The Lord of the Plains

by Sarah Chapman

Chapter 45

  That night Riley crept out of the Blocks to go running where Lillia had showed her. It was the part of the city where most of the non-military personnel lived, although people often lived above their shops, so really the living and shopping spaces were not completely separate.

  As she ran she thought moodily about Vann.

  He was just like Peitar! She was angry and disgusted with herself for even thinking he had nice eyes! She was angry with him too. How dare he pursue her like he had!

  She was ambivalent towards Lillia. Getting out had been a good idea. She needed to move.

  As predictable as the sun, Vann approached her the next morning after fighting.

  She knew he was coming. This time she didn’t wait. She stalked over to him.

  ‘How dare you!’ she shouted at him before he could get a word out. ‘Stay away from me! Don’t ever talk to me again!’ and she marched off.

  When Lillia next went to visit Riley she was actually surprised at the ease with which Riley accepted her invitation.

  She almost looked pleased to see her when she opened the door.

  Lillia had been cautiously prepared for a fight. Vann had calmly asked her what she’d said to Riley. Lillia had explained, hoping Vann would move on. The gemeng girl just wasn’t interested.

  He’d listened quietly as she told him, nodding every now and then.

  ‘Hm, alright then.’ he’d said afterwards.

  ‘Alright then?’ she asked, hoping.

  ‘Well, I thought you might have upset her. I guess it wasn’t you though.’

  ‘Why? What happened?’ dread was settling in.

  ‘Oh, she just screamed at me this morning.’ he shrugged.

  Lillia couldn’t say a word. He seemed so calm. So unnaturally calm.

  ‘Thanks, Lillia. I’ll see you later.’ He left.

  It wasn’t right. He wasn’t right. He just wasn’t letting her see it.

  So she’d waited for him to be gone and then hurried down to the Blocks.

  And when Lillia had knocked Riley had opened the door.

  ‘Lillia.’ she didn’t smile, but she didn’t glare either. She stepped outside and closed the door behind her before Lillia could say anything. ‘Where are we going today?’ she asked.

  ‘O-oh, you want to go somewhere?’ Lillia hurried to catch up to her.

  Riley nodded.

  ‘I thought you didn’t want to explore Coastside.’

  Riley shrugged.

  ‘W-well, we could go to View again.’

  Riley almost smiled at that.

  Riley could tell Lillia was surprised. She didn’t really care.

  She wasn’t going to stay inside and hide because of the submariners! She needed to stretch her legs and move! She wasn’t going to put up with their behaviour anymore.

  ‘Riley,’ Lillia began cautiously. ‘Did I say something to upset you yesterday?’

  She was upset to find she’d been gazing at the eyes of a Peitar clone. That was upsetting.

  ‘No.’ Riley answered. Her green eyes were hard and distant.

  ‘Ok, then, that’s good… so, why did you get upset with Vann today?’ she asked.

  Riley’s eyes sharped. ‘Because he keeps bothering me.’ she nearly shouted, an edge to her voice.

  ‘But why today? I mean, he’s been bothering you since you got here, you’ve never yelled at him before.’

  Riley fixed Lillia with a hard stare. She was silent as she thought. Lillia was Vann’s friend. ‘That he pursues me is bad enough. That he does it while he already has other girls… no, it’s enough. I won’t have him following me around anymore.’

  ‘Oh, no, oh no.’ Lillia said hurriedly, her eyes wide. ‘No, I never said that!’

  ‘You did.’ she said flatly.

  ‘I said you should ask Vann about that!’

  Riley gazed at her, the sharpness was gone from her eyes. Now they were just flat and hard. Everything about Lillia had said ‘yes’. It didn’t matter that she said something else with her words.

  ‘Ok,’ Lillia said desperately as Riley didn’t respond. ‘Ok, Vann usually has, yes, lots of… of, casual relationships. Darling, that’s normal in Coastside, and if he was going to see other girls he’d tell you, please, don’t be upset.’

  Riley said nothing.

  ‘Ok.’ Lillia grabbed Riley’s arm and stood up. ‘Ok. I’ll introduce you to the girls. You’ll see. They’ll tell you. Let’s go.’

  Lillia dragged Riley all around Coastside collecting girls. She was more than a little upset to discover this was her fault! Still, she felt Riley had made a few leaps of logic but still. She’d fix this and Vann… Vann was impossible!

  Riley remained silent as Lillia rushed around setting up a get-together. Many of her friends had dated Vann, or knew girls who had, so it was easy to find a nice big group of his exes and invite them over. On another occasion, having her friends over for a party would have been a happy event, but with Vann behaving so oddly, she was too worried to really enjoy herself.

  After that was done she took Riley back to her home. The girls wouldn’t arrive for a few hours but Lillia wouldn’t let Riley leave.

  Mostly they waited in silence. Lillia did some distracted painting. She made a few abortive attempts at conversation. She fixed dinner for them. After that it wasn’t long til the girls arrived.