AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I have to go after him,” Gabriel said. He reached for my hand, holding it. “I have to find him and tell him.”
“I have to,” I said. “It should be me.”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Liam said it was better if us guys told him ourselves. Now that he’s seen you and me, he needs to know. But I have to get the others to go with me so we can tell him as a group. You have to go talk to a council at the cabins.”
I shook my head, sure that I should go, too. “I could... I need to talk to him.”
“No, it should be me,” Gabriel said, shifting to kneel at my feet, looking up at me. He reached up, cupping my cheek while his other hand squeezed mine. “Sweetheart, this was my fault. We knew we should have told him as a team but no one wanted to do it. We were all uncomfortable and didn’t want to tell him yet. But there’s no way around it now. I have to go get the other guys and we have to force Kota to sit down and hear us out.”
My throat tightened as more tears came. I couldn’t get rid of the picture of Kota and those green eyes of his boring into me with questions and hurt feelings.
I was so close and had lost him. I should have told him before something like this happened. His finding out shouldn’t have happened like this.
Gabriel cupped my cheeks, holding me steady so I had no choice but to look in his eyes. “Trust me, Sang,” he pleaded. “Trust us. We’ll make it right. We’re too strong together to break up now.”
I wanted to believe. I’d finally kissed Kota and he’d seemed so happy before. He must think I was the worst, after all this time and effort, and here I was kissing Gabriel when I’d been kissing Kota the night before.
How horrible I was.
“Sang,” he said, his voice wavering, his eyes desperate. “You promised to stay with me. Remember? Remember when we were in your dad’s closet together? You promised.”
I nodded.
“Stay with me now,” he said. “Only I need you to go face the council, and I need you to tell them that you have to stay with us. No matter what.”
“They’ll have to talk to all of you eventually,” I said. “Won’t they?”
Gabriel bit his lip. “Which means we have to tell Kota, and we have to tell him right now. But I can’t do it if you’re going after him. I need to get the guys.” He pulled out his cell phone and looked at it.
“Okay,” I said and then reached for his phone. “Can you set up a message?” I asked. “One that goes to all of them but Kota?”
He grunted, pushed buttons on his phone to make it happen, and then passed his phone to me.
I sent out a single message:
This is Sang. Please meet Gabriel at your tent. Bring Kota. You need to tell him everything.
I read the message, and then frowned, and added one more after that.
Please stay together. I need you.
I teared up and sent the message along. Mr. Blackbourne had said they would never fail if I asked them for something. I needed them now.
Gabriel shook his head and frowned. “Sang,” he said, reaching for me.
I handed the phone to him and then pushed him toward the door. “I’ll be fine. Find Kota.”
He nodded, stuffed his feet into boots and walked out in his pajamas, pausing only to zip up the tent door before he broke into a run.
I had to trust him that he knew what he was doing. That they all did.
???
Sometime during the night, someone must have brought a set of clothes for me, because a fresh pair of pants and a pink sweater was set aside. I did a fast run to the bathroom and came back. I dressed quickly and used Dr. Green’s hair brush. If I had to face an Academy council, I didn’t want to look like a crazed lunatic.
Even though that’s how I felt on the inside.
I breathed in slowly before opening the tent flap and felt a weird sort of calm. I realized I was suddenly devoid of emotion. I’d been through so much in the last twenty-four hours, that my emotions were drained completely.
I’d become the zombie.
As I emerged, it took me a minute to orient myself. They had placed their tent not far from the cabins. I wondered why they hadn’t chosen to stay in the cabins with all the others. I wondered if it was so they could talk privately about me and the awkward position I’d put them in.
I walked, slowly, steadily, toward the cabin area. No matter how much I took my time, I was there all too soon. My thoughts were filled with Kota, worried about his feelings and what I’d done. If I said I wanted to join the Academy now, Kota might never approve.
Why would he want a girl who kissed someone else on his team? He must hate me.
The cabin area seemed so quiet like it had been during the night. The cabins had metal siding and shingled roofs, and were painted yellow with white trim. They sat on concrete slabs with concrete steps in front of each.
A group of people sat in chairs in front of one of the cabins. I didn’t recognize most of the faces, but as I got closer, I spotted Marc, the guy from the team of older boys who’d been with the vocal girl from the first day—the one who wanted to join them. She wasn’t sitting in the chairs; I wondered what had happened to her.
Marc was staring intently at the cabin they were closest to, lost in thought.
I wasn’t sure why, but since the seat next to him was empty, and I didn’t know the others sitting nearby, I sat next to him. “Is this where we’re supposed to wait to talk to the Academy council?” I asked him.
He blinked repeatedly, his eyes coming into focus as he turned to me. His lips picked up in a small, tight smile. “Hi,” he said. “If it isn’t the little doctor, Sang.”
I nodded, leaning back in the chair. I checked the others sitting beside us; a couple of older teenagers, some kids, a few adults. Some of them talked to each other, others waited quietly.
I wondered what I was doing here. Joining the Academy would be pointless without Kota.
“Are you in trouble, too?” I asked him, trying to distract myself and hopefully gain some answers as what was happening inside the cabin. “This sort of reminds me of waiting for the principal.”
Marc laughed. A lock of long hair fell in front of his green eye. The blue one winked at me. “You don’t seem like the type of girl who would be familiar with that.”
“You’d be surprised,” I said. I studied the cabin, wondering how long this would take. “Who’s inside?”
“One of mine,” he said. “New recruit. I’m waiting to go in and vouch for her.”
I turned my attention back to him. “The girl?”
He nodded. “She wants to be on our team, or she’s not interested. I told her she needed to actually...you know...get to know other people. Participate. Like you did.” He snorted and shook his head. “She’s so fucking stubborn, though. She won’t listen to me. I don’t think she’ll make it.”
“How...how are you going to convince them that she could go on your guy team?”
He shrugged. “I’ve heard rumors of other teams. We’re good together. I thought they’d at least let us try it
out.” He looked at me and smiled. “They’re letting you, right?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know if I’ll get in.”
“Sure you will. You’re a doctor.” He winked playfully at me.
I understood he might have been joking but I wanted to be clear now. I wasn’t in the mood for a game. “I’m not a doctor,” I said. “I’m not even out of high school.”
“Sorry. I was kidding. I knew before. Not that you couldn’t be a young doctor in training, especially around the Academy,” he said and paused. “Doesn’t Dr. Green have a team?”
I nodded again. “Yeah.”
He stared at me, shifting the hair away from his green eye now. He leaned in, talking quietly. “Another guy?”
I looked him in his eyes. “There’s eight others besides Dr. Green.”
His mouth opened. He coughed once. “Oh. So you and he are going to...like the couple teams?”
“No, I’m joining their whole team, if I can.” I looked down and focused on my lap, sliding my hand down the jean material. “Or...or I might not join at all.”
“You can’t not join,” he said. “Not if you’re qualified. It’s too good a thing to pass up.”
“I don’t want to pass it up,” I said, and then lowered my voice to not be overheard by the others. “But I can’t lose the team. And if I try to join without them, it means my team might split apart. It’s too important to them. They are too important to each other. I can’t do that to them.” I ducked my head down. “Besides, I’m pretty expensive...”
“Huh?” he asked.
“I’ve caused them to use up a lot of favors,” I said, looking up again. He was leaning close, his elbows on his knees as he leaned in toward me, focused. “And money apparently. They spent it trying to keep me with them and out of trouble.”
He smirked. “So you’re just going to walk away?”
I shrugged. “It would be less trouble.”
