Rewriting Destiny

by Meredith Taylor

  Another hand was dealt, this time a nine and a five. Kyle typed in his message to Paul and took a deep breath. Kyle’s logic told him that hitting was the best decision, but Kyle decided not to trust his own thinking. It would all be up to Paul.

  “What’s there to think about?” Riana whispered over Kyle’s shoulder. “Just hit.”

  “Shhh!” Kyle said. “I need to test out my program. Give it a chance.”

  Paul returned a message that only read: “Stay. 55.6% confidence.”

  Kyle took a deep breath, pushed in two chips, and said: “Stay.” He felt uneasy, but needed to be bold and make his point. The guys who were dealing the cards were laughing uproariously at that point, clearly thinking that they would see Kyle embarrass himself and lose R500. They turned over the dealer card and had a count of fourteen as well, and were forced to hit. When they turned over the next card, they were left in stunned silence. The next card was a jack, and the dealer was over the limit of 21.

  “Lucky guess!” the guy shouted. He passed four chips back to Kyle, and a look of determination came over his face. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

  After a few more hands, Kyle was amassing almost a hundred chips. Paul was right in every prediction after the first hiccup, and was consistently showing confidence levels of higher than 60 percent. A small crowd was starting to gather around Kyle as he kept on winning, and the guys whom he had challenged were looking increasingly annoyed. Every time he won a hand, Kyle could hear the loud gasps and whispers from the rest of the crowd. He did his best to hide Paul’s messages from prying eyes. He was proud of the fact that Paul was working so well. As Kyle scanned the room, he saw Marshall staring at him, those deep, big brown eyes growing larger with recognition and seeming to greet Kyle. Kyle just turned away. He loved the thought of Marshall seeing him be the center of attention for a change.

  Soon, Kyle had 270 chips, and he pushed all of them to the center of the table. “All in, boys,” he said. “If I win this one, it’s over. If I lose, you take all of the money.”

  The dealer had drops of sweat on his brow from frustration. “I don’t know how you’re doing this,” the guy said, “but it’ll be very bad for you once you lose this hand, you cocky bastard!”

  Kyle just smiled and watched the cards land on the table. He had a pair of queens. There was no question of what he was supposed to do. But Kyle asked Paul just to be sure. When Paul responded with the message “Hit. 75% confidence,” a few seconds later, Kyle was torn. It would be completely idiotic to hit. Anything but an ace would mean that he lost the game, and he would be the laughing stock of the party. The guys at the opposite side of the table were leering at Kyle, already seeming to admit defeat with Kyle’s winning hand. All of their faces sunk when Kyle said: “Hit!”

  Riana squealed loudly, and rushed to put her hand over her mouth as her cheeks turned red. She whispered into his ear, almost loud enough for others to hear: “What the hell are you doing, Kyle? Are you crazy? You’re so close to winning!”

  “I have to trust my software, Riana,” he said, feeling his belly turn with nerves. He said to the guys, “I’m sure. Hit me!”

  The guys were positively beaming as they pulled out the next card and placed it on the table. As the card fell, the entire room went silent. A hundred eyes were on the ace of spades that fell at the center of the table. No one even made a sound when they realized that Kyle had won. It was just too unlikely, almost spooky how accurate Paul had been.

  “How did you do that?” the dealer finally asked, his face white as a sheet. “Is it a rigged deck? Or do you have some kind of x-ray vision on your phone? I saw you typing before every hand.”

  “Well, if you really want to know,” Kyle said, clearly loving the fact that the room was in awe of what he could do, “I can predict the future. I knew which cards would come up before they were played.”

  “Nonsense!” a girl behind Kyle exclaimed. “There’s no such thing as a psychic.”

  “I agree,” Kyle responded. “It’s not psychic. It’s just science. Watch. Ask me something that you want to know, something that’ll happen pretty soon that you want to know the answer to.”

  “Okay,” the girl said, smiling and pushing her thick brown hair over her shoulder. “My chemistry marks are being posted on the student portal tonight, in just a few minutes actually. What mark will I get?”

