by S. K Munt
‘That’s why we’re here!’ Bonnie choked out, shaking Aaron. ‘She’s going to report Liam to the Tutelary right now!’
‘Please!’ Aaron scoffed. ‘No one’s going to believe that a guy like that had to force himself on the most worthless Potential in-’
‘Aaron!’ Bonnie sobbed his name, and her gentle shake became a gentle shove. ‘Stop! It’s not your place to-’
‘Yes it is! Because these guys are my mates, and that little slut has been trashing me to them, and then trashing herself around town-’
‘Shut up!’ Reeve dropped and crushed his smoke with his boot. ‘I don’t want-’ his voice cracked, and Finn’s heart twisted when tears slipped silently from his eyes then. ‘I just want my hoody, all right?’
The truth finally hit Finn hard enough to knock the air out of her- that Reeve had come there to break up with her- and her shock morphed into hysteria so swiftly that she didn’t know what she was doing until she’d thrown herself at Reeve.
‘No you don’t! You want me, I know you do!’ She balled her fingers tightly up in his shirt, shaking him. ‘Babe… please... I know that you’re hurt and in shock, but we both know you didn’t just come here to collect your hoody, okay? Just like you never came here just to deliver a letter! You came here to see me! To be with me- because you love me and you want me to be able to explain this away, because deep down, some part of you knows that I can, and that I’d never hurt you like this!’ Finn lifted her hands to cup his face, and when he turned his face into her left palm and moaned, she felt the way she assumed ambulance workers did when they checked for a pulse and found a very faint one. He loved her still- she knew it! But if she couldn’t make that pulse beat stronger now while it was so weak, then what they had would die, and she’d surely perish with it. ‘And I can do that, if you’d just give me the chance!’
‘Oh yeah?’ Bailey drawled, but Finn kept her eyes on Reeve.
‘Yes!’ She caressed the slant of his brow with her thumb, hands trembling at the very idea that he may never let her touch him again as she whispered: ‘I know Aaron’s probably said awful things because he hates me and that’s what he does! But Liam really attacked me and then Georgia Janks hit me when I thought she was rescuing me-’
‘Aaron wouldn’t have had a word to say to make me doubt you, if you’d stayed home like you’d said you would!’ Reeve snarled, tearing his face free of her grip. His eyes lifted, but they fell to the cut corner of her lip, then to the bruise on her neck before slitting, making Finn’s skin crawl with shame. ‘Isn’t that what you told Hadley you’d do?’ He snorted. ‘Well I believed you then! But you lied and went off to the party behind my back anyway, dressed like-’
‘It’s my mum’s skirt!’ Finn cried, clasping her necklace just so she’d have something to hold onto. ‘And I only went to that party to explain to the other girls why Cara and I were bailing-’
‘And stayed for over three hours?!’ Bailey demanded, and Finn was overcome with the urge to sock him. He probably thought he was coming to his cousin’s rescue, but he had something to gain from them breaking up too, and it killed her that Reeve had brought him instead of Paige, who would have smelled a rat at the mere mention of Georgia’s involvement! ‘Come on Finn! Look at yourself! Make up smeared, skanky top, leaves in your-’
‘I dressed up because I thought Reeve was going!’ Finn cried, but she felt her face heating with a humiliated flush anyway. ‘And I still look like hell now, because I’ve been waiting for the bells to toll, so I could report-’ the barge honked then, sounding its alarm that it was about to depart, and when Reeve turned to look at it and away from her, Finn’s panic became hysteria. ‘No! Reeve no… don’t!’ She latched onto his arm as her heart lodged itself in her throat, leaving her chest feeling hollow. ‘Please… stay! Let me explain-’
‘I just got myself grounded again by racing off to see you!’ Reeve yanked his arm out of her grasp and scowled at her. ‘And I’m sorry, but that’s the last week I’m gonna waste on you, understood? So just give me my hoody and let me go.’
‘Yeah... give him his hoody so the trash can take itself out already!’ Maya jeered then. ‘He doesn’t deserve you anyway!’
‘Who the hell are you?’ Reeve snarled at her.
