New Friend

Our house was quiet—an eerie silence.

Drawn blinds blanketed the living room with darkness even though noon had arrived. But in the faint light, I could see smoke wafting from our kitchen.

Gonna talk things out soon anyway. I grabbed the mop bucket and hauled it over towards Fate sitting crossed-legged at our table. She'd tied her black hair into a ponytail and was wearing my clothes again—baggy pants along with a T-shirt too large for her.

She shook the cigarette nestled between her fingers into an ashtray. Smoke trails continued drifting out with few places to escape.

"You forgot about cracking a window," I said while sliding open our patio door. "You'll set off fire alarms again."

But she didn't respond. Her face was too serious. Too stern. It wasn't her usual jubilant self that'd tease or taunt me. No. This was my older sister remembering how much responsibility she held over us.

"Have you finished cleaning?" she asked without looking at me.

"Oh, just about yeah." I looked towards a bucketed mop by our sink. "I stayed up pretty much all night clearing water that'd flooded the house."

It was just a quick glance, but Fate peered at me, likely seeing dark bags under my eyes and slouched shoulders worn from working. I was a mess: my white T-shirt had become wet with stains, and old basketball shorts looked even older now. There wasn't any semblance of suave left from yesterday.

Another smoke cloud puffed from Fate's lips. She made a tsk sound before gesturing towards a chair next to her for me to sit. And I obliged.

Exhausted, I scooted all the way into the table to rest my elbows. But I wasn't quite as tired as worried.

"Listen," I told Fate. "I know you're probably still mad about—"

"Don't talk," she said. "We agreed we'd discuss things when Glint finishes changing."

"O-Oh, okay . . ."

Minutes went by. Fate puffed the last of her cigarette before ramming it in the ashtray.

Meanwhile, I could hear some girlish footsteps walking down our staircase.

Glint appeared around the corner. She'd dried her blonde hair after showering, and put on some pink pajamas adorned with a rabbit ears hoodie.

"Ah! You're so cute!" Fate said. "I knew you'd look good in my clothes."

"Thanks." Glint blushed. "Sorry for the trouble."

I wanted to speak, knowing the kitchen's brief bout of glee was just temporary. Even Fate's smile had already begun waning as she pointed for Glint to sit in a chair across from us.

Then the meeting began.

I spoke first. "Sis—I know you said it's hard to believe, but I think Glint's really from another world. She's not a Whisperer. She explained things pretty well last night; not to mention, the Repose Mirror wasn't acting normal. I could see the other side clearly, when even Communals and Homes shouldn't be able to do that. Incoming teleports always maintain the mirrored reflection."

But Fate seemed unfazed. Her head nodded as if asking me to continue.

"There's just—she's not a bad person, if that's what you're worried about. I'll vouch for her."

A lull spread while we waited for a response. Fate just played with her ashtray, before she sighed and finally spoke.

"Let me get this straight: I come back here early in the morning after spending time with my boyfriend, and the first thing I see is that half the house is flooded? And there's some girl here who not only warped through one of our Reposes, but also broke it?"

"I'm sorry." Glint dropped her head. "I'm not sure how mirrors work in the world yet."

"How is your world anyway?"

"It's—it's not much different from this one, I think. The only difference is we don't use mirrors like you do."

"Yeah," I added. "She mentioned the biggest difference is that mirrors in her world are just regular mirrors. Everyone gets around by taking 'cars'."

"Cars?" Fate said. "You mean automobiles?"

"Yes," Glint said.

Fate's expression turned curious. "Huh. Well that tracks with an old myth we're all told as kids: that there's another dimension we splintered off from when mirrors were invented. Apparently we had the exact same timeline up until that point."

"So it's not exactly a parallel universe, or whatever?" I said.

"Dunno. She's gotta tell us that."

Both our eyes fell on Glint. She was fidgeting, as if mounting pressure was staggering her. Though I knew from our talks yesterday that she wasn't a bad person—neither Whisperer nor hacker. But even I still wasn't convinced she was from an alternate reality. We needed more context.

Glint flipped on her bunny ears hoodie to avoid looking at us. "I don't feel comfortable explaining everything yet. But I can say—I'm from California too. It's just another, different California."

"What's with your British accent then?" I said.

"It's, erm, complicated."

Dang. She's not exactly making this easy. But it doesn't matter as long as my sister buys it. I peered at Fate sitting beside me. Her face—pensive yet tired—was staring up towards the ceiling, brainstorming. She'd had time to process things earlier in the morning, but hadn't yet decided on what we'd do with Glint.

The moment arrived.

Fate crossed her arms before speaking. "Honestly, whether you're from another world or not doesn't really bother me. What I'm more concerned about is what the Bureau of Public Order might think."

I interjected. "The fact we're not knee-deep in BOPO officers, probably means they don't know she's here."

"Bopo?" Glint raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah, you don't know," I said. "They're basically the world police, in charge of monitoring the global network of Mirrors we have. But they take their job way seriously; to the point they're like some gestapo now."

"That's kinda scary."

"Mm. Reminds me I still gotta submit a broken mirror report to them, haha."

"Huh?" Fate shot out from her chair. "You haven't submitted a report yet?"

"I-I was gonna do it after this, haha."

"Geez!" she pouted. "There's a grace period, so let's just finish sorting things here."

Our attention fell on Glint again seated in front of us. The poor girl looked confused, almost nervous, as she waited for her trial's conclusion.

Though I'd felt a gut feeling my sister had long since decided on a verdict. Then her devious smile confirmed it.

"Normally," Fate told Glint, "I have no problem with my little brother bringing over a girl. But I'm just the supervisor here; our Uncle Fernon calls the shots."

"He doesn't visit that often," I said.

"Yeah. So when he does, you and Glint can just go out somewhere together to have fun, 'k?" She winked at me.

Wh-What's that weird phrasing? I awkwardly chuckled and glanced towards Glint. Unlike me, she wasn't wallowing in embarrassment, but holding her breath in anticipation. Her expression brightened even more before speaking.

"So you'll let me stay then? While I figure out where I go from here?"

"Sure. As long as Chance doesn't go too crazy, hehe." She poked at my cheek.

"I-I'm not like you, sis. . ."

But our cringe display got Glint giggling. Like a sign she'd become comfortable with us, she flung off her rabbit ears hoodie and smiled towards me.

"Thank you!" she said. "I'll clean or do anything to help out while I'm here."

"That'd be nice actually," I said. "My sister needs a second servant."

"Chance! Hey! Don't make me sound like some tyrant!"

"Lazy tyrant."

"Alright, come here!"

Laughing, we both bolted out from our chairs and started chasing each other around the house. Behind the couch, through the kitchen, upstairs then downstairs, and finally back into the living room as Fate caught me between her arms.

"I surrender, I surrender, haha."

"No prisoners!" Her fist raised to give my head a noogie, rubbing down. "You're just an annoying little brother, haha!"

"U-Urgghhh . . ."

Even as the wind chimes outside gently clanged, I peeked to see how Glint was taking things in. But she'd already stood to push our chairs in and began tidying the kitchen.

This girl—who'd helped me mop the house clean for half the night—was still just as tired as me, though didn't show it. What was going through her mind? Were her first steps into a new world impressive? Depressive? Didn't she miss anyone back home?

I still didn't know much about her. But seeing her smile as she picked up dishes made it worthwhile—the smile of someone that encouraged me to smile too.

Whatever the rest of summer vacation held, at least I had someone new to share it with.