My vision clears and the tears stop flowing. The group of guys watching me dissipates. Trenton watches the other boys leave with a gleam of anger in his eyes. His arms still wrap around my shoulders.
It’s getting a little uncomfortable for me. “Um, you can let go now. I’m fine,” I say, trying to shrug out of his grasp.
He blushes and lets go of my shoulders. “Sorry.”
I smile. “It’s okay. I’m just so overwhelmed with Jedda’s attacks. My shoulder hasn’t gotten much better, and the floor is still littered with corpses. What are we going to do?”
He thinks for a bit. “Well, I can take care of the bodies; you can set up reinforcements and put together some watches. I bet it will be better with you looking out for Jedda.”
I nod, and purse my lips. “But we don’t have anything to put up reinforcements. Mr. Leight never bought any cameras or anything.”
He smirks. “Not that you know of. I bought a few a while ago after I made money from mowing lawns over the summer. You can thank me later.”
“Or I can thank you now.” I nudge his arm. “Thanks, Trenton. You truly amaze me sometimes.”
He returns my thanks with a shy smile. “I’ll show you where they are.”
We get up and I follow him to his room. It’s been a while since I’ve gone in there. Against one wall is a table lined with different colored liquids in different shaped glass bottles. Pieces of paper with notes scribbled on them litter the floor and table. Trenton has always enjoyed experimenting with scientific things. I’ve never known where he gets the things to do these experiments since we usually aren’t allowed to go into the stores for fear of being recognized.
Trenton leads me to a large box in the corner of the room and he opens it. There are so many things in it; I have no idea where he got all of it.
“So, here they are. I can help set them up if you want me to. I have a monitor you can use to watch who comes in the doors,” he tells me and pulls four cameras with long cords to go with them out and hands them to me.
I wince. My shoulder hasn’t healed and all that weight is pulling on it. “Ow. Can you please hold these?”
He looks back at me and quickly takes the equipment away from my arms. His expression shows a hint of embarrassment. “Sorry. I forgot about your shoulder. You should probably wrap it in something.”
I’ve thought about that. The only problem is I don’t know where the medical supplies are kept.
“You’re right. I should. But I don’t have anything for it,” I say, clutching my still-bleeding wound. The blood has soaked through my jean jacket.
He looks around frantically. He shakes his head and sets the cameras on his bed. “I’ll be right back. Sit down and don’t move,” he says.
Before he leaves the room, I see worry in his eyes and the sweat beaded on his forehead.
It dawns on me that Trenton cares about me so much as to stop what he’s doing just to help me. He says he is in love with me. I don’t understand why. I’ve known him for ten years. He’s my best friend, and he’s like my brother. I can never be in love with him. There’s no way.
He tried to kiss me, back in the cafeteria this morning. If I would’ve let him, it would’ve felt wrong. I had to stop him. Then he got mad at me. Just because I don’t feel the same way. From what I know, both people should feel the same way if they kiss. Of course, I don’t know, because the only time I’ve been kissed was when I was eight. The boy only kissed my cheek. It was a stupid kid thing.
Trenton isn’t a stupid kid thing. He matters. He shouldn’t.