Recycled Lives

by Yasmin Hawken

  Chapter Three

  Lucinda always felt a buzz when she finished a job. The heady combination of adrenaline, pride, and the sense of accomplishment fueled her growing ambition to succeed and rise through the ranks. She felt like nothing would be out of her reach. The second she stepped foot into her bedroom at her shared house, the feeling evaporated, leaving her empty and deflated. It was like a cold breeze on warm skin—unwanted. She sighed and dumped her work pack on a chair. When she had picked this place, she had loved it. It was comfortable, spacious, the rent was good, and the area was safe enough she could leave her front door without being mugged. Now it just seemed cold and lifeless. A plain room to exist in, not a place to live.

  She dropped herself on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Images floated on the ceiling projected from her AR. It was mainly pictures of her and Zane. God, that just made her miss him even more. They had only been dating for three months, but she already couldn’t imagine her life without him.

  When they had first met, she had been on the most dangerous job of her life. Sent into The Fringe, a walled-off hive of lawless gangs in the heart of the city, with Zane as their guide and only hope to navigate the treacherous landscape of decaying buildings and murderous locals. At first, she hadn’t really liked him; he had come across as an arrogant, overconfident punk. It hadn’t taken long for her to see that beneath the surface, he had a heart of gold. When his parents had died, he’d been left taking care of his five younger siblings, and he’d given up a lot, including one of his legs, to keep them safe. It was one of the things she loved most about him, but it also was one of her biggest worries. She never knew how far he would go if something happened to one of them, and the idea of having a boyfriend in prison frightened her.

  Almost all of the family had spent all but the last year of their lives growing up in The Fringe. Therefore, they had been raised with a different moral code as well as different social and cultural norms from the rest of the residents of Seattle. That made things very difficult sometimes. Vincent and Ryker, the twins, were constantly getting into fist fights at school over the tiniest of slights, Sawyer would help herself to things without asking, Blair wouldn’t take no for an answer, and Caspian had a major problem with authority. The six of them had their way of working through things, and she worried about how she was going to fit in with the situation. Not only were there the children, but there was also Dare, a young man that Zane had adopted and treated like family. Seven large, dysfunctional personalities who came from The Fringe. How did she fit in with that?

  When Zane had initially asked her to move in with him a couple weeks ago, the idea had excited her, but then she had started to really think about it. She and Zane had only been dating for three months. It had been an amazing three months, but she was still scared things would go wrong, and if they did, what would she do then? He was currently living in the house she inherited from her parents as she’d suggested. She didn’t want something to go wrong and have the awkward situation of what happened to the house or having to find herself a new place to live.

  There was a gentle chiming from her gauntlet indicating a new message. It was from Zane. Almost as if he knew that she was stressing herself out about him. She started typing a response when she changed her mind and hit the video call button. The call was answered immediately. She was greeted by the beautiful sight of her muscled boyfriend. He was lying in his bed, the cream sheets covering his waist leaving his bare, muscled chest on show. His long sandy-brown hair partially covered his face. She found herself wanting to lean in and brush it out of the way just to look at him properly.

  “Morning, Luce,” he said with a tired yawn. The sun was rising, and it was time for both of them to be going to sleep. They both lived the night cycle, waking up just as evening would fall and going to sleep around dawn.

  “Morning. Did you have a good night?” she asked, moving the call window to the AR wall above the bed so she could start getting herself ready for bed.

  “Yeah, it was alright. Was hoping I’d get to see you, though,” he said. Her heart expanded a little at his words. It was such a nice feeling to have someone who wanted to see her, yet here she was avoiding him.

  “Sorry, after we’d been to the office, I couldn’t face the trip back across town,” she lied. She wasn’t that tired; she just couldn’t face him. She was scared he’d ask her to move in again, and she’d have to come up with some excuse, some reason as to why now wasn’t a good time.

  “That’s fine. How did the job go? You were safe, right?” he asked.

  “Yeah, don’t worry. If anyone had come for me, I would have just used the moves you taught me,” she said with a slight smile. When they had first met, she had been a lot weaker and could barely look after herself. Zane had made sure that changed. He worked for the Network as a Self Defense Instructor and didn’t mind taking her on as his private student. As a result, her combat skills had improved dramatically as had her confidence.

  “Good. Are you free tomorrow? I’ve got the day off as I’ve a meeting at the twins’ school, but I’m free from one am. Maybe we could do something?” he asked. She was quiet for a moment as she tried to come up with an answer. “Luce, what’s going on? You’re being so distant.”

  “Nothing. I’m fine,” she said too quickly for it to even seem true. She was great at talking to people, but with him, she just seemed to have some sort of weakness. She had since she met him. She was worried opening up her fears about moving in would upset him, and she really didn’t want to have that fight with him. “I’ll…uhh…get back to you about tomorrow. I have some things to do.”

  “Oh…okay. Well, I need to sleep. I’m here if you’re free. Sleep well,” he said, and he ended the call.

