Circuit City

Chapter 5

"I just want to make sure that we're still friends, like before." We both started to walk again to catch up with our friends, who had already reached the car that was neatly parked behind two other cars of the same model. When I didn't answer right away he added, "Right?"

"Yes we are friends," I finally decided, sighing. "As long as you don't try that again."

He was silent for a couple of minutes. "I only did it to scare off the douche at the bar, though."

"Really?" I spun around, frowning, "Then why did you keep on kissing me even after he'd left?"

"I thought you liked it."

"I distinctly remember telling you to stop and let me go."

Noticing my distressed face and R.G's close stance Dawnett left Jai's side and waltzed over to me with a sly smile "And what are you guys talking about here?" She knew very well what we were talking about since I had told her the same night it happened. R.G however, didn't know that she knew.

"Nothing," he replied gruffly and went to the other side of the car, claiming shotgun.

"Damn right, kid." Dawnett muttered after him and slung an arm around me. We climbed into the backseat and I put my head on her shoulders whilst she put her head on my head, us both ready to take a powernap. Holwen and Kamerine were sitting on the other side of the triangular vehicle and Jai fired up the engine, the radio playing the latest track immediately.

However, none of us were able to sleep so we both stared out of the window in a comfortable silence as we drove past the people on the sidewalk, observing the natives. The difference between the ones who'd grown up in Domerion and those who had recently moved in was remarkable. We all wore the same outfits and carried the same bags, but whilst they traveled around the city with the blank face of someone who had found their calm in a storm, us countrymen navigated around with the same amount of confidence as a crawling toddler who'd been told to run down a hill.

The city that I had grown up in wasn't a small city if one would compare it to the cities of the old Era because it was actually bigger than the metropolises that the people used to live in at that time. However, the introduction of the new system together with political changes paved way for an enormous growth of the human population and that was how a new model came about- the Altapolis; a city that grew upwards instead of to the sides, leaving the ecosystem intact by replacing the old lands of skyscrapers with forests, lands of grass and lakes. Up until now they have managed to fit up to six times more people than the metropolises of the older era, by dividing them into Levels. Domerion boasted currently with four Levels; Cattahem, Humport, Myria and Rosehaven, each with their own quirks and style in their outline.

The people in the four Levels all spoke the same language and, unlike the newly- immigrated, with a very non-rhotic and lax accent. But the biggest difference, between the ones who had the city running in their veins and those who didn't remained in their appearance; the hair and eyes to be exact. Pigment therapy had become an important part of the cultural development as a way of expressing oneself since they all now lived in a world of steel and concrete. It was expensive, but most of the people nowadays were already born with green, blue, pink hair since their parents and grandparents had gone through copious amounts of pigment therapies which also affected the genes they passed down in the newer generations.

"This place really is huge," Dawnett mumbled next to me, looking at the people on the sidewalk becoming smaller with the distance as we drove up the large road to Myria. I nodded, with my head still on her shoulder, and glanced at the other people in the car. R.G was sitting with his phone, Jai and Holwen were talking quietly in the front and Kamerine had her head tilted back against the backseat with her eyes closed.