I lounge in my beanbag chair, messing around with my phone when I get a spam of texts from my friend Gloria.

Gloria: Hey
Gloria: You here?
Gloria: I need you
Gloria: Meet me at the mall
Gloria: By Starbucks
Nicole: What?
Nicole: Why?

But Gloria doesn't answer. I sigh and get up. Might as well meet her. I've got nothing else to do.

"I'm going for a bike ride!" I yell to my parents as I walk downstairs. They don't answer. I didn't expect them to. I grab my helmet and close the door behind me. I grab my bike from the garage and ride it out the big door, not bothering to close that one.

Ten short minutes later, I'm at the mall. I lock up my bike and enter the mall, kind of nervous. Why does Gloria need me? Is she in some sort of trouble? Last time we met at the mall together, well, that wasn't the best trip.

I pass by the Starbucks and spot her sitting at a table alone, no coffee or anything. "Hey," I call, waving.

She waves back absently. "Hey." She sounds kind of spacey, distracted. "You came. I didn't think you would."

I try not to be too insulted. Was I that bad a friend? Actually, yes, I was. Whatever. Not important now. "What's wrong?" I ask, sitting down beside her.

"I'm moving soon. In about a week." That same toneless, distracted voice.

"What?!" I exclaim, but she interrupts me.

"Since I'm leaving soon, there's something I should tell you. It's really important."

I wait for her to tell me, and when she says nothing, I ask, "What?"

"Not here. Too many people." Gloria grabs my hand and stands up, pulling me along. "You brought your bike, right?"

"Yeah," I answer. "Where are we going?"

Gloria shrugs. "Just a park." Ok then. That clears things up. We walk outside and I unlock my bike. Gloria walks away and I'm about to call out when I realize she's just unlocking her own bike.

I mount my bike and coast over to her. "You lead the way."

"Ok, one sec." Gloria's fiddling with her helmet strap. The fastener snaps closed on her finger. "Gah! Stupid helmet. Forget this. Let's go."

She pedals off and I follow, leaving the commercial mall area and into more residential side streets. I'm faster than her, but I always let her lead so I don't accidentally leave her behind. That and I have no clue where I'm going.

I think of how she usually calls me Slowpoke, as a joke, and I'd step on the gas, pedalling as fast as I can and generally leaving her in my dust. I can't help but notice that it's not happening.

We arrive at a nice park with a huge hill surrounded on one side with a big field and on the other a small forest with walking paths scattered throughout it. We get off our bikes at the top of the hill. Gloria leans her against a bench and I prop mine up on a lightpost.

"So..." I start, "What did you want to tell me?"

Gloria sighs wearily. "It'll be easier to show you." I'm completely and utterly confused when she raises her arms and closes her eyes. I hear a creak and look up. The lightpost is moving.

It's just the wind, I tell myself as I stare at it, mesmerized but the swaying motion. There's a crash as my bike falls over, but I can't take my eyes off the lightpost. I know it's Gloria somehow doing this, but I can't bring myself to believe it.

Then the lightpost sways too far to the side and starts to tip over... towards me. I scramble out of the way, but in my frenzy I trip. The lightpost lands on my trailing leg. I yell in pain. My arms give way and I fall on my face, laying on the grass.

"Nicole!" Gloria rushes to my side. "I'm so sorry!"

"Just get it off!" I scream. If she can knock it down with her mind, she sure as heck should be able to lift it back up. And what was she thinking, making it sway like that? Was she trying to hurt me? Some friend.

I feel the cold metal slowly peeling away from my skin. I prop myself up on my arms and try to twist myself around so I can see what's going on. The fallen lightpost is floating about half a foot off the ground. I crawl free and Gloria drops it.

I try getting up but wasn't expecting the flash of pain, and fall back to the ground. "Nicole!" Gloria comes back and offers me her hand. "Here."

I shake my head. "I'm fine." My initial anger at having a lightpost dropped on me is fading fast. Replacing it is amazement that Gloria was able to drop a lightpost on me. "That was so cool! How did you do that?!"

I manage to get up the second time. I stumble a bit and Gloria catches me. She helps me over to the bench and we sit down together.

"I'm not who you think I am..." she starts.