☆ Evan ☆

From a distance, Northwood looks like a flat slab of the landscape. It's like trying to read a sign from afar, but standing so far away from it that the words jumble together. The colours absorb into the writing, but as the distance narrows, it gains definition. The splash of colour becomes letters, and the letters become words. The horizon becomes a slice of land. Houses that previously looked close begin to shift away.

This town looks the same, no matter what direction I've seen it from. Whether I'm coming or leaving, like it stops existing once it's out of sight.

When Adrian lived in Northwood, his apartment faced the water. I pointed to it, once, and said, That's where Randall is. As if my father could see him when he looked. The ocean was so vast. It connected me to a world I hadn't seen. It connected me to both of my parents.

Adrian tried to brush it off. He knew Randall and Carolyn were together; they had been for years. But I was insistent on telling him the story of my first boat trip to Newfoundland, and so he said, You've seen the mountains, and you've seen Northwood. There's nothing else to see, now that you've seen the world.

And maybe he just felt bad for me. But maybe he was right.

"Evan?" Nicole asks from next to me. I turn my face away from the hotel's window, forcing myself to stop staring at the bay. The glare from the setting sun creates a reflection of the Croix Hotel's lobby. The front desk is a patch of black against a yellow background, like a doorway to another universe.

Nicole watches me as I set out the snacks on the table between us. She returns to her laptop, her nails clicking against the keyboard. In a nearby seat, Dina, a recent addition to the club, glances at Nicole when she isn't looking. Dina's hands are folded on her lap, and occasionally she reaches to fix the clip holding her raven hair behind her head. She leans over to ask, "What are you doing?"

I can see the screen in the lens of Nicole's glasses; lines of bright green text crossing the screen. "Nothing."

"It looks like a doomsday clock," I say.

The three of us stare at Nicole's screen in rapt silence. After twenty-six seconds, Dina says, "I don't see it."

Nicole shrugs as Peter comes back into the room, dressed in business casual and carrying the sign letters from the marquee outside.

"I fucking called it," Nicole says under her breath. "What did I tell you? I knew you'd have to get some work done."

In confirmation, Dina nods. As Peter rounds the desk, Nicole tries to pull him back. This tug-of-war continues until he finally grabs a key card and says, "We're not staying down here. It's quieter on the top floor."

I glance outside. The vacancy sign outside flashes bright neon orange, a second sun against the same shade behind it. A new set of winter rates accompany it.

Jay and Lexa are coming later, so the three of us head to the room prepared for us. Two double beds stand between the side table in the middle of the room.

A lamp in the shape of a flower sits atop it next to the restaurant's menu and an old telephone. The navy blue curtains block out any trace of brightness. There's ample space to move around; with the connecting ensuite bathroom, this room is bigger than mine at home. And staring at my feet, the geometric pattern of carpet swirls like it's a map.

As Nicole sets up the movie on her laptop, she smiles at me. "You know, you seem like you could be an actor."

Latent tendrils of resent and bitter anger coil up from within me, causing the hairs on my neck to stand. I feel a vein in my arm twinge, and I instinctively press my hand against it. She must notice the look on my face, because she turns back and asks, "Okay, if you don't want to become world famous, what will you become known for?"

I think back to Lucas and Sebastian's superlatives. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that what they had planned for me included Claire. I wonder if they could see it in a way that I couldn't, as if I was driving through a tunnel for three years, completely absorbed in staying there. And now that I'm out of the tunnel, I can see it fading behind me. "I don't know. I'm definitely not set on becoming a famous scientist like either of you."

"Nicole's going for world domination, actually," Peter says. Nicole smacks him with her sweater sleeve and sets her computer at the centre of our semi-circle. The snack bowl stays between Dina and me, though neither of us is touching it.

"You'll spare us, right?" Dina says.

Nicole nods. "Of course! You can all be my evil henchmen. My Stormtroopers, if you will—that's a reference Evan is going to understand once we're finished."

"Okay, okay, just because I haven't seen the movies, that doesn't mean I don't know anything about them. That's like if I pretended you didn't know what a touchdown was."

She lifts an eyebrow and, her voice thick with sarcasm, says: "A what?"

Once we've started the marathon, time flies by. The candy bowl is empty by the time Lexa and Jay arrive as the credits roll. Lexa is more interested in hearing how it went, and I'm subjected to sixteen minutes of listening to Nicole summarize. As soon as she finishes, the topic switches back to the club. We gather around Dina as she signs her name on the sixth line, then erupts into cheers.

"Since this is officially a club activity, I'd like to give a speech." Nicole stands and holds her hands to her heart, but she's unable to hide the grin on her face. "I'm kidding, but seriously, we should celebrate."