‘The only person here that apparently sees Finn’s worth!’ Maya retorted, tugging Finn back. ‘And who can’t wait to see the tables turn when everyone else finally sees it too!’
‘No! Wait!’ Finn’s face crumpled as she pulled free of Maya’s grip and then shrugged out of Reeve’s soft white jacket. ‘You can’t leave me!’ Reeve opened his hand to take the hoody, but she pressed something else into his palm instead- the stone heart. ‘Because we’re gonna be together forever, right?!’ She swallowed hard. ‘Because everything’s gonna be okay as long as we have each other… right?!’’
Reeve’s eyes fell to the palm of his hand, then widened. ‘Jesus…’ his Adam’s apple bobbed, and Finn’s heart flipped when he croaked: ‘You still have this...?!’
‘I found it still in my pocket when I got home the next day!’ Finn sniffled, cupping his hands. ‘And I’ve kept it all these years!’
‘Yeah… yeah you really have,’ Reeve closed his fist around the stone. ‘Had my heart for years, that is...’ he sniffled, and for one moment, Finn was sure he was going to hear her out. But when he lifted his gaze, it settled on something behind them all and just like that, a switch seemed to flip behind his eyes again. Finn twisted to see what he was looking at, and when she saw that several of the Outskirters had crowded around to watch them- including Lance the shirtless refugee who looked like he was about to attempt to intervene again- she felt her stomach flip in fear. ‘But that ends now...!’ Reeve snarled, then Finn turned back just in time to see him draw back his arm and hurled the stone at the ground with so much force that it broke into multiple pieces against the wooden dock, right in front of Lance’s bare feet.
‘Oh!’ Bonnie cried, as Finn screamed into her palm, twisting to watch the tiny bits of quartz scatter in multiple directions, doing as much damage to her soul as the comet had to the earth. ‘Reeve...!’
‘Whoa…’ Bailey sounded concerned now. ‘What was that?’
It’s nothing now! Finn thought, feeling the world around her spin in that nightmare kaleidoscope way it had after Georgia had hit her, draining all of the colour out of the tents and people’s clothes until all that was left was grey. It’s ruins now- and there’s no way of putting them back together or polishing them up ever again, is there?
‘The heart I gave her when I was a kid,’ Reeve choked out, ‘which she just shattered for the record- not me!’
The pieces of stone on the dock vanished behind a veil of tears so thick that she feared that was it- that she’d never stop crying now that she’d been broken that badly.
I can’t deal with this! Finn’s stomach twisted, like she was about to vomit. Her friends were yelling at Reeve- all of them now- but she couldn’t make out a word. Not another second of this! Not another day of this LIFE!
There was so much that Finn still needed and wanted to say to Reeve- but if words truly were her power, then she was good and defeated now, because her throat felt as tight and crumpled as a crushed soda can, and her heart and lungs were just as bad.
What can I say anyway? she wondered, as she felt herself begin to hyperventilate. Not just because of her breaking heart, but because of the sheer injustice of the situation! How can I talk someone off a ledge, if they’ve already pushed ME over the side?
Gasping for a breath that would not come, Finn got the rest of Reeve’s sweater free of her wrist and then hurled it in the direction Bailey had been standing, as she croaked out: ‘I hope you’re happy now!’ She looked Aaron’s way ‘You too!’ She wiped tears out of her eyes, clearing them for long enough for her to say to the boys: ‘And just for the record, Liam’s next victim is on you, you soulless, slut-shaming, self-serving monsters!’
And then she tur
ned and ran smack back into that wall of tears, and for the first time in her entire life, she didn’t care if anyone followed her, or even looked at her, ever again!
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Finn had thought she’d seen Amory Laidlaw angry before, but being summoned to his office on Monday afternoon rectified that, making Finn wonder if he’d under-furnished the castle, just so he’d be able to get his voice to ricochet off the walls as much as possible.
‘Do you have ANY idea how disgusted I am with you?!’ the king had bellowed, pacing between his desk and his window, while Finn and Georgia shrank down in the chairs on the other side. ‘Throwing a party is one thing, but throwing one on a condemned building is beyond the pale! What if it had collapsed? What if the Outlaws had seen you? You would’ve had a massacre on your hands!’
