Mage Catalyst (22 page)

“I think I’ve aced it!” she gushed exuberantly as she kissed me on the cheek.

“I’m sure you did!” I agreed.
“How’d you do?”
“Oh, I think I did alright.” I hesitated nervously. I couldn’t hold either Sarah or Tina’s gaze for very long.
Tina nodded happily. I could tell she was only partially listening to me.
“What did you write your essay on?” Tina asked, still in full-on academic mode.
“Do we really need to discuss this?” I grinned. “I’d much rather forget about the whole exam thing.”

“Sounds good to me.” Sarah nodded agreeably.
I could see that Tina definitely wanted to compare notes, but she nodded sadly as she saw the determined looks on both our faces and allowed us to change the subject.
“What’s the plan for tonight?” I asked, changing the topic of conversation.
“Don’t know,” Sarah responded. “Tina and I are heading back to my place straight from school. Do you want to join us?”
“Sure.” I nodded agreeably. “as long as we can make a quick side trip so I can get changed.”
My place was on the way between school and Sarah’s place and I didn’t particularly want to go to a party in school uniform.
“I’d like to get some wine or something on the way. Do you have your passport on you?” Sarah asked, my passport still a running joke.

I really needed to get my driver’s licence so at least I had some form of proper ID.

“Ha ha, it’s not like I carry it around with me.”
“What and you don’t need a passport to get through the school doors?” Sarah mocked. “Maybe we can convince Tony to go.”
“Convince Tony to go into a grog store?” I grinned. “You’re joking! He’ll never go for it!”
“Yeah,” Tina piped up. “The hard part will be convincing Tony to leave!”
“Leave where?” Tony boomed as he appeared suddenly through the crowd of other students leaving the school gates. He had obviously only arrived in time to overhear the last sentence of our conversation.
“The grog shop,” I stated with a grin still plastered on my face.
“Why would I ever want to leave?” Tony chuckled, casually throwing one arm around Sarah.
“We wanted to pick up something for tonight,” Sarah interjected, slipping out from Tony’s hug.
“No problems. I’ve already swiped a bottle of Jack from my brother for tonight,” he commented. “I left an IOU that was signed ‘Devon’.”
He grinned, punching me lightly on the arm.
“Nice, like he wasn’t already pissed enough at me already.”

“Yeah, now it’s two bottles you owe him,” Tony snickered maniacally.

“This isn’t going to end well,” I predicted gloomily.
Sarah’s parents had made other plans for the evening, which left Sarah’s brother in tentative control of the household. He was pretty cool and stated that as long as we didn’t burn the house down or interrupt him too much he promised to leave us to our own devices.

It wasn’t long before Tony and I had the barbeque fired up and the delicious aroma of meat cooking filled the air. The weather hadn’t turned out to be too bad at all. It wasn’t warm enough that we would consider swimming but warm enough that we were comfortable hanging out by the pool without jackets and coats. Sarah had connected her iPod to an outdoor stereo system and was pumping music over the pool and barbeque. Sarah had invited about twenty or so people from school and it wasn’t too long before we were all having a really good time. It was nice to laze about and not think about school for a while.
“How’d you think you went on your exams?” Tina asked me quietly. We were both lazing on some deck chairs by the pool. We both had half-finished meals on the side table and were nursing drinks.
It was obvious that she’d been dying to ask me this question all night.
“I really don’t want to even think about it,” I replied honestly, taking another sip of my drink.
“Oh,” she said in a soft voice. I could tell she wasn’t overly impressed by my lack of interest.
“Come on, it’s just school!” I joked. “It’s not like it’s real life or anything.”

