Sugar Coated (7 page)

“I wasn’t going to just let you drown,” he answered matter-of-factly.

Brynn noted guiltily that his lips were blue from the freezing water he had
just braved to save his friend.

“But can you please not ever do that again? I
don’t think I’m up to being brave more than once in my lifetime,” he said, finally calming down a bit as he let his head hit the sand next to hers.

“I won’t,” she assured him,
and for a moment she meant it.

The water may have cleared her mind and made it easier to remember the things she’d heard in her dream, but almost drowning w
asn’t quite worth the memories.

“Promise?” he asked, hooking her pinky with his and
bringing his thumb to his lips.

“Promise,” she sai
d as she kissed her own thumb.

She did feel a pang of guilt when she realized that
this was a promise she may not keep, but tried to ignore the thought.

“What are you even doing down here?” she asked him, trying to take her mind off of the way her lungs had ached under the icy water’s surface and the lie she
had just told her best friend.

“Amber wants us to come see her new remodel but none of us could get a hold of you, so I just assumed you were down here again,” he explained, wiping the water off of his face with his free hand and still breathing hard, though she couldn’t tell if it was from the physical exertion of his rescue or simply the terror of being so close to the ocean.

Brynn lifted her head slightly to look back at the large waves that she swore were much smaller when she had first braved the water. Dark clouds were forming in the sky ominously, threatening to unleash their wrath and soak Brynn and Ty even more.

“Do you ever notice that the weather is always perfect in Seaside?” Brynn asked, still staring straight up into
the heavy grey clouds overhead.

“It’s not perfect. We get rain and cloudy days,” Ty said.

“But not very often.”

“And that’s a problem?” Ty responded, looking over at her with a smile and trying to stop shivering in the cold wi
nd.

“It’s not a problem. It’s just weird. It’s always sunny there and the beach is always stormy.”

“That’s because it’s always overcast near oceans. All of the precipitation,” Ty explained, doing a good job of not sounding like it was an obvious fact that Brynn should know, even though it was.

“It just seems like such a dramatic difference,” she mumbl
ed, more to herself than to Ty.

They lay there in silence for a moment longer before Brynn suddenly remembered a question she had been meaning to ask her f
riend.

“Have you ever met someone named Jonah?” she asked, looking over at Ty. He turned to her as well, his eyes looking quizzical as he searched her face.

“I don’t think so,” he answered. “Do you know what his ID number is or just his name? There could be a lot of Jonah’s in this city.”

“
I have no idea what his number is. I just met him in the library. He’s about our age, but I’d never seen him before so I thought maybe you’d know him from games or something.”

“You give me way too much credit,” Ty answered with a laugh. “I’m not that popular. I don’t just know everyone in the city who’s around our age.” He laid his head back against the sand once more and closed his eyes, letting the faint, infrequent glimpses of sun dry him. “And anyway, what were you doing in the library? Did you break your tablet again, because you know I can fix that, right?”

Brynn rolled onto her side to playfully punch Ty in the arm.

“No, you jerk,” she said with a laugh, “I don’t break
everything
I touch. Just
most
things. I wanted to look through some real books,” she explained, using the word Jonah had used to describe the feel in the library.

“Fair enough,” Ty said, putting his hands up in a surrender fashion. “So do you want to run by
your house to get a change of dry clothes before we drop by Amber’s? If Bennett and Amber find out you went into the ocean to
think
, they’re going to put you under constant surveillance. They already think you’ve lost it,” Ty told her, propping himself up on his elbows and looking out with unease at the turbulent ocean. “Also you didn’t pick the best ensemble to wear into the water,” he pointed out, his face flushing lightly as he kept his eyes locked too intently on hers, refusing to look down at her shirt.

Sure enough, wearing a black bra and white shirt into the ocean hadn’t been Brynn’s most brilliant idea, but at least she knew Ty was gentlemanly enough to pretend not to notice her lack of good judgment.

“Good idea,” Brynn agreed in embarrassment, pulling her jacket on and zipping it up quickly.

* * *

Ty and Brynn were late getting to Amber’s house, which she scolded them for endlessly when they walked through the door. The walk from the beach to Ty’s house was long enough
without Brynn needing to change, and then even longer with the two of them missing their bus.

“I told you it wasn’t our fault. The stupid bus was late,” Ty told Amber as they walked down her long hallway that
looked the same as it ever had.

He was stretching the truth a bit
, but Brynn appreciated the effort.

“The buses are never late,” she said matter-of-factly, obviously having gotten her feelings hurt that her friends didn’t seem to care about her remodel as much as they should.

“It was actually my fault more than anything,” Brynn interjected. “I went down to the beach for a while and Ty had to walk all the way out there to come and get me because my tablet was turned off.”