Lifting his hand towards the ceiling in objection, Jay replies, "For once, maybe we could do something else."

"Why are you here?" It sounds like Nicole is still joking, but I can't tell for sure. She teeters towards him, stuck in the waning light from outside. When Jay doesn't answer, she repeats the question, a little less accusatory this time.

"Here, on this planet? That's an extreme question. Does anyone know the answer to that?"

Nicole says, "You know what I mean."

The curtains shuffle in the breeze. It carries the scent of the brush outside. The warmth provided by the sealed light reminds me of a sticky summer afternoon. "There's not much point in staying part of a club if it's not your thing," I say.

Jay's eyes flicker to Lexa. "I was promised astrology," Lexa replies. "I think this is the first club to start out with a lie."

"It's what I'm good at." Nicole swipes the snack bowl and dumps a handful of candy into her palm. She separates them by type and colour, organizing the gummy candies away from the chocolate. The rows are almost perfectly spaced out against the carpet, following the pattern on the floor. "What? I might have said I would learn tarot, but I've been busy."

"I can read palms," Dina offers softly.

"Really?" Nicole's eyes are wide. She plucks a red candy off her row and offers it to Dina as payment. "Show me."

Dina stands and carefully takes Nicole's right hand. "You see, the right hand usually symbolizes the future, the left is the past. You have five major lines, right? Those that connect to life and marriage and all that. There are two others—sun and health. Those are my favourite." She pauses to examine her palm, tracing certain indents. Nicole tries to hold herself still. Twittering, her foot taps against her shin, fast like the wings of a hummingbird.

"You have a sun line. See? It comes straight down from your ring finger. It might mean you can become famous."

"How can you tell?" Lexa asks.

Dina shrugs. "It's just a line. It doesn't necessarily mean anything. I wouldn't use it to predict the future, or anything like that. But this is a very prominent sun line. That's why I noticed. Show me your hand, Lexa, I'll compare it."

Lexa offers their own palm. "This feels much safer than using an ouija board."

"I have one of those. I should have brought it," Nicole tells them. She turns to Peter. "Having spirits in the hotel might bring you more guests. Haunted hotels are cool."

He gives her a weak smile. When I chuckle, he meets my eyes for the briefest second. We've gone back to the way it used to be—where he avoids me. It isn't anger, necessarily, but it's a form of silence that surpasses his usual quiet. It's the silence that comes when I don't want to be bothered, so I shut my door, but I know I'm not alone. There's activity outside, and I'm an outsider looking in. "I don't think that's the best idea."

"I wouldn't suggest messing with that," Dina advises. "You have a sun line too, Lexa. But yours is faint."

"I'm going to be more famous than you," Nicole says.

Dina moves on to show the rest of the group. When she takes my hand, she immediately looks away again.

"What?" I ask.

She covers her face with her arm. "Nothing." Dina coughs. "You have two marriage lines."

"Of course he does. Fucking player. Leave it to you to be the only person with a dramatic palm-reading." Jay leans over to punch me on the arm.

"It's not that uncommon," Dina says, a touch too late. She points at her hand, where there are multiple tiny jagged lines in the same spot as mine. "I have multiple, see? But yours are both distinct. I'm supposed to read the most prominent line, but they're both pretty much the same. Maybe you should talk to your girlfriend. It's always nice to compare the lines and see if they match up."

Nicole chuckles. "How is she, anyway?"

"Well, um." I scratch behind my neck, wondering how to broach the subject. I could lie; the response is forming at the tip of my tongue, and I could let it slip. We're still together—she's just a bit mad at me right now. But it doesn't seem like the sentiment fits here. "We broke up. I don't think we're getting back together."

"No way," says Jay. "Weren't you dating Claire Lethbridge? She's hot."

This gets him an elbow to the chest from Lexa. He seethes in pain, rubbing the area while sulking away from them. "Ow, Lex. Do you want me to take it back or what?"

Lexa nods towards me. I just shrug. My face is red, and I can feel Peter staring at me. "Really, it's fine. I don't care anymore. It was for the best."

Light bursts into the room. The sun sinks over the horizon. I stare down at my hands. One of the lines Dina pointed out seems fainter, but it's a different line on both hands. The path diverts in two directions, mixing with the twisting love line. I don't have the mark of the famous like Nicole and Lexa, but I'm not sure I want that.

"You can say what you want about Claire. I don't care," Lexa replies.

"That rhymes," Nicole points out.

Lexa watches her. "Thank you, child genius. I never would have realized."

Nicole pokes Lexa's cheek. Her nails are sharp, and it leaves a mark on their face. "Maybe it's time for Canley to go to bed. Don't be so stuck up."