“Just school?” she protested, her eyes glittering dangerously.
“Yeah.” I nodded, not noticing the warning signs.
“You really need to take this a little more seriously,” Tina whispered. “It is important. It determines what university you’ll get into next year.”
“Actually, I’m not going to university next year,” I replied. “Dad has arranged for me to work at a graphic design company. I’ll go to uni the year after next or so.”
“How are you planning on getting in?” Tina asked.
“Oh, come on,” I said, a little angrily. “It’s not like my life is going to be over if I never go to university. There are other options.”
“You’ve never shown any interest in graphic design. You’re not even taking it as an elective,” said Tina. She was now refusing to make eye contact.
“Look, I’m sorry, school and work are just not that important to me right now, is that so bad?”
“No, no,” Tina sighed. “I just wish we had more in common. I guess I assumed that you were a little more ambitious.”
“Well, I’m not,” I replied. “I’m happy just being who I am.”
“You don’t want to better yourself at all?” she pressed.
“Well, yes, but I don’t think that university is the only way to do that,” I argued.
Tina didn’t respond. It was obvious that she was never going to see my point of view. Maybe we were just too different. She had the whole academia thing ahead of her and I’m sure she would land herself a brilliant job, probably in medicine – as that was what she wanted to get into. As for me I had no idea what I wanted, let alone how to get it. That kind of makes it difficult to create plans around. I sighed wistfully and returned to my drink. I did not enjoy the rest of the party. Tina replied only in curt one-line answers to any questions I asked and didn’t appear to be overly interested in talking at all. It took the buzz out of the whole evening.

I remained behind after the party to help Sarah clean up. It was quite a mess and I’m sure she appreciated the help. Bins had been provided but most people had left their empty bottles wherever they had finished them. It was quite a task hunting down the elusive bottles and binning them.
“Who leaves a bottle in a drain pipe?” Sarah cursed as she pulled the offending bottle and threw it in the bin with a loud clink.
“Got me,” I said with a shrug.
Sarah’s verbal tirade degenerated into a string of unintelligible swear words as she located a bottle that had been sucked up into the pool catchment area for the filter.
“I think that’s it,” I concluded, looking around the yard for any stray bottles. Tony had gone out the front to fill the bins.
“Yeah, looks okay,” Sarah agreed grumpily. I could tell she was still a little steamed about the bottle in the pool.
“Last time I throw one of these,” she grunted.
I chuckled dryly. I knew that as much as she cursed about it she loved playing host and come summer there’d be many more of these parties.
“Are you okay?” Sarah asked, placing a hand on my shoulder.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I shrugged, not really wanting to talk about it.
“Tina?” Sarah smiled. I often forget how intuitive she can be.
I nodded vaguely and grinned, hoping she’d change the subject.
“Well, I’m here to talk if you need,” Sarah smiled. “But don’t say anything too mean. She’s my friend after all and I don’t need to know any bedroom details either!” She snickered, tousling my hair.
I genuinely chuckled at that. Sarah really knew how to lighten the mood.
“You always know just how to make me feel better.”
“It’s just the way I smile,” she said. Her face turned into a frown as she spotted another beer bottle. This one was lodged in a tree. The three of us kept drinking and laughing into the night. I was having fun again but I decided not to stay the night. I’d give Tony and Sarah some alone-time. I could tell Tony wanted it. It was a quiet skate home. The funny thing about skating at night is that you always seem to be going faster at night than during the day.
It was relatively flat from Sarah’s place to mine so it wasn’t exactly a challenging skate. Not that that was really an issue anymore, I didn’t get the same buzz from a steep decent any longer – not with the ability to pull myself telekinetically to a halt at a thought. Skating had now simply become just another mode of transport and not the source of entertainment and excitement that it used to be.
It’s sad how life can change the simple pleasures into routine – it’s kind of a bitch that way.

* * * *

On the train ride out to the city next morning, I determined that I would break up with Tina and see Renee again. I’d been a little concerned about how she would take another intrusion, but figured that she’d managed to draw this out long enough.
This time I’d get her damned phone number too.
Dad had left a note at his apartment that he would be busy for the most of the day so I scrawled a note at the bottom of his indicating that I’d be busy too. This was a regular pattern, it wouldn’t be questioned. Dad and I would catch up on Sunday morning.
It was late afternoon when I got off the tram in Carlton. I knew roughly which building Renee lived in but it was difficult to locate it from the ground. It’s quite different seeing a building in the distance and then trying to locate that same building on foot. The tram dropped me off a little way off the main strip in Carlton and it was a short walk to the shopping precinct. I thought Renee’s building was just on the other side of the shopping strip. I spent some time wandering past the shops. I’d never come out this way before.
It seemed that every second shop was either a pizzeria or a gelato store. I’d have to come back here at some point for dinner as some of the restaurants looked quite appealing. Several shop owners tried to tempt me inside with offers of free garlic bread as an incentive to lure me in but I waved them off.
The building I thought was Renee’s turned out to be fairly easy to spot in the distance several blocks away. It didn’t take me too long before I turned off the main street and down a side street that I guessed would take me to Renee’s building. To judge from the houses on this street, this was quite a wealthy area.

