Amber & Ice

Chapter 16: Nothing you have done since I met you has been in any way reasonable

Dyo led them to a restaurant close to the University. It wasn’t the sort of place frequented by students so Athena had never been inside before. She and Cress had often swooned over its menu from the pavement though and she was shocked that Dyo was taking her to somewhere so fancy. Particularly if all he wanted to do was to apologise - he could have done that over a cup of tea and a pastry. Athena felt another stab of doubt and wondered if she was making a mistake.

The restaurant was beautiful though; a palace of white and gold with soft pink accents in the napkins and tablecloths. It felt far too popular for someone like Dyo, but he didn’t seem to stick out. In fact, Athena realised as she glanced around, there was something far more subtle about the clientele; instead of dressing in head to toe pink, they opted for subtle nods to the vogue colour. There was a middle aged woman in a cream dress with a pink scarf and a few men wore black suits with the faintest strands of pink thread running through them.

Because the colour vote was a pop vote, it wasn’t mandatory to follow it - wearing the pop colour just showed respect for the system and allegiance with what it stood for. It was adopted most passionately by the young, as was common with fashion. Among older, more seasoned voters, it was toned down, even here in the capital. In dark blue jeans and a good quality black jumper, Dyo fitted right in. In fact, Athena realised as she looked at him more closely, he looked completely different to the few times she had seen him before; he no longer looked like an outsider, but someone who belonged. Only, where as he has always seemed relaxed previously, here he looked on edge and kept tugging at his jumper as though it were constricting him.

“Are you okay?” she asked him quietly as a waitress led them to a table over by the window. She looked at Dyo appreciatively as she handed him a menu, giving Athena a smile which clearly indicated that she would quite like to be sitting where she was.

“I’m fine,” Dyo told her once the waitress had left.

“Really? You look incredibly uncomfortable.”

Dyo grinned at her. “Maybe I just don’t like apologising.”

Athena lent back in her chair, watching him closely. “I’m sure you don’t, but that’s not it. I can’t decide whether you fit in here: you look like the rest of them, just more uncomfortable. Have you been here before?”

“I bring a new girl each week,” he replied with a sly grin. Athena frowned but she could tell that he was just deflecting the question from the glint in his eye.

“Is this where you spend all of your time when you should be in lectures then?” Athena asked.

“Not quite,” Dyo started to answer, but stopped when their waitress reappeared. “I’ll have a burger please,” he told her, handing back the menu.

Athena hadn’t even glanced at the menu since she had been handed to it, although nor, she noticed, had Dyo. “Go on then, Mr Regular. What would you recommend?”

“The lasagna is amazing,” he replied with a shrug.

“Okay, I’ll have a lasagna, please,” Athena asked, handing back the menu.

“So why exactly are you enrolled at the university if you don’t attend any lectures?” Athena asked Dyo once the waitress had left.

“Because I wouldn’t be here at all if my dad hadn’t made me enrol. And he can make me sign up and he can probably force me to go and take my exams, but he can’t check that I’m at lectures and I’m not going to waste my time sat in a room full of naive pop voters listening to joyous praise of a system which I believe is fundamentally flawed. No offence,” he added, noticing Athena wince at his ‘naive pop voters’ statement. He spoke quietly, so that they wouldn’t be overheard by the people at the next table, but his voice was full of passion.

“Ajax’s lectures aren’t like that.”

“No, but I can hear Ajax’s lectures any time I want, without having to sit with other students.” Dyo looked across the restaurant. His hand was tapping impatiently on the table and he looked distracted.

“What would you like to drink? I’m going to the bar,” he announced suddenly, getting to his feet.

“Erm, a peach tea please,” Athena replied, more than a little confused. Had she made him angry already?

“Okay, one tea coming up.” He attempted to smile, but it came out as more of a grimace, before walking brusquely to the other side of the room.

Athena sighed and wondered yet again what she was doing here. She was never going to understand why Dyo had asked her to come if he didn’t want to tell her, but she could question why she had accepted the invitation. She was being ridiculous, of course. Dyo was anything but crush-worthy: he went against Pop votes, had irrational mood swings and seemed to be up to something particularly dodgy. Not to mention the fact that he still hadn’t admitted to or apologised for pushing her over the first time they had met. Her backside still stung at the thought of it. But, try as she might, she couldn’t shake the appeal, or her sense of curiosity. She wanted to know more. Not just about him, but the group he was part of.

Athena glanced across to the bar, expecting to see him waiting for their drinks. He was, sort of. But he was also most definitely up to something. He was watching the group at the table next to the bar from the corner of his eye, while rolling something small between his fingers.

When the barman returned with their drinks, Dyo picked them up without making eye contact and walked not in Athena’s direction, but the direction of the men at the other table. Just as he reached them, he made a huge show of tripping over, tipping Athena’s drink over a man in a suit in the process.

The man jumped to his feet, drenched from head to toe. He looked more shocked than angry and Dyo put a hand on his shoulder; apologising? As he turned towards Dyo, Athena realised with a start that she knew him - he had been at the party where the result of the Health Vote had been announced. He had delivered the unsettling speech on terrorism. Dyo boldly took the man’s glasses right from his face and dried them off on the corner of his jumper before handing them back to him, apologising again, and walking back towards Athena. Once his back was to the men, Athena could see that he was grinning broadly.

“Sorry about your drink,” he told her as he sat down, taking a sip of his own while not looking sorry at all. “I’ll go up and get you another in a minute.”

“This is all a set up, isn’t it? What did you just do to that poor man?”

Dyo’s brow creased. “I wouldn’t be too concerned about him, if I were you.”

Athena pushed back her chair and got to her feet, her face colouring.

“Athena, sit back down.” Dyo’s voice was low, dangerous. “Please don’t make a scene. I can explain.”

“What am I? Your cover? Your convenient excuse for being in the restaurant?” She spoke quietly, unwilling to attract the men’s attention. “You are unbelievable.”

“Athena…”

“No. I have had enough of your excuses. Perhaps I should go over there now, and warn him that you are up to something. I could tell him about your attempt to break into the voting centre, too.”

“Athena, please. Be reasonable.”

“Reasonable!” She laughed coldly. “Like pouring a drink over someone is reasonable? Like attacking someone because their political views differ from yours is reasonable? Dyo, nothing you have done since I met you has been in any way reasonable. So why should I be reasonable towards you?”

He sat in silence; unable to think of anything he could say in his own defence.

Making a small sound of frustration, Athena stormed from the table, past the men in suits, and out of the restaurant. She didn’t need to get any more caught up in Dyo’s mess. She was best off just getting as far away from him as possible.Outside, the light was already fading and the sky was turning an inky black. It was just past seven and the camp meeting would have started a few minutes ago. Sighing, Athena wrapped her coat around herself tightly and headed for the underground.