Brynn looked over at Ty with a small smile, knowing that even though she wanted to avoid the topic of her little trip to the beach, it was the only way to distract Ambe
r from her rage at Ty.

“You were where?” she asked slowly, stopping the long trek through the hallway to look at Brynn,
suspicion lining her features.

“I swear I’m not crazy or anything, even though you think I am. I just wanted to go somewhere to think that wasn’t in the city. Sometimes I get tired of being surrounded by the glass buildings and people
…and technology,” Brynn said simply, ticking each thing off on her finger.

“Well
, at least you’re not dead I guess,” Amber said gruffly, turning on her heel and walking once more toward her living room.

Brynn concealed a smile as she followed suit. Amber liked to pretend that she was mad at Brynn a lot, but she really cared about her. It made Brynn happy to k
now she had such a good friend.

“I’m really excited to see what you did to the living room,” Ty said finally, attempting to lighten
the mood with a subject change.

“You should be. It’s pretty amazing,” Amber replied, trying not to let her voice sound like her friends were off the hook for their tardiness, even though they all knew the tension was already gone. “Ready?” she asked, placing h
er hand on the door to open it.

Upon swinging the door to the living room open
, Brynn and Ty were met with light.

A lot of it.

True to her word, Amber had replaced all of her outward facing walls with floor-to-ceiling windows that let in so much natural light it was like being outside. Her interior walls had been painted a sage green, accented with the dozens of plants that were growing right out of little dirt plots that dotted the dark hardwood floors. Though she couldn’t make her ceiling all glass like she’d wanted to, she had painted it a robin’s egg blue, mimicking the sky outside perfectly.

“Wow,” Brynn said in awe, l
ooking happily around the room.

“It’s amazing,” Ty agreed, his
eyes wide.

“I can get a tan even when I’m inside,” Amber said with a grin, looking
proudly around at her creation.

“You’ll pretty much never need to go on vacation again,” Bennett said, entering the room from the hallway they’d just come from. “It looks like you’re outside in Southern Tropic,” she continued, clapping her hands at her friend’s accomplishment. “Your party is going to be so awesome.”

“I figure we’ll have everyone in this room since it’s the biggest,” Amber said, sitting down on one of her sage green sofas and looking around the room as if envisioning the party right at that moment.

“Brynn, do you want to come shopping with us? We’re going to go make our outfits today,” Bennett said, always excited over an excuse to get out and do s
omething that involved clothes.

Brynn thought for a moment, trying to come up with a plausible excuse to get out of shopping so that she could sneak back to the library for her next great idea
—looking through history books.

“I’m actually feeling a little sick. I think it’s all that cold ocean air getting to me,” Brynn lie
d, rubbing her arms for effect.

“Why don’t you just ask my house for some medicine then?” Amber asked, soundi
ng less suspicious than normal.

She would have had to be really excited about her party to miss an op
portunity to worry about Brynn.

“I’ll take some medicine when I get home. I just think I
need to lie down for a while.”

“Do you want me to come with you? Make sure you’re okay?” Ty asked, making Brynn feel very guilty with the genuine c
oncern that lined his features.

“No, I’ll be fine,” Brynn assured him, smiling at her frie
nd who cared so much about her.

“Well, let’s get moving then! Lots to do,” Bennett said excitedly, leading the group out of Amber’s newly rem
odeled house.

“Try not to have too much fun shopping,” Brynn w
hispered to Ty with a sly smile.

“Nice try, faker. Try not to have too much fun at the library,” he replied.

Chapter 7: Jonah

Brynn walked, once more, through the doors of the library with a purpose in mind. At Ty’s house she had selected her default outfit of grey skinny jeans, a black shirt, her turquoise necklace, and her grey fitted jacket, feeling that if she was going to be hunched over books for hours, she wanted to be comfortable.

Taking a sugar cube out of her messenger bag and popping it into her mouth, she walked up to the woman at the front desk once more with a smile, not feeling the slightest bit intimidated by her now that she had a plan in motion to figure out everything about the city that didn’t make sense. Somehow the sense of purpose gave her confidence that she hadn’t had before.

“I’m looking for history books,” Brynn said sweetly.

“You’re not allowed to eat in here,” the woman replied dryly, looking like she was in no mo
od to talk to Brynn today.

Feeling the sugar dissolve on her tongue, Brynn opened her mouth wide, like a child showing they had finished all of their meal.

“All gone,” she said simply.

“Charming,” the woman answered, giving Brynn a look she was sure could
kill.

“History books?” Brynn asked ag
ain, studying the woman’s face.

There wasn’t really anything out of the ordinary about her besides her eyes. Nothing obvious anyway. There was just something unnatural about her that Brynn couldn’t quite place and it was beginning to drive her crazy. Maybe it really
was like Bennett had said—the medicine they gave Workers to improve their reflexes made them move in an unnatural way and that’s what seemed so off about them.

