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[Laura Zavaglia]

Laura once again found herself swallowing down the urge to ask further questions. She wanted to know what was at the end of that sentence, but had a feeling asking would shatter the warm hopeful-friendship base that was seemingly being built and if she really, really couldn't get out of going to magic school then she'd definitely need a friend. He seemed to be talking more of his own volition, and she certainly wasn't going to stop him. Even if the archery thing almost stopped her in her tracks because that was cool. Definitely one of the coolest sports, along with sport climbing and fencing. Laura had really wanted to try fencing. Now she had the vague vision of the pair of them as outlaw pirates, her with a sword and him with a bow, on the run from the prison-like school she pictured, and a warm smile crossed her face.

Of course, she wasn't quite willing to explain where her mind had taken her. That would almost certainly send him away thinking she was weird after all. The comment about the tree did make her giggle, though, a laugh almost a little foreign from her throat after the last few weeks. Instinctively, a hand reached up to partially cover her face. Someone at school had once told her she looked dumb when she laughed and this had been the subconscious learned response. "I bet they'd think we'd had too much sugar or something," she replied, the visual of the paper still cheering her up.

Laura was more than happy to grab out her phone, with a nod and a noise of assent. She rattled off the number that was committed to memory, before pausing. "And I guess it's got the country code thing, so that's sixty-one..." she trailed off as her eyes went back to the phone screen, and she seemingly deflated a little on the spot at the string of missed messages. "Oh." The phone, on cue, rang, and Laura winced. "Sorry, I have to..." she half-apologised, answering the phone with a sigh. "Sorry...I know...no, I didn't go that far, I can be back in like ten minutes...yeah, don't worry, I'm not going to tell mum I ran off. 'Kay." She hung up, and looked back at the boy. "I, um, guess the tree will have to wait. But please message me, I've got so many questions about archery and hotwiring lawnmowers. Well, if you're allowed to put that in messages. Though I guess we're trying to get in trouble so maybe that's okay?" she asked, as though she wasn't guiltily about to run back to her aunt to avoid trouble. Mostly trouble between her mum and her aunt, to be fair, which she would've felt really bad about exacerbating. "See you around...John Doe."

 

[Alfred Gorbach]

He saw her greet his ramblings not just with understanding this time, but with a smile. Warm and real, at least from what he could tell from her eyes. And it filled his chest with another unfamiliar feeling. He was still capable of making someone happy, not just disappointed.

But then she covered her face, and that too didn’t sit right with him. This time, though, he couldn’t tell why.

He pulled out his phone and typed in the number she gave, fingers moving fast. The way she said it, like it wasn't a big deal, calmed his nerves again. Right. People did this. Friends shared numbers. Not that he had much personal experience. His dad used to say that kind of thing just made you soft.
Friends slow you down. Friends distract you. People with friends are off playing while someone else is getting better. That’s the difference between winners and nobodies.
He didn’t get the chance to call or hand over his number before her phone lit up. Again. He remembered the look on her face earlier when she first checked it and it was the same one now. And when she winced and picked up, he found himself already disliking whoever was on the other end. No particular reason. And even before she said it, he knew she was about to leave. That shouldn’t have hit as hard as it did.

He nodded, still holding his phone. “Yeah. Sure. See you around, Laura,” he tried to hide his disappointment.
Then he stood there a second longer than he meant to, watching her go.​