Chapter 16 (K)

“What was up with you and that new guy Marc?” asks Lae during lunch. My other friends look over at us with questioning expressions.

“Yeah, there seemed to be something going on between you too,” adds Nella. “You looked like you were going to throttle him at any moment.”

I didn’t think we were that obvious, were we? I could hardly tell, as my mind was preoccupied at that particular moment. “I don’t know. He just annoys the hell out of me,” I say. It’s the truth, and I want to steer this conversation away from Marc.

“He seems like a nice guy,” says Lae. “He even helped me with that French question when you wouldn’t bother to look up!” she scowls at me.

“And you know,” giggles Vera, “the emotion closest to hate is love.”

I glare at her. “Gross. Who would go out with that jerk? And Lae, just because he helps you once doesn’t mean he’s not an as—“

Nella punching me in the arm cuts my sentence short. Ouch! She can sure pack a punch! “What the heck was that for?” I ask, blinking away tears. “That hurt!”

“Don’t swear!” she chides me. “How many times have I told you that?”

“You don’t have to punch me for it!” I look at my arm. It’s pretty possible that I’m going to be getting a bruise there.

“Yes I do, otherwise you won’t stop!” Nella exclaims.

“But back to Marc,” says Natalie looking up from her phone, “I think he’s actually pretty cute.” She flips her hair back and looks at her reflection on her phone. Natalie always seems to have two different personalities; one where’s she’s really nice and supportive, and the other is superficial and shallow. By the looks of it, today’s a superficial day. I sigh inwardly. It’s these types of days that I wonder why I put up with her at all, but it’s always her nice days that make me want to have another go at it. Of course, it’s gets tiring after awhile.

“That guy? Cute? You’ve got to be kidding,” I say. “And how did you see him? You don’t have French with us!”

“He’s in my math class. He sat beside me!” she squeals. “All the other girls were just staring daggers at me.”

“And you take delight in that?” asks Lae in disgust. I agree with her. This is getting really annoying.

“I’m going to go get a snack from the corner store, anybody with me?” I ask, getting up. Even after eating my lunch I’m still hungry.

“Nella and I got to work on our project,” says Lae.

“I’m too tired,” says Vera. “And I want to finish this manga.”

“I’m going to go find Marc,” giggles Natalie, and she runs over to the table he sits at. I feel like I want to gag.

“I’ll go by myself. Don’t expect any snacks for you!” I warn, and I walk out the door.

The sun is high above me, making me too warm. I take off my sweater and drape it over my arm. I can feel my mood lighten. Maybe today will be a good day after all…

The streets are oddly quiet, with no people on the sidewalks, and a few cars going by. I frown slightly. This isn’t normal for the usually bustling area. This is one of the major intersections in this city! The stores and streets seems deserted, a ghostly shell of themselves.

It’s a green light for me so I start walking across the wide street. Despite the warm sun I can feel goose bumps rise over my skin. I shiver slightly.

I’m in the middle of the crossing when I feel two spots aimed at my back. The eyes. This isn’t right. We’re 20 minutes the opposite direction of where I first felt them. They can’t be here…unless they’re following me.

I’m stuck, held into place by that piercing stares. Please go away, I beg silently. Just go away…

I feel something yank me back violently, and I fall backwards on top of something that’s not pavement. A blur of black passes before me only a few centimeters away, smelling of the strange fumes hydrogen-powered vehicles.

I look up at the light. It’s still green for me.

“Ouch,” says something underneath me, and I turn in fright.

I find my face only a few inches away from Marc’s.

“What the hell?” I exclaim, scrambling backwards onto the rough pavement. “What are you doing here?”

“I saved your life, you idiot.” He brushes himself off and stands up. I’m in too much of a shock to come up with some sort of comeback. He offers me a hand, and I take it numbly. He guides me back to the sidewalk.

“What type of a driver is that, blazing through a red light?” I ask, mostly to myself. I realize that only a few moments before, I was centimeters away from being road kill. I start to hyperventilate a bit, funnily enough. I mean, it’s a pretty late reaction.

“An assassin,” says Marc. “They’re after you too.”

“What? What do you mean?” I ask, truly puzzled. “Who’s they? And who were they after before? And why?”

Marc shakes his head, almost in contempt. “Kaya, are you in that much of a shock that you can’t make simple connections? Take a couple of deep breaths.”

I make myself calm down. My breathing slows a bit. I think carefully, analyzing what Marc just said to me. It suddenly hits me, and I take an involuntary gasp.

“So you do know what I mean,” says Marc.

“It’s you they were after. You knew about this entire investigation, just like I suspected.” I say slowly. Marc nods.

“And they know I’m on it too, right?” I can hardly believe it. This was a joke right? No one would be so worried about two teens investigating that they’d send an assassin out to kill them.

“That’s right,” says Marc. He doesn’t have a smirk on his face, surprisingly. He looks absolutely serious. The bell rings, but it barely registers with me.

“So who would be so concerned about us investigating? Concerned enough to send assassins to stop them?” This is something that I can’t connect the dots to.

Marc had already started walking back to school. He turns around to face me.
“The government, of course. Who else?”

Hello again! It's a super-long one, so I hope you'll be ok with that! I'm gonna use my normal personal comments spot as an advertisement for my friend G's blog! As you may know from earlier posts, G is quite involved with this novel, and he gives me lots of inspiration when I'm out of it. He also has his own character in this story! 

I hope you'll check his blog out soon :)