“First
floor. Down one flight of stairs,” she said as she turned her attention back to her tablet.

Brynn turned on her heel and walked toward the stairs triumphantly, feeling like
she had won some small battle.

“No insults today?” Brynn whispered
under her breath with a smile.

The first floor of the library looked much like the basement
, and though the numbering system confused her, she supposed the stairs leading up to the main floor of the building technically made it the second floor.

There were more tables and armchairs than anyone was ever going to use, and absolutely no windows. The layout was almost identical to where she had been one floor down only days before, and Brynn glanced over at the ch
air where Jonah would have sat.

She wondered fleetingly if he was there now
, but ignored the urge to go and check. Instead, she weaved her way in and out of the bookshelves, skimming titles and looking for anything that could suggest a history book.

From what she could tell, most of the books she was seeing were histories of how certain objects developed over time. Not
necessarily Halcyon’s history.

“It shouldn’t be this difficult to find a history book,” she said to
the empty room in frustration.

Brynn placed her finger on the spine
s of the books and swiped it lazily down the long row of volumes, hoping that she’d know which book to pick up just by feeling it.

She didn’t, of course.

Deciding to stop exercising the willpower to leave Jonah alone, she made her way back to the stairwell and went down one level to the basement. She peeked her head around the corner curiously, scanning the armchairs and tables, but found, much to her disappointment, that they were all empty.

Jonah wasn’t anywhere in sight.

Brynn shook her head in embarrassment. Even though he’d said he spent all of his time in the library, he probably hadn’t meant it literally. She couldn’t believe she’d really thought she’d find him sitting in the exact same seat anytime she decided to stop by.

“Who are we looking for?” came a familiar v
oice right next to Brynn’s ear.

She whipped around in surprise to see Jonah bending over to whisper to her. He grinned at her obvious embarrassment at having been caug
ht in the act of spying on him.

“I was looking for that creepy lady upstairs,” Brynn said with a smile, “But since she’s not here I guess you’ll have to do.”

“I see. And what makes you think I have all the time in the world to be at your beck and call?” he asked, leaning against the wall with a book in his hands, one dark eyebrow raised.

He was wearing the same black fitted jeans with a grey T-shirt, and Brynn wondered fleetingly
if that was his default outfit.

“You did tell me you spend all of your time alone in the library. That doesn’t really suggest a full schedule to me,” Brynn said with
a wrinkle of her nose, enjoying the playful exchange.

“Just because I’m not with people doesn’t mean I’m not doing something
important,” he said elusively.

“And what exactly might that important thing be?”

“Learning,” he said simply with a glint in his eye as he watched Brynn.

“What are you studying?” she asked, looking down at the book he held in his hands, finding that she actually was curious about what this boy was interested in.

“At the moment?” he asked, his blue eyes locked on her. “You.”

Brynn looked up at him in surprise. That hadn’t been the answer she was expecting and she felt the heat rise up in he
r cheeks at his blunt response.

“What is a girl with lots of friends doing in a dusty old librar
y studying maps?” he asked.

“I’m not studying maps,” Brynn said, proud that she could at least try to win whatever game he was playing. “I’m looking for a history book. Which is where you come in,” she finished, grabbing Jonah by the hand without asking and pulling him up the stai
rs to the first floor with her.

She couldn’t help but notice how strong his hand felt in hers and she suddenly hoped he couldn’t feel her pulse racing as she pulled him along. It abruptly felt much too intimate to be holding this near-stranger’s hand, but it would be even more awkward if she were to let it go before reaching their destination. Brynn closed the distance to the first floor in just a few more steps and dropped Jonah’s hand, trying not to think too much about how it ha
d felt to hold it.

“This is where the Angel told me the history books are,” Brynn
said, gesturing to the empty wing.

“Angel?” Jonah asked, a small sideways smile playing on his face. For the second time that day Brynn felt herself blush a deep scarlet. “Did you just call that woman at the front desk an Angel?” he asked again, now laughing softly.

“Yeah,” Brynn replied with a small pout at the fact that he was making fun of her.

“I’d call her a lot of things, but I don’t think ‘Angel’ would ever be one of them,” Jonah said, still l
aughing at Brynn’s word choice.

“I didn’t mean her behavior was angelic. It’s just
…they’re so perfect, you know?” she asked, trying to salvage the embarrassment she had just caused herself.

“Who is ‘they,’ exactly?” Jonah asked, still smiling w
ith obvious amusement at Brynn.

“I don’t know. Just Workers in general,” Brynn mumbled, looking down at the floor and hoping that the heat she felt in her cheeks was no indication of ho
w red they had actually become.

