by Jack Parker
You keep telling yourself that, Li.
Lia began to tug at the seatbelt. "Jude, I'm hungry," she whined, purposely ignoring Cal's presence.
"You can eat after the mission."
"What if I keel over half-way through?"
Carmon nodded vigorously. "She's got you there, Jude."
"Carmon, quit acting like her dog."
"If I'm a dog, you're a dog, seeing as we're related."
"It doesn't sound logical, but it's true," added Lia.
Lacey hit her lightly on the shoulder. "Quit ganging up on Jude, you two."
"Anyway, if you have something to eat, you'll probably be sick considering all of the moving about you're going to have to do," stated Jude.
"Better being sick than keeling over."
Lacey nodded. "You can't argue with her there, Jude." She paused, then turned her attention to Cal. "What about you, Cal? Are you hungry?"
A thick silence encompassed the occupants of the car. All attention was drawn toward Cal who, throughout the conversation, had merely sat passively in his seat. Carmon and Lia glared.
He opened his mouth, about to say something, then decided against it and instead replied, "There's a take-away on the way to the building. You could just drop by there."
Lia was shocked. Was he actually taking her side? This was new, and surprising. Or maybe it was just because he wanted something to eat, she reasoned. Yes, that was it: Cal was a selfish arsehole; he wasn't thinking about Lia keeling over, he was only worried about his own stomach. He probably hadn't brought any money with him, either, which meant he was expecting free food. Tramp.
Jude turned on the music and pulled on the accelerator. Lia leaned to Carmon's side and whispered her logic to him - he had been equally surprised that Cal had taken her side. Anyway, Jude had lost the argument. That was something memorable to celebrate. Now they both had further reason to hate Cal.
They glared at the back of his seat, their eyes heated with venom. Now all they had to do was simultaneously pray a bomb was dropped into his seat, but a bomb only powerful enough to kill him alone. Or for Jude to suddenly have a spaz attack and shoot him. Or maybe for a ninja to attack the car and throw knives at him. Oh, the possibilities were endless.
"So, Cal," began Lacey, attempting to strike a conversation, "where do you come from?"
Why was she the only one even attempting to talk to him? Lia wanted to laugh. Cal was such a loner.
"Elonsica," he replied, the sarcasm evident in his tone of voice. Lacey frowned.
"She means what part of Elonsica, idiot," Lia bit icily.
"Further towards Elonsica than here." He had purposely ignored her icy tone.
"Could you be more vague?"
"I don't see it as any of your concern, Leanora."
No one had called her by her full name since her first day in the Elonsican School when the teacher had asked her her preference. And Leanora was not her preference. It wasn't that she had anything against the name, it was just that it was way too long; it stood out too much. Anyway, how did Cal of all people know her full name and what did he think gave him the right to use it?
"I don't ever recall saying that you could call me by my full name." Her voice was icy, bitchy, sarcastic. He had hit a chord. Leanora Alexandra Relanne was dead. She was Lia now, just Lia.
"That's because you never did," he replied, calmly.
Oh, how she hated him. She wanted to throw something at him, but everything was in the boot. All she had was a hair pin. It wouldn't invoke any proper damage; it would merely serve in getting her in trouble. There was only one solution.
"Whatever."
"Stop it, you two," interrupted Lacey. "You're acting like nine year old instead of nineteen."
Carmon grinned. "Lace, don't be patronizing. I doubt even nine year olds are this bad."
Lia glared at him, pointedly. He flinched beneath her gaze. Cal remained silent, his arms folded over his torso casually, his cold green eyes resting on the road. How did he always remain so passive? She wanted to do something, to say something. She wanted to shatter his cold demeanour and watch him show some visible sign of emotion, a weakness. Lia dug her hand into her pocket. The hair pin didn't seem like such a bad idea…
"Jude!" Carmon's voice cut through her silent reverie, once again alerting her to her surroundings.
"What?"
"How long 'til we get there?" His voice sounded rushed and urgent.
"About half an hour. Why?"
Carmon frowned. "Erm… nature calls," he coughed, feebly.
Lia brought her hand to her mouth to suppress her laughter.
"It's not funny!"
This only succeeded in increasing her laughter as she muffled it slightly with her fist.
"Can it wait?"
Carmon shook his head vigorously.
Lacey grinned. "There are plenty of trees and bushes around here."
Lia couldn't help it. She broke into fits of laughter.
Jude sighed and pushed at the brakes. Nothing happened.
"The brakes aren't working."
Lia's eyes widened. "How do we stop the car, then?"
Cal turned off the music, causing the car to fill with an uneasy silence.
"I need to go to the bathroom," whined Carmon, his legs folded as he fidgeted in his seat.
