❝ Libras are the only ones who can
insult you and still sound nice ❞
"NOT TO BE ANNOYING, BUT are we almost there yet?" I asked for probably the hundredth time since we left Nashira. It was hard to bring up another topic of conversation when we were driving twenty-four seven.
"Almost. Just a few more minutes."
"Thank Gods. I hate travelling."
"I thought you liked travelling?"
"I do. But I hate the driving and sitting in one spot kind of travelling. It's so boring." My mind was getting sleepy but my body was completely alert. "I like the going to exploring new places and wandering around part of travelling."
"I get that, actually."
"Do you like long car rides?"
"Yeah, it clears my head a little. Sometimes I'd drive for hours and be so out of it that I'd accidentally end up in another sector."
"So you don't drive to any specific place?"
"Not really. I tried not to do it too much because my parents hated it. My dad always said it wasted gas." From his tone, I realized he didn't have the same affection for his parents as I did.
"You know what's weird? I don't know anything about your family," I gasped, "I mean, it wouldn't do any good now, they'd probably want to kill me if they knew what we were doing."
I could see the family reunion now; Cade's relatives would definitely passive-aggressively accuse me of starting this whole brouhaha even though he was the one to suggest it first. Then we'd sit at the picnic table and pretend to like each other when in reality, I'd think to myself how much I hated their opinions and rotten fish cakes.
"What do you want to know about them?"
"What signs are they?"
He made a sharp turn and I had to hold onto the door to keep myself from crashing into him. The roads were getting narrower and narrower, we often had to stop on the side to let cars pass.
"My dad's a Capricorn and my mom's a Scorpio."
"Wait, what? I thought they were Pisces."
"What made you think that?"
"I don't know, I just assume everyone has the same sign as their parents." I'd been conditioned to think like that, especially since my parents were the same sign. "I read somewhere that three-fourths of couples were matched to the same sign in our parent's generation but now it's more like one-fourth."
I only knew of two couples who were the same signs in our year—the Gemini matches Zoe and Sam and the Taurus matches Penelope and Ethan.
"That sounds right. I don't think it matters though. You know, same sign or different."
"Hmm. I think it makes it easier because you're so similar. Like my parents never fight. If they do, they express their anger in the same way, which is not talking to each other for a few hours, and then they make up the next day."
It was the same in the way they did everything else. If they were sad, they knew to give each other space and then the other would come around. If they have a problem they want to bring up, they were both direct and calm about it. They thought in the same way so they acted in the same way. They understood each other without even saying a word.
"Don't you think that's a little boring though? When you're so similar to someone, it gets predictable."
"Yeah but it's nice to be understood. If you're too different, you clash too much." I couldn't be too different from someone else if I wanted to be friends with them. It was one of the reasons why I avoided Virgos because we just had nothing in common. Esme was the only exception.
"Yeah, I agree. We have to have at least one thing to bond over." He finally nodded.
"What do your parents do?" I changed the subject.
"My mom's a pianist and my dad works for the government."
"He has a sector job? That's pretty cool." Those jobs were hard to secure and very secretive. Dad used to tell me they went around and decided on the punishments in Centrum.
"No, he's a Select."
"Shut the front door—!" I opened and closed my mouth repeatedly like a guppy, "And you never told me this because?"
There were twelve Selects, one for each sector, that were voted in every four years to basically be the leader of everyone. They were powerful and rarely seen since they were so busy—but anyone could point a Select out in a crowd.
This was huge.
"It never came up." Cade didn't seem bothered.
"And here I thought your dad was some artist or something." I wanted to know everything about his dad's job, down to even the most minuscule details. "What does he do everyday? What are his policies? Have you ever been in his office? What's his favorite case? What's he like in person?"
"He doesn't really talk about it. All he tells me and my mom is that it's private information. At least, that's what he says when he's actually home." He said indifferently.
I could tell he didn't like talking about him and tried to respect that but it was so damn hard when my curiosity was bouncing off the walls.
"I get the sense you're not really close."
"I'm closer with my mom."
"Does she play any other instruments?"
"No, just piano. She taught me."
"Oh," I smirked, "Then she must be really good."
"She mostly plays at the Terebellum Theater. She hasn't really had any performances recently." He glanced at me. "What do your parents do?"
"They're not as cool as yours. They're gonna sound so boring. My mom's a column journalist and my dad's a newscaster. Nothing spectacular." They were as stereotypically Sagittarius as they could get.
"Your mom writes the front page of the Terebellum Times, doesn't she? And your dad's on Chanel Nine?" Cade asked. "I'd say that's pretty cool."
"I can't believe you know who they are." I was flabbergasted.
"They're everywhere, Char! And your dad's the only one who doesn't try to make cringey small talk with the other hosts." He laughed and I joined in.
