ANARCHY AGAINST ORDER (ON HOLD)

6. Ally attached to Enemy

Next morning, Kai approached me in the Community Gym.

I stopped my treadmill and got down, looking at him in apprehension.

He looked messy. His hair was tousled over his forehead, sticking up in clumps where he had pulled them, his blue eyes looked red and exhausted and his mouth was drawn into a frown.

'I thought it over,' he said and took out his phone. Typing something in, he showed the screen to me-

This is not the place to talk. They have cameras. Finish your workout and let's meet at your place.

I gave him his phone back and nodded. He nodded back and kissed my cheek distractedly before going to his instructor.

I passed my hand over the cheek he had kissed and took a deep breath. Was that a reassurance or the sign of oncoming trouble?

*****

We took a cab back to my house.

My dad was getting ready to go to work, mom had a day off and Mrs. Fuchsia had placed our breakfast after grumbling a little about having extra people over without informing her firsthand.

For both of us, eating and staying over at each other's places had become a regular thing now. Our mothers were best friends, so they had no issues with it. Yeah, Mrs. Fuchsia grumbled a little about Kai's unannounced visits, but I knew that she considered the boy family.

After we finished eating, we kept the plates and Mrs. Fuchsia gave Kai a worried look when he didn't give her his customary smile. She looked at me anxiously too, before busying herself with dusting.

I led Kai to my room and closed the door behind him- we didn't need Mrs. Haven hearing everything too.

I turned back and found him standing in the middle of the room, staring at the bed post with distracted eyes.

I walked behind him and laid a hand on his shoulder and felt him jerk into reality. He looked at me and said, 'So, what's our next move?'

'My next move will be to know if you're alright,' I said and immediately felt stupid. How could someone be alright after that kind of a revelation?

I amended, 'I meant I want to know how you're feeling. This is a pretty big thing to digest after all.'

'I don't know- shocked? Disappointed? I don't know what to feel. It's like...' he cleared his throat. 'It's like I'm a cuckoo living in a crow's nest. You know what? I even started noticing if there were any differences between my fake parents and me. Yesterday, I got angry at my mom when she said that she found something silly because I didn't- find it silly that is. It was a stupid thing to get angry at, but the only thing I could do was compare myself to them and see all the differences in glaring clarity,' he said, clutching his head in frustration. 'I don't even know who I am anymore.'

'I get you. I had the same kind of doubts and questions, but I couldn't let that rip me apart,' I said, willing him to understand.

'I know,' Kai looked at me finally- really looked at me, without a trace of doubt. 'That's why I decided that I would help you get to the bottom of everything. We need to know who our real parents are and why everyone is being sent to wrong homes.'

I allowed myself a smile- Kai will be fine. Everything will be alright. 'Right; so, where do you suggest we start from?' I asked.

'I had a few ideas. Did you realize how Queezo had called the kids of all the important people to his party along with the Rejects?' he asked.

'Yeah, I did realize that. Do you think...' my eyes widened in dawning realization. 'Do you think he himself is a Reject and called everyone so that he could gather intel?'