Chapter 29
Addison put the finishing touches on Janis’s freshly painted toenails, and returned the nail polish brush to its bottle.
“All done,” she said, grinning. “Hope you’re wearing open-toed shoes to prom, or I’m gonna be the only one to see my hard work.”
Janis hesitated to reply, but eventually gave a chuckle. “Yeah, I’ve got the right shoes.”
She was always doing that. It was like her mind was working on a delay, not giving her the right words immediately. Well, that didn’t seem to stop her from apparently being a hacking prodigy. Perhaps she just had social anxiety or something.
Addison supposed she hadn’t made it particularly easy for Janis to feel at ease with her. Maybe she’d been too stand-offish; but then again, she apparently had the most to deal with.
Time travel. Jeez. She was still trying to wrap her head around the explanation Janis had given her.
She’d said that Sam would become someone else, assuming their identity, and would spend a period of time from a few hours to a few weeks working on improving some historical outcome.
Addison wasn’t sure what to think of that. It sounded like a frightening violation of privacy—on the other hand, by what her mother and Al had said, he apparently had done a whole lot of positive things. She supposed that if she could consent to someone saving her on her worst day in exchange for giving up control of herself, then she’d probably agree to it.
“Thanks, Addison,” Janis said, wiggling her toes and pulling away the foam toe separators. “The black really matches my whole aesthetic.” He gestured a hand over his face and hair.
“You do have a certain emo thing going on,” she said. “I don’t think I have the guts to dye my hair black.”
Janis smiled. “And why would you?” She reached out a hand, playfully flicking at Addison’s dangling locks. “I love your golden hair. ‘Au naturale’ is a good look on you. At least, that’s what I think.”
“You really think so?” Addison bashfully played with the ends of her hair that she’d never really been proud of. It was just hair, right?
“Your hair is beautiful, Addison.”
At the expression on her face, Addison began to wonder if Janis was flirting with her.
Nah, she has a girlfriend already. Don’t be so self-absorbed.
To her surprise, though, she didn’t feel that uncomfortable about it, even if that was Janis’s intent. She’d never considered that she might not be exclusively attracted to boys, but Janis… well, it seemed this slightly strange girl was testing that resolve. Though she couldn’t articulate in her head why that was.
Of course, she’d never say anything about it. Hell no.
By the time Addison had come out of the thought, Janis was looking away. She stood, suddenly distracted.
“I’ve gotta use the bathroom,” she announced, and headed quickly towards the hall.
Huh? Addison suddenly felt as though she’d said something wrong. She stood, following Janis unseen to the bathroom to make sure she wasn’t upset or anything.
As she approached, she heard Janis talking from behind the door. Was she making a phone call? Had she gotten a text or something while they’d been talking that had caused this sudden change?
She pressed her ear to the door, and immediately began to second-guess her eavesdropping, but then…
“You’re the expert on all this… yeah, but Addison won’t be able to… how important are we talking here? Okay, okay, Addison will be fine, even though it’ll be—well, you know—doubly awkward under the circumstances. Just keep yourself standing by in case I need you. I’ll send her to bed and we can get started.”
Addison wasn’t sure what this meant, but it sounded like it had something to do with her. And whatever it was sounded incredibly shady. Just what was Janis involved in? Was there some other reason Janis had been eyeing her at the mall? Was all of this some kind of trap?
Addison scurried away from the door and back into the living room in time to be sitting quietly on the couch as Janis returned.
“Uh listen,” Janis said, clasping her hands, “It’s getting pretty late and I have some hacking to get done. Wanna call it a night?”
“Um, sure,” Addison said stiffly, standing up and following Janis to the guest room, where a single bed stood all made up, her overnight bag on top of the sheets.
“Feel free to use the pool in the morning,” Janis said. “I’ll probably be sleeping in, because I’m gonna be up all hours.”
Addison sat on the bed. “Sure thing. Good night, Janis.”
Janis pulled shut the door, and Addison now felt like doing anything but sleeping, worrying that someone was going to catch her unawares and throw her in an unmarked van. With her kickboxing, she could definitely take Janis, maybe her Dad. But both at once? Probably not.
She crossed to the window, which thankfully was at the ground level—the whole place was a sprawling single-level home—and opened it. Well, at least it wasn’t bolted shut or something.
After landing unceremoniously in a bush, she dusted herself off and crept out into the chilly night. Although her instincts were to just get the hell out of there, she couldn’t just let her mother be left to whatever was going on here. Problem was, she wasn’t sure where the other guest room was in relation to the perimeter of the house. She would just have to check each window as she got to it and hope there was enough light to see in.
But as she began to creep to the first of the windows, a hand closed around her mouth, along with a tight grip around her midriff.
Acting purely out of instinct, she let her martial arts training take over, jabbing the assailant in the ribs with her elbow, loosening their grip just enough to pull away and land a punch into their face.
Then the fight was on. The shadowy figure recovered from the punch, lunging at Addison. She responded with a kick, which the unknown figure—a man?—blocked easily. It seemed he too was well-trained in fighting, which made Addison’s adrenaline spike even higher.
“How long?” The shadowy figure demanded in a fierce whisper, going in for another punch. Addison attempted to dodge it, but the punch still managed to land on her shoulder hard.
“How long what?” she whispered back. She wasn’t sure why the man was whispering, if he was working with the rest of the freaks here, but she sure didn’t want to alert them.
She took a few steps back, raising her fists as she awaited a response.
“How long have you been here? Was it since dinner? Or maybe even earlier?”
Addison frowned as she realised the voice belonged to Sam. He was in on all this too?
“What do you mean? You watched me leave to come here.”
“When did you leap into Addison? And—while we’re at it—why?”
Leap into?
“Sorry, what?”
Sam grabbed her by her shirt, forcing her against the fence. “Are you here to destroy my life?” The moonlight caught a tear in his eye. “I just got it back…”
Addison was seriously puzzled at this turn of events. “What are you talking about?” she demanded. “I thought you were supposed to be the guy who did the ‘leap’ thing. Why are you—” Unable to keep back the shock of what was happening, her lip quivered, and she choked up. “Why are you fighting me? I’m only sixteen… I’ve never even been in a real fight! Please…”
At this, Sam seemed to realise exactly what he was doing. His face fell, and he let go of her.
“I’m… I’m sorry,” he said, stepping away from her. “I thought… I thought you weren’t you.”
Addison rubbed her shoulder. “W-why?”
“Because I have… enemies. Other people who leap through time and hide inside people to do awful things. And during dinner, I thought maybe I sensed a hologram. Then I came here and saw you climb out of the window and…” He shook his head. “I think I let my paranoia get away from me. I’m so sorry, Addie. I can’t believe I would hurt you.” He ran a bedraggled hand over his face, avoiding her eye in shame.
Eyes wide, all the things Addison had learned over the evening began to assemble into a full picture, and all pointed to one possibility. Her heart began to pound.
“Wait, a hologram?” she said quietly. “That’s like, an invisible person hanging around that talks to a time traveller, right?”
“Right,” Sam said, still not finding it in him to look at her.
“So let’s say I overheard someone talking about me in a one-sided conversation in the bathroom…”
Sam’s head snapped up, and he finally looked her in the eye. “Oh, god. Who?”
“…Janis.”
Sam looked completely gutted by this answer. He processed it for a moment, before rubbing his eyes.
“Addison, I’m so sorry I hurt you… and I wouldn’t ask this if it wasn’t incredibly important—” he dropped to his knees in an apparent attempt to look less threatening, “—but I could use your help.”