Emery slammed her glass of water onto the table. “Seriously? Are you trying to set me off?”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that,” he apologized, scooping some shrimp risotto onto his plate.
A weary sigh escaped her lips, and she could only hope that he’d sense her frustration. “I don’t want to fight, Anthony. It’s exhausting.”
They agreed it was best to take turns and share their feelings on an individual basis. Emery went first, expressing the need for space since she was adjusting to life at a new school. Anthony listened carefully, and when it was his turn, explained that he felt like he’d been replaced, seeing as the only person she seemed to hang out with anymore was her roommate. He even had the nerve to mention that she’d hardly spoken with Riley over the past few months.
At this accusation, Emery moved to the edge of her chair, her knuckles turning white from gripping the underside. “You called Riley, didn’t you?”
Anthony paused, unsure whether or not he should admit his wrongdoing. “Okay, yeah, I talked to Riley,” he confessed. “She also mentioned that you’ve been hanging out with Mason and his friends. Why are you suddenly keeping all of these secrets from me?”
The harsh tone in his voice ignited her anger even more. “You had no right to call Riley behind my back. If I wanted to talk to you, then I would have picked up the phone and called you.”
“That doesn’t answer my question about Mason,” he pressed.
She scowled at him, eyes narrowing. “Yes, I’ve hung out with Mason, like, twice. Big freaking whoop.”
His face turned beet red. “Don’t you remember the conversation we had last summer about Mason? How I mentioned I was uncomfortable with you hanging out with him?”
She did, in fact, remember this conversation like it had happened yesterday. They’d run into Mason at a deli last summer. She’d introduced the two, immediately sensing the clash in their personalities. Apparently, Anthony picked up on it too because five minutes after their encounter, he’d asked her to keep her distance from Mason. She hadn’t thought much of his request, so she’d obliged simply to appease him and end the conversation. The possibility that it could come around full circle never even crossed her mind.
The rattling of dishes interrupted her train of thought, and she watched as Anthony trudged away from the table. Emery looked down at her own plate, her food completely untouched. She scooted her chair back and meandered over to the living room, the plopped down on the plush, leather couch.
“Are you finished with your plate?” he called out, sounding disappointed.
“Yeah. I wasn’t as hungry as I thought I was. Thank you for cooking though,” she said, fidgeting with the necklace he’d given her last Christmas.
He sighed as he brought the dish to the sink. Padded footsteps made their way toward the living room. Anthony sat in the recliner next to her and kicked his feet up, setting a pillow on his lap. They sat in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. Eventually, he turned to face her. “You know you’re going to end up with him, right?”
“Huh? I’m going to end up with whom?”
“Mason. You’re going to end up with Mason,” he clarified as he set his drink down on the coffee table.
“Where is this coming from?” Emery questioned. “Why would you say that?”
“You know when you just have a feeling? Well, I have a feeling—and I’ve had it for a while now—that you’re going to end up with Mason. It’s so obvious.” He shot her a sideways glance.
“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” she argued. “I hardly even know him. Clearly, he’s interested in Rhea since their tongues were down each other’s throats the last time I saw them.” Emery knew she sounded defensive, but she didn’t care. If she were being completely honest with herself, the sight of Rhea and Mason kissing had bothered her more than she’d expected. The image of Mason’s hands in Rhea’s hair, their lips locked, floated across her mind. That night, she hadn’t wanted to leave but the sight had repulsed her, so she’d grabbed Warren’s hand and ran for it. She could guess how that night would play out, and she hadn’t wanted to stick around to see the end of it.
Anthony eyed her incredulously, his hands gripping the armrests tightly. “If you’re so jealous of Mason and Rhea, maybe you should just tell him how you feel.”