  Kyle got the girl’s name and the class she was in, and typed the information into Paul. The girl furiously checked her phone to see if the marks had already been posted. Kyle’s phone buzzed a few tense moments later. No one in the room had moved; everyone was waiting to see if Kyle could actually predict the girl’s future. Kyle looked at the message from Paul: according to Paul, the girl would get a mark of 48% for the test. Kyle told the girl her results, and saw the look of annoyance on her face.

  “Impossible!” the girl shouted. “I’ve been studying for weeks for that test. I felt great when I finished. There’s no way I failed it. Let’s take a look; the results were just posted.” The girl’s defiant smile soon turned into a frown and then a look of complete shock. “You’re… you’re right,” she said, and tears welled in her eyes as she stormed out of the room. Kyle almost felt bad, but the looks of astonishment around him more than made up for it.

  “I’m sorry!” Kyle called out after the mortified girl. “Better luck next time!” After that, the students barraged him with requests. Nothing else mattered at the party for the rest of the night besides Kyle’s predictions, and he loved the feeling that he could impress so many people. There was just one person who didn’t seem to care about what Paul could do. Out of the corner of his eye, Kyle watched as Marshall slipped out of the sliding doors of the living room into the night, clearly not as amazed by Kyle’s program as everyone else was. Kyle had to find out why. He waved off the group of students who were still trying to ask him questions, and said that he needed to take a short break but that he would be back to answer more questions as soon as he could. Kyle went out after Marshall, ready to confront the high-school friend who he hadn’t spoken to in years.

  Chapter 4

  Marshall leaned against a wall outside in the courtyard of the Meyers twins’ home. He needed to be alone, to think about the tough decision he was facing. Besides, everyone at the party seemed way too enthralled with Kyle Abrahams, and there didn’t seem to be any point in hanging around inside. Marshall took a sip of his drink, taking a deep breath as the cool night air touched his skin. It was hard to play the part of proud rugby champion at parties, and Marshall was glad that he got the chance to take a break. There was a lot more to being the captain of the team than just playing a good game. Marshall also had to keep his team motivated and united, and he had to show up at all of the parties to make sure that no one caused any scandals that would cause Coach Barker any added stress. Marshall hated that he always had to be ‘on’.

  It was also strange seeing Kyle again after all this time. Kyle had changed a lot. When Marshall had known him in high school, Kyle had been friendly and approachable. Now, Kyle hadn’t even greeted Marshall, and just looked away when Marshall tried to make eye contact earlier. Seeing Kyle was stirring up all kinds of confusing emotions in Marshall. Marshall had always admired Kyle, who was often an outsider at school. Kyle was way smarter than the other kids; everyone knew that. Some of the other guys would pick on Kyle, but Marshall always tried to defend him. He looked up to the way that Kyle was so unashamedly himself, never caring what anyone else said about him. Kyle loved science and he pursued his dream without hesitation, even when it wasn’t what everyone else thought of as cool. When Kyle skipped two grades, no one was surprised. His talent and genius was always far beyond his years. But Marshall was hurt that Kyle seemed to drift away from him, and that they had lost touch over the years. Marshall sighed, wondering what his life would’ve been like if he had followed his own dreams the way that Kyle had pursued science.

  His thoughts were cut short by a deep voice i
n the dark: “You’re not impressed by the predictions? Not worthy of your time?” Kyle emerged from the darkness into the light of the small overhead lamp that Marshall was standing under. They were alone outside, and the music was muffled through the sliding door. Kyle had an angry expression on his face.

  “Kyle! It’s good to see you!” Marshall said, and walked over to Kyle to give him a hug. As Marshall embraced Kyle’s lanky shoulders, he felt Kyle’s body stiffen and his hug was not returned. Marshall decided to brush it off. “We haven’t spoken in so long.”

  “You didn’t answer my question,” Kyle said, seeming even more annoyed. “Are you too high and mighty to care about anything I do?”

  Marshall creased his eyebrows and tilted his head sideways. “What are you talking about? It seemed very impressive, definitely. You just seemed to be getting a lot of questions. I figured you probably didn’t want another person nagging you, so I just slipped away for a bit.”

