You Can't Know

Morning came and went, and as the sun started its journey down beyond the horizon I walked from my classroom–phone in hand.

It felt as if Grace was stalking me. In every room I entered, she wasn't far behind. Even lunch was the same. As always she spent most of the day with her head stuffed in a giant book, but just a second of observing her tore apart her act.

Her eyes never met the text, pages never turning. To Grace, that book was a prop. Whatever tool allowed her to spy on me would be her best friend.

It hadn’t always been like this, at least to my knowledge. There hadn't been much of a reason for me to eye her down all hours of the day before this.

“Mari!” A sweaty Chiyo came running up to me. “I got everything set up.”

“Thanks, you sure this will work? Chiyo refused to tell me exactly what her plan was, just that it’d get enough law enforcement to arrest the entire cult no problem. I couldn't think of many ways to do that, and none of the few ideas I did have were partially pleasant.

Please Chiyo, don’t get us killed in the process.

“Though…” She hesitated, “There was a problem.”

“Problem?”

“The police were so concerned, I couldn’t delay them any more than a day. You don’t meet her tomorrow this whole thing falls apart.” Shit, what in God's name did you tell them Chiyo.

“That's fine. I planned to meet her tomorrow afternoon anyway.”

We started our trek back to my house without much else spoken. The air was much too tense for freely thrown words. Yet, that didn’t keep Chiyo from keeping her typical smile as she hummed alone to some anime opening.

As we waved our goodbyes, I walked upstairs and grabbed my phone–staring at the screen like my life depended on it; and for the first time, that was actually the case.

My fingers moved automatically as I picked Grace’s name from my contacts. It was clockwork, something I’d done a thousand times before. Yet, the nausea racing through my head made it clear.

This would be the last time.

“Hey Grace…” I let my sentence trail, choosing every word carefully. “How’s your night going?”

“About as well as a weeknight can. You having any issues with your paper still?”

“Nah, got that done at like four in the morning. Actually, I wanted to talk some about that philosopher you mentioned. I did some research on him, and a lot of his ideas really hit home for me.”

“Seriously? You're not just saying this to be nice or anything, right?”

“Of course not! my main thing is like, I feel that he was so restrained. He couldn’t take any one of his views to their logical conclusion.” I could feel my heart clench. I barely knew who this guy was, much less his views. Though, from the thirty seconds of research I’d done, even I could tell whatever Grace believed was vehemently warped from its foundation.

“Thank you! Finally, someone that gets it!” I could hear her joy even through the phone.

“I just needed a bit of time, but there's a lot of questions I still have. And like, not ones I really wanna discuss over the phone. They feel a bit too err, risque for that.”

“I absolutely understand.”

“I knew you would. Are you doing anything tomorrow afternoon, just after school ends?”

“If you want to discuss this there's no time I’m not free. After school tomorrow sounds great.” Grace said

“Perfect. You know, the way you talk about him, is his decendent like your boyfriend or something?” I could feel my tongue rolling up in my throat. I'd gotten what I wanted, the only thing to do was wrap this up.

“No no, don't be ridiculous. He is just like a religious figure to me, one that has been censored and mutilated over time. You’ll understand once we talk tomorrow. I guarantee it.”

I faked a laugh–a guttering howl that barely worked over the phone. “Well, I'll see you tomorrow. Where do you want to meet?”

“Don’t worry about it, I'll find you.”

I was sure she would. “Sounds good. Bye, girl!”

“Bye-bye.” As the phone snapped off, I faceplanted into my pillow, cursing my own luck. I’d locked everything in on my side.

Now, I just had to trust Chiyo would come through.