"Forget about the bathroom! How do we stop the car?" Lacey was scared. It was so obvious. If it had been any other time, Lia would have been scared too. But she was far too occupied with laughing at Carmon to be worried.
The car was filled with another silence, shrouding them like a thick blanket. Hot, suffocating, stifling. The only sound was Lia's muffled laughter.
"You could change the gear," suggested Cal. He sounded indifferent, calm. "Then you could try the hand-brake."
Jude nodded. "It's worth a try."
Five minutes later, they were stood outside of the car as Carmon "did his little thing" in the bushes. Lia sighed and leaned against the car, her black jacket fading into its dark exterior, her long hair in its loose ponytail brushing against its surface.
"How do we get there now?"
Jude ran a hand through his hair, smoothed it out and replied,"Anyone got their mobile on them?"
They all shook their heads.
"Mobiles are strictly foreboden. Can't risk them going off in the actual mission, else we'd get caught," said Lia.
Jude groaned. "There's nothing else for it, then. Two of us will have to find the nearest town and locate a phone. That way, we can ring Leigh and ask him to pick us up and send someone to take the car to the garage - It's too dangerous to go ahead with defective brakes."
Lia nodded. "I'll wait for Carmon and we'll go, seeing as Lacey moans too much on long walks and you'll need to watch the car."
Lacey glared at her, indignantly.
Jude shook his head. "Carmon'll take ages; you're going to have to take Cal."
Cal and Lia's eyes widened. "No!" they both exclaimed.
Lacey smirked. "I moan too much on long walks," she imitated. "Carmon's way too busy doing his little business and, after what happened last time, Jude's never going to leave his car alone with any of us."
But she didn't want to go with Cal, and she was pretty sure he didn't want to go with her either. They were all so going to die when she got back.
"Hurry up, then. We have to be there by midnight. Unless you skip the food, I suggest you move on."
Lia groaned. Cal got up from his leaning position against a tree and brushed back one of the many bangs which had fallen into his face.
"Whatever." He began to walk up the road.
Lia sighed and ran to catch up with him. This was going to be a long night.
* * *
Lia sauntered across the path, her eyes straying over the lines of trees as they all mingled into one another, their branches coiling and twisting into the air like hundreds of hands trying to catch a star in the distance. Cal was quite far ahead.
&nbs
p; Show-off.
He was probably trying to walk extra fast just to annoy her.
I don't like him.
State the obvious, why don't you?
He's mean.
She felt hyper today and it was unusual, for her to be hyper, anyway. Maybe it was Lacey's influence rubbing off on her. Or maybe it was the lack of sleep. She blamed the latter. The walk lacked conversation so much –it had no conversation at all- that she had resorted to listening to the sounds of the wood, or the forest, or the jungle, or whatever it was called. Those words always confused her: wood, jungle, forest. Why have so many words describing the same thing? It was just a waste of words; it was pointless. It was wrong to waste things. It was wrong to waste anything. Everything was there for a reason and should be used to its full potential for whatever reason it was there for.
She could hear the chirping of the crickets in the distance and, if she listened really carefully, she could hear the wind and a distant rumbling sound. It sounded like…She wasn't sure. What did it sound like? It sounded like…like…
"What are you doing?"
Lia's eyes shot open as she was snapped out of her silent reverie. She hadn't noticed that she had stopped and closed her eyes. It really showed what lack of conversation could do to a person.
"I'm listening to the wind. Care to join me?"
"Don't be so slow. We need to get there before midnight."
Wait a minute; was he being –dare she think it- civil? Like her, he was probably lacking sleep. That would explain it.
Or maybe he hates you but, unlike you, he's not so immature that he shows it 24/7.
"This is the way I walk. I don't do fast walking."
"Then you should begin to 'do' it. You're the one who was complaining about being hungry."
Lia rolled her eyes. As much as she hated to admit it, he had a point there. But she didn't like to walk fast. It hurt. It hurt her legs and it made her breathing far too rapid. She didn't like it when that happened because then it took too long to slow down again.
"But I don't like walking fast."
"Then you're going to have to start 'liking' it."
Lia quickened her pace. He made her so angry. She wanted to hit him with something really hard. He was using her own words against her. She hated people who used her own words against her. That put another point on her 'why she hated Cal' list. She felt happier now. She had another reason to hate him and, now that she fully hated him again, she could be a bitch to him again without feeling guilty. She didn't like feeling guilty –guilt was an evil emotion. It was what always helped Lacey to win battles: Lia's guilt. Lacey was a manipulative bitch. It had been so many years and she had only just realized that. That was her revelation for the day. Now it was time to hate Cal. Hating Cal was fun.
"Cal?"
"What?"
"I hate you."