‘I didn’t plan-’ Georgia began, but the king slapped his desk.
‘I don’t care!’ the typewriter rattled, and Miriam and Cara, who were standing in the furthest corner by a potted palm, both flinched. ‘You still crossed a line by hitting another Potential in the face!’
‘But she-’
‘No! There’s no excusing your behaviour!’ The king slid his neon blue eyes Finn’s way and narrowed them. ‘Or yours! You both crossed lines on Saturday night, embarrassing not only yourselves, but your peers and the Academy too! I wish I knew exactly which lines were crossed by who, so I could tailor your punishments more accordingly- but your friends have blurred an awful lot of them with conflicting stories, so I’m going to have to settle for punishing you only for what I know you’ve done- which is still substantial!’ He sank down into his high-backed chair, glowering at Finn. ‘So… was that truly your sweet sixteenth, Miss Monroe? Or has every single witness lied about that?’
Finn wiped away a tear. She wasn’t crying because he was yelling exactly, it was just that she’d been weeping for thirty-six hours straight by then, and was starting to forget what the world looked like through clear, dry eyes. ‘Yes, your highness,’ she whispered, knowing it was best to admit that much, than to antagonise him further by trying to wriggle off his hook entirely.
‘And was it your suggestion, that that decaying water tower would be the ideal place to have such a gathering?’
Finn swallowed, avoiding Cara’s gaze. ‘Yes, your highness...’
He sighed. ‘Do you have anything to say in your defence?’
‘Yes, your highness,’ Finn wiped away at more tears then lifted her head. ‘Just that… I didn’t think anyone would come, all right? I thought I’d end up spending the night hanging out with my friends from the Shards back at my place, which wasn’t illegal. I didn’t take any alcohol up there either, and I was determined to be in before curfew!’ She wiped away another tear. ‘And we would have been, if not for the Outlaws attacking the…’ her voice broke and she caught the hanky the king handed her then, so she could sob into it. There was so much she wanted to say, but how could she sob over her stupid broken heart, knowing that while she’d been getting assaulted, the Van Der Merwe family had been getting slaughtered? And they had been too- every single one of them! Principal Van Der Merwe, Beth, their son Lutie and their German Shepherd Kady- all gone! And for what? A couple of horses? It was so tragic that overnight, the Pen had gone from being a place that had been overflowing with hope, to one that was now shrouded in grief and fear.
‘Well you-’
‘Just give her a minute, Amory…’ Miriam murmured softly. ‘That was her principal once, remember? She knew him well.’
‘We both did…’ Georgia whispered to her shoes. ‘I’ll never forget how kind he always was, and how proud he was of me too!’
Finn didn’t know if Georgia was exaggerating her grief or not, because their former principal had thought the world of her. The feeling had never been mutual though, and Georgia had treated him like a running joke, rolling her eyes over how easily impressed he’d been, and blaming him when she’d lost school captain to Becca Venz, who’d been his other favourite star student.
‘As certain as I am that his pride in you was well-earned, academically…’ the king continued, ‘there’s no denying the fact that you’ve made quite a spectacle of yourself on a more personal level recently, and, grieving or not, you must now be held accountable for that- the same way you’d accept an award for good behaviour.’ He paused. ‘So: do you deny that you were drinking at that party?’
‘Only what Liam gave me, your highness…’ Georgia said, lowering her thick curly lashes and when Finn heard a sigh from the other side of the room, she knew that it must have been emitted by Cara. Finn actually didn’t know why Cara or Miriam were there, because Amory hadn’t explained their presence, but Liam wasn’t there and that troubled Finn. Had he already been put through the wringer? Or had he gotten off with a handful of detentions, like the kids that had gotten caught had?
‘And you admit that you attacked Finn without provocation?’
‘No!’ Georgia’s head snapped up. ‘Of course I was provoked! I was seeing the guy that she was mauling in the bushes!’
But the king frowned at her. ‘There’s a lot to unpack in that statement…’ he rubbed his lips together. ‘But for the sake of keeping things simple… do you deny that you- who has been trained in combat- hit another Potential in a fit of rage?’