  She stared at the dark ceiling where his image had been a few seconds ago. Why couldn’t she be honest with him? Why couldn’t she just say she wasn’t ready? Until they’d met, Zane had never dated. Dating wasn’t really a thing in The Fringe, and the transition to Seattle hadn’t made it any easier to find someone. He’d confided in her how hard he found the difference in social norms this side of the wall, and she didn’t want to hurt him.

  She sat up again and looked around the room. There was still stuff in boxes from when she’d moved in, and she’d never seemed to have the time to unpack them. Maybe she had never been as settled here as she thought. She needed to figure out what she was going to do tonight, and no matter what she decided, she would go and see him, and they could talk. It wasn’t like he’d end it if she wasn’t ready to move in. Would he?

  *****

  Jacques looked around the small apartment he now called home. With a satisfied nod to himself, he went to the kitchen and turned on the coffee machine. With the knowledge that Ava was coming around tonight, he had spent the evening tidying up. He didn’t even know why he cared; he had just felt the need to make sure the place was presentable. Well, at least it was done now, and it would be at least a month before he felt the need to clean again.

  He hadn’t even managed to make a cup of coffee when there was a knock on the door. He knew exactly who it was; no one else had any idea where he lived these days. As he pulled the door open, he was greeted with the sight of Ava. Figure hugging hipster jeans, a white tank top, and a fitted denim jacket framed her tight body. Her long, wavy, blonde hair fell like waterfalls over her shoulders.

  “So this is home? I’m disappointed; it looks almost normal,” she said with a slight smirk. She stepped through the door and shrugged her jacket off her shoulders.

  “What’s normal?” he asked with a chuckle. He closed the door and went back to the coffee maker to finish the drinks.

  “This,” she said, indicating around the room. “I was expecting a man cave, maybe a skull fortress, or at least some nude woman on the AR wallpaper.”

  “A skull fortress? Okay… Ah, I just remembered,” he said as he tapped on the gauntlet, making an incense diffuser smoke on the coffee table from a few taps of a butto
n. He took two cups of coffee from the side and handed one to her, “Now where do you think we should begin?”

  “How to work this useless strip would be great,” she said, indicating the gauntlet on her wrist before she dropped herself into a seat at the two-person dining table.

  Jacques had been using the AR Gauntlet for years; he couldn’t even imagine how someone wouldn’t know how to use it. A simple flick of the wrist, and an AR screen would pop up, allowing you access to so many features. His entire world evolved around it, his messaging, his calls, his calendar, his alarms, his bank details. Everything came from the simple black band.

  “Alrighty, I’m going have you mastering that in no time,” he said as he sat down at the table next to her.

  Surprisingly, Ava was a very good student. With the brash attitude she portrayed, he had expected her to fight him, or not listen, but every time he looked to her, he had her full attention. She sat there and listened, asking questions at the right points. After an hour of instruction, she was managing most of the basic functions, and she received the praise he had promised.

  “Okay, so this isn’t as complicated as I thought,” Ava said, with an almost childlike look of glee on her face as she flicked her wrist to bring up the AR menu. She had clearly been trying to hide how she really felt about the inability to understand the technology and was too afraid to ask for the help she needed. Her staunchly independent attitude was a throwback to her life in The Fringe, where it was take care of yourself or die. There was never any help to be found on the other side of the wall, not unless you had something of value to trade, and any sign of weakness was going to get you killed.

  Jacques felt an unusual pride as he watched her interacting with the gauntlet. He felt that, for the briefest instant, he was getting an insight to what she could have been like if it wasn’t for her rough upbringing.

  “What do you want for this?” Ava asked abruptly.

  “You think we are done? This was just the first lesson, and these were just the basics,” Jacques said with a chuckle. There was so much more to tech that he had to teach her if she was going to pass as a Seattle native.

  “Yeah, I know, but how much do you want for this lesson?” she asked.

  “Nothing. I don’t want anything,” he said. He had done this because, well, he wasn’t sure why, but he sure knew he didn’t want payment for it. The look she gave him said she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “How about a drink? Somewhere other than the Casket.”

  She looked a little taken aback for a moment. Like the idea of going for a drink was infinitely more intimate than being invited into someone’s home. He wasn’t even sure why he’d suggested it, but he really wanted to get to know her a little better. When she didn’t answer immediately, he started to work on a way to make it into a joke and shrug off the awkward atmosphere developing between them.

  “Sure. Just give me a message when and where,” she said. She pushed herself to her feet and grabbed her coat. “Now that I know how to send messages, it will make life a whole lot easier.”

  He liked the way she smiled at her accomplishment, and her enthusiasm was infectious. What he’d taught her today most children knew how to do, but she looked like she had accomplished something that was a huge deal. He supposed for her, it was. It was amazing to see how such a simple thing had evoked such a strong emotion in her. He couldn’t wait to see her for more lessons and show her more of the world.

  “I better head out. I have an early shift, so I need to get some sleep,” Ava said over her shoulder as she headed for the door. “Thanks again. I’ll see you soon.”

