Overwritten

61 | Small Talk

The tension in the air was not lost as the day progressed but merely ignored, despite the fact none of us were fooled nor believed the others to be. It was as though nobody wanted the burden of breaking the mask. Even Scott, who had so easily asked dangerous questions earlier, hardly glanced at me.

The day was dull. We were learning coding terminology, which Scott somehow surpassed me in. His ability to take in information so quickly never ceased to amaze me. Evan, however, didn't seem surprised. If anything, annoyance would be an appropriate description.

He'd given Scott a book, definitely vintage by its looks, similar to the one I had torn the page from. Evan explained to Scott that it went over the history of old coding languages and how they were implemented into the current universal system. He told him to read it while I caught up. Once more, I tried to ignore that people seemed to make a habit of talking about me like I wasn't there.

"Surely I could just read this at the library," Scott said blankly, almost lazily looking over the book before looking up at Evan. 

"Nope, it's classified stuff! Only a few of these exist," Evan said proudly, displaying a grin as he placed his hands on his hips. This seemed to pique Scott's interest.

"If only a few of these exist, then why did you give one to me?" Scott said, a slight smile and a mischievous undertone in his voice. Despite the tension, he continued to act somewhat recklessly. I tried to ignore it. However, I remained curious as to the contents of the book.

"It's dangerous in the wrong hands, but the info there is pretty neat," Evan said, leaning over the computer and flicking through the pages, his eyes drifting over the words, "I thought you'd find it useful – again, we're a bit short-staffed, so this should help get you up to speed,"

"And you wouldn't consider it dangerous with me?"

"I trust you're smart enough not to do anything dangerous," Evan said with an icy tone, crisp and foreboding.

Scott looked as if he was going to say something, but thankfully he appeared to decide against it. I had no idea why he was acting like this, but it made me nervous. Given what had happened the previous day, I wasn't looking to get myself shot any time again soon.

"Nice hair cut, by the way," Evan said, looking at me. The way he said it seemed slightly off, and after a pause, he let out a small chuckle, "It's just... a bit uneven on the left side,"

Irritated, I ignored him. However, when he had turned away, I tried to catch a glimpse of my reflection on the computer screen. I ran my hands through my hair self-consciously as I sheepishly realized that the left side of my hair was, unfortunately, quite uneven. 

"It looks nice," Scott reassured me quietly, not lifting his eyes from the book he was reading. Instead, he turned a page, glancing at me briefly and adjusting his glasses. Embarrassed, I looked away, dropping my hands from my hair and trying to focus on my work. However, from the corner of my eye, I caught Scott glancing at me a few more times as the day progressed.

Scott was halfway through the book when we finished work, and Evan reluctantly let him take it home with him. At first, he'd hesitated, but Scott seemed to dance around the unspoken words to try and get his way. Finally, there had been a silent exchange between the two men as they stared down each other wordlessly. In all honesty, it was terrifying. 

"I would like to take back something I said a while ago... when we first met," Scott said when we first sat down on the train, heading towards the central hall to speak with Jordan. The cloudy sky hinted at more rain, and I tried to ignore the aching pain in my abdomen.

"Oh?" I said, slightly nervous at what he was going to say. Was he having second thoughts about everything? Maybe he didn't want to be around me anymore? Perhaps he saw who I truly was and decided I wasn't worth taking a risk for? After all, I had gotten him shot. My mind was reeling over all the possibilities that could follow.