“Maybe I will,” she shot back, rising to her feet. Normally, Emery avoided confrontation at all costs. But tonight was different. She was beyond agitated at these accusations and she wasn’t going to let Anthony walk all over her like he always did. “Maybe that’s exactly what I need,” she continued. “Maybe the problem isn’t me. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m dating you and you’re always judging me. Always wishing I were someone else.” Much to her surprise, she didn’t feel ashamed after the words left her mouth. They left her feeling . . . empowered.
Anthony looked at her with a pained expression.
Even though Emery could tell her last words had struck a chord, she kept going. “You know what’s funny? You invite me to a nice dinner to ‘talk’ and here I thought you were actually going to apologize for showing up the other night, unannounced, like an attention-deprived, insecure jerk.” She crossed her arms over her chest to hide her heavy breathing, hoping he wouldn’t notice how exhilarated she felt.
Anthony looked down at his feet as he collected his thoughts. “I’m sorry I made you feel that way. I just want us to go back to the way we were, before you left for boarding school.” His voice cracked. “I just don’t know how to get back there. I don’t know where we made a wrong turn.” He sighed. “You’re so different now.”
“Did you ever stop to think that maybe I don’t want to go back to the way we were? I didn’t even know who I was back then,” she admitted. “You’re right. I am different now. And, in my opinion, I’m better off for it.” With one swift move, she seized her purse from the couch and started toward the door. “And take this stupid necklace back,” she yelled as she unclasped the silver heart from around her neck. “I don’t want it anymore.”
He followed close behind her and grabbed her by the wrist as the necklace fell to the floor. “This isn’t over,” he stated firmly.
Emery escaped from his grip, just missing the side of his face. “You’re not the only one who has a say in that.” Her eyes were empty and barren, her face expressionless. She swung the door open with impressive force, making sure to slam it behind her so that her now ex-boyfriend wouldn’t dare follow her outside.
21
Rhea rifled through her binders, looking for any semblance of note-taking over the last semester. She couldn’t believe that final exams for the fall semester were upon them. It felt like just yesterday that she’d started at Darden—meeting Emery for the first time, enrolling in classes, making the usual stroll down Alpha Drive to see what kind of trouble they could get into. It was unreal how quickly time had passed.
She banged her head against the desk, seconds away from giving up all hope of passing her finals. In that moment, Rhea wished she’d spent a little more time on school and a little less time on her social life. Of course, that thought was fleeting, as were most thoughts that involved self-pity. She lifted her head up off the desk, the door handle jiggling noisily.
Emery walked in and sat down at her desk, pulling her laptop and books out of her bag. Although things between them had improved, their relationship hadn’t exactly returned to normal. Rhea knew that Emery was still stressed about Anthony, and the pressure of acing her final exams wasn’t helping. Rhea had tried to empathize with her roommate, but it was clear that Emery didn’t want to talk about things any more than she had to. So Rhea had waited. Patiently. But her patience was running out.
“Okay, can we discuss the elephant in the room?” she asked hopefully, trying not to sound too desperate.
Emery glanced up from her laptop. A sigh escaped her lips. “What elephant?”
Rhea’s body tensed with frustration. “Ever
since your fight with Anthony, you’ve been . . .” she paused, unsure how to finish the sentence.
Emery crossed her arms. “I’ve been what?”
Great, her guard’s up. Rhea looked her square in the eye as she searched for the right word. She didn’t want to offend her roommate or make things even worse. “You’ve been . . . distant.”
Emery opened her mouth to defend herself, then closed it again after a few seconds. “I know,” she admitted. “I’m sorry.”
Rhea placed her hand on her roommate’s shoulder, kneeling down so that they were eye-level. “You know that you can talk to me about anything. I’m here for you.”
Emery smiled at her appreciatively. “I know that. It’s just that with everything going on lately, I feel like . . . I haven’t had any time to talk.”
Rhea could tell that there was more to the story than she was letting on. What was she hiding?
“Is it because you haven’t had time or because you haven’t wanted to?”
Emery bit a hangnail from her thumb. “I guess it’s a little of both,” she confessed. “I promise we’ll talk later though. Right now, I have a lot of studying to do.”
