Inner Circle

by Y A Marks

  I glanced at the time. It was 6:04. Any minute now Rylan would be knocking on the door. I sat on the bed and tried to be patient. My torso wobbled back and forth. Each second stretched into a year.

  I kicked my legs, enjoyed a thumb-wrestling match, and practiced fluttering my eyelids.

  As minutes ticked away, my heart jabbed at my chest. Once the clock reached 6:11, I yelled into my pillow. It was a common practice I did at the Stadium.

  At 6:15, I was done. This relationship was not going to survive. Rylan always worked. I never saw him. Then when he said he’d be here, he wasn’t.

  He wasn’t.

  I could’ve strangled him. Did he even consider my feelings? Maybe, he didn’t like me. Was he upset? Did he lie to me? Why did God torture the female race with boys?

  I laid back and stuffed the edges of my hair into my mouth.

  Three knocks clanged against the door. I shot up, slid out of bed, and ran to the doorway. I stopped short and zipped back to the mirror to double check myself. I combed my hair with my fingers and put on a new coat of lip gloss.

  Three more knocks rang out.

  “I’m coming,” I sang before I started mumbling to myself. “Okay, double check the shorts. No color on my teeth. Breath minty fresh. Remember to smile, remember to smile.”

  I dashed to the door, but stopped myself and casually opened it.

  Rylan stood there… looking… hot. Honestly, if he was in a brown paper bag, I’d say the same thing. He might’ve been a bit cuter in a paper bag. His long, black strands curled back onto his head with a few dangling down into his eyes while a white shirt with a black tie and black jeans adorned his thin frame.

  “Sorry, I’m late. I, um—” He stared at me.

  My stomach dropped. Had I missed something? I mentally examined myself, considering what might be out of place.

  “What? What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Nothing. You um, you just look great—beautiful really.”

  Okay. Compliment explosion coming on. Calm down. I could have melted right there into a blob of goo. I didn’t get compliments. Dressing up and being pretty weren’t safe things to do on the street. My whole essence sang a happy song. Unfortunately, my happy song sounded like “The Bare Necessities” from The Jungle Book.

  “Thanks,” I said. “You look great, too.”

  “I’m really sorry I’m late. The time didn’t bother you, did it?”

  “The time… pssh. You know what? I didn’t even notice,” I lied. Okay, yeah the last twenty minutes or so was torture. A boy should never put a girl through that, and maybe in my mental desperation, I thought some things I shouldn’t have, like over-exaggerating about our relationship not working and everything else. But, he was there, and I was there. And we were about to go out, so everything was happy like butterflies and rainbows… and maybe, a purple, flying unicorn who spits fire.

  He exhaled. “Good, cause it was murder getting up here. Not to mention Sun Hi…”

  “What? What did Sun Hi do?” My eyes bugged. She had better not told him this was my first date.

  “She just made sure I dressed up. She wouldn’t tell me why. But now that I see you, I’m glad I did.”

  Part of me was angry with Sun Hi, but the other part of me was still excited. I gave in to the excited part.

  He turned and stuck out his arm. I smiled, shut the door to my room, and wrapped my hands around his arm. We took the ramps down to the first floor, and he guided me through the main gate toward the railroad tracks. Once there, he walked me to the far, left side. At this point, confusion overtook me because I didn’t want to jump down into that old, subway tunnel with Sun Hi’s clothes on.

  “Is this going to be another illusion or something?” I asked.

  “What’d you mean?”

  “Um, like when I first got here, I thought the rail thingy would go forward but it went down.”

  He laughed. “Oh yeah, but no. We need to get on the tracks.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  My eyes bulged out of my head. My trust gland itched. Basically, being alone for seven years does something to you. It’s not easy to trust people, even cute boys—especially, cute boys. I let my guard down because, well, he had saved my life like three times. But I didn’t like the idea of walking down some dark, damp subway tunnel.

  He jumped down first and then held up his hands so he could catch me. I kneeled as close as I could to the edge then allowed myself to drop. My body fell forward but stopped. Slowly, my body glided to the floor. As my feet touched the ground, my mind blanked.

