In Saving the Imperfect

18. Take down the barriers

"So who's Roxanna?" he asked.

"Roxie, uh," Coden stopped and rubbed his neck. "Well, she's my best friend. My only friend, you could say. Ever since childhood. She uh... Has an attitude."

Layne nodded. "Huh. I see."

"Yeah, you two would get along just fine."

"Okay, well, let's just hope I don't get to meet her, then."

Coden cracked up a smile but after thinking a little, his face went sour. "Oh. Yeah. Let's hope so."

* * *

The second time the Rejects got packages from Eumain, Layne didn't bother showing up for the gathering. Instead, he chose to stay in the forest with Cat and try to come up with an action plan – something he's been trying to do for a while, but his brain just didn't work like he wanted it to.

He could hear the faint noise coming from the village. People were cheerful. Of course, one has to be cheerful when offered one single thing to make up for hard and insignificant existence they were forced into. Layne decided that he might have become just a tad bit too pessimistic.

Cat froze in place for a few seconds before running off into the forest. The best sign that someone was approaching. Sure enough, the lean figure of a blonde girl appeared between the trees. She was holding a box. Again.

"Coden told me to look for you here," Malia explained.

Layne's eyes wandered between her and the package. "Do you want me to hide another box?"

The girl's cheeks blushed and she shook her head with a peal of quiet laughter. "No," she said. "This one's yours."

Layne's heartbeat intensified, his thoughts slowed down. He forgot he had to reply and just sat there, staring somewhere right in front of him – not even at Malia.

"You're okay?" she asked. "Or do you want me to hide it?"

He snapped back into reality and shook his head. "Nah, give it here."

Malia handed him the package and sat beside him. "Come on then, open it and let me see."

"You're curious about all the wrong things." He grinned.

Layne had no need to rush. He brushed his hand against the brown, rough paper the package was wrapped in. It's been a while since the last time he's touched paper and as much as he didn't want to get sentimental over that, he couldn't help it.

He rotated the box around until he found the label. One ugly, formal thing, with words typed in the most basic typewriter font. "Layne Marks", read the writing on the top. Below it, in smaller letters, "Levi, Abigail, Clarissa Marks".

On the side, he found a piece of tape. For the first time, Layne was glad his fingernails were longer than he would have preferred them. As he scratched around the corners, careful not to rip anything, Malia was beginning to squirm.

"What in the world are you doing?" she asked.

"I don't want to rip it."

"Why does it matter?"

Layne glanced at her puzzled expression and smiled. "So you'd have to wait longer, of course."

The girl grunted and fell backwards into the grass. "Okay, whatever, wake me up when you're done."

He laughed. To his surprise, that time, laughing didn't make him feel guilty.

For the first time since Troy had passed, he was ok with being happy.