After a moment, Liz went on, her voice lighter:
"But just like everything has its opposite, or its bane as people say, mind-readers also have minds they can not read…"
"Like yours."
Liz smiled brightly.
"Like mine, yes. But also like yours. At least until recently."
That made me look up in curiosity, because, how could she have known that I was an insulator when she could not read minds to check? But then, my eyes widened, as realization dawned on me. Or rather, it was an understanding I had not tried to dig into since the months that had passed, and which was now brought up to the surface.
"Mom and dad!"
My exclamation drew a somewhat sad, somewhat bitter smile out of Liz, and she nodded, her expression made miserable by the grief hidden behind it. She nodded, and said softly:
"Yes, mom and dad. They spent decades after taking over after grandpa and grandma on the research about the mind and mind-reading. They must have found something, and that is why dad shifted from engineering more focused bioengineering to engineering and programmation. There are many details I don't know, but… that must be why they died. They all died."
Liz's voice softened, then cracked with grief she seemed to have been putting under a lid. It was like only now was she cracking under the weight she had been the only one to bear.
My eyes stung, and I lowered my head, embraced Liz, and accompanied her in silence while ignoring the droplets falling down on me.
Wrapped in a piece of quiet sadness, we spent a few minutes like that, before I asked softly:
"Then, sis, do you know the secret our parents hid? Did they lose it before dying? Or they died because they hid it too well? They must have been threatened, right?"
"I…"
Liz stopped, and let out a light breath. When she spoke again, her voice had regained the usual lightness. She pushed me off her to look me in the eyes, and smiled:
"Let's stop here for today, alright? We can talk about the rest some other day."
I looked into the reddened soft eyes, and I nodded softly. After that, I don't know when I managed to fall asleep. It must have been some time later, but not too late, since I woke up less tired than I expected, after a night empty of any dream.
I exhale, about to dive back into the information I got yesterday, when I am interrupted by a bright voice:
"Max! I knew you would not skip class today, and here you are!"
Emmie arrives beside me like a red hurricane of energy. We have not been in contact for the last day or two, exchanging only a few short texts while I thought through my decision to get a tattoo, and piercings.
"You are here."
"Huh!?"
Emmie pauses when I look up and smile quite genuinely when compared to the empty curves of the lips I have shown lately, at least the few times I have not simply looked at the world with a taciturn face. Her eyes flash with surprise, and she looks at me carefully before she suddenly exclaims:
"Max, something is different about you!"
Fortunately, her loud voice doesn't rattle the windows. Still, it pulls the attention on us, making the background mental noise pauses, then with focus, with me as the center. I frown, open my mouth, then smile helplessly. I catch Emmie by the hand and pull her down onto the seat at the side before chiding her:
"First, lower your voice. Second, what do you think is making me look different?"
"Them? Don't care about them. Tell me, what did you do yesterday? At first, I thought you would stay at home, but then I recalled your tone, and I think you had something you wanted to do planned. So, how did it go? What did you do? I think that is the source of your change."
I blink at the machine-gun-like output, and smiles helplessly, unsurprised by the disdain for our classmates Emmie showed. She is not discriminating against them, only against anyone bothering her and being a busybody, even a silent one.
My smile deepens and I shake my head, then lower it to look at our hands that have remained connected, before I open my mouth to reply.
"Actually, I got a tattoo yesterday. And I got my ears pierced too. I wanted to put an end to the depression from what happened not long ago, to bring things to a true closure."
"You got a piercing!?! So good! Now we will be able to choose earrings together when we are shopping. I will not be the only one to look through them. Also, a tattoo!? Where did you get it? Can I look? Was it painful?"
Well, at least, as excited as she is, she only shook my hand, and whispered loudly instead of talking loudly. Though, I don't know whether to laugh or cry when she asked to see my new tattoo before caring about the pain it caused when it came about, and is still causing, by the way.
So much for being a friend, no, a best friend. I blink, then shake my head inwardly again and correct myself. So much for not being a friend, nor a best friend, but a girlfriend.
I smile at her sparkling eyes.
"I can't take off my clothes right now, so you will have to wait."
Emmie's eyes brighten with curiosity, searching my body for where I could have gotten that tattoo below my clothes. I shake my head, and change the subject before she starts feeling like unboxing me as if I were a gift pack.
"How were the sales at the mall while I was resting?"
Emmie's eyes immediately start to shine with a glow that does not threaten me anymore, her happiness almost overriding the mental noise around.
"You don't know, but the new year has made the sales climb so high! Even though there was competition between all the shops, we still got many more customers than usual, and they spent even more than they usually do! The commission I received alone is almost enough to rival the record you made. I really regret that you were not there. If you had come, you could have set a new record and gotten even more than me. I would have also ridden on your coattails…"