Georgia’s lower lip wobbled. ‘No.’ She sniffled. ‘But like I said, Liam had given me alcohol, and I’m not used to drinking so-’
‘Well, I’m going to stop you there...’ the king stood up and turned away and the moment he did, Finn scowled at Georgia, disgusted by her refusal to take responsibility for any of her actions. ‘Well, although I know that you’re going to think the following punishments are unfair, I suggest that you see them as an opportunity for growth, and handle this like the ladies I know you can be.’ He turned to Finn. ‘Miss Monroe, I’m both pleased, and displeased, to inform you that Howard chose you as the best candidate for the position in the library on Friday afternoon…’ he paused when Finn sucked in a breath before continuing: ‘But unfortunately, I’ve since told him that he needs to hire the runner-up, because I’ve decided that with your experience, and in light of your recent behaviour, you will be better suited to joining the recovery crew that will be going out to Broadsound for the next three months, all right? Effective as of the first weekend of the school holidays, and concluding the week before term one of the next school year starts.’
Finn’s heart lit up then spluttered out like a faulty firecracker. ‘You… you’re putting me on a chain gang for the whole summer?’
The king rolled his eyes. ‘It’s not a chain gang, Miss Monroe it’s just an extension of what you’ve been doing around here-’
‘I’ve been picking up rubbish off the side of the road with a bunch of minor league criminals like I’m on a chain gang!’ Finn snapped. ‘Now you want me to do it in ruins, miles from home that are overrun by Outlaws? Why don’t you just shoot me yourselves?’
‘Finn!’ Miriam gasped as Georgia flinched. ‘That isn’t funny!’
‘I’m not joking!’ Finn cried. ‘You guys clearly want to get rid of me- so just do it! Dangle me over the wall and use me as Outlaw bait! Maybe then, one of your inept Tutelas will actually be able to catch some before they slaughter another vulnerable Pen family!’
‘That is enough!’ the king slammed his hand on the table again. ‘I know you’re upset, but the fact of the matter is that I thought you’d benefit from this- not only because you seem to thrive when you have a large project to tackle, but because this job pays five chips a day! Which means you’ll be making ten chips a weekend!’
‘That’s hazard pay because I’ll be away from my mother!’ Finn’s eyes spilled over at the idea of going out into Broadsound with strangers every single weekend. ‘Away from my friends!’
‘Like you have any-’
‘Shut up!’ Finn snapped at Georgia, then scowled at the king. ‘What about her, huh? What’s her punishment? Because if sh
e gets that library job despite what she did to me this weekend because she was the runner-up, I swear to the Dystopian Gods that I will-’
‘Actually Georgia wasn’t the runner-up, and even if she had been, I wouldn’t permit her to take it.’ Amory straightened, adjusting his tie as he said: ‘In fact, Georgia will be offered your old position, where she’ll earn what you did before- and not a chip more.’
Finn swallowed back her suddenly redundant outrage, then looked at Georgia, who looked livid. Well…! Finn thought, not knowing how to feel about that. So she wasn’t even runner up? And she’s being demoted too? Ha! I’d call it justice, if not for the fact that his idea of punishing her, is the same as his idea of rewarding ME!
‘Huh?’ Georgia hissed. ‘You’re going to force me to pick up litter?! I’m the best student you have!’
‘I’m not forcing you to do anything,’ Amory sat back down and folded his hands in front of him. ‘These are voluntary positions, remember? If you don’t want them, you don’t have to take them.’ He shrugged. ‘But those are the only positions available to the two of you right now, so I suggest that you think my offers over carefully before you turn them down, because there are plenty of people that will jump at the chance to fill them if you pass them up.’ He sighed. ‘And though I’m sure it goes without saying… Miriam and I have decided that you’ll be sitting out the wedding this weekend as well. You’re still welcome to attend along with the general public, but we need to set an example for how you Potentials ought to behave, by removing you from the bridal party.’
Finn had expected that, and though she was disappointed by the disgrace, that loss paled in comparison to everything else that had already been ripped out of her hands over the course of those past three days anyway, so she wiped away more of her tears with the hanky and sniffled, wondering how she was going to explain to her mother the following afternoon that she’d managed to ruin her life in every way since she’d last seen her.
