Her Compound

Chapter 17

"Psst, psst."

I turned my head to the side with a groan and opened my eyes just a crack to see Willow standing over top of me. Her short hair was brushed through and she was dressed in new clothes. The strong smell of the oddly scented soap radiated off of her, telling me that Zack must have come by earlier to get anyone who wanted a shower.

Another groan escaped me as I shoved my face back into the pillow.

Willow let out a breath as I felt her hand clamp down on my shoulder. "Come on, Zoe," she said, shaking me. "Zack wants us ready."

I didn't feel like getting out of bed, but regardless of this and at the mention of Zack's name, I stretched out all of my limbs as I pushed myself up into a seated position and swung my legs over my bed. My eyes then passed Willow, while my bare feet touched the cold surface of the floor, and landed on a damp-haired Matteo who sat on his own bed with one of his legs folded underneath him. He looked back at me with a strange look, many different emotions displayed across his face.

Willow cleared her throat. "Matteo?"

He glanced at her before rolling his eyes and looking back at my confused expression. "I overreacted last night. I'm sorry."

I didn't know what to say, so I just nodded and stood up, taking my basket with me as I made my way to the bathroom door to get ready for whatever Zack was going to do with us today. The soft voices of Willow and Matteo floated through the small crack under the door while I got changed and brushed through my hair. Once I was done, I opened the door into the room that suddenly fell into silence.

Willow and Matteo both looked up at me as I passed by and I sat down on my bed, facing the two of them. I immediately took my watch from under my pillow, placed it around my wrist and saw that it was nearing nine o'clock. I wondered when Zack was going to come, and why he didn't just wake us up early like he had done yesterday.

"So," Willow said, breaking the silence. "What do you think we'll be doing today?"

I bent down and slipped my foot into one of my shoes after I had secured the watch. "I don't know... knife throwing again?"

The thought of that and what had happened yesterday sent a pain into my chest, although I quickly pushed the terrible feeling out of me as I tied my shoes.

As soon as I was done, I straightened back up and saw that Matteo was about to open his mouth to say something, but he got interrupted by the sound of the door knob turning. We all turned to the door to see it get pushed open, revealing Zack on the other side wearing a similar outfit to the one I had seen on him the day before.

His eyes flicked over my own for a split second and I felt my heart rate raise ever so slightly. My hands fidgeted in my lap as I looked behind him and could see all of the other teens waiting patiently for us to join them.

I stood up with Matteo and Willow, following them out of the room and out into the hallway. The door shut behind all of us and Zack led us down to the cafeteria. As we walked in silence, I could feel the crushing weight of yesterday's horrors slam into me causing my chest to tighten automatically.

Logan was just... gone.

I didn't want to believe that it was real.

We walked into the busy cafeteria, the room buzzing with chatter as we walked between two of the tables to the other side where the line up started. The smell of breakfast made my mouth water and my stomach growl. I couldn't wait to eat something.

After grabbing our plates and filling them up, we made our way to our spot at one of the tables and sat down. I could feel the eyes of some of the people in the room on us but it wasn't as bad as before. Many of them had finished and gotten bored with all the gawking.

"You all good?"

I looked up from my plate and up at Zack, as did everyone else in the group. We all nodded our heads and he smiled widely, his eyes skipping over to my own like he had done before.

"I'll give you guys fifteen minutes to eat," he went on, looking away, "and then we'll be returning to... what we were doing yesterday. Alright?"

Everyone nodded again and then my heart sank as I watched his eyes meet mine for the last time before he turned away from us and walked over to the other side of the room. I could see Alex waving at Zack to indicate where he was seated and then I looked away, down at the mound of scrambled eggs I had piled onto my plate.

Matteo leaned across the table towards me, raising his eyebrow. "Why isn't your boyfriend sitting with you?"

Willow elbowed him hard in his ribs.

"Ow!" he hissed at her. "What was that for? I'm just asking a question."

I could see Willow roll her eyes and give me an apologetic glance before digging into the food on her plate. I turned my eyes back on Matteo and his arched brow.

"Well? Shouldn't he be sitting here with you?"

I wanted to tell him that Zack wasn't my boyfriend and most importantly that it wasn't any of his business, but all I did was shrug, look down at my plate, and shove a spoonful of warm scrambled eggs into my mouth.