  When I was with Rylan, he made me feel different. I could barely explain it, but even in the little things, like just catching me. For him, my ninety-odd-pounds was nothing. I was weightless in his hands. When I picked up Mari, she weighed a ton. Was it like that for him, and he was just covering it up?

  My mind wrestled with the idea as we continued down the tracks. With him, I was small, feminine, and protected. But on the other hand, my mind tapped me with horrid scenarios. If he could catch me with ease, he could probably hurt me with ease, too.

  After walking about a hundred yards or so, Rylan led me to a little elevator. It was barely large enough for me to fit in, let alone the two of us. I clambered inside, and Rylan apologized as he entered. I liked being close to him, but this wasn’t comfortable. Luckily, it took less than thirty seconds to reach our destination.

  We both got out. A set of circular stairs were next to the elevator. I pushed my eyebrow up as far as I could and stared at him.

  “Stairs?” I asked. “Creepy tracks, a crowded elevator, and now stairs?”

  “Trust me,” he said.

  I exhaled and started walking. I didn’t grab his arm this time, though. My mind was racing way too much, and I needed a sense of security. I had been calculating my odds of kicking him between the legs, dodging blows, and trying to scamper back through the mini maze of things he had taken me through just in case things went wrong. I didn’t need a father to tell me to be careful. Lower-Cs have to know how to survive.

  Three flights of stairs brought us to the top of something. I couldn’t tell what it was, but windows circled around the walls like a lighthouse, except these windows were tinted. Straw covered the floor. At the far end, a blanket spread out over the straw with a basket set beside it.

  When I noticed the picnic setup, my fears dissolved. I pressed my head into his chest as shame rounded my heart. I kissed him on the cheek and then rubbed away the lip gloss mark.

  “What do you think?” he asked.

  “It’s beautiful,” I said, walking forward.

  “But you haven’t seen the best part.”

  He moved over toward the wall and grabbed a switch that hung from the ceiling. He pressed a button, and the glass in front of me slid to the side. As the opening widened, Atlanta’s skyline appeared in all its glory, the tall, sturdy buildings, the three-tiered highway, and the twinkling, blue lights.

  A chill sent my hands to my shoulders, but Rylan quickly covered me in a red throw.

  “I hope you like it,” he said.

  “Like it? I love it.” I turned around to face him.

  “Well, let’s hope you can stomach the food that I made.”

  He sat down and wrapped himself up in a blue throw. Digging in the basket, he pulled out all sorts of goodies: sandwiches, fresh fruit, granola bars, trail mix, cinnamon rolls, peach and mango smoothies, and a few cheese wedges. At this point, I was really excited. Good food was expensive. I still didn’t understand how Escerica got its money. Where I was from, this meal would have cost seventy credits or more. I could eat for a week off that.

  I sat down and let my gaze roam over the food. My mouth watered just looking at it. Tomorrow, I’d be back eating that gray oatmeal stuff but at least currently, I had real food.

  “Well, dig in,” he said.

  We sat and ate. I didn’t eat much. I don’t know if it was the butterflies in my stomach or if it was because the
view sang sweet melodies to my heart. I didn’t recognize how much I had missed seeing the skyline. When Dhyla was still alive, talking with her and viewing the skyline was the highlight of my week. There were only a few places in the city that I had found where I could see it. Since I had started living with the Escerica Rebels, I hadn’t seen it at all.

  “Thanks, Rylan,” I said. “I really missed… well, missed this.”

  “I know you used to spend a lot of time with Dhyla at her café, and Sun Hi told me that you loved the skyline.”

  “I do. It’s my second favorite thing next to—”

  “Chocolate crème mocha?” His expression was wide as he held up the top of a silver, insulated canister.

  I faced him and he handed me the silver top. There was a brown liquid inside that smelled familiar.

  “You didn’t?” I asked.

  “Well, taste it. I’m not Sun Hi so it might taste like AJ’s sweat.”

  “Eww, don’t ruin this for me.” I laughed and tried to remain hopeful.

  I put the canister top to my lips and took a sip. My taste buds danced in my mouth. The musical bobble spread to my shoulders and hips.