  He showed her out the door and watched as she walked down the corridor, almost disappointed that the corridor wasn’t longer. When she had turned into the stairwell, he closed the door and locked himself inside his flat. He couldn’t understand what was going on in his head at the moment. A quick, cold, shower, and then he would get some sleep himself. Maybe things would be made clear in the morning.

  Chapter Four

  It had been a couple of days since Lucinda had spoken with Zane, and she felt guilty as hell not spending his day off with him, but she had needed some time to herself to sort her head out. Their romance had been such a passionate whirlwind that she needed to be away from him just to figure out how she felt about everything—how she felt about their future. It hadn’t been until she worked through it properly, and contemplated the hypothetical possibility of life without him and his family, that she’d realized exactly how much he meant to her, and how much she wasn’t willing to risk losing him. He was moving fast for Seattle standards, which was a cultural difference that had shocked her into uncertainty, but he was also loyal, fiercely protective, and made her feel things that she knew she would be hard pressed to find again if she were foolish enough to let him slip through her fingers.

  That sickening feeling when she considered not having him as part of her life was all she needed to make her next step clear. She packed herself a few things and made for his place, with a stop at Tayvian’s bakery on the way to buy some sweet treats for the family.

  As she reached the townhouse, she couldn’t help the smile. Once this had been her family home, before her parents had disappeared when she was a child. At twenty-one she had inherited what was left of their estate. At first, she could barely bring herself to step inside the place. It was like a mausoleum with everything exactly the same as the day her parents went missing, only covered in dusty dust sheets. She had allowed Zane and his siblings to live in the place rent free. Originally, the seven of them had been living in a small three bed house, and it had been very cramped. She had also hoped they would make a mark on the house and bring it back to life, so maybe one day she could walk in without feeling intense sorrow. They had certainly made their mark.

  In the days after she’d handed over the keys, Zane had carefully packed up everything in the house and moved it to a storage facility. She’d asked him to just get rid of it as she couldn’t bear the thought of sorting through everything, but he had refused. He’d said she’d regret it someday, and she suspected he was right. After that, they had re-painted the place and outfitted it with new furniture. Zane, Caspian, and Dare had spent a week working their asses off to get the place decorated. When Lucinda had stepped back in it again, she couldn’t believe what she was looking at. It was so sleek and modern, just so different, which was exactly what she had wanted for the place.

  “Good morning,” she called out as she stepped through the front door into the large open plan living room/dining room/kitchen combination. There was a mixture of greetings from the family members gathered in the dining room. She placed the small box she’d brought with her onto a side table and made for dining room area.

  Vincent, Ryker, Sawyer, and Blair were sitting at the table with Zane standing watch by one of the kitchen sides. The four kids were all working on what looked like homework on their AR devices. Zane hadn’t had much of an education in The Fringe, so he was adamant that the kids would have a better start in life than he’d had. Every day after school, they had to sit at the table and get their work done before they were allowed to play. Zane insisted on it, and most of the time the kids complied. Lucinda was glad she had missed the first few months of Zane implementing the rule. His stories of all the tricks and tantrums the kids had thrown to try to escape doing their work sounded exhausting.

  Their rough starts in The Fringe could easily be seen in their behavior. Zane was trying to smooth the roughest traits out of them, but sometimes the thug in all of them came out. Only a year and a half in civilized society hadn’t fully erased what they had been, but they were definitely making improvements.

  “Morning, love,” Zane said as his hand snaked around her waist and pulled her against him. He leaned in, pressing his lips against hers in a demanding kiss. The feeling of his kisses always lit a fire in her. When she heard a girly giggle from the table, she pulled back to see Blair giggling at them from behind her tiny hands.r />
  “Haven’t you got work to do?” Lucinda said with a questioning smile to Blair. Blair quickly put her head down and carried on working.

  Lucinda turned her attention back to Zane. His sandy-brown hair was damp and pulled back into a ponytail, and a clean but musky scent clung to him, which meant he’d just taken a shower after work. She wished she had been here to join him. Running wet and soapy hands over that muscled body made her day.

  “How was your day?” Zane asked as he went back to the stove and stirred the huge pot that was on the heat.

  “It was okay, nothing much to report. What about yours?” she asked, coming up to his side and looking into the pot. It was filled with meatballs and marinara sauce, and the aromatic scent caused a rumble in her stomach. Zane’s cooking ability was still limited to packeted meat and sauce from a jar, but he was beginning to experiment with flavor packets and powders.

  “Standard day at the training room, really,” Zane said as he went about dishing up the food. “You eating with us?”

  “Yes, please. I even bought dessert for afterwards,” she said with a smile as she gestured to the Tayvian’s box on the kitchen side. Even she was excited for the sweet pastries, despite having had one for breakfast.

  While Zane was focused on serving dinner, Lucinda headed to the dining table to help the kids with homework. It had quickly become one of their rituals. Lucinda had access to an education which Zane never had, which meant he struggled to help the kids with any schoolwork related issues. She was more than happy to help the kids out and actually really enjoyed playing teacher. His little family was quickly becoming hers, too, which she both loved and was terrified by. After losing one family and spending years with no one to call her own, suddenly being a part of someone else's was a little unnerving.