"I plan on staying up until midnight," Lexa says. "At least until we can see the stars, and then it was a legitimate club activity."

Nodding, Nicole casts a look out the window. She seems to reach the conclusion that midnight is hours away. I move to reach for my pocket, where I can check the time. My internal clock ticks away. Before my home screen lights up, Nicole says, "Have you ever stayed up all night?"

Her question is directed towards Peter, but my eyes snap onto her, regardless.

"Of course I have," he says evenly. "I stay up to do homework all the time."

"That doesn't answer the question," I point out. His eyes locate mine. I tilt my head, lifting an eyebrow.

"You pretty much pass out if you don't get exactly eight hours of sleep," Nicole says. "Some things are probable, and this isn't one of them. Some things are... like, they offset the axis of the universe."

"Come on. I work the late shift at work all the time," Peter argues.

I tease, "Oh, yeah?"

"Just watch me. I can do it easily."

"I'd like to see you try."

After a few hours of cycling through conversations and Nicole seeking to learn how to become a prophet, eventually, Lexa stands and tugs the curtains back to see outside. "The sun is setting!" they shout.

The world has turned a smoke-coloured white with intense light as if the sun has become a beast with an insatiable appetite and consumed its surroundings whole.

When my vision adjusts, and the floating particles disperse, I can see that Lexa is pointing above me, to the roof. "Why don't we go and see?"

The corner suite of the hotel has a balcony, which lies through a glass door. Peter leads us there, and the group files into the tiny space. The air is icy, pushing a chill through my layers of clothing. The sky has turned to tinted orange, a shade that mixes with purple and pink. It darkens with every passing second. My socks rest against the concrete floor.

Nicole carries the snack bowl in her hands, protecting it like she would with a child. Jay and Lexa are sitting side by side.

I sit a fair distance away from Peter. Looking out at the trees in the distance of his property; I can see his house in the distance, protected by trees pressed together. Houses sit at the furthest edge of the bay, placed against uneven rocks and stretches of grassy area. The sand is coated with immense boulders slick with seawater and home to bright white lichen.

Peter reaches for Nicole's snacks. She gives it to him. "Want some?" he asks.

"Yeah, sure."

He offers the bowl to me. "If I'm planning on staying up all night..."

I look at him. His expression softens, and I clarify: "You don't have to, you know. It was just a suggestion. It's not like we're playing truth or dare."

"I can't back down. What kind of person would that make me? Nicole seems pretty serious about the whole suggestion."

I shrug. "I suppose, but you're not Nicole." Leaning closer to him, I continue, "I'll tell you a secret. As long as you stay up later than everyone else, nobody will know you were sleeping."

He considers this for about three seconds. "Well, I agree... that logic works, up to a point."

"So, what's the point?"

He taps Nicole on the shoulder and returns the snacks to their rightful owner. She digs into eating the rest in record time. "See," Peter says, "it makes sense. But what happens when everyone wakes up in the morning, and I'm asleep?"

I fall silent. "Oh, damn it. I hadn't thought of that."

"Of course you hadn't."

"Okay, now you're back to thinking I'm an idiot."

He smiles, nodding slightly. "But it's not a bad thing, I promise you."

Sarcastically, I agree with him. "I guess you could set an alarm."

He goes back to thinking about it. It takes him a little longer to prove me wrong this time. "If there was a way to do that without waking everyone up, I would do it. But I need to commit."

I tilt my head. "If you're willing to cheat, that means I made the best decision. Like I chose the right suggestion, you know, for you."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

The stars littered across the vast expanse of space are becoming the only source of light, aside from the dull quarter moon obscured by wispy clouds which inch across it slowly, as though the moon is peeking out at humanity.

"Well, you don't normally break the rules," I say.

"Imagine that." He grins. "Anyway, if you have a suggestion for me, then I have one for you. It's only fair."

I look at him sidelong. "Go on. Tell me."

He pauses. "It's not weird... at least, I don't think—"

"Go on," I interrupt, nudging him with my elbow. He leans back against the brick wall of the hotel, his legs draped against the ground. In front of him, Nicole's legs dangle off the side, kicking through the air. She nearly loses a shoe from her vigorous motion.

"Ah, right. I was just thinking that because you want me to stay awake for as long as possible, the only way to make sure I don't cheat is... well, let's just put it this way. My suggestion would be for you to stay up all night." His eyes are sparkling.

"That's smart, you know? You're right. I have to make sure you go through with it. Especially since you might actually cheat for once. I mean, I have to see that happen," I say.

"It's a deal?"

"Deal," I confirm. "You are so going down."

"I'd like to see you try."