Inez retreated back to Slyder's room along with Jackie and Matt, but soon saw that Matt was no longer in the bed as she looked at Jackie. She was doing research on Slyder's laptop, rubbing the key necklace holding a studious face.
"Where did he go?" Jackie was startled by the sudden presence of her best friend. She place a hand on her chest to exhale and smiled.
"He went home. He was devastated all day, but,...he said he needed to think about a lot of things." Jackie said. She sighed as she sat back in the infamous chair belonging to her loving boyfriend. She sighed, inwardly hugging herself.
Inez opened her mouth to speak, but her mind flew over what she spoke to Slyder about earlier. "We saw Slyder earlier today."
Jackie's eyes lit up as she looked directly at Inez. She got up and sat on the bedside next to Inez to listen to her closely. Not to say she never cared for anyone else but Slyder, but she was especially concerned for him seeing that she couldn't really trust Max to look out for him and they didn't have much touch with each other.
"What happened?" She asked.
"Slyder, as usual, didn't trust Max being around me." Inez said, "But, he couldn't do anything. It looked like he was attaching the parts together after stripping Digit's old shell. I think he's going to really fix him."
Jackie smiled, "That's great."
"But, just so you know, Slyder would never abandon you like that." Inez shook her head. "He was extremely devastated after you two parted."
Jackie sighed, "I know, I seem too clingy to him. So maybe this distance would make me breathe more. Besides, sometimes you have to put your work before your feelings, to get some things done." As she felt a tear leave her eye. She wiped it.
Inez stood back as she realized the resemblance of both Jackie's and Slyder's words; as if they were ear-to-ear hearing each one of the other's words. She smiled, and came to a firm realization. Getting up she looked at the time; 7:38 PM.
"School is tomorrow. Slyder is going to miss a lot of work." Inez said.
Jackie chuckled, "That is the least of his problems. We'll worry about Cyberspace later."
Inez got up to leave, aware that she'll be heading back alone. She almost regret hurting Matt's feelings; being true but for better reasons. Closing her eyes tightly, she said good night to Jackie and left Slyder's house, walking down the street.
She glanced at the orange sky, and couldn't help but reflect on nostalgic moments in her life; that made her both sad and joyful. Inez continued to walk eastward to her house.
/
The next morning, Matt woke up staring at a science poster that motivated his interest in his future career as a mathematician. He raised up from the bed glancing at his clock that read 5:50 AM. Way too early. He decided a morning jog would keep his mind off of yesterday.
Hopping into the lukewarm shower, he drowned the crawling thoughts that been haunting him since last night. He growled to himself as he became more unsettled. He left the bathroom changing into a green sweatshirt and grey jogging pants. He grabbed his zPhone to play the soothing classical music as he left his house and started jogging down the street.
Lincoln Street was an all-round peaceful haven; though classified as an urban district, it felt more suburban and peaceful to Matt. The early red sky reminded him of the sun rising soon in a couple of hours. He felt the sweat cool on his neck against the light breeze
And then he stopped. Standing approximately 100 feet from him was no other than the one guy he ever loathed.
Max.
Neither one said a word. But to Matt, Max looked intimidating wearing dark clothes in the early morning with his eyes merely glowing. Then he slowly approached him as Matt turned his zPhone's volume down. He took a stepped forward and waited until they were at a reasonable distance.
"What do you want, clone?" Matt said bitterly. Max's eyes slightly narrowed at Matt's petty insult. He exhaled.
"I'm not here for a truce, but just to give you a hard what's up. Since you been...quite confined in your little world you should probably step back and look around you." Max said formally.
Matt grimaced.
"Whatever it is, I wouldn't give a damn." Matt then smiled harshly.
"Really mortal?" Max raised a brow slightly. "Supposed I had some valuable update on Hacker's uprising plan to take over our worlds. Suppose I had got an insight on other beings possibly trying to take his place? Would you give up everything after coming so close?"
Matt stared bitterly at the android's eyes. He could not tell whether he was telling the truth. Whatever percent human he was, he was merely showing less than 1%.
"Put aside your bitterness towards me for just a moment, and think of the bigger issue here." Max said grimacing.
"Fine." Matt agreed quickly. He wished he didn't have to deal with this guy at all; it ruined his morning jog.
"There's only 13 days left to save our worlds Matt. Thirteen Cyberdays." Max warned. "Six Earth days."
Matt's blood froze.
"Your friend Slyder has almost completed reviving the robot Digit. You should probably see him tomorrow. Second, Hacker's defenses are rapidly increasing. Third, he knows you're all there."
Matt growled, "What did you guys do there?!"
Max scoffed, "I warned that girl Inez she shouldn't have gone back to the mountains, but she insisted. We almost ran into a trap. Thank your god that your girlfriend is safe."
Matt stared coldly at the android and his aggravating attitude that pushed him on the brink of fury. Then he sighed. He was right as well.
If he wasn't around, Inez would've got caught.
"What is your plan?" Matt asked. Max raised his brows. The mortal boy never asked for his 2 cents.
"I have a lot of plans in process, but since I'm not quite in your little circle of friends I'm unaware of your retaliation against Hacker; or if you got any." Max said.
"Give us until the end of the day; we should have something." Matt told him.
"So be it." Max ended.
The two identical twins stood in silence, waiting for one or another to leave. Max began to turn.
"I will be seeing you in class." Max said. The android disappeared as it walked the opposite way and teleported from thin air. Matt stood in the same spot, looking up at the sky for a sign.
/
That morning, it was silent among the grouping squad: Jackie, Matt, and Inez. They stood outside of Slyder's house in silence as well as on the way to school. Jackie was the only one that didn't understand the silence; besides the excuse that her boyfriend was not here.
Matt could not make contact with Inez once, but her presence burn him in a way that felt so wrong and awfully tempting. He wanted to make it up to her; but holding back so much wasn't good for him at all.
Parking his bike, Matt regrouped with the girls before AP Stats; haven't said a word since yesterday. So Jackie broke the silence.
"Guys?" Jackie asked. Matt nor Inez made contact with Jackie as she folded her arms.
"You both are being childish. If you have something to say to one another, I don't need to be around you." Jackie glared as she turned her back and went inside the class. Matt breathed.
"I'm more than sorry about yesterday Inez. I was being overly dramatic about nothing." Matt said. "I was just really worried that you were doing that all by yourself with him. You know we don't trust him anyway. And...I got a little jealous."
Inez sighed as she hugged her textbooks, "I'm partial to blame Matt. I wasn't really angry with you. But when Jackie told me how upset you were, I didn't know how to deal with it. I thought I brought down this relationship a lot."
Matt's head snapped up as he looked at the lowered eyes of Inez. He lifted her chin as her glowing brown eyes from the sunlight met his. He sighed, then smiled.
"Never." As Matt hugged the girl, "I told you before; I'm never letting you go no matter what."
Inez smiled, "Thank you". As rested her head on the crook of Matt's neck and closed her eyes; feeling the sun warming her exposed neck.