Chapter 7: Xain
“Did you see that?” Abi tugs my arm, “Jada was looking at you.”
“He knows,” Izzy says as she stuffs a piece of broccoli in her mouth, “He looked right at her and smiled earlier.”
“He did?” Abi responds in a high pitched baby voice, “Awwww, Xainy has a little girlfriend!”
“No,” I put out, “I’m just being friendly. Wait, where’d Clay go?”
“Where do you think?” Izzy is looking over her shoulder, “He’s making a move on your ‘friend’.”
I look to see a red head boy smiling and talking to Jada. I smile until I notice that her smile is actually filled with some annoyance. I get up to remove Clay, but then, Abi and Izzy stop me. I’m glad they do, because about five seconds after, I see Jada twisting Clay’s arm back and saying something in his ear. He gets up and starts to walk our direction and I see Jada and Melissa giggling.
“So what happened to you?” I ask sarcastically.
“She was staring at you, so I just sat down to talk to her and tell her you’re not interested,” Clay starts as he rubs his sore arm, “I started to talk about you and she was fine, saying she wasn’t looking at you in that way. I started to try and flirt and put my arm around her shoulder, then she twisted it around and said ‘I like you, but if you grab me again, I’ll rip your arm off,’ and then she let go.”
Everyone laughed because none of us expected for that little girl to be so...feisty. I like her more now.
“Her friend, the medic, said that I should rest my arms before I lose them,” Clay continues, “But Jada did say she liked me. She LIKES me!”
“As a person idiot,” Izzy says the nicer version of what she’s thinking, “She doesn’t like you as much more than that.”
“And you just know that,” Clay says sarcastically, “You know, if you didn’t look so much like an evil beast, maybe something would like you.”
Izzy leaps forward with her dinner knife in hand and stabs at the edge of the table. If Clay hadn’t moved back, the knife would have pinned his hand to the table. Clay is left frozen in space and staring at the knife still gripped in Izzy’s fist. The whole table is frozen. Abi is staring at Izzy with fear glowing in her eyes. I’m looking at both Izzy, who has that death glare in her eyes right before she kills someone, and Clay, who is more terrified than anyone I have ever seen. His green eyes seemed to have exploded out of his sockets and his skin matches the whites of his eyes. I can now see that every vein on Izzy is popping out and her eyes aren’t moving from Clay one bit. I slowly reach out my hand and encompass it around her hand she’s holding the knife with.
“Iz,” Abi breaks the silence, but Izzy’s eyes are still trained on Clay and her grip hasn’t loosened one bit, “Izzy, it’s okay.”
Izzy’s grip releases and she storms off. The table is still frozen in time as the adrenaline of the situation dies down. Clay is still staring blankly into space and grasping his chair. Abi is holding her chest and sweating profusely. Her eyes are reddened, but I can’t tell if she’s crying or not. I look up and catch sight of Jada. She seems as scared as if she’d been sitting at our table.
“Well,” I try to sound as stable as possible, but my voice cracks, “I think we should all go cool off and get some rest.”
Abi, who’s still stunned, looks up at me and just nods in agreement. Clay just sits there, but I think he nods. It’s either that or he’s shivering. I reach out in front of him and tug the knife out of the soft, metal table top, which is wedged deeply.
“You should keep this as a reminder to watch your tongue,” I hand the knife to Clay and he takes it with a nod. I inhale deeply and add as I get up to leave, “Change your pants when you leave.”
I walk right past Jada’s table without even looking. It’d be a bad time to talk to her anyway. At first, I think of going to see Izzy. I want to make sure she’s alright. She’s never liked Clay—she nearly beat me when I didn’t let him drown in the arena—but she has never blown up like that. Is Vice doing this to her? I stop to stare at a screen that advertises the fight of the week, Vice and Izzy. Apparently, there’s been an update. Judges scored Vice with a perfect score of 15, while Izzy received a 9. I punch the wall beside the screen damaging it and cutting my knuckles. I walk a few more steps before I lean against the wall and observe my glistening knuckles. Someone touches me from behind and I nearly jump. I turn around to see a red-head girl with glossy green eyes staring back at me. Katya.
“Hey,” I say as I stretch and rub my sore hand. Kat just looks at me with her cat-like green eyes. I can see that they seem concerning. “Are you okay?” I ask.
“The question is are you okay, Xain,” Kat turns my own question on me.
“How long have you been behind me?” I ask.
“Since you got up from the table,” Kat slides in to take my hand into her own bandaged hands and begins to massage it, “I also saw Isabelle stab the table and storm off. What happened?”
“Clay, the boy she was across from, made a smart remark and she lunged,” I sigh out. My hand seems to be getting better, “I’m worried for her, about her...”
“I know,” Kat interrupts me. It’s silent now. I pull my hand away and begin to walk.
I don’t know where I’m going, all I know is that I have to walk. I don’t even have to invite Kat along, she just hops up right beside me. We don’t say anything to each other, just walk. The silence seems to be enough to quell me.