  “So, how is it?” he asked.

  “This is horrible.” I joked. “This is so bad that I think I’ll have to drink the whole bottle just to spare you.”

  His eyebrows tightened and relaxed a few times before a smile formed on his lips. “Have at it. It’s yours.”

  I put out my hand and gestured for the bottle. I think he thought I was kidding about drinking the whole bottle, but as I poured the last of it into the cup his face pruned.

  “Well, you said it was mine,” I laughed.

  “I thought you’d have some manners.”

  “Manners? Boy, I’m Lower-C, you know we don’t have no manners where I’m from.”

  An exhale escaped me. His eyes turned down, and his lips loosened. I poked out my lip and scooted over to him. I raised the container top so he could take a sip.

  The liquid entered his mouth. A second later, his face darkened. “Ooh, gosh that’s awful.”

  “Hey, do you mean I just wasted two sips on you? Like I’ll ever do that again.” I took the top and downed the rest. After a second to let it settle, a blob of air shot up through my esophagus and created the loudest burp I’d probably had in my life.

  “Um, excuse me.” I smiled and put two polite fingers over my lips.

  “There’s that special girl.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “You’re alive.”

  I moved back a few feet. My head spun a little by his response. “What does that mean?”

  “It means you’re just, I don’t know, unafraid, powerful, unyielding. It’s like when I first met you and you laid back down. You were protecting yourself, but you didn’t flinch from doing it. You just laid on back and were like, ‘I’m good. Don’t help me up, stranger,’” he mocked.

  “I didn’t say that,” I said.

  “Oh, is that so?”

  “Yep.”

  I didn’t think being smart or cautious or whatever-the-heck I was doing was special at all. I was just trying to survive.

  I folded my arms in mock anger.

  He lost eye contact with me, and his gaze slid over the ground and near the corners of the room. My stomach tumbled.

  “Paeton,” he started. “I know it’s only been a week or whatever. And I know you’re the cautious type, and I don’t want to rush you or anything.”

  The tumbles in my stomach flipped, hurdled, and swung from a newly built trapeze.

  “I just wanted to know. If um, we could make us, well um, us. If we could be an us?”

  I knew what he was trying to say, very innocently and sweetly by the way. But, I wanted the real words and hoped deep within my chest he would say them. “I’m confused,” I lied.

  “Would you officially be my girlfriend?”

  Passion churned in his blood, and I could feel it, sense it, smell it. He was a little powder keg of sweetness, devotion, and unbridled testosterone.

  Whatever it was that was affecting him washed over my own mental state. Tension filled me, with a prickly anxiety increasing in my toes which spread into my calves and up my thighs before knotting behind my belly button.

  “Well?” he asked.

  I thinned my eyes at him. “What are your qualifications?” I said, stupidly. “Are you qualified to be my boyfriend?” You would think the moment would have caused me to lose my snark, but my increasing fear was trying to hide behind the humor.

  His eyes tightened, but there was a gigantic smile on his face.

  I tightened my folded arms. He crawled forward and tried to pull my arms apart.

  “What’s your answer? Answer me you, sixteen-year-old nutcase!”

  “I won’t answer! I won’t!” I mumbled as he playfully yanked on my arms.

  “Fine, I’m taking the mocha back. No more coffee for Paeton.”

  “No, not the coffee,” I yelled. He turned away, and I grabbed his arms tugging him away from the empty canister.

  He spun around, grabbed my arms, and pinned me to the floor. He grinned a long time before the happiness faded. His eyes burned with the passion I had seen in him a few moments ago.

  I didn’t like being trapped under him, my arms pinned down. I wasn’t used to this. Alarm bells blazed in my mind. It was more than just the concern that he would take advantage of me. It was also the fact that I liked it. I don’t know why, but a part of me, some deep, dark place liked his control.

  The more he stared at me, the more my face and neck heated. The burning inside of me increased with each delicate moment.

  I gazed into his gray eyes and calmed myself. “Yes, I’ll be your girlfriend.”

