The Perfect World (The Perfect World Series Book 1) (35 page)

Scott balled his fists. “That’s why I don’t really like Priscilla. She hung around with Xavier all the time, and they seemed so perfect together. She seemed happy with him and yet, she didn’t really want to be with him. She completely set him up!”

Cyrus thought it over, not really getting his friend’s anger. “Well, did you guys ever ask Priscilla what she felt about the matter?”

“No,” Scott answered slowly, “but it seemed obvious to us that she liked him.”

“What if you were wrong?” he questioned with a shrug. “What if she was just being friendly?”

“Are you defending her?” Scott asked, sounding perplexed.

“I am,” Cyrus said without hesitation. “I don’t think it’s right to just assume someone has feelings for someone else and push them into something they don’t want.”

Scott seemed to consider this, though he still looked like he’d swallowed something sour.

“Why are you saying this?” Scott suddenly demanded with a suspicious look on his face.

Cyrus thought about that night at the party. He remembered how Priscilla had leaned against his arm and how, even though she was miles away from him, all he could see was Melody.

“People can’t help who they have feelings for,” Cyrus answered simply. “That’s what I think anyway.”    

“I suppose that’s true,” Scott said it like he was brushing the matter aside. Then, he gave him a sly grin and said, “For a moment there, I thought you had fallen for Priscilla. I’m not sure how I would have felt about that.”

“What? No!” Cyrus spluttered. “I don’t even know her that well yet. Besides, I love …” he trailed off, but Scott wouldn’t let him off the hook.

“Melody?” Scott supplied with the same grin.

Cyrus blinked at that. “How did you know that?”

Scott gave a little laugh. “You mean, other than that it was completely obvious? Now, I admit, I didn’t quite get it as a kid, but when I thought it over once I got here, it didn’t take long to put two and two together.”

“Like you and Sahane?”

“So, you noticed?”

“Like you said, it was kind of obvious.”

“Well, I hope it’s obvious to her,” Scott said as he ran his fingers through his hair. “I haven’t really made a move yet. I’m not sure how she feels about me.”

“Why don’t you ask her?” Cyrus suggested with his arms folded  over his chest.

“I wish it were as easy as it sounds.”

“Maybe it will be,” Cyrus replied, trying to be encouraging. “You should try and ask her.”

“Well, maybe.” Scott shrugged, then looked at Cyrus and asked, “Do you still love Melody?”

“Yes,” Cyrus said immediately. He had no doubts about it.

Scott’s expression turned somber as he turned away and said, “I see.”

“That’s why I was so upset about the whole ‘destiny’ thing. Melody is still there.” He waited for Scott to reply, but when it was clear he wasn’t going to do so on his own, Cyrus said, “Scott, you intern with a computer security company, right?”

“Yes,” Scott replied slowly, seeming to know what he wanted.

“They have lists of what will happen to the people who are still in the perfect world, right? Would it be possible for you to get one for me?”

“Me?” Scott pointed to himself and shook his head. “No way! I’m just an intern after all.” Seeing the disappointed look on his friend’s face, Scott sighed and added. “I can’t do it. I know someone who could though.”

“Who?”

“Julian Inez. He’s already working for one of the biggest security companies in the dome. He’s a computer whiz, and he has access to everything. I’m sure he could find it for you.”

Cyrus was a little surprised at the information. He knew Julian, the larger boy from physical education, had worked at a computer company since he was sixteen. He hadn’t known Julian was that proficient at his job. “Alright, I’ll ask him.”

“Wait, Cyrus,” Scott called as he started to walk away. “What will you do, once you know?”

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “But, that doesn’t change anything. I need to know. That’s all.”

Scott was clearly still worried, but he nodded anyway. “Okay. I just don’t want you to get hurt worse, is all.”

Cyrus considered his long-time friend before saying, “Scott, if I decide to do something about this, will you help me?”

Scott looked up at him, curiously. “What will you do?”

“I don’t know yet.” Cyrus stared back into his eyes. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“Cyrus, you’re my best friend. You always will be. Whatever you decide to do, provided that it isn’t completely insane, I’ll be behind you.”

Cyrus smiled. “That’s as much as I can hope for.” He turned away and walked down the hall to his room, getting ready to call Julian. He shut the door to his room, pulled out his cell phone that Ms. Linda had provided him with after he’d completed some tasks for her.

His phone was a small, two paneled device that folded into a  cube when it was off. Cyrus pressed the power button and the top panel rose up until it was connected to the lower one. The phone instantly loaded his applications, including music, internet and picture applications. Ignoring all of them, Cyrus went straight into his contact list and scrolled past the names until he found Julian. He pushed the call button and waited, drumming his fingers against his leg impatiently. Finally, after a few rings, a husky voice answered with a long, “Hello?”

“Julian, how are you doing?” Cyrus said, trying to sound cheerful.

“I’m fine. I just got off work. What about you?”

“I’m okay. Listen, I have a really big favor to ask you.”

Julian paused uncertainly. “What is it?”

“You work for one of the biggest security companies in the dome, right?”

“Right.”

“You have access to secure files, right? Files from the perfect world?”

There was a long pause after this. “What are you getting at?”  Julian sounded nervous.

“I want to see the files from the perfect world. The ones that show the destiny of the kids from my year.”

There was a long silence. Cyrus was actually afraid Julian had hung up. Then, he spoke again, but his voice was so quiet he could barely hear him. “Cyrus, why do you want them?”

“I want them because I still have a friend there. She’s very important to me. I need to know what’s going to happen to her.”

Another long pause followed this statement. Then, Julian said, “I could get in serious legal trouble for this Cyrus. I don’t know if I can …”

“I wouldn’t ask this of you, Julian, but I’m really desperate,” Cyrus spoke quickly, and his voice was filled with emotion. “You have no idea how important this is to me.”

