Newton’s Laws of Motion [edited]
Newton’s first law: an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity until acted on by an External force.
I never expected Ace to be an External. I should have known, looking back at it now. His eyes should have given him away from the start. There was a spark in them, burning so bright it blinded me to everything else when I looked at him. The cigarette that perched between his lips faded into the background; the smell of smoke shifting, no longer making my nose twitch but encouraging a deep inhale. I thought I was finally at State Constant, that it was time to join everyone else in a settled life. I was such a fool.
I wasn’t at Rest. No one is really at Rest anymore, not since our minds filled with questions that burn so bright they keep us tossing and turning even after the sky has gone dark. Attempts were made, of course, to regain State Rest - meditation, yoga, drugs - but humanity has become too restless. So we continue to move, thinking of how we can change and the paths we’ll journey down, yet always alert to the speed of the ones before us. Some people never get hit by an External, others by many. I thought I’d had my share, but then Ace came. I tried to steer clear of him - honest, I did. The thing about Externals is that they’re persistent. He forced me to stop.
Newton’s second law: the power of an external force is calculated by the mass of an object multiplied by acceleration, F=ma.
Ace was never supposed to be part of the equation. It didn’t make any sense. His mass did not equate to the weight of the words the hung heavy in the air after leaving chapped, bleeding lips and settling into my mind. It was a weight that bore down over me everyday, drooping my shoulders a little more with each additional word, buckling my knees as I forced one foot in front of the other. No one could know the truth behind the weight I carried. I thought it made me safe, surely there would never be anything strong enough to counter it. Ace didn’t make sense. It just shouldn’t have been possible. The numbers didn’t add up. But then again, perhaps it was me, tiny and fragile, beneath all those layers that allowed him to become an External. He stripped me of my words. The acceleration of it all snatched the air from my lungs, impossible to add my own to cover my nakedness. There was no time to think. He thrusted me forward at a speed I knew not how to control. It was exhilerating. It was new. I let him take my hand and pull me forward, the wind painting my cheeks red. We ran together.
Newton’s third law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The thing is, Ace may be my External, but it turns out that I’m his