Cal looked taken back by her sudden confession for a moment before he once again retained his calm demeanour and replied.
"I hate you too, Lia."
At least they agreed on something –but she wasn't finished yet.
"No, Cal, you don't understand."
"What?" he looked irritated now. That was good. She was on a role.
"I really, really, really hate you. Like, dude, I abhor you. I can't stand you. I want you to die right now and I'd do it myself if it weren't for the fact that it would just get me into trouble."
"I'm glad you feel that way."
Cal was good at being passive, she noticed. Not that she'd cling to that point, of course. Cal had no strengths and, even if he did have any, she wasn't meant to dwell on them. She hated him and hating him meant that she got to pick and pick and pick at all of his bad points and use them against him, use them to hate him even more. Lacey really was a bad influence. Now she had created a step by step method on how to hate someone. It was pathetic. Not that she minded. She was pathetic and there was nothing wrong with that. It was fun to be pathetic.
"Cal?"
"What?"
She was surprised that he wasn't ignoring her by now. It was so obvious that she was annoying him to no end.
"Why the hell did you join the rebels if you're so bloody racist?"
That was blunt. That wasn't what she had been planning to say. She hadn't expected that and she could tell by his expression that he hadn't expected it either.
"Don't butt into things that aren't any of your concern, Leanora."
"Don't call me that."
"Don't butt into my business."
Could they ever have a normal conversation without either of them turning it into an argument? Judging by how they were going, she guessed not. After all, that was the most civil conversation they had ever had throughout all the time they'd known each other.
"Whatever." Now she was taking a leaf out of Jude's book. That was his way of ending a conversation, or beginning a conversation, or having a conversation in general. But enough about Jude, today's focus was Cal.
They continued to walk in silence for a few minutes until Lia got bored and decided to speak again.
"When are we going to get there?" she whined.
Brilliant. So many minutes of silence and when she did decide to speak up, it was either to moan or to be bitchy.
"We're nearly there."If he was annoyed, or irritated, or frustrated –and she was inclined to think he was all three- he did a very good job in hiding it.
"How can you be sure?"
"Listen carefully and you'll hear some rumbling. It's the cars from the town."
So that was what the rumbling sound was. She knew that she had recognized it.
"Have you been around here before?"
Silence for a few moments, then a response. "I know the way."
That was all she was going to get from him –she could tell from the finality in his tone of voice. It was best not to press the subject; otherwise they would get into another argument. She wasn't in the mood for another argument. She wanted peace.
The rumbling was getting slightly louder now and she could hear horns beeping in the distance. Lia quickened her pace. They were reaching the edge of the wood now. The trees were getting thinner by the minute.
She ran forward until she was ahead of Cal. He could catch up. She arrived on a large hill overlooking the town. A sea of roads and houses were splayed below her, hundreds of lights dancing over their surface, flickering like fireflies against the empty abyss of space, rippling the sea and sending vibrations coursing through the ocean. Everything looked so tiny, it was as if she could lift them up in the palm of her hand, lift them and drop them like grains of sand over a beach, watch the tide come in and the waves wash them all away, bit by bit.
She could hear footsteps as Cal emerged from the wood, his hands placed deftly in his pockets.
"How are we meant to get down there?" Her voice sounded louder than she had intended, cutting through the silence, echoing against the walls of the cave and rebounding, reflecting, off of the mirror's surface.
Cal made his way to the side of the hill and sat on the edge, allowing his legs to dangle off of it.
He smirked. "Isn't it obvious?"
Lia's eyes widened. Oh no. He wasn't planning to…or was he? She was so not going to get down there like that.
"I am so not going to get down there like that."
"I don't see any other alternative," he replied. "The only other way would take another hour or so, which means you wouldn't get your food."
He was mocking her, she just knew it. He was playing around with her words, with her actions –her insecurities, and using them against her. Stirring it all into a bowl and letting the contents mingle into one another, watching the ingredients blend and mix then observing them for the outcome, pouring them into the tin and waiting for the response: the last motion, the retaliation –the finished product.
Lia groaned and seated herself beside him, her legs dangling over the edge of the hill. The things she did for food.
She glared.
"After you."
He smirked once again and raised his eyebrows. He placed his hands in the grass, clasping it tightly, then flung himself forward. He disappeared in a blur, slipping forward and catapulting through the grass, sliding down the hill. It was obvious that he had done this sort of thing before.
Lia clenched the grass beneath her fingers, the mud seeping into her nails. She closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and slipped forward. She could feel herself lose her balance as she catapulted forward. Mud and wet grass rubbed against her back, the friction causing her hands to burn. Her stomach felt as though it would jump out at any moment and sear through her throat. She could hear herself screaming.