid and retarded..."

"Yeah, she can be really annoying," I nodded. "She asked me to apologise to you for what she did if that helps."

"Oh," Renee looked surprised. "I want to apologise to her too, for coming to the Spirit Realm like that, and not trusting her."

"Yeah, what was so urgent?" I asked Renee as she rested her back against the tree and stared at the sky.

Renee launched into the story about her brother, from the time he ran away to him wanting to start a new company. I listened patiently, but my eyes kept drifting over to her bright face, her excited grey eyes, her pink lips. Her brown hair framed her face, naturally curling at the edges.

How would she react if I kissed her now?

Then the faceless geeky guy came to my mind, I bet he quenched her thirst for knowledge all the time.

That's the kind of guy Renee wanted. Smart, strong, helpful. Not flashy Noah with his leather jackets and lame jokes.

"Do you know Sir Johannes? Shay said that he's a legend," Renee was still talking, and I snapped back into reality, feeling guilty that I hadn't listened to her whole story.

"Sir Johannes? Yeah, I've heard a lot about him," I blurted out, but don't regret it. I bet this was how geeky guy won Renee over.

"Really?" Renee's eyes lit up. "Can you tell me more about him?"

"Sure," I pulled out my phone and showed her a picture of Sir Johannes. He was a cunning guy with a crafty beard, and though I haven't met him, Isaac had once told me that he was a smooth talker who could make you do the most dangerous stuff.

"So that's him. He looks... evil," Renee said, then pointed at the photo, "What's that glowing thing next to him?"

"You mean the lightsaber? That's the one and only Lord Augustus," I announced scathingly.

"Lord Augustus is a beam of light?" Renee questioned, completely confused.

"Yeah. He's in his 'highest form'. That's what Spirits look like when they reach the White Realm." I told her. "If you look closely, you can see a human silhouette inside the light."

"Woah, that's so cool." Renee leaned closer, peering at the phone. I got a whiff of a flowery scent from her hair, and I didn't move, trying to enjoy the smell.
Thankfully, she didn't notice.

"Why is he in prison?" Renee asked, finally leaning away, and taking away her sweet scent with her.

I sighed. "It's a long story, Renee."

Renee removed her watch and threw it into the stream. She then turned towards me with a half-smile, like the one I gave her sometimes. My heart beated louder as her grey eyes locked with mine, her gaze so intense.

And before she opened her mouth, I knew what she was going to say.

"Trust me, we have all the time in the world."

*****