Tic, tic, tic.

The sound the old ceiling fan made seemed to be getting louder. Jessie flipped her pillow over again to make it cool. The streetlight cast a dim glow across her room and made shadows on her wall. If she stared long enough, they seemed to move. The red numbers on the digital clock read 1:12. They made part of her quilt look pink. Ordinarily, there was not a shred of pink in her room.

Two thuds came from above. Jessie imagined that the people in the apartment above hers were vampires. She had seen a thin, pale couple in the stairwell before and wondered if it was them.

A young woman and her baby lived next door, but tonight there was no crying. On the other side there was an old woman who never made a sound.

Jessie turned onto her side and kicked off the quilt.

She was just weeks away from finishing the tenth grade. Making it to graduation wouldn't be easy. Up until middle school she had been a straight-A student, but math was getting harder and harder. Somehow it had gotten away from her. She just couldn't seem to catch up. And her worries didn't end there.

Jessie didn't like boys in the same way most other girls did. Instead, she had crushed on plenty of girls. She knew that she was gay, but the thought of talking about it with anyone made her dizzy and sick. There were kids she saw around school who were open about it and seemed at ease. But Jessie wasn't like them. She kept her true feelings in a locked box and it was easier to just let them be.

Jessie would be sixteen soon. She didn't think her dad could make her finish high school. She could easily work more hours at the store... but then what?

Her thoughts were like endless waves that kept sleep away.

Finally, she heard the hum of the air conditioner. Her bedroom door was partly open and soon a trickle of cool air crept over her legs. Her dad kept the little window unit in the living room set to 80 degrees. It was better than nothing, and it was enough to finally bring on sleep.

***

Late-morning sun shone through a thin layer of clouds and into her room. Jessie went into the kitchen. A plate full of pancakes sat next to the stove. Her dad always tried hard to make up for working Saturdays. She drowned the pancakes in syrup and nuked them until they were steaming. She opened the window next to the kitchen table. A rush of warm air and traffic noises came inside.

Looking down from their fourth-floor apartment made her feel homesick. She pulled the window closed. Jessie was beginning to forget details about the house on a quiet street that they lived in before her mom died. It had been over a year, but the homesick feeling was still there. Now, it just felt weird to talk about.

The pocket of Jessie's pajama pants began to vibrate. She pulled out an outdated phone. It was her dad calling to check in.

She knew he was holding her cell phone in his hand, but that was okay. His screen had shattered the week before and he had to have a smartphone for work. Jessie would be stuck with an old flip phone for the next couple of weeks. It worked just as well for conversations, but texting was a pain in the butt. The biggest thing, though, was not being able to play the game.

She ran her fingers over the tiny black and white screen before snapping it shut.

It could be worse, she thought.

Jessie wet her hands in the bathroom sink and then smoothed back her light blonde hair. Her short pixie cut was just that easy to style.

Her father had looked sad when she cut off her long hair the summer before. She didn't want to be a boy, or even look like one. But the haircut made her feel more true to herself somehow. As she was pulling on her jeans, the doorbell rang.

"What's up, Jess?" Max said, walking right into the living room.

Among her few friends and at school, Jessie was called Jess. Her father was the only one who still called her Jessica. Only in her most secret of hearts was she Jessie. It was what her mother had called her.

"Hey, Max," Jessie said.

Max had been her first friend after the move. He lived on the second floor of the building. They had an easy friendship that had begun with walking back and forth to school. His mother had named him Maximilian after an emperor of Mexico who ruled during the 1800s. His mom was Mexican. She made the best food Jessie had ever tasted.

It was Jessie's Saturday off. She and Max had planned to spend the day playing Warimono. It wouldn't be the same without her own phone, but Jessie didn't mind.

She locked the apartment door behind them and they headed down the corridor. The hallway was dim and so was the stairwell. They both winced at the bright sunlight as they left the building.