  “Figures,” Kyle said, turning his head to the side. Kyle’s breathing was shallow, and Marshall realized that he had angered Kyle deeply for some reason. “You probably hate someone stealing the spotlight from you, right?”

  Marshall took a step closer to Kyle, and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have no idea where this is coming from. We haven’t even seen each other in so long. Maybe we should just talk about all of this. You seem really angry and I’m not sure why.”

  “For once in my life, I’m the one getting all the attention. You were always the one who everyone adored. Even at school, you were the rugby prodigy that made all the other kids swoon. It must be great being so amazing, right?” Kyle’s voice was rising, and Marshall tried to reach out his hand to calm Kyle down, but Kyle pulled away.

  “Kyle, you really have got this all wrong. I was jealous of you in school. You were a genius! You were making your dreams come true. And here you are doing great things with your life.”

  “Don’t patronize me, Marshall! You have no idea what it feels like to be treated like you’re… irrelevant, like you don’t matter at all. Why would someone like you be jealous of me?” Kyle looked ready to storm away, and Marshall grabbed his arm to stop him.

  “I’m not patronizing you. It’s a bit weird that you come here and shout at me when we haven’t even spoken in years. I’m not trying to hurt you, Kyle. I respect you. A lot. I’ve always thought of you as someone to look up to. I’m sorry if I’m not acting the way you want me to act. Maybe I just don’t believe that we can predict the future. It’s just weird to think that you’re a psychic all of a sudden.”

  Kyle looked incredulous. “It’s got nothing to do with being a psychic! It’s science. Maybe that’s too much for a jock like you to understand.” Kyle’s expression seemed to immediately change to one of regret after his harsh words, but Marshall felt the words sting him deeply. Instead of pulling back on what he had said, Kyle only hesitated for a second before he doubled down: “Besides, I’m sure it’s not hard to predict your life anyway. People like you never do anything surprising. Loved by everyone, micromanaged in your perfectly orchestrated life, you’ll just end up being exactly what everyone expects. No psychic abilities needed to see that. And you’ll just look down on people like me, people who try and do something really great with their lives.” Kyle gave a satisfied grin, and Marshall felt his insides turn. How could Kyle be so cruel to him?

  Marshall responded in a low voice, feeling defeated by Kyle’s onslaught: “Kyle, do you even know why I wanted to be friends with you in school? It’s because you didn’t care what anyone thought about you. But now, it looks like that’s all you care about. When we first started getting to know each other, I wanted to be like you. I wanted to be around you… There’s a lot more to me than you might think. Maybe I’m not as predictable as you make me out to be.” Marshall felt overcome with something in that moment. The memories of what Kyle had meant to him in high school mixed with the anger and frustration that he was feeling in the moment. How could someone that he had once admired so much, that he had once felt so connected to, be so cruel to him now? Marshall watched the shadows on Kyle’s face, the way that his sharp features and piercing, serious eyes bore into Marshall.

  Suddenly, there was a sign of tenderness. Kyle’s expression became softer, almost sad, and Marshall could see that there was a lot more to Kyle’s anger than he had thought. Kyle’s eyes sank to the ground, his shoulders slackened, and he seemed defeated. He started to say, “I…” but before he could finish his thought, Marshall moved in and grabbed Kyle by the waist, pulling their bodies tightly together. Marshall was face to face with Kyle, seeing the soft stubble on his cheeks, seeing those brown eyes looking questioningly, uncertainly, at Marshall. Something was different. All of the things Marshall had projected onto Kyle, for all of the years they had known each other, came together in that moment. “What are you doing?” Kyle whispered.

  “Surprising you,” Marshall said, and his lips met Kyle’s. Marshall put his hands on Kyle’s cheeks, feeling at first Kyle’s hesitation, and later his sweet return of the kiss. Passion exploded between them. Marshall’s hands were on Kyle’s body, those slender shoulders, his tight, thin waist, the strong chest. Kyle’s own hands were running over Marshall’s back, their hips grinding together. No words were needed. They were entranced.

