Alex was in a room he shared with Tristan in a cheap apartment, which was all he and his fellow Amplified were able to afford, being both college students and Amplified. Tristan was sitting in front of his computer, and Alex was leaning over him. They were trying to design another pamphlet arguing about Amplifieds’ rights to hand out to people on the streets. Alex never believed in passively waiting for things to change. He wanted to change them himself. There was not a day that passed that Alex wasn’t aware that if Amplified wanted to survive, they had to make humans realize they couldn’t just push them aside and ignore them. The number of Amplified was increasing. Those afraid for humanity didn’t seem to realize that humanity was already changing.

There was a knock on the door, and Patty, another of their roommates, opened the door.

“Your girlfriend is here,” she said with a sour expression on her face before stepping back and letting Arianna into the room. Arianna, as always, seemed impervious to disapproval.

“Hello, Alex. Tristan.”

Tristan, to his credit, quickly stood up to greet her. Arianna warmed up a degree while she spoke to him, and Alex wanted to roll his eyes. His friends didn’t like Arianna. For them, she was too rich, too beautiful, too entitled. They didn’t know she was Amplified either. They were not openly hostile toward her, mostly because they liked and respected Alex, but Arianna would be able to feel it even if she wasn’t an Empath. They didn’t care to find out more about her, which was a shame. Arianna didn’t care about their opinion, and she was clear about it, so they were comfortable wallowing in their prejudice. What they didn’t know was that Arianna, while not close to her sisters, once had a brother she was close with. It was hard to find any mention of him now, since their parents did their best to erase him from existence, but Alex knew where to look. Most people who knew them assumed that Arianna was slumming when dating him. In some circles, Amplified were considered exotic, a touch of wilderness to spice up sex. It helped that Alex was handsome. He never had problems getting dates.

Arianna, however, was not really his girlfriend,, though they both maintained the fiction. She was source for both money and contacts Alex used in his work. The ruse was Arianna’s idea, and Alex just went along with it. It wasn’t like he had time to actually date, not with the way his work with Amplified was consuming more and more of his time. He knew his parents were worried, even if they didn’t tell him that, instead letting him make his own decisions. His studies were suffering, but Alex remembered being a teenager and dealing with powers that more often than not were scary. He at least had support of his family. Not all Amplified had that. Besides, what was the use of a college education if he couldn’t get a job later? Sadly, that was where the future was going if Amplified didn’t step up and force humans to change. Not all humans were bad, but most were afraid. Not even Amplified are immune to knee-jerk reactions, he thought as he approached Arianna, who was still talking with Tristan. He liked most of his friends, and they had common goals, but Tristan was one of rare ones who was nice to Arianna. So she was nice to him in return. He might not have known Arianna well, but she was rarely nice to people. Charming, yes, but not nice.

“I’ll leave you two to talk,” Tristan said to him before leaving the room and closing the door.

Ah. Privacy for him and his girlfriend. Not that it was the reason they needed to be alone to talk. Arianna preferred to meet him elsewhere. Her excuse was they had terrible coffee.

“I didn’t expect you to come,” Alex said to her. “Did something happen?”

“Yes and no.”

Arianna sat on his bed and crossed her legs, her manicured nails glinting. She gave them a careful look, like she hadn’t chosen the sea-blue color after careful deliberation.

“I have a…friend who wants to meet you,” she said finally.

“Okay,” Alex said slowly. That was even less information than Arianna usually gave him. “Does he need help?”

Arianna shook her head. “No. He wants to talk with you. I think you will find it interesting.”

He arched his brows. “That’s all you are going to tell me?”

Arianna allowed herself a smile.

“I’ll let Sean speak for himself. You will like it better that way.”