There was silence again, and Cyrus started pleading. “Please. Please, Julian.”

Some of his desperation must have gotten through because Julian finally sighed and said, “Okay, Cyrus, I’ll do it. All you want is to see the file, right? I can download them easily enough as long as I’m careful. I’ll text you when I’m finished, alright?”

“Alright. And Julian? Thank you so much. I don’t know if I can ever pay you back for this.”

“Buy me dinner tomorrow, and we’ll call it even.” Julian tried sounding casual, but there was still a bit of worry in his voice.

“I will,” Cyrus promised. “When will you have the files?”

“I can get them tomorrow. Do you know the Tony’s Pizzeria close to the school?”

“Yeah, I’ve been there with Scott. It’s always really packed in there.”

“Precisely why I want to go there. Less chance that we’ll be overheard or caught with these files. Anyway, I’ll meet you there at 6 p.m. tomorrow, and I can show them to you. Sound good?”

“It sounds wonderful.” Cyrus breathed a sigh of relief. “Julian, thank you. I feel like I can never thank you enough.”

“Thank me when I show you the files,” Julian sounded embarrassed. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yes, see you tomorrow.” The call ended and Cyrus closed his phone. He closed his eyes and breathed another sigh of relief. He turned back to his homework and tried to distract himself as the waiting began.

The distraction his homework provided only lasted another hour or two. Once he was finished, he stared at the clock in his room, thinking it was moving slower than he had ever seen it move. He was provided another welcome distraction when his mother called him for dinner.

Cyrus sat at the table with Scott and Ms. Linda, as he did whenever Ms. Linda was home and prepared a meal for them. As he sat down at the table, he saw Scott shoot him a little look of concern, and he smiled reassuringly at him. Ms. Linda started placing food on the table, a nice spaghetti Bolognese with a Caesar salad. Ms. Linda was particularly fond of Italian food, and they ate it often. Cyrus had developed a liking for it, but he liked most things mother made. She was a very good cook.

The young man took the tongs and put some spaghetti onto his plate. He waited patiently for the salad and then focused on his food. He was too worried about tomorrow to really make much conversation. Ms. Linda and Scott talked about his internship for a while, before Ms. Linda finally turned to him.

“You’re awfully quiet today,” she commented, her full attention placed upon him.

Cyrus slurped up a remaining spaghetti noodle and said, “Yeah, well, school gave me a lot to think about.”

The small severe lady grimaced at his bad manners and picked up her own napkin. She harshly wiped off Cyrus’s red chin and patted his mouth for good measure. Scott was laughing, and Cyrus was red in the face when she finally put the napkin down and said, “What was so thought provoking?”

“Well, it was mostly history class,” Cyrus hedged, not sure if he wanted to get into it.

“What about it?” Ms. Linda pressed, clearly not about to let him get away with a non-answer.

“Both of my history classes have gotten into modern history,” Cyrus started, choosing his words carefully, “and we’ve been talking a lot about how the perfect world came to be. There’s so much about it I just don’t understand. Not in the meaning kind of way, but in the ‘I can’t believe they let this happen kind of way,’” Cyrus clarified.

Ms. Linda rolled her spaghetti on her fork and looked away from him. “Yes, I understand what you mean. I had a similar reaction when I was taught all of this after I started living here. The amount of complete worldwide selfishness was just incredible.”

“Selfishness?” Cyrus hadn’t thought of it that way.

“What else would you call it?” Ms. Linda questioned, resting her fork on the side of her bowl. “We had an entire world full of people who only cared about what could be done to benefit them. The consequences that other generations would face for this were of no importance to any of them. We had a world full of politicians who said anything to get into power and then did everything they could to avoid addressing the problems right in front of their faces. People were warned that things were going to get worse, but they didn’t listen because everything was fine for that present moment.

“When things finally did get worse, they didn’t want to make the sacrifices necessary to make things better. They didn’t understand why they couldn’t have what was promised to them, what they felt they deserved, even though the circumstances around them had changed. The world was not the same as it had been when those promises had been made to them, but that didn’t matter. They wanted everything for nothing, and they were going to find a way to get it. And find a way, they did. The rest is history.”

“Yeah …” Cyrus muttered sadly as he saw Ms. Linda’s hands clench in her lap. “My history teacher also said that nobody learns anything from history, so we’re doomed to repeat it.”

Ms. Linda snorted. “I wouldn’t go quite that far,” then her face fell, “then again, considering what the world governments are like and the politicians that run them, he might have a point.”

Cyrus was quiet a moment, debating what he wanted to say. Deciding he wanted to hear what Ms. Linda had to say on it and trusting her judgment, he asked, “Do you think about the other kids you used to take care of in the perfect world?”

“Of course I do, Cyrus.” Ms. Linda turned to him with her deep dark eyes. “Just like I thought about you all the time when you were stuck there. I worried about you all the time, Cyrus.”

“We both did,” Scott added, giving Cyrus a look that asked him what he thought he was doing.

Cyrus ignored the look and said, “If there was a way to stop it, would you support it?”

“What do you mean?” Ms. Linda asked.

“Destiny. The potential death of those other kids. If you could do something to stop it, would you?”

“If I could, of course I would. I think that goes for most people in the domes,” Ms. Linda sighed, “but, unfortunately, I’m just one person. One person can’t take down a worldwide corrupt political system by themselves.” She then looked at Cyrus. “However, if the raids were still going on, I would have to go on one if it had a chance of saving you. In fact, I petitioned for one for years on your behalf.”

“You did?” Cyrus said, feeling truly touched.

“I can attest to that,” Scott said with an appreciative smile. “I went with her every time and asked for the same thing. They never listened to us, though.”