Maya and Gabbie were quiet for a moment.
“Did that really happen?” Gabbie asked. The night had been so crazy and out of the ordinary for her that she’d lumped the phone thing in with everything else.
“The, uh, the thing with the light?” Maya croaked. She’d been hoping all morning that no one would bring it up.
“So you both remember it?” Delali pushed. “It totally happened!”
“Remember what, though?” Maya’s voice had an anxious edge.
“What do you mean, ‘remember what’? You just said you remembered it.”
“Guys!” said Gabbie. Delali and Maya turned to her. “You’re yelling.” The streets around them were busy. She looked across the street at Tompkins Square Park, which was empty save for a couple walking their dog. “Maybe we should go somewhere private.”
The girls followed Gabbie into the park, to a bench surrounded by empty plots of grass, and sat.
Delali stood and paced in front of the others like a professor delivering a lecture. “Okay, let’s walk through what happened last night,” she said. “We were standing on the sidewalk getting ready to get into the car when Maya dropped her phone.” Delali paused, waiting for Gabbie and Maya to confirm. When they nodded, she continued. “We all saw the phone falling.” They nodded again. “Then we reached out for it . . . and then . . . and then I guess we stopped it somehow?”
“More than stopped it,” Gabbie said.
“Yeah,” said Maya. “It, like, jumped back into my hand.”
“Right! Like we made it happen.”
“Did we . . . do that together?” Gabbie asked.
Delali shrugged. “I guess so?”
“I don’t know,” Maya said hesitantly, crinkling her brow. “Do what exactly? I mean, I imagine stuff when I’m drunk all the time.”
Delali tilted her head and pursed her lips. “I don’t think we had a group hallucination.”
“How do you know?” Maya asked. “It totally happens. I saw a VICE special about it.”
“Okay,” Gabbie began. “Let’s say we really did stop the phone. What does that mean? Like, do we have . . . some kind of powers?” Gabbie’s voice had gotten quieter as she spoke, until it was hovering just above a whisper.
“Please,” Maya said. “Powers?”
“I don’t know about powers,” Delali said. She dropped back onto the bench beside Gabbie, pulling her legs up and crossing them under her. “But something weird definitely happened.” She leaned forward so she could look past Gabbie at Maya. “Let’s see if we can do it again.”
“What do you mean?” Maya asked.
Delali pointed to the phone in Maya’s lap. “Your phone,” she said. “Drop it.”
Maya raised her eyebrows. “Are you serious?”
Delali nodded. “Totally. It was your phone that made it happen the first time.”
Maya’s grip tightened around her phone as she looked to Gabbie, waiting for her input.
Gabbie looked from Maya to Delali, and then back again. “I think we should try,” she said finally. “We can just drop it over the grass. It’s not that high up.”
“Fine,” Maya said. She extended her arm straight in front of her, holding her phone parallel to the ground. “Ready?”
Gabbie and Delali nodded. The three girls stood and focused all their attention on the phone, blocking out the sights and sounds of the park around them. As soon as Maya released her grip, they reached their hands out, just as they had the night before. Time slowed, ticking away at half-pace . . . until the phone clattered to the grass in front of them, landing face down.
Delali exhaled. Gabbie resumed toying with her jewelry. Maya blinked at the ground where her phone had landed. She burst out laughing, then crouched to pick it up, inspecting it for cracks or scratches.
“Thank God for this case.” Still laughing, she slipped the phone into the pocket of her Aritzia joggers. Gabbie shrugged and joined in with a giggle of her own.
“Oh my god,” Maya said. She lifted her arms above her head in a stretch, her laughter trailing off. “Wouldn’t it have been crazy if we actually stopped it?”
“Yeah,” Delali muttered. “Anyway, I have to study.” She stood and turned hastily toward the exit, Gabbie following behind her.
“Sure,” Maya said, resisting the urge to make a snarky comment. Was it possible that Delali, who’d been responsible and pragmatic even while drunk at the club, really thought they had powers?
The three girls headed out of the park, getting caught at a “don’t walk” sign. “Wait,” Maya said seriously. Delali and Gabbie turned to her, watching as Maya thrust her hand theatrically in the air in front of her. “Damn,” she said, glancing at the glowing red letters. “The light didn’t change. I guess we really don’t have powers.”
Delali gave her a withering look. “I’m gonna go. Nice meeting you, though,” she said before looking both ways and jogging across the street.
Maya and Gabbie stood at the corner for a moment, watching the cars race by.
“Wow,” Maya said finally, planting her hands on her hips. “She looks nothing like she did on the show.”