Twell and the Rebellion (10 page)

“
Good morning,” I said,
trying to muster some sort of cheerfulness to my tone (it came out
more pained and tortured in reality.)

“
It is so far!” Lavi
beamed at me energetically. What was with these morning people? Did
they have to be quite so happy?

“
Morning,” Kina offered
with a much more suitable lack of enthusiasm. It warmed me to
her.

“
Where did you disappear
to last night?” asked Lavi as we all walked to the meal
hall.

“
Er, I had a headache,” I
muttered. Kina and Lavi shot each other a look that assured me I
was as bad a liar as I suspected.

“
Did you have a fight with
your partner?” Lavi asked, her blue eyes wide and sparkling with
the anticipation of drama.

“
Avin? No, not at all, I
was just tired.” I tried to sound more convincing. It made me
wonder though. I’d actually fought with Avin, my first partner’s
spat and so far no remorse had crept up on me. But had I had a
fight with Jonaz? Hardly, but I’d pushed him away and I knew it had
hurt him. I felt a strong urge to find him and
apologize.

Picking up my pace, I was just
about to enter the hall when a hand clamped over my arm, yanking me
away from the entrance. I whirred around, prepared to retaliate,
and collided against a hard chest. Avin reached out both arms to
steady me and for a moment, I was pinned against him, looking up
into his swirling gaze. I felt myself soften, relaxing against him
for a heartbeat before my instincts kicked in. Pulling violently
out of his arms, I buzzed with such furious power it made it hard
to think.

“
Please don’t do that
thing to me—I come in peace.” Avin spoke hurriedly and again I
found his archaic expressions quaint. As he had last night, his
palms were out as if I might attack at any moment. Once again, good
instincts. I glared at him for a long moment, trying to assess his
mood. His expression seemed contrite, his full mouth curved down in
a serious frown. Regardless, I took a couple of steps back, because
I didn’t trust myself not to do something stupid. Then I realized
Kina and Lavi were still there, their mouths hanging wide enough to
catch an assortment of insects.

“Are you okay, Twell?”
Kina’s prim tone translated to ‘
Is this young man bothering you?’
It almost made me smile.

“
I’m fine. I just need to
finish a conversation with my match.” I jerked my head to indicate
Avin. “I’ll see you inside.” I’d been reluctant to admit he was my
match aloud. Then it would become common knowledge. It would become
real. But there seemed to be no way around it.

“
Oh okay, see you inside
then.” Kina’s expression cleared with the relief. Obviously, in her
opinion, Avin was free to manhandle me if he was my match.
Honestly, she was Mira’s long lost twin I swear. When they left, I
made sure to stand as far away from Avin as I possibly could whilst
still being able to hear him. That was pretty far.

“
You don’t need to be
afraid of me, Twell. I don’t bite.” Avin took a step towards me and
I immediately backed away.

“
It’s not your bite I’m
afraid of, Avin. It’s the sneaky manipulative way you use your
powers.” I eyed him mistrustfully. “And don’t think I didn’t notice
that extra step you just took there.”

“
About that, I’m sorry if
you think I meant to manipulate you the first time we met. I know
it was wrong. I honestly don’t make a habit of doing
it.”

“
Ha! I bet you say that to
all the girls.” I rolled my eyes, but quickly, as I wasn’t willing
to lose sight of his legs. I was pretty sure he’d just taken
another step closer.

Avin’s brow furrowed with
consternation as he shook his head at me. “Twell, I really don’t.
Look, I know I offended you and it was a stupid thing to do, but I
was really nervous that day. I guess I was just practicing, you
know, making sure I knew what I was doing.”

I narrowed my eyes, searching
his face for the truth while he stared intently back at me. He’d
been cocky and self-assured that day. He hadn’t seemed nervous at
all. But maybe he was just showing off in front of his friends.
Maybe he really had felt as terrified as I’d been.

“
That’s not all though,”
Avin said. Suddenly he was closing the distance between us and I
found myself out of steps, pressed against the wall of the
hall.