  He didn’t smile. His expression stayed the same, but he released my arms and his face descended toward mine. As I closed my eyes preparing for the upcoming kiss, I noticed a bright light flash near his ear. I focused on the light. A second later, his jaw ripped open and a flurry of red sprayed into my face.

  CHAPTER 3

  Rylan fell back. Both of his hands pressed against his jaw. I moved closer. Flashes expanded and folded in the tower. It didn’t take me long to realize those flashes were connected to bullets. I stopped short and sent my gaze out the open window. Two aircraft zoomed toward our position.

  “What do I? What should I?” I asked.

  Rylan pointed toward the switch dangling on the other side of the room. I dashed for it. A bullet storm rained into the walls. My hands grabbed the tiny, square controller. My finger jabbed the close button over and over. The windows inched around the base. I rolled behind a beam. My body pressed against the metal while Rylan writhed on the floor. He was so close to the window. I prayed, hoping he wouldn’t be shot.

  When the windows closed within a yard, I dashed into the room. As my feet pounded through the straw, the aircraft circled the tower we were in and shot a flurry of bullets at the glass. Spider web cracks stretched over the glass.

  My arms circled around his waist. I pulled up and back, yanking Rylan off the ground. Clawing his back and anything I could grasp, I got underneath him. We stumbled out of the tower and dashed down the steps. Pieces of the walls burst into our faces. Dust formed tiny clouds around us.

  I shoved Rylan into the elevator. He whined in protest. After entering, I pressed every single button until the elevator finally started moving. We started our descent slowly, but something gave way. Weightlessness overtook our bodies. The sound of scratching metal cut into my eardrums. Burned rubber invaded my nostrils.

  The elevator fell and crashed into the ground. My ears rang, and the impact blasted numbness through my bones. I pressed my body against Rylan, leaning back to lift my legs to my chest. My jaw clenched as I stomped the door. It gave way and skidded across the metal floor. Clawing myself from the mangled metal, I grabbed Rylan’s arms tugging him forward. We took four steps forward and entered the subway-like corridor. This would take us bac
k to the Escerica compound.

  “Are you okay?” My hands shook so much they could’ve flown off at any moment.

  His face was tight. His hand stayed pressed to his jaw, but he managed a nod.

  My arm wrapped around his torso, and my neck lifted under his arm. We ran over the railroad tracks as fast as we could, trying to make it back to the safety of the main hall. Objects rattled above us. I prayed that AJ and the others would be able to get friendly aircraft into the air. I had only seen the two aircraft attacking, but I was busy with Rylan. There could be dozens of machines on the surface.

  A few people ran into the cart that goes to the surface. It shot forward a few feet before sliding into the roof. I tripped and fell backward trying to avoid it. My gaze slid over Rylan.

  “You okay?”

  My feet spun around toward the entrance. The terminal platform sat right at eye level. I pressed Rylan against the platform. He reached out with his right hand and grabbed the tiny grooves near the platform’s end. His body lifted a few inches. I pressed against his butt and then wrangled with his legs. He crawled forward, his full body on the ramp. I grabbed the metal bar off to the side and yanked. I squirmed, reaching the platform in a few seconds.

  When I stood, Rylan was hunched over. His face was a crimson fountain, blood pouring out of his cheek. Fatigue gripped him. Gone was the strength of just ten minutes ago. Every drop of lost blood weakened him.

  I could barely focus. My mind scrambled through vanishing ideas. My heart wouldn’t stop racing. I’m not sure how I got the strength, but I dragged him to his feet. We hobbled into the main corridor where chaos flurried around us. Holes cut into the ceiling. Bright orange lines from welds opened the dark metal of the roof. Men and androids descended into the main room on cables.

  A blue blur flashed near the room’s sixth level. It could only be one person.

  “Sun Hi! Sun Hi!” I yelled.

  The blur bounced around for a few more seconds before stopping. It shot down to me.

  I had never seen Sun Hi so tired, even with the battles we faced together and all the years at Café Lanta. She looked as though she could pass out at any second. I wondered if she would be any help at all. I needed help. I needed someone to help Rylan. He couldn’t die. I refused to let him die.