I was standing outside the building that I believed to be Renee’s when I encountered my first problem. There was a security door preventing entrance into the building and a series of buttons each relating to an apartment number. I had no idea which apartment Renee was in. I was almost positive that this was her building but had no way of proving it.
“Twitch?” Renee called out suddenly from behind me. I jumped in fright as I was so focused on the building that I hadn’t been paying attention to the street. I turned to see Renee behind me. She looked slightly out of breath as if she’d recently run somewhere.
“What are you doing here?” She smiled, her lips twisting into a slightly mocking curl.
“I was in the area and wanted to see if you wanted to get a coffee?” I stammered back a little lost for words. I hadn’t actually thought what I’d say to her. This was typical of my brilliant planning skills.
“I’ve just had a coffee,” Renee replied straight-faced.
“Okay, can I reimburse you for that one?”
Renee tried to keep a straight face, but slowly cracked into a grin. “You’re an idiot.” She smiled, pushing past me and unlocking the door. “Come on in.”
“So, this is your house then eh?” I asked, secretly pleased with myself.
“Yeah.” Renee nodded as we walked up the steps towards the top level. There were about twenty or so apartments in the building. Renee’s apartment was right at the top.
“Wow, this place is amazing,” I murmured as she opened the door to let me in. “You live here alone?”
I couldn’t believe the size of the place.
Renee’s apartment was an open plan lounge/kitchen set up with several bedrooms off the main entrance. She had a large sofa couch along the far wall with a massive TV and entertainment system on the opposing wall. Interesting old film posters covered the walls and she had a bookcase overflowing with books. There were also some large and colourful canvasses. I didn’t know much about art and I couldn’t work out what they were depicting. Renee shrugged and threw her bag onto an armchair and curled up on the couch. She gestured towards one of the armchairs next to the couch.
“Well, actually this is my grandfather’s house,” Renee explained. “But he’s overseas at the moment, he travels quite a lot.”
“That’s kind of a cool set up,” I said, “having the place all to yourself.”
“He checks in on me  from time to time,” Renee continued.
“What does he do for a job? I assume he travels for work.”
Renee gave me a funny look but smiled back. “I’m not actually sure what he travels for – he certainly doesn’t work. Well, not that I know about anyway.”
“Mysterious,” I teased. “Maybe he’s a spy.”
Renee ignored me and I turned around to examine her apartment a little more. There were three violins on display on the sideboard near the kitchen.

“Do you play?” I asked, gesturing towards the violins.
“No, they’re my grandfather’s.”
“Not interested in music?”
“Not really.” Renee nodded. “Never really had the knack. I think my grandfather was a little disappointed at that. I paint and I make films.” She pointed to the stack of canvasses in the corner and on the far wall. “What about you? You play anything?” Renee continued.
I felt embarrassed. Renee had hobbies, interests, ambitions. I had nothing. Should I tell her about roller-blading? Does that count as a skill? “No, I don’t, but not through lack of trying,” I replied. “My mother is musical, she spent quite a lot of time trying to teach me.”
“Didn’t stick?”
“Not as such,” I concluded sourly. “I think I had more music lessons in my childhood than most people have in their lifetime – piano, guitar, trumpet, drums.” I quickly rattled off the full list.
“And you can’t play any of them? Not even a little?”
“Not even to save myself,” I said.
“Music’s not your thing, eh?”
“Actually, that’s not quite true – I love music,” I argued. “I guess I was just a little undisciplined as a child.”
“Ever think about taking something up now, or are you undisciplined as an adult too?”
“Nice.” I smiled, a little hurt by her intimation, however correct it may be.