We end up outside next to the high fence covered by barb wire that surrounds the Camp. I toss a stick at it, and sure enough, sparks flew outward, burning the stick.
“I’ve never been this far before,” Kat is the first to break apart the silence. I don’t even look back at her, my focus is on the 30 foot tall security fence that is near impassable.
“I haven’t been here in a while,” I say as I still stare at the fence, “I was your age when I came here last.”
I finally take my eyes off of the fence and look at Kat, who is fully attentive on me. I gesture her closer as I walk to a light post that has just flickered on. I sit down when we get to our destination. Kat joins me and sits like the “kitten” she is, with her legs crossed and hands grabbing hold of her ankles. I just look at her and smirk, and then she “purred”, so I broke out in laughter.
“This place used to be mine and Xania’s favorite spot to hang out,” I pick at the grassy patches under my feet, “We could come here no matter what.”
“Who’s Xania?” Kat smiles and asks. I guess she wouldn’t know who Xania was. She died nearly five years ago and was known by a few people.
“She was my older cousin,” I answer, Kat is highly attentive to me, “We came here together when both of our families were killed.”
“Was?” Kat repeats in a question. Her smile has died down some.
I look downward and say, “She died.”
At those words, Kat’s smile and overall energy just dies. Her eyes are still on me, but she looks as if she’s about to cry. Her skin looks as if it paled in the dim light.
“Xain, I’m so sorry,” she gasps out in a remorseful voice, “I didn’t...”
“No, it’s okay,” I cut her off before she can go on, “She died nearly five years ago and was barely known by anyone.”
Kat looks away for the first time. She now has her legs pulled to her chest and is leaning her chin on them. A couple of strands of her red-orange hair sweep across her face in the light wind, making her look like a cute girl deep in thought. I smirk as she starts to look back at me.
“What?” Kat starts a half smile, confused about where mine is coming from.
I just shake my head, “Nothing.”
Kat, not buying my response I guess, just smiles more and pushes the loose strands away from her face with the bandaged hands.
“They’ve been healing rapidly,” Kat holds up her hands, “that medicine must work wonders. Well, that or the girl, Melissa, really knows her practice.”
“Yeah,” I agree, “Good to hear about your hands.”
“How about yours?” Kat points at the hand I hit the wall with. I lift it up to examine it. There’s very little to no pain in it, and I can still flex it. It also looks as if the skin has already healed over itself, so there doesn’t look like there’s something too serious.
“It’s fine,” I respond and show my hand to her. She scoots over next to me, grabs my hand, and begins massaging it. I allow her to since it actually seems to bring relief to both of us.
“Can I ask you a question?” Kat asks after about five minutes of silence. She’s focusing on my hand rather than my face.
“Fire ahead,” I respond brusquely.
There’s a brief pause, and then, hesitantly, the words pour out, “Have you ever been past the wire fence?”
“No,” I answer in an immediate, calm voice, “I’ve thought about if I’d ever see past it again in my life.”
“How long have you been here?” Kat stops to look me in the eye.
“Seven years,” I shrug, “You?”
“About the same,” Kat answers almost in the same manner as I do. She must catch my slight surprised eyes, because she adds, “I’m fifteen.”
Fifteen. Just two years behind me in age.
“How old did you think I was?”
I have to think a while, “Thirteen, maybe fourteen.”
She just chuckles and says, “I get that a lot.”
The bell signaling the in-building curfew sounds. I hop up immediately, causing Kat to fall over a little. I think I might have hurt her hands a little, because she’s rubbing them as if they’re in pain. Without even thinking, I position my hands under her arms and pick her up. She’s amazingly light in weight. Kat looks confused at first, but then she smiles and thanks me.
We walk back to our building in near silence. I look towards Izzy’s building—section 3—and wonder if I should check on her. I’m easily elusive and can dodge every camera, guard, and security system, so I could be in and out before anyone would notice I was even there.
No, I think to myself, let her rest. She doesn’t need anyone worrying about her right now. Kat and I reach our building, present our ID cards to the security guards, and enter the elevator car. Once the elevator doors shut, Kat mumbles something out.
“What?” I try to clarify.
“I wish we could escape,” Kat repeats, “You know, go beyond that fence and never come back.”
“Me too,” I say in agreement as the doors open.
Kat steps out and waits for me at my door. As soon as I get there, she hugs me around my neck and whispers, “If you need anything, just come to 507. Promise?”
“I promise,” I respond, then she let’s go. She looks at 503, Jada’s room, and smiles, then looks back at me with a look as if to say, Don’t worry, it’ll come to you soon.
I smile back at her, open my door, and disappear. I look out of my peep hole and see that Kat is still standing there. She touches my door, smiles, and finally walks away.
What was she doing? I guess I’ll never know. I kick off my shoes and collapse on my bed. I don’t care about sleeping in my clothes, I’ll shower in the morning. I just have five more days with one of my best friends. That’s my main focus.