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I nodded in approval. “I have no intention of missing another breakfast.”
“You girls go pick a table,” Nat said. “I’ll bring food. What do you want, Marigold?”
In the day I’d been gone, they must’ve found other people to sit with. They’d probably made new friends.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “I can get my own food and join you later.”
“No, Mari,” Nat said, heavy guilt flashing in his eyes. “This is the least I can do. Let me do it.”
I nodded. “Two pieces of toast, two pancakes with syrup and butter, scrambled eggs, hash browns, cheese, and lots of bacon,” I said, then mused for a second. “Well, just pile everything on my plate, and I’ll eat it all.”
“And coffee with cream and no sugar for Marigold,” Yelena added. “Black coffee for me.”
I widened my eyes. “How did you know that’s what I want?”
“You talked in your dreams the first night you spent in our dorm,” she said in amusement.
“Gotcha,” Nat said, rushing off.
“Isn’t he the best?” I said.
Except for maybe my new boyfriend Héctor, who fed me a great dinner last night.
I wasn’t exaggerating about being a girlfriend. Héctor preferred to call me his mate, though it was too early for that kind of commitment, in my opinion.
Romance didn’t last in the age of the Great Merge.
Personally, I didn’t want to fall for any guy blindly, not even for Héctor. My dream Héctor and reality Héctor could be miles apart from each other.
Yelena and I sauntered toward an empty corner table that was as far away from anyone as possible. She linked her arm with mine.
“Tell me everything,” she said.
“I can’t tell you everything,” I deadpanned.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, tears suddenly misting her eyelashes.
“Hey, stop that,” I said, squeezing her arm. “I was teasing you. But you have to understand that telling you everything might put you in danger. Haven’t I warned you not to sink with the ship?”
“We’d rather sink with your ship if we had a second chance,” she said. “We—Nat and I—are sorry that we haven’t been good friends to you. We didn’t watch your back as we’d promised. You almost died, Marigold. We should have stopped Jack. We should have rushed him together, and the three of us would have taken him down. We were too afraid of the demigods and were shocked at P”—she lowered her voice to a whisper—“Pigston’s attempt to break you. We were cowards. We don’t deserve your friendship.”
“Stop, Yelena,” I said softly. “Everyone put distance between themselves and me as if I were a leper, but you and Nat stood by me. I’m just glad you guys still have a healthy sense of self-preservation, unlike me. If you’d defended me that day, Pigston would have taken you down.”
“If it’d been one of us getting bullied, you’d have stood up for us,” she said softly. “You wouldn’t have cowered.”
I smiled at her. “I might cower. I’m not as crazy as you think.” That was a lie. I would’ve stood between them and Paxton. I wouldn’t allow anyone to hurt my friends.
“Youarethe craziest chick I’ve met, probably even crazier than One-eighth.” she said.
“Hey!” I called. “Remember rule number one: Don’t throw insults before breakfast. And that was the worst slander I’ve had thrown at me all week.”
She giggled and quickly wiped tears from the corners of her eyes with a folded napkin. I grinned at her. I liked to hear my friends laugh.
Her laughter dropped, and her face became solemn too soon.
“We were sick to our stomachs with worry,” she said. “And then we heard the shouts about you disappearing. Half of the Dominions were sent out to look for you. Nat and I joined the search. We covered the entirety of both campuses. We were out of our wits, and then the Dominions wouldn’t let us look anymore and sent us back to our dorms.”
We’d settled down at a rectangular table. I pushed a tray that had an empty mug and a plate with a half-eaten bagel on it to the corner.
