Page 93 of The Commons

I notice Levon’s eyes light up when he mentions that he wanted to help the elderly, but she looks away instantly to hide her emotion.

“Yeah, yeah. I think he’s right,” Pesh says, looking intently at the image.

“You can’t hack this Begon right here until you get Patron De Londe’s thoughts to release the information. Damn, I thought I was the only one who knew this technology. I thought I was gonna be like the next Einstein or something,” Swin expresses.

“Someone’s full of themselves,” Levon teases.

“What if we can hack the sensor in his head instead?” I comment to keep the conversation in focus.

“We can try. I mean, we can’t control his thoughts, obviously! But we can try to send a virus through the sensor that forces him to get his doctor person to take it out, whoever that is!” Swin responds.

“How long is that gonna take?” Levon asks.

“I can send a virus into the chip. What’s the deadline again, guys?” Swin asks.

“A week for the team to collect everything you hack into a chip. A few hours for you to hack this sensor if that’s possible?” I ask.

“Everything’s possible if you believe!” Swin comments while typing.

Levon rolls her eyes at his optimism.

“I’ll give you an ETA in few minutes,” Swin says. His hands begin to race on the keyboard, nonstop, his eyes fixated on it.

“In the meantime, let me show you guys your rooms.” Pesh turns to Levon and me.

Pesh leads us through the regal hallway and to a door. We come to a stop.

Just as Levon and I are about to enter through the door, he secretly takes my hand, though Levon notices it. “I need to tell you something,” he whispers in my ear.

“Now?” I look into his eyes.

“Later.”

Levon notices us whispering and coughs in a suspicious way.

“I’ll let you two catch up,” Pesh says with a subtle smile, then his gaze unintentionally stays on me.

Levon looks at us in realization of our attraction. Pesh tilts his head, then walks out, a smile in his eyes.

Levon and I enter into the spacious room with two beds. The walls are pure white, and there are geometric diamond and square lights hanging from the ceiling. The floor is covered with marble-like tiles with beige and white undertones. There is a Rubik’s cube–like dresser on the side of both beds with a lamp on top.

I walk to the dresser beside the red bed and open it up to see brand new clothes and a stack of towels. “This is quite impressive!” I comment.

Levon looks at me, stunned. “You know what’s impressive? You and Peshhh? Whattt?”

“I don’t know, it just sort of happened,” I walk to her and we both sit, staring at one another.

“You are not me, my dear. Things don’t just sort of happen for you. You’re my good, innocent, precious baby sister.”

“Yeah, but he helped me find you. And that’s all that matters to me!”

“Mmm, maybe I’ll hesitate from annihilating him completely until we’re out of this mess.”

I smile at her joke. Something about Levon isn’t quite the same. It is as though she operates as usual, but I can tell that her soul has been through terrible things that I cannot put my finger on. It is as though I don’t even know her anymore; but I try to completely ignore that thought and continue as usual.

But it is weighing on me.

To love, one must be transparent with the subject of affection; but I feel as though her heart is too cloudy for me to find windows to see her reflection.