“
Stop,” I commanded. Avin
stopped when he was almost toe-to-toe with me and I had to look up
at him to keep eye contact. I realized he was a little taller than
Jonaz and I just came up to his shoulders, my eyes level with his
chest.

“
When I saw you, I felt an
attraction and I thought you felt it too,” Avin said
quietly.

“That wasn’t
attraction,
that was
hyp-no-tism
,” I drawled
sarcastically. Then I scowled harder for good measure.

“Only at first,” Avin
replied even more softly. He was looking at me in the way that made
me nervous and I realized I was holding every muscle tense, ready
to flee if required.

“
You’re wrong,” I snapped.
“I felt nothing after you stopped with your stupid power. As soon
as you walked away I forgot about you.”

Avin jerked back as though
I’d just slapped him. Then his eyes clouded like a storm was
approaching. “I don’t believe you. You’re just afraid to tell the
truth because you’re angry.”

I trembled as that well-spotted
anger bubbled up inside of me. I told myself I was mad because he
didn’t know what he was talking about. But deep down I knew it was
because he was kind of right and it made me feel hot, squirmy, and
uncomfortable. Still, I wanted to blame him for my feelings.

“
Hey.”Avin reached out and
hesitantly touched my cheek. I froze as his fingers grazed my skin,
unable to move or react. “I don’t want to make you cross, Twell.”
His lilting tone washed over me, somehow calming the rumble of
thunder inside of me while the threatening storm died down in the
depths of his own gaze.

“
Will you accept my
apology and at least give yourself a chance to get to know me?” His
hand dropped from my cheek and he suddenly looked so lost I wavered
against my will. Was he also suffering? Just like Dallein? Maybe
he’d loved someone too and lost her. Was I judging him too quickly
as I had the tendency to do? After all, I’d misjudged Jonaz and now
I knew him to be someone so much more amazing than I’d first deemed
him.

Avin’s hopeful eyes searched
mine and I was afraid to know what he was looking for. Despite my
hesitation, I found myself grasping for a small part of myself that
might be willing to trust him.

“
You’re on probation,” I
replied grudgingly. His features broke into a sunny beam of relief,
his smile so warm and infectious I couldn’t help but smile back,
although I was still in a state of confusion as to how we had
gotten to this point.

“
I shall endeavour not to
let you down again.” Avin beamed.

“
What’s with the way you
talk, Grandpa?” I rolled my eyes. “You sound like an old
earthling.”

“My Grandfather
was
an old
earthling.” Avin smiled unperturbed. “I guess some of his lingo
rubbed off on me, before he died.”

“You had grandparents?” I
gawked at him in jealous awe for a moment. I would have killed to
have parents let alone
grandparents
. Well, not killed,
so to speak. “Oh, well..,” Flustered, I turned and darted around
the corner, into the hall.

Avin caught up with me at the
self-service bar. “So your favourite colour is gold?” he asked as
he filled his tray.

“
What?” I turned and
glared at him suspiciously.

“
It’s what your file
said.” He gazed at me expectantly. “Do you know mine?”

“
What, are you, thirty
moons old?” I tried to sound scathing, but it came out sounding
more embarrassed. I hadn’t even bothered to read his data. I hadn’t
wanted to care. Avin flinched and my chest tightened with guilt.
Did I have to be such a moga to him?

“
Sorry,” I mumbled. “You
can tell me, if you want.”

“
Okay,” he said after a
pause. “It’s white.”

“White? That’s so boring,”
I blurted without thinking. What was
wrong
with me?

“
I don’t think so,” he
replied patiently. “It’s the colour of the morning sky. It’s a new
day, clean and fresh. It reminds me of new beginnings, or second
chances. Maybe even of hope…and right now, that’s really important
to me.”

I stared at him in
surprise. I’d expected him to say something sappy like
‘
aubergine, just like your
eyes
.’ But nope, he’d had to go and say
something sincere that touched part of my soul and threatened to
warm me to him. Dammit.

“
Can I sit with you?” His
tone was hopeful as he held my gaze.

