One (One Universe)

Obviously, I’d been wrong.
    I didn’t bother to respond, and Dad finally cleared his throat before saying, “So I was thinking you could come visit me before school starts, and you could try out the sensor in my lab. I’d love for us to spend some time together. I haven’t seen you in months.”
    Whose fault was that? But I bit back my angry response. I learned a long time ago that the drama wasn’t worth it. “We’ll see. I have plans with some friends next weekend. And then school starts up again in a few weeks.”
    “Honey, I think….”
    “Anyway, was there anything else? Mom’s calling me for dinner.”
    The line between us practically throbbed with hurt feelings, but finally he said, “No, that’s all I had.”
    “Well, glad you’re home from Japan. Talk to you later.”
    “Love you, sweetie.”
    “Bye, Dad.”
    I clicked the phone off and threw it down on the bed. He couldn’t be bothered to visit more than twice a year. How dare he try to guilt me into feeling bad about our lack of relationship?
    My head throbbed even worse than usual and I rubbed at my temples. It was seriously none of Dad’s business if I’d been having headaches. He’d lost the right to care when he left us ten years ago. He meant well, but Mom and I were just fine on our own.
    Maybe I’d ask if she’d let me learn how to shoot her gun too.
     
     
    CHAPTER TWO
     
    Mom usually worked late on Thursdays, so I’d taken over making dinner for us that night. It had been a week since the gun incident, and I’d brought it up over and over, but Mom kept shutting me down. I’d poked in her closet, dug through her desk. Nothing. Not even a scrap of information. So I’d finally had no choice but to drop it.
    Tonight we were going to have pizza and watch a movie. Our usual Thursday night date. Hopefully we could get back to normal. I hated how pale she looked lately, the dark smudges under her eyes. I hated even more that she was keeping something from me.
    I pulled the ingredients out of the fridge for homemade pizza. Quick, easy, and my favorite. After a while, it had kind of turned into our thing, though Mom had made me add a salad to the menu. Parents and their vegetables.
    Tonight I was going to try something a little different - a new sauce. I needed the distraction of trying something new, and maybe the change would be good for both of us. I pulled the recipe up on my tablet and scanned through it. Seemed easy enough for a white sauce. I put a couple of tablespoons of butter in the saucepan and then started to add the flour. I paused and chewed my lip. Was the milk next, or the garlic?
    A zap sliced through my brain again and the kitchen spun. I threw out my hand to steady myself against the counter and a second later, the whole recipe popped into my head, almost like I was seeing it on the screen.
    “Oh my god.” I dropped the whisk in the pan and moved to the sink. Sweat beaded on my neck and my heart thundered like I’d been running. I flipped the faucet on and splashed my face, but the words and images still floated behind my eyes.
    I sucked in a deep breath, then another, but my lungs still felt like they’d stopped working. Tears prickled behind my eyelids and I scrubbed at my face with the kitchen towel to keep them from spilling out.
    This was beyond headaches. It was like my brain was possessed. Maybe I had a brain tumor. Or cancer. My stomach clenched and I forced myself to think calmly. I was going to have to say something to mom. But not right now. Not upset like this.
    I folded the towel carefully and hung it back up. Then I went back to the stove to finish the sauce. Keeping busy seemed liked a good idea. If I could bring up the weirdness like it was no big deal, maybe we could talk about it rationally. The last thing I needed was for her to freak out. Because then I’d freak out too. It would be ugly.
    The pizza went into the oven a few minutes later. By then, my heartbeat had almost returned to normal. I glanced at the clock, then quickly set the table
    “I’m home,” Mom called, as if on cue. Her keys rattled on the hall table as she dropped them and she let out a sigh as she slipped out of her shoes.
    “Dinner ready yet? I’m starving,” she said, coming into the kitchen and snapping on the TV. “It smells wonderful.”
    “New sauce. Hopefully we like it.” I chewed the inside of my lip. I should say something now. Before she got distracted.
    She kissed me on the cheek and grabbed a