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Sang’s arms moved up around his neck. He dropped his hands to her waist and looked down at her.
Her smile was strained. “I’m worried about North being framed for something. I’m trying to figure out how we won’t be involved.”
“Is it about your ghost bird status? Are you worried about that?”
She blinked rapidly and shook her head. “No, but...I mean, that’s not the first priority...” She drifted.
“You’re not being questioned. Not if we can help it. Don’t worry.”
“What about all that money?” she asked. “Your whole purpose for being here?”
He looked into those lovely green eyes for a moment, digging deep to find the right words that would help her understand. Instead of answering directly, he pulled her in, hugging her and holding her close.
She leaned into him, breathed against him. She felt stiff still, but she buried her face in his shoulder.
“Us first,” he said quietly. “Family...”
“I know,” she said.
He pressed his lips to the side of her head, kissing for a long moment. Her hair smelled like that god-awful shampoo Gabriel had given her.
The bell rang, and before he could lose the opportunity, he nudged her until her head tilted up.
He kissed her. Hard and deep, trying to give her some confidence in a single, risky kiss.
She responded, her mouth moving against his. Even her tongue licked at his lips once before retreating.
He missed this. Kissing her in the morning. The times he would wake her up before school to get ready. He missed hearing her in the house, tinkering around with clothes and brushing her hair.
He missed everything about her when she wasn’t around.
He broke the kiss off but continued to hold her close, kissing at her face a couple of times before pulling back. “Don’t worry,” he said. His voice was deeper and raspier than before. “You wait. In a couple of days, we’ll have this all sorted. One way or another. Either we’re still here and we’ll still be on our mission, or it’s over and we leave. Either direction isn’t terrible.”
She breathed in hard enough that her shoulders rolled back and her chest pressed against him. She deflated as she breathed out again. “I need to remind myself of that.”
He pulled away when the door opened. Danielle was walking in with Marie.
He tried to look casual after being close to Sang. He went to the table, overlooking the folders sitting there with their names on them. Sang went to her spot, picking up a pencil.
“Where’s the doc?” Danielle asked. “You know, it’s so hard to take him seriously as a doctor when he used to play football with the rest of you on my front lawn when we were younger.”
Nathan smirked. Lots had changed since then. “He’s in the main office. I’m not sure when he can get back. In the meantime, do the test.”
Danielle rolled her eyes. “Tell me it’s not timed.”
“It’s not,” Sang said. “All he said was follow the instructions.” She opened her folder, but something in her had changed. She was more perked up, her eyes brighter. Maybe she was showing a bit more confidence than before.
If only Nathan felt the same. He wasn’t sure they’d get out of this one completely unscathed.
Individual Feelings
Sang
Nathan was swapped out for Kota close to lunch, but the test took ages to complete.
The questions weren’t difficult, but there were long passages to read, instructions on how to complete it. I wasn’t sure of the purpose since it wasn’t about history or math or even science. Maybe knowing I didn’t really have to take it made me antsier. That, or I wanted to be out helping North or the others.
Danielle often made frustrated sighs and slumped over the table. Marie focused on her work, but she leaned over as well, looking irritated and bored.
I was constantly distracted with every bell ringing, the sound of footsteps in the hallway and any noise whatsoever. There was way too much going on today to focus on something like this. I think the others felt it as well. When I looked to the door, they did, too.
When Kota came in, the bell rang for lunch.
“Is that it?” Danielle asked. “Can we at least go to lunch?”
Kota checked his phone quickly and then nodded. “Come back here at the end.”
Danielle jumped up, leaving her test on the table. “Thank god. Come on, Marie.”
Marie put her pencil down and started to follow her.
I put my papers into the folder and waited until the girls were gone before I spoke to Kota. “What is this test, anyway?”
“To see if they can follow instructions.” His eyes were still on the door, as if he didn’t trust them to be truly gone yet or was waiting for someone else to walk in. “Want to stretch your legs a bit?”
I was very grateful for this suggestion and stood up. My butt was hurting from sitting in the hard chair for so long. “Do I need anything?”
He shook his head and nudged me gently toward the door.
I followed him into the hallway. The hallway was crowded, with some people hanging around along the walls and groups passing by into the cafeteria. With so many kids, not enough of them could fit into the cafeteria at one time. Some were going back in the direction of the main office, no doubt trying to see if anything else was going on.
Kota went the opposite way. I trailed behind him a bit through the crowds. He went around the long way, beyond the cafeteria, passing everyone up. We took another hallway and went up at a back set of stairs. He headed to a door that was unmarked with a dusty vent screen at the bottom.
He opened the door. The inside looked like a forgotten janitor’s closet. There were shelves with old paint cans and some boxes, but everything was grimy. Even the floor was layered in dust.
Kota came in behind me, and as soon as he was inside, and the door closed, the room went dark. The vent at the bottom and cracks around the door became our only light source.
“I had to talk to you,” he said. “And I didn’t want anyone else to walk in.”
“What is it? Did something happen?”
“No, but I need to talk to you about last night.”
“What happened?” I asked, looking at his face. His gaze was locked on me. His lips were thin, pressed tight. “The last I heard, you were staying at your mom’s house for the night, just monitoring from your computer...” I’d forgotten about it after all the activity today.
“I went to see Lily.”
My heart sped up, thudding so hard that my body shook. It suddenly made sense why it felt like he was taking ages to get back, why it seemed like a secret. “Why? All the way out there?”
“I thought it would be a good time to go. I wanted to go while everyone was...distracted.”
“Why didn't you want to tell anyone?” I leaned forward, closer to him. “Why not tell me about it?”
His lips tightened, and he lowered his head. “I didn't want to tell you.”
“Why?”
He sighed and straightened up, looking at me in the eyes. “I didn't want you to feel like you had to do this.” He put a palm over his chest, close to his heart. “We wanted to ask her to... check with you to make sure we're not getting you to do something you don't want.”
“We? Who is we?”
He made a face. “Nathan. He and I talked about it, and we wanted to check in with her. About you. To get her to ask you...”
My mind was reeling to catch up. “Ask her to ask me?”
“Yeah,” he said.
