Dissonance - Book One

twenty-five

"You sure are a feisty one, aren't you?" he says.

"You sure are a bit of a stalker, aren't you?" I retort, reluctantly allowing him to help me. I don't know why, but I can't help but make sarcastic comments back to Kelly. There's something about him that gets under my skin, not necessarily in a bad way, which is what concerns me. There's something there. Something I'm feeling, which I try to push deep down and ignore. It's the last thing I need right now.

"Why, because I keep popping up when you need me most? You're welcome, by the way."

I consider rolling my eyes at his comment, but stop myself because he's right. As annoying as it is to admit it, he has been quite helpful, downright lifesaving in fact.

"Look, is there somewhere I can lie down for a little while?" I ask, finally accepting his assistance.

"Sure, you can rest in my room."

"Ohhh no," I wave my finger at him and emphatically shake my head. "There's no way I'm staying with you."

"You don't really have a choice. Plus, you need someone who knows their way around this place and can get you food, so really, I'm your best option."

"That's scary."

"Ha ha. Come on, let's get you back to my room so you can relax."

But relaxing is the furthest thing from my mind. In addition to the recent revelations about my parents' past and my Mod status; I now have a former best friend who I'm pretty sure hates my guts and a boy who I thought had feelings for me, but it turns out our relationship was nothing more than a farce being put on as part of some sort of demented project to keep an eye on the world's last baby maker. On second thought, maybe Kelly is right. Maybe going to his room is my best option. I do need to lie down for a little while. I don't know what is going to happen next, but I know I need to rest in order to obtain some clarity surrounding this entire situation. So I decide not to fight Kelly, and instead, take his hand as he escorts me through the labyrinth of halls to his room. I try to ignore the electricity I feel when he laces his fingers through mine, and chalk it up to hunger and tiredness. My body isn't itself right now.

Despite the dreary appearance of the rest of the building, Kelly's quarters are anything but drab. It's clear he's put some time and effort into making his small room feel less like an end-of-the-world bunker and more like the room of a typical every day teenage boy. Posters are hung on the walls and little white Christmas lights dangle from the ceiling in an effort to counteract the horrible florescent lighting. There's a desk, immediately to the right as I enter, and above it, a few photos are taped to the wall of Kelly standing next to people that I don't recognize. My eyes are drawn to one photo in particular: a picture of Kelly, smiling, with his arm wrapped around someone. But the photo is folded in half, right where the other person stands next to him. Who is this mystery person he doesn't want anyone to see and why keep the photo up if he loathes them so much that he has tried to remove them from the photo? My mind immediately goes to Wyler as the person erased from the picture. At one point, he lived here, in his building, with the other defunct Mods. I remember when they greeted each other that day we were rescued. They were polite, but not exactly excited to see one another. They have known one another in a past life, a life I know little about. Maybe they were friends. Maybe something happened to end the friendship.

"Oh," Kelly says, suddenly seeming embarrassed. He rubs the back of his head. "That shouldn't be up there." He yanks the picture off the wall and stuffs it into his pants pocket. Now I'm even more curious, but I let it go.

My eyes wander to the far wall as I continue my inspection of his room. There's a map hung above his bed, which appears to show a detailed layout of some sort of building. Exits and entrances are marked in red. Next to it is another type of map: a map of the world, with little yellow pins stuck in various locations.