Eden

7

CHAPTER SEVEN

"There is no safer place than the one you know to be dangerous. For in danger, we find the Lord. And in the Lord, we find safety."

– Truths and Wisdoms, 105:26, The Bible of the New World

The next morning, Lexa sits at our typical table with Kal, eating a breakfast coughed up by the kitchens. My steps falter as I see her, my jaw hanging slightly open, and a frown develops on my forehead. Didn't she say she was going to escape?

I grab my meal and slide into the seat across from them, the usual tension permeating the air around us. My friends continue to eat in silence as if they haven't noticed me, or maybe they have and there's just nothing to say. With every passing day we grow a little further apart, only sitting together because we have no one else to turn to, nowhere else to go. We came together because of friendship, but we stay together because of fear.

Eventually the silence gets too much and the words pressing into the backs of my teeth grow too fierce to keep in. I put down my fork. "I thought you said you were leaving," I say casually, my eyes on Lexa.

Lexa looks up. "Sorry?" she asks mildly.

"I said, I thought you were going to leave. Escape Eden."

She snorts. "Right. Because escaping Eden is just a hobby of mine, something I do when I'm not busy collecting stamps or training puppies."

"I'm serious, Lexa. If you've changed your mind, that's fine – if you recall, I wasn't going to go with you anyway. But don't deny it happened simply because you don't like me as much in the daylight."

Lexa laughs, her head skipping back and forth between Kal and I. "This is a joke, right?" When I don't start laughing, she fixes her eyes on mine and leans forward. "That never happened. I didn't talk to you about escaping Eden, Avalon."

"Oh yeah? So that was just someone else who barged into my room last night, crying and panicked? Tell me, do you have a twin attending this school? What's her name? I don't believe I've met her." I pretend to search for her non-existent twin, looking around the room.

Lexa grabs my hand suddenly, roughly pulling me across the table. Her fingers clamp down around my wrist, her nails biting into my skin. "Enough with the sarcasm!" she whisper-hisses. "I don't have a freaking twin and I certainly didn't go to you room last night. Whatever you think happened, didn't. It didn't happen, okay?" She lets go of my hand and leans back.

I pull my arm to my chest the second she does, rubbing my wrist. "Fine. If you want to deny it, deny it."

Lexa's mouth falls open in an expression of disbelief. Then she looks away, laughing coldly to herself. "God, you're insane," she says quietly. She leans forward again, angry eyes hitting mine. "You're insane."

I look the other way.

A few seconds later, she stands up, her chair scraping noisily as its shoved backwards. I don't bother watching as she storms out of the dining hall.

As soon as she's gone, Kal slides across into her seat. "Did she really come to your room last night?" he asks.

I look at him indignantly. "I'm not just making crap up. She practically crashed into my room crying and begged me to escape Eden with her. I told her she sounded crazy – that there was no way I was leaving. She got angry, and then she left." I shrug. "She's probably just embarrassed about it. I'd deny it too if I was in her position."