Outliers

Chapter 5: Fire Alarmed Theft

When I woke up, I had tears running down my cheeks. I struggled to control my breathing. I looked quickly to make sure my friends were still there.

          Ariana was still leaning against the faded blue wall. Her head was dropped down, and snores shook her body.

          "So much for shifts," I mumbled, sitting up. I looked for Xavier next, but he wasn't where he'd been.

          I jumped up. "Xavier?" I called, moving into the hall.

          I tried to keep the panic out of my voice. The kitchen was empty, and the bedroom door was wide open. Xavier was nowhere in sight.

          "Yeah," he answered, his voice low and tired. I turned to see him standing over the bathroom sink, splashing water onto his face. His shirt was damp with sweat, as was his hair. There were dark circles under his eyes.

          "Are you okay?" I asked, stepping towards the entrance of the bathroom. I blinked at the light, but my eyes quickly adjusted.

          "Yeah, fine," he said, wiping off some of the water on his face with his hands. He didn't look fine. "Just a nightmare. That's all." I didn'tbring mine up since his looked like it had to have been worse.

          "Do you want to talk about it?" I asked.

          "Thanks," he said. "But, no. I don't think I can."

          I moved out of his way as he started to leave the bathroom. "Okay." What else was there to say? We both remained standing in the hall.

          My entire body ached—from the burn just under my ribs, to the cuts that seemed to be everywhere, to my tight, overworked calf muscles. Turning my head sent a stab of pain through my neck, which was stiff from sleeping on the floor. I gently massaged it.

          The lingering pain was strange. Damion had always been there to heal things. I'd felt initial injuries, of course, but I could scarcely remember a time when I had to heal on my own.

          "Ari kept a great watch," Xavier said, shaking his head.

          "We're lucky nothing happened." It was a good thing I'd checked the locks, or we could have been a lot worse than injured. My eyes flicked over all of our cuts from the glass. "Wanna help me look for a Med-Kit?"

          "Sure." He nodded to the bathroom. "We should check the bathroom first."

          "Yeah." As I moved forward, pain stabbed through my calves with each step. I wasn't used to so much running, and the cuts didn't help. My walk wasn't quite limp, but it wasn't balanced either. I was lucky the bathroom was only a couple steps away.

          It was nearly bare, with white flooring and the same blue walls as the rest of the apartment. A small black sink and toilet were pushed against onewall, and a narrow, glass shower was on the opposite side, in the corner. A small, light-grey piece of cupboard surrounded the base of the sink, but there was no other storage to be seen.

          We knelt beside the small cupboard, pulling the two doors open. Silver piping swirled down the middle of the space and into the floor. On one side, a few black towels had been stuffed in—which was good because I didn't feel like air-drying if we got to shower.

          "Perfect." I reached into the other side of the cupboard and pulled out a small red box. I dusted it off, revealing the bandage symbol that was onall the medical kits and hospital signs. I clicked open the box, which was about as long as two of my hands pressed side by side.