“I’ve been thinking a lot about this,” Jack says. “We need more information. There are still too many unknowns to come up with any kind of a plan yet.”
I set my mug down and glance around the room at my friends. “So then what do we do?”
Jack runs a hand along his jaw. “Investigate. Find out everything we can.”
“I might have an idea—”
“Give us a chance to sort through what we’ve already learned before you go off and do anything, okay?” Jack cuts me off. “These are dangerous people.”
I narrow my eyes, pissed he didn’t even let me finish. “How much time are we talking about?”
“Only a few days,” Bryce says. “Just long enough to see what we can dig up. Then we’ll regroup. The more information we have, the better plan we’ll be able to develop.”
Jack glances at Bryce. “We should get going. They’ll send someone out to look for us if we don’t show up for our debrief.” He leans over to kiss Lisa before walking to the door.
Bryce pushes his plate across the coffee table and sets down his cup. He starts to follow Jack to the door but turns back to me, as if he’s going to say something. Instead, he gives his head a slight shake and follows Jack outside without a word.
Once the door closes behind them, Lisa eyes me. “What’s going on with you two anyway?”
I let out a long sigh. “Absolutely nothing.”
After Lisa and Colin take turns showering and getting ready, we decide to kill time by exploring the neighborhood. Shopping isn’t going to stop an attack on the Union, but it beats sitting around doing nothing while Jack and Bryce do their thing.
Outside, the early September morning is warm, promising to be hot by afternoon, but nowhere near as hot as it was out in the Ruins. Back-to-school shoppers swarm the sidewalks along with others who are trying to eke out the most of their last few days of summer vacation. Unfortunately, fresh air and mild exercise does nothing to ease my edginess at not doing anything productive.
“Why the scowl?” Lisa asks me.
I didn’t even realize I was and work to relax my facial muscles. But rather than blow her off and give her some lame excuse for my mood, I go with the truth. “The reason I came back was to make something happen. Hell, if I knew we’d just be sitting around, I’d have stayed with Cyrus.” Her jaw clenches and I realize how snarky that sounded.
“Jack and Bryce are cops, Evan. These guys…they’re really dangerous.”
“No shit. I know that better than anyone. They kidnapped me,” I slap my chest with my hand. “They killed Lucien. You think I don’t know what they’re capable of?”
I’ve never yelled at Lisa before, and her stunned expression tells me maybe I’ve gone too far. She did come out to the Ruins to rescue me, even though I didn’t actually need rescuing.
“I’m not saying that,” she says. “But, well, it’s…don’t hate me for saying this, but you have a habit of acting first and thinking second. Jack deals with information, and he makes plans based on that information.”
Colin shifts his feet, looking like he’d rather be anywhere but here.
“He didn’t even listen to my idea,” I mumble, but I let it drop because arguing with her isn’t going to accomplish anything. She won’t really get it anyway. This is personal to me, it’s my mission, or fate, or whatever, and I feel like it’s being hijacked from me.
We walk in silence, a cloud of tension hanging over us until Lisa drags us into a clothing store. I pick up a few things then get an idea. “Let’s find a salon. I want to color my hair.”
“Your roots aren’t showing yet,” Lisa says.
“I’m gonna go back to red.”
“I’ve never seen anyone with your color hair,” she says. “Good luck finding it in a bottle.”
“I know, but I want to at least try. For Quinn’s sake.”
She lifts an eyebrow.
“Quinn said I can’t be her sister because her sister has red hair.”
She nods as if she understands, and with two younger siblings who look like carbon copies of her, she probably does.
We stumble upon a salon a few blocks down with a sign saying they take walk-ins. I meet the colorist and explain what I want. Her eyebrows disappear into her bangs, but I pull up a picture on my tablet of me, Lisa, and Colin from last year to show her. She glances at the screen and excuses herself, returning with a stash of supplies. After checking the picture a couple more times as she mixes, she sits me down and applies the color to my hair. When she’s done, even though it’s still wet, I can tell it’s close. As long as I’m here, I see a stylist who fixes the hatchet job Cyrus did on my hair. Glancing at my reflection with fresh eyes, the way I think Quinn will look at me, I decide I’m pleased with the results.
“I’m starving,” Colin announces before we’ve taken more than a few steps outside the salon.
“Wow, it’s been two whole hours since you ate something. I’m surprised you’re still conscious,” Lisa says.
Colin shoots her a look, then shrugs and leads the way to a bistro. We sit on the patio and people-watch while Colin inhales three sandwiches, Lisa picks at a salad, and I eat the first burger I’ve had in months. A boy about Quinn’s age squats nearby and carries on an animated conversation with the pigeons camped out next to our table.
“So, do you want to talk more about what happened out there?” Lisa asks.
I glance up from the boy and meet Lisa’s anxious gaze. I shake my head, and her shoulders drop. I know she’s hurt, we used to talk about everything. “I’m sorry Lis, I’m just not ready.”
She reaches out her hand, resting it on my arm and gives me a nod of understanding. Or at least I think that’s what it is. I finish my burger and wad up the paper, tossing it onto my tray. Lisa abandons her salad, and we clear our table before heading out to do a little more shopping.
Lisa gets a few things for her apartment, and I pick out a pair of purple sparkly barrettes for Quinn and a T-shirt for Liam that says, “Don’t blame me, I’m the middle child.” Our last stop is the music store. When we walk in, my eyes are drawn to an enormous screen suspended from the ceiling, rotating through images of various performers. It’s currently displaying a promotional image of Epic Vinyl with none other than Eddie McIntyre front and center. It’s probably from ten years ago, he looks so young, definitely before I knew him. The picture must have been taken at the peak of their career.
I was such a huge fan before I knew Eddie was my dad. Their music was all about growing up, fitting in, finding your place in the world, and I could relate to the lyrics. But now I just see a hypocrite. All the time he was making his fortune off songs about finding himself, he walked away from his most important responsibility.
Lisa tugs on my arm. “Come on, we can go.”
“No, it’s okay. I mean it’s not like I don’t live in the guy’s house. An image on a display is no big deal, just…really surreal.”
About the Author
T.H. Hernandez is the author of young adult books. The Union, a futuristic dystopian adventure, was a finalist in the 2015 San Diego book awards in the Young Adult Fiction category.
I love pumpkin spice lattes, Game of Thrones, Comic-Con, Star Wars, Doctor Who marathons, Bad Lip Reading videos, and all things young adult, especially the three young adults who share my home.
When not visiting the imaginary worlds inside her head, I live in usually sunny San Diego, California with my husband and three children, a couple of cats, and a dog who thinks he’s a cat, affectionately referred to as “the puppycat.”
To stay up to date on the latest releases and get access to exclusive content, including the story of The Union from Cyrus’s point of view, be sure to sign up for my newsletter: http://thhernandez.com/newsletter.
You can find me online at:
thhernandez.com
[email protected]
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