But they didn’t talk later. The days went by as they studied, taking their final exams for each class until, finally, they packed up and parted ways for a full month.
Winter break.
+ + +
Emery approached the doors of Rosemary Hall, suitcase in hand. December had gone by without as much as a text from Rhea, making the return to campus that much more dreadful. The only person she’d consistently talked to over the break was Torin.
When she and Torin first met, Emery was so distracted by the fact that Theo had lied to her that she forgot to fill Torin in on what little she knew about The Alpha Drive and the Federal Commonwealth’s plan of attack. Over the break, Emery told him about her training with the elements as well as the mysterious orange serum that had the ability to heal all wounds, and even reverse death. But even with this information, they weren’t any
closer to uncovering the strategy to take down 7S.
Emery sighed. Nothing was going as planned. Things with both Rhea and Anthony were bad. Really bad. So much of her attention had been focused on her relationships in Dormance that she hadn’t given much thought when it came to uncovering 7S’s strategy.
How did things get so turned around?
A sense of peace upon her return to campus would have been nice, especially since things at home had been a little out of the ordinary during winter break. Her mother had scheduled a last-minute getaway to their family cabin in Northern Arizona. Emery and Alexis had piled into the car without so much as a complaint, knowing that the cabin also happened to be their mother’s favorite vacation spot. They spent many nights outside by the firepit, snuggled up in blankets, watching as the flames crackled and popped.
On the way back, her mother noticed that Emery wasn’t wearing the ring she’d given her. Emery promptly replied that she’d been in a hurry to pack and that it was safely tucked away in a drawer in her dorm room. As soon as the words left her mouth, a familiar expression clouded her mother’s face.
Fear.
Again, Emery tried not to read too much into it. But later that night, Alexis discreetly mentioned that their mother had been out of sorts ever since Emery had left for boarding school. She seemed to be in a trance that no one—not even Alexis—could break her out of. And so, Emery decided to chock it up to the “empty nest syndrome”, or half-empty in this case. Her mother missed her. That’s all there was to it.
Emery dropped her suitcase by her side, fumbling through her purse for her access card. Her fingers brushed by her phone as it buzzed with a message. She pulled the phone from her bag, surprised to see that the text was from Rhea. “Are you back?” was all it said. She couldn’t put her finger on why, but the message infuriated her. After a month of hardly speaking to one another, that was all she got? Emery decided not to respond.
She swiped her access card across the sensor, waiting for the green light to indicate permission to enter. The wheels of her suitcase clanged loudly against the tile steps as she hauled it up the stairs. The hall was extremely quiet, considering it was the first day the dorms had reopened for residency since winter break. Emery paused for a moment, gazing at the long hallway ahead of her.
As if on cue, Rhea stepped out of the doorway to their room, turning the key behind her. She walked briskly in Emery’s direction, eyes glued to her phone. After a few steps, she finally lifted her head. “Oh, hey. You’re back.”
Emery gave a weak smile, hoping that Rhea wouldn’t see right through it. “Yep. I’m back.”
Rhea tapped the screen on her phone. “Sorry, I’ll catch up with you later. I’m running late.”
Emery scrunched her forehead. “For what?”
“For class,” Rhea replied as she started down the hallway, her stride picking up pace.
“But class doesn’t start . . .” Emery’s voice trailed off as she watched her roommate push through the wooden door to the stairwell.
There were still a few days before Darden opened for the spring semester—some of their teachers weren’t even assigned yet. She racked her brain, trying to recall if Rhea had signed up for any clubs or activities. Honestly, how would she know? Communication wasn’t exactly their strong suit as of late.
Emery rolled her suitcase into the chilly dorm room, realizing that Rhea hadn’t turned the heat on yet. She hurried over to her closet and pulled out some fuzzy boots and a sweatshirt. It was a common myth that Arizona didn’t have cold winters, but forty-two degrees sure felt cold. That was all she needed to justify dressing like an eskimo for a solid month and a half.