“No,” I replied flatly.
Then I stalked off, refusing to look back. Just because I’d
accepted his apology, didn’t mean we had to start playing
‘
getting to know
you
’ as far as I was concerned. The idea
of spending more time with him made my thoughts skitter in all
sorts of confused directions and I was rattled by it.

Pushing the thoughts away, I
located Jonaz easily because he was the only one standing up at his
table. Standing and glaring. At Avin. He appeared oblivious of my
presence as I approached him and put down my tray. Frowning, I
tentatively touched his arm and only then did he break his hostile
stare at Avin. His eyes, as he looked down at me, were so dark with
anger I dropped my hand in surprise.

“
Did you just walk in with
him?” Jonaz’s voice was full of the tight, quiet sort of anger that
really made me prefer yelling.

“It was more like he followed
me.” I sipped my energy juice loudly. Jonaz continued to glare.
“Like a sticky fart,” I added, trying to break the tension.

“
Was he bothering you?”
Jonaz’s tone became even stiffer and colder than Kina’s. I took a
seat and after a second when I could see that Jonaz was clearly
happy to stand and glare all day, I grabbed his shirt, tugging him
down beside me.

“
No. Apologizing
actually.” I focused an unnecessary amount of attention on my
juice.

“
Oh, good, I might go and
apologize to him too then,” Jonaz replied.

“
What for?” I eyed him
warily.

“
For the broken nose he’s
about to receive.” Jonaz got to his feet.

“
Oi! Stop it!” I grabbed
his arm, pulling him back down hard. He looked at me again and the
coldness in his expression made me recoil.

“
Jonaz!”

He must have registered the
horror in my voice, or my shocked expression, because the chilling
hardness in his eyes died away instantly, his features twisting
with pain instead. “I’m sorry Twell…this is… harder than I thought
it would be.”

“That’s no excuse for you
to go all earth age Neanderthal on me,” I exclaimed. “And anyways,
he knows how I feel about you. I think he’s happy just to be
friends.”

“
Ha!” Jonaz snorted. “I’ve
heard that one before. Oh wait, I’ve used that one
before!”

“I don’t need a reminder
of how
you
used to carry on,” I snapped in annoyance. Just the memory
of all the girls who used to hurl themselves at Jonaz made me feel
like throwing up on an empty stomach. Jonaz looked at me sharply
for a moment, before his mouth curved up into its familiar
smirk.

“
Trust me, it takes one to
know one and any half-wit could see he’s attracted to
you.”

“
Well so what if he is? I
want to be with you and nothing is going to change that,” I replied
peevishly. Honestly, didn’t he give me any credit? Jonaz was silent
for a moment, simply holding my gaze. Avin looking at me like that
earlier had made me feel confused and a little afraid. But when
Jonaz looked at me, his endlessly deep eyes held such intensity my
knees trembled and my mouth went dry.

“
You’re right.” A slow
smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Suddenly he leaned towards
me and captured my hands in his. “Please tell me you still have
faith I’ll find a way.”

I shivered as he searched my
face for the answer. Faith was the belief in something that seemed
intangible, unreachable. It meant having faith our leaders would
allow us to deny our matches and choose each other. I didn’t know
if I could believe in that. Nevertheless, I had hope, hope in us.
With all my heart, I wanted to believe we would find a way to
change things for our generation and not just ourselves.

Jonaz suddenly leaned his face
down to mine and my heart began to race. My breath caught in my
throat as the room faded around me, the noise of voices a jumbled
buzz as Jonaz took my face in his hands. Although I suspected he
was touching me largely to make a point to Avin and even though I
knew it was totally taboo and not the place for it, I really didn’t
care. Anticipation rippled down my spine as Jonaz moved one hand to
the small of my back, pressing me closer to him. I felt the sudden
whoosh of air as I was yanked to my feet; the racket of whoops and
gasps piercing my ears as if I’d just emerged from underwater.
Looking dazedly up, I met the familiar hard eyes of Brazin. Then I
looked at Jonaz who’d also been pulled away, by Maza. Jonaz stared
at her as if he was unfazed by the trouble I knew we were in.