The Claiming

Chapter Eight

Riah and Chance are already inside, and the hostess shows us to their table. When we get there, Riah grins at me. "Doesn't this place smell great? We've never had Mexican food, have we, Belle?"

I shake my head. "The Facility kept us on a strict diet of... What even was that stuff?"

Alec sneaks his arm around my waist. "Welcome to restaurant food, my dear! All foods are soaked in fats or carbs or grease—and it's amazing!"

I laugh as Alec pulls me to his hip and kisses the side of my head. Riah's eyes are wide at the sight of Alec's affection.

And I love his affection.

A waiter approaches our table with an armful of menus. "Hello, my name is Theodor, and I'll be your server tonight. Would you like to look at our wine menus?"

My eyes stretch wide. Do we look old enough to drink alcohol?

Alec shakes his head.

"No, thanks," Chance says politely. I'm a little surprised to see him actually speaking to another human being besides the three of us. Maybe Riah and him are working on his social anxiety problems. I may need help next.

The waiter then passes out the menus. "What can I get you all to drink?"

We all ask for water, which is easy enough, and then he leaves us to look over the menu.

"Get whatever you want," Alec says, flashing a gentle smile at me.

I shrug. "I'm not that hungry. I think the test turned my stomach a little too much."

When I look up, Riah and Chance are whispering flirty things to each other, and that's when I feel the sudden need to vomit. It's like we're not even here! I guess this is how it's going to be while they're in the honeymoon phase...

When the waiter returns, we all tell him what we want. I only order a small bowl of rice, and then vow to myself to eat something more filling later on.

"So we have an idea for all of us," Alec says once the waiter leaves our table.

Riah and Chance stop making lovey-dovey eyes at each other to look at him. "What is it?" Riah asks.

"Remember how in history class we learned how people used to wear rings to symbolize marriage? Why don't we do that? Belle and I both think it's better than some piece of paper trapped inside the palace walls."

Riah's eyes light up. "I love that! When can we do that?"

"We were actually thinking right after lunch. I mean, why not? It's not like we have anything else to do..."

Sadly, it's true. There's nothing much to do in Bayfell except shopping, clubbing, and eating. Our sole purpose in the kingdom is to reproduce, so why would we need to be happy? I'm sure clubbing and shopping are fun for some people, but not everyone. Here we are, stuck inside walls surrounding the kingdom.

"Belle? You're scowling."

I blink and realize my face has been tense. I rub my cheek bones with a sheepish smile. "Sorry... That's my thinking face."

"Well, I heard rumors about the old movie theater being fixed up," Chance says. "Maybe that'll put a little life back into Bayfell."

I shrug. "We'll see..."

"We could always go to the club on Street 46. It's a couple blocks down from our house in a little market area for our portion of the district. It's in the basement of an old coffee shop that people do drug deals in," Riah says, all with a straight face.

We sit in utter silence for a good five seconds.

"You're kidding, right?" I say, giving her a worried look.

"About going, yes. Where it's at and how it functions, not at all!" she laughs. We join her.

Our food arrives within fifteen minutes. We talk while we eat, catching up on everything over the last couple days. Turns out, Riah and Chance have a crappy house, too, but on Street 44. We're pretty far from them, being on stupid Street 92. Apparently the nice houses are from Streets 1 to 40. 41-100 are for the newly wed teenagers. I feel as if the kingdom just ran out of motivation to make nice things for their newer generations...

"Do you think they're going to build more homes?" Chance asks. He fiddles with his fork, stabbing at food remnants on his finished plate.

"Probably, if the population starts to grow. I'm not sure how we can reproduce if there are girls who were claimed by strangers," Alec says. I can tell he's recollecting my words from the day before.

But what I'm worried about now is how can we the underage teenagers, have children of our own, if we are all still children at heart?

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