The Test

Thirteen

Six pm the next day

Zach

Walking across the courtyard to her, every step is filled with pain. His heart beats irrationally fast in his chest and he worries that once she sees him she'll push him away and call him out on what he's done.

He hears her laughter before her he sees her, and it is almost enough to stop him walking in to see her. He wants his feet to stop, to freeze, for just one fleeting, irrational second, so that he never has to go in there and see her face, to read the accusation and the hatred in her eyes.

She will not be laughing when she finds out what he's done. If she doesn't already know, that is.

"Hey," he says softly when he reaches her, his feet having disobeyed his command and taken him right up to her seat; surprisingly, she turns around in it to say hello.

"Hey, yourself," she says, coolly. He's been expecting that - the coolness in her voice and expression, the flat way she spoke to him. "Where've you been?"

"On a raid. Why?" he answers, hoping she down't see how nervous he is. He scans her face. No hint of hatred or accusation, no evil, barbed retort ready to fly from her lips. Her eyes merely register anger, and coolness towards him. He feels it emanating from her. Anyone can surely tell her indifference to him.

"I didn't know where you were," she says, looking up at him skeptically. "No-one told me." then, finally, she levels him with a glare. he does not flinch; he knows he deserves it. "Or, at least, Luc told me you were on a raid."

He flinches at the name of the boy who obviously means so much more to her than he does. "Oh, really?" He asks coolly.

"Yeah." She answers, then lowers her voice. "Why don't we go outside, where we can talk properly/" she asks, and he nods, following her outside when she rises from her chair.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asks softly, even though they're standing in the courtyard and there's no-one else there. He shakes his head. "I couldn't...I just...couldn't face you."

She sighs. "Why not?" she asks, warily.

"Uh..." he flounders for an excuse. She doesn't know, he realises then. She doesn't know that he cheated on her with Alina, and he certainly isn't going to tell her. "...something came up."

She arches an eyebrow. "Oh, really? Are you going to tell me what that something is?" she asks, somewhat icily.

He drags his toe on the ground, suddenly too interested in its scuffed leather surface. "No."

She sighs again, this time resigned to the seemingly ever-growing distance between them. "Fine." She turns on her heel and starts to walk away. "Wait," he says suddenly, reaching for her arm, though he knows he has no right - less than a stranger's right - to touch her.

"Please," he whispers, his voice suddenly pained. "I'm sorry." she turns to him, slowly, hope rekindling in her eyes. "About what happened," he clarifies needlessly. "With...him."

She shudders, an involuntary movement, and lets him draw her into his arms. "I'm sorry," he whispers into her hair, genuinely regretful. "I'm sorry. If I'd stayed-"

"You couldn't have stayed,' she says abruptly, pushing him away just as fast, untangling herself from his arms as she speaks. He knows the real truth of her words, even if she doesn't yet. He couldn't have stayed - if he had, he would have had to face her, admit to her what he did.

He would have had to witness Alina's foolish hope that they might have a chance - how can he break up with Aria now, after this, even after he told Alina he would? After Alina's own brother did this to Aria?