“You think Workers are perfect?” Jonah asked her, his laughter finally subsiding. Now he just wore the same sideways smirk Brynn had seen the first
day they’d met in the library.

“Actually, they all seem to be a bit rude,” Brynn admitted. “But they have these incredible violet eyes and beautiful voices. And their faces are so angular and striking,” she explained. “Don’t they seem
ethereal in the slightest to you?”

Jonah thought in silence for a moment, looking up at the ceiling as if he were trying to recall som
ething.

“I guess I can see what you mean about the eyes, but that’s a result of the surgery you get when you’re first enlisted,” he said evenly, actually thinking his response through. “But I don’t think they all have angular faces. This one definitely does,” he said, looking up at the ceiling in reference to the Worker upstairs. “You could cut diamonds on her cheekbones. But I’ve seen plenty of them that look completely different from her.”

“You have?” Brynn asked, shocked by this revelation.

Every worker she had ever seen looked pretty much the same. She had begun to assume that anyone with a job had the sharp, angular fea
tures and pale white skin that her Angel possessed.

“Well, it’s not like they aren’t human,” Jonah said with a laugh. “They’re not all identical. They’re just regular people like us who happen to be really smart and really crazy.”

“Crazy?” Brynn asked, not quite sure she followed his line of thought.

“Well, they’d kind of have to be to want to work for no reason. It’s not like they get any special benefit because they have a job. We still have access to the same things that they do,” Jonah answered, sounding very much l
ike Amber right at that moment.

“I guess that’s true,” Brynn agreed, not bothering to bring up the fact that they had a purpose where she had none. “So, can you help me find a history of Halcyon?” she asked, wanting to change the subject away from the Angels.

“Easy,” Jonah answered with a cheeky grin, taking Brynn’s hand to lead the way just as she had taken his only moments before.

The way that Jonah navigated the library amazed Brynn. The building itself wasn’t exactly small, yet he moved confidently between the old wooden bookshelves, his hands always flying directly to the book he was looking for without a second thought. It was as if he had catalogued the entire library in his brain. By the time he finished his little trip around the first floor Brynn sat at one of the small wooden tables with a
stack of books in front of her.

“W
hat are we looking for?” Jonah asked.

“We?” Brynn repea
ted, raising an eyebrow at him.

“You don’t think I’m going to run all of these bizarre errands for you without getting in on the good stuff, do you?” he asked.

“I guess that wouldn’t be very fair,” she agreed, smiling at this boy who had been a complete stranger a few days before, but was now proving to be a good friend.

“So, w
hat are we looking for?” he asked again, pulling a few books from the large stack in front of Brynn and placing them on the table.

“We’re still looking for Aywon,” Brynn informed him, flipping open a book entitled
A Brief History of Halcyon
that she thought looked anything but brief. “I figured we might find something about it in a history book,” she finished with a shrug, looking like she didn’t really expect to find much.

“Where did you say you’d heard of this place before?” Jonah asked, flipping his own book open and lettin
g his eyes fly across the page.

“One of the
Angels
mentioned it once,” she said, now using her term for the Workers sarcastically. “I took a trip to Central Wildwood with my parents when I was nine. The train stopped and I asked one of the Workers where we were. She said we were in Aywon.” She left out the fact that she had obsessively taken that same trip every month since she was sixteen in the hopes that the train would stop at Aywon again.

“Why were there Workers on the train? Isn’t it supposed to be automated?” Jonah asked.

“They weren’t running it. They were all getting on. That’s what I found so odd. It was like a city built just for Workers or something,” Brynn said, rubbing her temples as she skimmed chapter headings in books with no luck.

Jonah was silent for a moment and Brynn couldn’t tell if he was reading or thinking. Either way, she was curious to know what his take on the story was. She was beginn
ing to notice from the time spent with Jonah that he was a thinker. He always left long pauses before any response, as if he wanted to make sure he used the best words he could think of.

“Have you ever gone in the ocean?” Jonah asked suddenly, catch
ing Brynn completely off guard.

She looked over at him without answering t
he question, her brow furrowed.

“What?” she finally said, feeling as if he had somehow broken into her mind and read her thoughts.

Jonah leaned in near Brynn, making her heart race once more at their unexpectedly close proximity.

“I have,” he whispe
red with a conspiratorial grin.

Brynn pulled away from this boy that she knew very little about and studied his face. His blue eyes and black hair were both traits that Brynn possessed, but the real similarity she suddenly saw between them was the spark of life in his
eyes that was so unmistakable that she couldn’t believe she had missed it before.

“People say that the ocean is dangerous and we shouldn’t go near it, but being a part of something
that
powerful is breathtaking,” he went on, talking in a hushed voice as if he were afraid that revealing this to Brynn would get him into trouble.