Drev and I walked home through the highway since we haven't gone to the car company yet to buy myself a car. Although it would be a mile without the shortcut, I would rather walk a mile than meet another tadalsi along the way.
I asked Mr. Lacna why there were tadalsis in the shortcut forest when it wasn't the ideal place for them to live. He said they were probably looking for a new place to live due to disturbance in their habitat which was unknown since it wasn't really given much attention because it was hard to study tadalsis due to the death they could cause. The forest surrounding the school is currently closed because of the incident.
"Are you tired?" Drev asked, his bag behind him and my bag in front.
I stopped and rested my hands on my hips. I looked to the road stretched ahead and groaned. "No," I exhaled.
"You're lying."
"Yes."
He walked up to me, he was a meter ahead. He removed his bag from his back and turned his back to me. "Piggy back?"
I walked passed him, then turned to glance at him who was looking at me with a face trying to figure me out. Thinking like, what type of person is this girl?
I motioned him to keep walking. "Hurry up! You are slowing us down." But I was the one who was slowing us down.
Minutes ago, Irela stopped her car for us when she met us along the way. Not us, for Drev only. She asked if Drev wanted her to give him a ride, Drev was about to take the offer when Irela added that only one spot was available, looking back at her backseat occupied by her fellow cheerleaders then eyeing me with subtle gaze of disgust. So Drev shook his head and waved Irela goodbye instead then we went on, and Irela idled in her car for a moment as if trying to process how Drev could just turn her down like that, before she drove in full speed almost hitting me if only it wasn't because of Drev's extraordinary reflexes. He pulled me away that if he didn't do it - I would hit my shoulder with Irela's side mirror, and judging the velocity of the car, enough to break my shoulder blade.
He helped me with our assignment in language class. He translated the Tualian texts with great ease like the Tualian words were written in Kevan words already. There were words hard to pronounce: mixture of pure consonants (plkycn which means to hug someone), mixture of pure vowels (aieu which is used to link the subject and the predicate), and weird-looking word which the letters in it have no sense since only few letters were read like the word leravzicu (read as lau) - what a waste of letters to spell.
I watched him write on his notebook. "What were you doing back in the lake?" I suddenly asked after a long moment of studying the solemnity of his face. What I liked when I stared at him was I don't get scared of getting caught because I know that he knows that I am staring at him and he just lets me, it's either he is shy or he wants me to stare at him. Neither he has frown lines nor smile lines. Not even a scar of where he hit his head.
He froze for a moment, dropping his pen on the table, unexpectation to hear the question was written all over his face. "I was looking for a way out." Although he was looking at me, his gaze looked distance like it could pass through me.
"Way out?"
"Yes, from Mierkova. You see there are electric fences around the lake within the Mierkovan territory, then I found you. That's all I remember."
"Why do you want to leave Mierkova? How could you forget?"
He closed his eyes, forcing himself to remember. "It's hard to...I was captive for no apparent reason so I escaped."
"You are a captive, a runaway criminal from Mierkova?" My eyes widened. It wasn't impossible for him to be a murderer, I saw him killed the tadalsis and yes, he has the skills.
He shook his head. "No. Just no apparent reason. I'm not a criminal, okay?" Something with the look of his eyes tells me that it was the truth. But anyone could be a good liar, right? "Please don't abandon me. I don't know what's happening to me."
Please don't abandon me...
Please don't abandon me...
I remembered the night when the Erlijans found me crying in their doorstep as they went home from their plantation. I was four. It was cold, the snow was thick. I couldn't remember who left me at the doorstep but I am sure he was a man.
He wrapped me first in a blanket. He was teary-eyed as he told me to pull the blanket tighter to myself for warmth. "Stay here. I left my keys. I will come back."
I nodded in ethusiasm, because he will come back anyway, no matter what will happen because he said so. And I believed him. But it had been hours and my feet and hands started to get numbed. Then I lost my hope of waiting. I cried.
When the woman named Neial - who now I call Mom - carried me inside, I screamed his name. "Kebren!"
And Neial said it will be okay. And she read the paper stuck to the blanket.
Grassi. May 29, Neishan year.
I looked down to hide my teary eyes from Drev.
What do I do to this boy?