  Marshall broke the kiss softly, and immediately, gently planted another quick kiss on Kyle’s lips. Kyle looked like he was barely functional as he stared back at Marshall, like he couldn’t believe what was happening. And in an instant, Kyle snapped back to reality. “What… what?” he stammered. He pushed away from Marshall, a look of bewilderment coming into his eyes. Marshall felt suddenly stupid, like he had made a terrible mistake. Did Kyle not feel the same rush of emotions that he had felt?

  Kyle rushed back into the house as Marshall watched him leave. How could he be so presumptuous? If Kyle had been mad at him before, this would surely be enough to make Kyle never speak to him again.

  ***

  Kyle didn’t even stop to think, he just ran straight to the front door of the Meyers twins’ house, grabbing Riana’s hand along the way and telling her that they needed to leave immediately. Riana didn’t question it. The look of complete shock in Kyle’s eyes was enough to tell her that something intense had happened when he had spoken to Marshall. They left the party in a flash, and Kyle started his car as soon as they hit the seats. Before a single thought could pass through his head, Kyle was driving back towards Ridgemont campus.

  “What happened, Kyle? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” Riana said, her voice high and her expression locked in a confused stare. She adjusted the large, bulky frames of her spectacles, which were askew on her nose from their hasty exit.

  “It’s just… I don’t even know where to start. It was… completely… That wasn’t what I expected at all!” Kyle felt an adrenaline rush surge through him. Kissing Marshall had been incredible. He had of course fantasized about it for a long time. Marshall was incredibly hot. But there were all sorts of mixed emotions as well. Something about Marshall had really triggered Kyle into a frenzy of anger. Kyle realized that even though everyone else at the party was giving him the attention he craved, the only person he really wanted to impress was Marshall.

  “You have to tell me what happened. And tell me about how you managed to make all of those crazy predictions tonight. You can’t keep me in the dark!” Riana said, her voice even more hysterical than before. Kyle’s erratic behavior was clearly getting to her. She wasn’t used to this much excitement on a Saturday night.

  “Okay,” Kyle said, finally finding his composure. “Let’s go back to the Academy right now and I’ll show you what I’ve been working on. Maybe you can help me figure out this thing with Marshall too.” Kyle tried to focus his thoughts, but too much was happening. He had to confide in his best friend. She was the only person who could help him to get his thoughts in order when he became frantic with a new idea. Maybe it was time to t
ell her everything about Paul.

  Chapter 5

  Kyle and Riana walked into the main hallway of the Academy for Experimental Science and Technology. It was late at night, and the building was empty except for a janitor mopping the floor in the main hall. He looked up at Kyle and Riana suspiciously as they were loudly chatting when they entered the building, and recognizing them, he turned his attention back to his mopping. They were often there after hours working on their projects.

  The building was one of the most expensive on campus. It was donated by the South African billionaire Graeme Theron, the man who had invented one of the largest internet security programs in the world. The main hall was gigantic, and housed a museum that showcased many of the great technological, medical and scientific accomplishments in South African history: a picture of Dr. Chris Barnard, the man who had performed the first heart transplant in the world; a model of the world’s first digital laser; a replica of the first CAT scan machine developed by South African-born Nobel Prize winner Allan Cormack, and many more amazing advancements made by South Africans. Graeme Theron wanted Ridgemont University to be a world leader in science and technology, and he believed that if they were inspired by the greats, the students of Ridgemont would join them one day. Kyle had always imagined that one day, one of his inventions would also grace the main hall of the Academy.

  “What happened at the party? Why did you look so spooked?” Riana asked, tugging at Kyle’s arm as they walked to the lab where Kyle worked on Paul. “And how were you making all of those weird predictions today? You can’t keep me in the dark anymore. Is that what your secret device can do? Tell the future? How does it work? I need to know everything!” Riana’s freckled cheeks were flaring with excitement. She loved science just as much as Kyle did, and a new project could get both of them worked up. Unfortunately, Professor Greer had sworn Kyle to secrecy while he worked on Paul. The algorithm that powered Paul was Prof. Greer’s life’s work, but he had never been able to perfect it. He had seen Kyle’s potential and entrusted him to work on Paul, and Kyle had finally been able to get the variables just right so that Paul’s predictions were much more accurate.