Two hours went by without a word from Rhea. Emery switched her phone on and off a couple of times, just in case the network was down. She finished unpacking the rest of her suitcase, her eyes glued to her phone the entire time. Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, it pinged. She darted over to her desk as a reminder popped up on the screen. Next round of training begins in ten minutes.
Emery shoved her phone in her pocket and rushed down the hallway, almost tripping over a few stairs on the way to the lobby. Once inside the common room, she checked the holoschedule to confirm which training she was scheduled for: aeris.
Naia appeared with her usual tray of sparkling water, then led Emery down the long corridor to the aeris training room, winking at her before turning to leave. “Good luck,” she whispered as she closed the door behind her.
Emery stepped cautiously to the center of the room, noticing that the floor was covered in a mesh material—like a flexible, chain-link fence—but she couldn’t see any farther than five feet below the surface. She bent down, her fingers grazing the metal when suddenly, a giant whoosh shot her straight into the air. Her body snapped into a u-shape as she traveled about thirty feet upwards until her back smashed into what she assumed was the ceiling, her arms and legs flailing against the wind. The sheer force was enough to pin her to the wall, her hair billowing wildly around her head. Within her boots and gloves, her fingers started to go numb as the icy air blasted from the giant fan below.
Just when she felt like she was about to pass out, the pressure changed and her body slowly floated down from the ceiling. Instinct told her to lay flat on her stomach and extend her arms and legs outward while bending slightly at the elbows and knees. And just like that, she was in control.
She was flying.
The realization took hold as Emery floated around the vast space. She felt like an eagle, gliding gracefully through a cool winter’s breeze. Below her the fan blades whirred round and round, the sound a soft melody to her ears. It was so peaceful. So relaxing.
That feeling didn’t last for long. Her body tensed as something whizzed by her head. She looked up in confusion from the fan blades as tiny objects soared toward her from every angle. Squinting, she did her best to make out the inbound shapes.
They appeared to
be tiny missiles. And bullets.
Panicked, she began to dodge them, one by one, using her hands and feet to control her body’s position. Up, down, left, right. There were so many bullets.
Too many.
A tiny bullet grazed her right cheek as another tore through her opposite shoulder. Searing pain ripped through her icy skin. She cried out in agony as another bullet blasted through her kneecap, her entire leg immediately going numb. My clothes are supposed to be bullet proof. What’s happening?
She howled again, not sure how much more pain she could take. Suddenly, the bullets stopped. A green mist filled the air and the whir of the fan blades slowed. Emery drifted back down to the surface, waning in and out of consciousness. The green mist filled her nose and lungs until it consumed her, her world fading into black.
When she awoke, Theo leaned over her, empty syringe in hand. “Welcome back.”
Emery opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. It seemed that the torrential winds had irritated her larynx and made her hoarse. She swallowed. Surprisingly, nothing hurt, which meant that the sanaré had done its job. To signal that she was okay, she gave a thumbs-up.
After spending an hour in recovery, Emery was released for the day. Her legs felt like they were made of cement, and every time her foot made contact with the ground, it took all of her strength to lift it again. She’d just made it to her dorm room when someone banged on the door. What now? With slight hesitation, she opened it.
There stood Anthony, a bag of burgers and fries in hand.
Why had she answered the door? She was exhausted. Drained. All she wanted to do was collapse onto her bed and sleep. “What are you doing here?”
Anthony shuffled his feet as he cleared his throat. “We’ve hardly talked since our fight and I didn’t even get to spend Christmas with you this year.” His voice broke. “I tried to give you space, but I can’t do it anymore. You’re my girlfriend and I want to be with you.”
Even in her drained state, she felt a pang of guilt. “Burger and fries, huh? You sure know the way to a girl’s heart,” she joked, her eyes softening.
The Alpha Drive Page 13