I woke up today feeling fresh.
It's been a while since I got a full night's sleep.
I showered, brushed my teeth, ate breakfast, and relaxed all morning.
What a good morning, I thought.
Of course, all good things must come to an end.
Liam showed up.
Both my parents were out.
Melanie was at Factory 24.
So I had to answer the door.
I could've just stayed silent and made him think I wasn't home.
But he knew I was.
Where else would I go?
I did grab a baseball bat, though.
Just in case he wanted to pick a fight again.
When I opened the door, I expected him to start berating me, but he actually looked a little awkward.
Serious, too.
Like he really wanted to talk this time.
I wasn't having it, though.
"What do you want?"
"If it's nothing—or about three days ago—I suggest you back off."
He looked intimidated.
Probably because of the bat.
But it was different from three days ago.
"C-can I come in..?" he asked. "I just want to talk."
"Alright. Don't do anything you'll regret."
I sat him down at the kitchen table and grabbed some snacks.
Even if he's a damn bitch, I'm still going to treat him like a guest.
"So, what do you want?"
"First off, I want to say sorry."
Wow.
An apology.
That sounded more like him.
Nothing like when we fought.
"I was acting rashly the other day because of what I found out."
"What you found out?"
"Yeah. I couldn't tell you then, because all the founders were there."
"I thought you were the cause of it. I'm sorry, ■■■■■."
Oh.
Back to my nickname.
"But after thinking about it more, it made no sense that you were behind it..."
Why was he avoiding what "it" actually was?
"Out with it, Liam. What are you getting at?"
He looked nervous.
Like just saying it out loud would get him in trouble.
"There's another group in town..."
"They seem to be after the factory."
"I don't know much about them. Just that they want control of it."
"I thought you were one of them, with the way you were studying everyone."
"But it didn't make sense. You're one of the founders. Why would you help other people take over something you already have?"
So there's a rival group?
And he thought I was working with them?
I answered bluntly.
"First I've heard of this. How do you know about this group?"
Liam went into detail.
"My brother, Andrew, is in high school... He kept asking me questions about Factory 24."
"You still go to Factory 24? Is that what they call it?"
"Are the leaders—the founders?—there all day, every day?"
"How many kids usually show up there?"
"I thought it was suspicious right away. He was hiding something."
"Then he kept asking the same questions over and over, like he was looking for a certain answer."
That was suspicious.
He continued.
"Then he brought his friends over the morning of our fight."
"Because I was suspicious of him, I listened through the wall."
"They started talking about Factory 24."
"They said they had a scout making sure all the information lined up."
"At that point, I connected the dots and came up with you as the scout... but after our fight, I knew it couldn't be you."
Oh.
High schoolers.
Taking over Factory 24.
I felt the connection immediately.
Of course there was a connection.
There had always been a connection.
I banned high schoolers so they wouldn't take it over.
Fucking hell.
The memory was real.
"How much do you know?"
He explained everything he knew.
It wasn't much.
He thought I'd been watching everyone and learning Factory 24's patterns for them.
For the last two days, he'd been watching the factory himself and noticed a few high schoolers observing it from a distance.
He thought the reason was simple.
Younger kids were running it.
In a town like this, there's one place where students can relax, hang out, and do whatever they want—and middle schoolers are the ones in charge.
Honestly, I couldn't even blame them for wanting it.
Just yesterday, Liam decided to talk to his brother about it without raising suspicion.
I know how good Liam is at that, so I was willing to trust him on this.
They're forming their own group.
He said there were maybe fifty high schoolers working together now.
We didn't know when they planned to make a move on Factory 24, but at least now we knew they were there.
"I also think Andrew might be the leader."
"That's about all I know."
Alright.
This all somehow added up.
But I still had one question.
"Why come to me about this?"
"I know you best, even if I don't talk to you as much as the other founders."
"How do you know I'm not with them?"
"Like I said, our fight."
"You admitted to being angry all the time, and observing everyone."
"Someone who was actually with them would've tried harder to deflect that."
"But you didn't."
Okay.
I still didn't really know what this guy thought of me.
But sure.
I'd take that.
But man...
That memory really was real.
Only three days of peace.
Then right back to this.
Still, now that I knew what we were dealing with, I felt less worried.
This was a manageable threat.
I thought.
———————————————————————
Liam and I came back to Factory 24 together.
There were about twenty kids there, plus Melanie.
The second we walked in, the whole place went quiet.
Two people who had just fought and nearly gotten banned from Factory 24 walking in together?
Yeah.
That would make anyone stop and stare.
None of the other founders were there that day.
But we needed all of them.
Liam and I started telling everyone to stop what they were doing and go search town for the founders, but Melanie stepped in first.
"What happened?" she asked.
"It's important," I said.
"Really important," Liam added.
That only made everyone look more confused.
Then more nervous.
We kept insisting, and eventually they listened.
Probably because Liam and I were together.
After what happened three days ago, no one really wanted to get on either of our bad sides.
It took about an hour to get everyone back.
Everyone but George was in the office.
George had a basketball tournament that day.
"Not like his presence would help much."
I forgot who said that.
Maybe me.
Once everyone settled down, Liam and I went over everything we had talked about at my house.
They understood it quickly.
Too quickly, almost.
It made sense.
That was the worst part.
But Mel actually spoke up with a question this time.
"■■■■■, why were you observing everyone then?"
Ouch.
What was I supposed to say?
The moment I opened my mouth, Liam cut in.
"It's because you knew something too, isn't it? You were making sure they hadn't already infiltrated Factory 24."
Shit.
Right on the dot this time.
"Yeah. Pretty much."
I dodged the real answer.
I didn't know what else to say.
"Okay, but how did you know?" Mel asked.
Damn it, Mel.
"That's not important right now."
Nice save, Leo.
"What matters is what we do next."
Right.
We had to deal with it somehow.
We continued talking until nightfall, but couldn't come up with a clear solution.
Some wanted to act immediately.
Some wanted to stay quiet and wait.
Some wanted more information first.
Eventually, we held a vote.
"Those who want to take action now, raise your hand."
Liam and Leo raised theirs.
"Those who don't, raise your hand."
Melanie, Mel, and I raised ours.
I chose not to act.
I still didn't want to repeat the past.
Liam looked betrayed.
Like he thought I would obviously vote yes, but didn't for some reason.
Because we voted not to take action, we didn't tell the rest of the members anything.
At least not yet.
Leo wanted to make Liam a founder officially, but we decided against it.
It might raise suspicion if he suddenly became one, and if Andrew found out, that probably wouldn't end well.
We did agree to let him into our inner group, though.
Just not publicly.
He's too good at reading people to ignore, and he could help us a lot.
By the time the meeting ended, it was late enough that the factory felt different.
Quieter.
Like everyone could tell something had shifted, even if they didn't know what.
Andrew Simmons...
I won't let him have his way.
I won't repeat the past.
I will be better.