REUNION

I looked at the room full trying to get control of my levels of anxiety. I was not sure even why I was anxious at such a moment. I assumed that it was the accumulation of stress that came from looking from XR, social anxiety, and natural awkwardness that were forming together to make one big ball of mess that was I Cyrus Mayday in a room of people who I never talked to for five years because I was spying on a country at war.

"Where should we go first?"Miranda asked.

I looked around the room with a live band at the back of the hall from where we were standing. In the middle people were being served various snacks and drinks and at the sides were tables with finger foods for those who did not want to be served the other snacks and wanted to choose their own drinks. I scanned the room and the majority of people were talking in smaller groups holding their glasses and catching up. The sides and corners of the room had people on their devices probably ignoring the presence of everyone else who was at the party.

"Let's sit down," I said taking the easy way out.

Miranda looked at me with a disappointed face.

"Fine we can go near the sides and talk to some people," I said sighing.

"Good boy."She said patting my head.

"This is weird," I said removing her hand from the top of my head.

"What you don't want hand pats from your one and only," she said smiling as if she was planning to make me uncomfortable the whole night.

I shook my head as we headed to the sides of the room. I knew that I had to act as the host of the party that would give me the chance to talk to everyone and get some information on who could XR possibly could be. I knew Glenn could go overboard on many things but the whole situation made me feel a little bit lightheaded. I gave him a benefit of doubt, that maybe he wanted to reduce the Executive's suspicion. If we called only the geeks it would make it obvious that I was looking for something from them. They were also on Jen Blue's track and she must have someone behind her back to see if she was plotting something.

To give the rundown of the situation at that moment.

Miranda as Jen Blue partially snitched on me to get information on XR without my knowledge. So the Executive does not know that I know that it was her that leaked that information. They assumed that I still blindly loved a traitor. I guess they feared telling me that Jen Blue was the cause of my house arrest because we could easily team up to take them down. They also did not know much of Jen Blue and what threat she had. Then they also did not know that Miranda was Jen Blue so they really had little to work for them.

The entire rundown reminded me that the Executive still thought that Miranda died back in Gendwall. Well, I was not sure if it was true or not still. They could have been lying or they really did think that the dead body belonged to Miranda. It was a lot of mixing of information and it felt like we were all playing a game of chess except that we were both the people moving the pieces and we were the pieces themselves. The executive had the advantage of having an endless amount of pieces. It already felt like a disadvantaged game.

"Cyrus," Miranda said breaking me from my trance.

"Huh?"

Miranda looked at me concerned once again.

"You have really spaced out so much today. Are you sure you are okay?"She asked.

"Just got a lot of things on my mind."

"You need to stop thinking so much and look in front of you."She said turning back and directing towards two people at the side of the room.

"Hi," she said holding out her hand to greet the two people.

I looked at them dumbfounded. I could barely remember their names and it felt like it was the two extras from a movie that you were only watching because of your favorite celebrity. They shook her hand and I also offered my hand.

"Hope you guys are enjoying yourselves," Miranda said pulling up the conversation.

"Yeah, we were. Not gonna lie I was surprised that Mayday himself would hold such an event for his ex-high school classmates."One of them said.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah, it is just a little odd. "The other side.

After that, it gave me so much to think about. It made me wonder if what I was doing was so out of character that others would notice. It would make the Executive suspicious or they would just assume it was something Glenn did to make me feel happy after the little house arrest.

Miranda continued to keep the conversation afloat like a great plus one of the hosts. She was freely interacting with them and I could tell that she was asking questions that were used to work her way into the information. I knew she was recording every conversation for final analysis on X-floor. She was taking it with all the seriousness it deserved.it made me feel a bit guilty to see her doing well with others and acting the part and I could barely be myself to people I knew not too long ago. I was once again useless to the overall plan.

"I have to get another drink," I told her as she was hitting it off with another group of people.

She looked at me walk away with the same concerned eyes she had been giving me the whole night. I headed to the tables on the side to take a breather. It was hard not to think about a million things all at once and still act like an undercover agent gathering crucial information. It was draining just being in the room with all those people. I headed to the bathroom to wash my face and give myself a pep talk to at least talk to all the geeks I wanted to talk to. As I washed my face I heard another guy behind me shouting.