Max looked at Jessie. Tiny beads of sweat had broken out across her nose. Her eyes were squinted and so blue in the sunlight that they almost seemed unreal. She was beautiful, but it wasn't like that. It never would be, and that was okay.

Jessie looked over at Max and smiled. His haircut was almost like hers, only in jet black. Although, for guys it wasn't called a pixie. His head was bent, looking at his phone as they walked. He had pulled up the game. They headed toward the first stop.

***

Warimono had been around for a long time. Jessie had played it on her Gamestation when she was younger. The latest version had only been released a few weeks ago. It allowed the game to be played on smartphones. People everywhere were obsessed.

Without her own screen to look at, Jessie studied people as they walked. At least half of them were staring at their phones like Max. Most of them were teenagers but some were older. Some were little kids.

As they passed the neighborhood playground, Jessie slowed. She watched a little boy go down the slide. He was clutching his phone, or maybe it was his mom's or dad's phone. His eyes never left the screen as he slid. He stood and walked away from the slide, still absorbed in the screen.

"I hope you're ready."

Jessie was shaken from her thoughts by a raspy voice. An old man was smiling at her, but it was a twisted, ugly grin. His eyes were fixed on hers.

As they crossed paths, their shoulders bumped. Jessie turned and saw his long, greasy hair, streaked with gray. She watched him as he kept walking down the sidewalk. Max had gotten ahead of her. Jessie hurried to catch up.

"Did you hear what that guy just said?" Jessie asked Max as she reached his side.

"What guy?" he asked, looking up.

They both turned around to see, but the man had disappeared. Jessie told Max what had happened. Max laughed.

"Don't let some homeless guy get to you, Jess," he said.

Jessie couldn't help but shrug it off. Max had a way of making everything seem like it was going to be all right. It was what she liked best about him.

"This is so good," Max said. His lips and tongue were turning blue from his frozen blue raspberry slush.

The little drink and snack stand was their favorite place to cool off. It was also one of hundreds of Waripoints in the city, which were spots to collect Waribots in the game.

Jessie had gotten a coconut slush. She was glad she wouldn't get the same colorful result. Normally she would have given Max a hard time about it. Now, she didn't have the energy. Maybe it was the heat.

Maybe it was more than that.

Maybe it was the way Max was gripping his phone with one hand and shoveling the frozen treat into his mouth with the other. Maybe it was the way his left eye was starting to water as he stared at the screen. Maybe it was the trail of blue spit that was coming out of the corner of his mouth.

Jessie's heart began to pound. Max wasn't blinking, she was sure. The little brown Gegi on the screen was crawling in circles. Its little bug-legs sent chills down Jessie's back. What was happening?

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a spider crawl from under the cart. It was crawling towards Max's feet.

"Max," Jessie said.

Her voice felt small and sounded far away in her own ears. She tried to speak louder but couldn't. It was like the nightmares she used to have just after losing her mom. Nightmares where she would call out and never be heard.

The spider was almost on Max's shoe. The spider had ten legs and a tiny blue light that pulsed on its back. Jessie realized it wasn't a spider at all. It was a Waribot called a Gegi.

"This is so good," Max said again.

The words broke her trance. Jessie finally reacted. She jumped up and slapped the phone from his hand.

"What the hell?" Max said. Anger had replaced his blank stare.

Jessie started swatting at Max's pant legs, but the spider thing was gone. She knew she must look crazy. Maybe she was crazy. She knew she was different, but could there really be something terribly wrong with her?

The phone lay face down on the concrete. When Max picked it up, they both stared at the black screen. A thin crack ran across the top right corner. Max traced his finger over it.

"I don't know what just happened," Jessie said. Her whole body was shaking.

"I think I zoned out, Jess," Max said. "I was trying to catch the Gegi and then... I don't know either. But when you knocked the phone away, I came back."

"The Gegi was here, Max. I saw it. I know that sounds insane but it's true," Jessie said in a quiet rush. "While you were trying to catch it on your phone, it was here. The Gegi was here and it was trying to catch you."