A high chance encounter.

I had forgotten two things. One, Thomas hadn’t experienced what it was to use the Ouija board. And two, Thomas was fucking terrified of ghosts. His face went white as a paper sheet as when his eyes followed my gaze and set on the wooden spirit board.

“You’re kidding, right?” he exclaimed with an awkward smile.

“It works. That’s how we know what little we do about…”

“You know, it’s fine!” Thomas said, hastily standing up from his seat with a very nervous laugh. “I’m not really that curious.”

The way he was fidgeting really said enough, even without noticing that his hands were shaking and that they’d gone white as well. I didn’t have it in me to insist. Or tease him for it. Yet.

“Alright, then we don’t use the board. It’s really awkward to use, anyway.” Especially since I sort of had a more direct line to use now if Frey chose to visit at night. And if she let me remember the dreams. That was still very inconsistent and… well, pointless. I was starting to believe Frey might be more self-conscious than she let on. “I’ll try to figure things out on my own and I’ll tell you if it’s important. Is that okay with you?”

“Y-Yes…” Thomas sighed. “Sorry, man. It’s just… This kind of stuff freaks me the fuck out. Even if it’s harmless, I’d rather not think about it.”

“But you HAVE been thinking about it.”

“Couldn’t help it, alright? What we talked about yesterday did that. And then… Bah. It’s nothing. Forget this conversation ever happened.”

“Can’t do. I don’t have much ammo to tease you with, so I’m keeping this.”

“Ugh, this was a mistake…”

As much as he whined, he was over it by second recess when we went to bother Kevin together. Still, I was curious about what he had stopped himself from telling me but I didn’t even need to ask. I found out later that day at work while talking to Maria.

“So… You gave Thomas some advice yesterday?” she asked me during a lull of customers. She was grinning widely and looked just as radiant as Lena did.

I let out a loud, unexpected snicker before I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose. “Him, too? And he had the gall to make fun of Kevin for it. Also, can’t these guys keep it to themselves?”

Maria laughed. “He called me all of a sudden and said he wanted to meet. When he started trying stuff he’d never done before, I knew something was up. Didn’t take much to get it out of him.”

You know, I better keep my comments to myself. I don’t think I’d fare much better myself, and it’s always five against one when it comes to getting secrets out of me. See why I don’t even bother lying?

“And you’re just comfortable telling me you spent a good night with your boyfriend, huh?”

“What? Does it bother you? I know more about your sex life than I should, Oliver. And at this point, you’re almost like a little brother.”

“You know that only makes it weirder, right? At least, it should.” I sighed. “I’ve grown too used to sex talk and I don’t think that’s good.”

“It’s fine so long as you’re careful who you talk to. I know people far more explicit that reach vulgar levels of sex talk,” Maria said. “Just keep it reasonable, and if you’re willing to give my boyfriend more tips, even better.”

“Well, I did owe you from hooking me up with Diana.”

Our conversation was cut short by a trio of customers coming in, so we left it at that. Still, it was funny to think about it now, but there was a point in my life where hearing that other people were having good sex would’ve only made me depressed. Back then it was really difficult to feel happy for others. Unarguably petty, I’ll admit.

But yeah, that was my Tuesday. Peaceful, uneventful, but weird. Never thought girls would ever be thanking me for giving sex tips to their boyfriends, but hey, more people having good sex means more people are happy, and that’s just a net positive for the world. Wednesday, though… was even weirder, and it was all on account of one single encounter.

I had made plans to get together with Diana. To make up for being busy, I spent the whole morning before classes, every recess and all of lunch break in the club room with the girls.

Really, we might have pushed it too far that day. Doing it in the morning when no one was around was one thing. Sneaking a quickie every other moment throughout the day was already risky. But doing it at every opportunity we got? It’s a wonder we didn’t get caught, but… Yeah, we kinda got off to it. We didn’t even put the Silence runes to use because not being able to hear anything is just creepy, but we should’ve. We did use the stillness runes to temporarily make the table a firmer piece of furniture that could handle… more forceful stuff.

When school was over, I went home to get changed then took a bus to Diana’s workplace, Pleasure Lake Hotel. We weren’t going to stay there. I was just waiting for her to get off work so we could do something else, so I stood outside after texting her. Ten minutes after that, she texted me again.

-Diana: I’m so sorry! I’m a bit late. One of the staff members lost the key to a room and I have to help her find it. Give me 10 more minutes tops.

-Oliver: Don’t worry. Take your time.

And so I waited outside the hotel for a total of 20 minutes. I had no idea of knowing it then, but what happened then had a fairly high chance of occurring.

“Hm? Oh, you! You’re… Oliver, aren’t you? Oliver Brook! The young man who helped Jennifer!”

It startled me, but for some reason I remembered his voice well. Tall, slender, young-looking face, bulky blonde hair swept to the side and wearing an elegant black business suit with a green tie.

Having just stepped out of his expensive-looking car, Mr. Luke Allen was walking up to me.

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