A hand landed on my shoulder, and with it a wave of calm washed over me, grounding me once again.
“Stop it Eve,” Lionel’s voice cut through the air.
Her whole posture shifted, from tension and anger into fragile and small. Her eyes softened as she looked at him.
“Oh come on Lionel, I was just on edge because of all the competition,” she pouted with her once again sweetened voice.
Fake.
That was all she was.
“Enough,” Rohan grunted. “This is reality. People are dying out there, and you’re fighting for a spot to become the next corpse?”
I bit the inside of my cheek and all remaining anger slipped out of me. He was right, yet I wasn’t going to stopfighting for it. Even if all of us in this room were marching towards our death, it was a chance at a life. It was a wager to fight and actually survive, instead of rotting away and starving to death in the small villages, because that was all that awaited us back there.
Were the higher-ups simply looking the other way, or merely ignoring the fact of the people suffering?
I let out a long breath, the heat leaving me.
That was too close, I almost let my temper get the better of me. Then all of this would’ve been for naught.
“Since when does Eve listen to you?” I mumbled, brushing Lionel’s hand off my shoulder.
“What?”
“Or rather, when did you become familiar with her?” I cocked a brow at him.
“Oh, is this jealousy?” a teasing smile appeared on his lips.
“No.”
“Why do you two keep fighting anyway?” he asked curiously.
“Because she’s obnoxious.”
“Just tell me when she’s bothering you, I’ll get her off your back,” he smiled, warm and contagious.
I averted my eyes from him.
“I’m serious though, tell me if something is wrong,” Lionel bumped his arm into my shoulder, as if fishing for my attention again.
“And what? You’ll smile the problem away?” I mumbled, trying to avoid the fluttering feeling in my stomach.
He snorted at me, but I had no regrets; he often got away with things because of his looks. I bet he was fully aware of it too.
It wasn’t that I doubted him in any way, that wasn’t the problem. No, the problem was that he kept seeing me as the fragile little girl he met all those years ago who needed protecting. I wanted to prove him wrong, for him to wake up and see me, the way I saw him.
But I wasn’t that special; my dull dark brown hair hung straight around me and my body lacked the beautiful curves some of the other girls had.
A sudden weight was placed on my other shoulder, I jolted in response as my eyes met with icy blue.
“Glad to see you made it.” Bomb Girl smiled mischievously at me. “Name’s Ashley Briarsen.”
“I could say the same about you, I’m Ethalyn Deering,” I flashed her a smile. “This is my friend, Lionel Lambkin.”
“Hellofriend,” she waved, eyeing him for a brief second.
“Um, hi?” Lionel looked confused at me.