"Mayday! Mayday is that you?"A familiar voice announced.

I looked behind me with water dripping on the side of my face. I looked like a wet mess with the anxiety taking a toll on my appearance. I wiped the water off my eyes to focus on who was talking to me and I looked at him and my entire facial expression changed to that of a scared deer looking at a headlight.

"Brandon Kelly?"I exclaimed

"Wow you still use my two names how weird," he said.

"I thought you died or something," I said blurting out whatever was on my mind.

"Well, I didn't so that was good news."He said.

Brandon Kelly was one of the people who feel off the most when it came to high school students. A small summary of Brandon is that he was on the school diving team, broke his back one day, and had to undergo special treatment. That was around the time Miranda left. So our class experienced two tragedies around the same time. I think I was too focused on Miranda that I never even bothered to see how Brandon was doing.

"Ummmmm….welll this is weird. Hey, how are you doing? When did you get out of the hospital and like what do you do now bro?"I said immediately regretting adding bro to the end of the sentence.

"Before that. Give old Kelly a big hug."

"Why--"

"No, no, no come here and give me a hug ."He said opening his arms for me.

I looked around the room and once again I felt like I was being pranked. I slowly walked into his big arms and awkwardly hugged him as he pulled me close to the point of almost breaking my back.

"Uh… I think I am good."I said looking to the side while in the most uncomfortable hug of my life.

"Just a minute. This is the hug of healing.."He said whispering in a calming tone.

After about a minute he released me and smile.

"See how does that feel?"He asked acting weird

The guy I knew from high school definitely changed. Brandon would never hug anyone. He had a child-like pride when he would keep to himself and think he was the greatest thing to ever exists. Sports in high school managed to make anyone feel like they owned the entire world. Now he seemed a little bit too friendly to me.

"It was fine-- why did you hug me again?"I asked looking at him curiously.

"Not to turn this event into a pity party or anything but we all can tell that you have been struggling for a while."He said pitting me.

Clearly, he did not know how to hold back anything.

"Is this why so many people came?" I asked

"Oh, not people just wanted free food and drinks and spend an evening at such an expensive place. "

"Oh."

"And obviously they wanted to see how you were doing," he said clearly lying.

"Well, I don't know if I should say thank you or I should give everyone gift bags for coming," I said wiping my face with a tissue and trying to fix myself.

"You are not going to ask how the treatment went ?" he said being obvious with everything.

'Oh how did your --kne--arm--"

"Back surgery."He said correcting me.

"Yes yes, that one that thing. Back surgery how did back surgery go," I said trying to care.

"It went well at first they said my back would be messed up forever and that day I prayed all night long and the next day they were able to fix it up."

I did not know why the story was important to tell but it seemed important to him so I smiled and congratulated him to see if I could escape the weirdness between us. For some reason, I remembered him but not every information on him. Like I was not sure about our relationship and at what level would it be considered harassment when he is trying to comfort me. As I tossed the towel in the trash prepared to leave but Brandon stopped me in my tracks.

"Cyrus I need you to know that things happen and people leave us and it's fine. We just need to accept it."

"I already accepted it a long time ago."I said looking at him like as he was acting strangely," is there something you want to tell me without being so vague."I said.

"Glenn said we should not tell you."He said blurting out everything that was on his mind.

I do not remember him being that bad with secrets. At the same time, I was confused about what exactly Glenn told everyone...

"What did he tell you guys ?"I asked.

"It's a secret."He said.

"Then why would you tell me that you all have a secret that you are all hiding from you."

"Just in case you flip out I wanted to be at peace with you."He said suspiciously.

It was weird how he was acting as if he was devoted to me. I honestly do not remember him being more than a diver surrounded by a bunch of friends. It made me wonder.

"Oh Brandon, what do you do nowadays or you made your way back into diving."

"Oh hell no, I work in a video streaming company near the coffee shop in the block before you enter the downtown area of Paradise."

"Oh which division."

"That is a bit personal but it is a good section."He said smiling.

Could that dimwit really be XR?