"Yeah, but he's so embarrassing when he wears his stupid yellow smiley face ties. He has the worst fashion sense, I keep telling him that but he doesn't listen."
"I like his ties. It adds a pop of color."
My mind kept reeling from what I'd just learned that I couldn't contain myself.
"Wow, what other secrets are you hiding from me?"
"You'll never find out." He joked (hopefully).
The road disappeared and we drove on a lengthy dirt path. We were definitely in the boonies of Situla. The terrain was akin to the remote and sparse hills of Nashira but wasn't as elevated. The houses were also more spread out and less uniform, each one touched with a signature design, like one house had a purple circular glass roof and another had an archway of pink ivies leading to the entrance.
The weather was incredibly random; one minute it would be raining yet the sun would still peak through the clouds, and the other minute it would be humid yet be blowing dry wind. It made no sense.
Cade started driving faster—well, faster for him, which was about sixty miles per hour—and I had a feeling we were getting closer. No offense to him but he drove so slow, I couldn't believe he actually obeyed the speed limit. But to be fair I think he was just being super careful so we wouldn't get pulled over.
After we drove into the fathomless maze of houses and trees, he finally pulled over by a modest log cabin with an orange door. There was a big sign on the door that read: FRESH FRUIT INSIDE.
"This is the place." Cade unbuckled his seatbelt and got out. He grabbed his backpack from the backseat and I followed him up the flat wood stairs. "Let me do the talking first."
"I'll give you five minutes. You know how I can't keep my mouth shut if my life depended on it." I grinned and he dropped his head teasingly.
"Then I'll go get the tape."
"Kinky." I laughed.
We entered the cabin, which was actually a cozy little room with all kinds of fruit I'd never seen before. They must've only grown in this sector.
The man at the cashier table looked up at us since we were the only ones there. He had ash blond hair but gray roots, wrinkled purple eyes, and a small stud. I couldn't help but notice that he was pretty trendy for an older guy.
"Good afternoon," Cade greeted and kept his tone light, "Do you have any pomegranate slices?"
"Sorry, we ran out an hour ago." He crossed his arms.
"Don't you know the trick? Just turn back the clock. Then you'll have more."
They were obviously talking in code. Nobody spoke like that.
The Aquarius eyed us suspiciously, "Do you think I'm blind? You can't fool me with those disguises."
My heart stopped.
How did he know?
I glanced at Cade, who had the same frozen expression I did. He just masked his emotions a little better so to strangers it looked more like he was thinking.
"Your scales are showing, boy," he threw Cade a trendy cashmere scarf I'd seen many Aquarius sport lately, "This should cover them."
"Thanks, Thom." He wrapped it around his neck and I wanted to slap myself for not noticing. I guessed my eyes just got used to it that it didn't look strange.
"It's like you're not even trying," Thom shook his head and looked at me next, "What sign are you supposed to be?"
"A Libra."
"Not with those freckles. I can see them under your makeup." He called me out and I touched my face frantically. I knew I should've gotten a more expensive foundation. "Did you do everything I told you?"
Cade unzipped his backpack and took out a folder stuffed with papers. He placed it on the table.
"Yes. I have the pictures, prints, documents, money, all of it. We just have to ditch our phones."
He backed away from us like we were diseased. "You still have those things? You know they're tracking you through those even if they're powered off, right?"
We looked at each other. I knew there was a tracking signal coming from our phones but not that they could use it if our phones weren't on.
"We just didn't find a good place to leave them." I shrugged.
"Go down to the Rim and throw them down one of the waterfalls."
"Isn't the Rim one of the most heavily guarded landmarks in the twelve sectors? Wouldn't we get arrested?" I bit the inside of my cheek anxiously.
"You're right. Give them to me, I can do it so you won't get caught." Thom offered.
"Are you sure? If you get caught—" Cade started but Thom shrugged like it was no big deal. But committing any crime, regardless of how big or small, was extremely serious when it concerned sector landmarks. People could get the death penalty just for vandalism or trespassing.
"It's no problem. Tourists drop things down the falls all the time. It's safer than you doing it."
"Thanks, Thom, we owe you." Cade handed over his phone and I did the same. It was weird having not used it in the past two days. Usually I'd be texting Sky or Kingston or searching random stuff on the internet to pass time but it was like the Early Ages again. No technology, more interaction.
"Just do what I say and you'll be fine." Thom grabbed the folder that had all of our documents for our IDs. "It'll be ready in an hour. Now scatter before somebody sees you here."
We were hastily shooed out of his cramped little cabin so we just sat in the car for awhile. I kept getting this uneasy feeling but it could've just been because I was terrified of getting revealed.
"How do you know this guy?" I asked him immediately.
"I got his name from Bennett, who I think got his name from a chain of people. Thom's not his real name, he technically doesn't exist. But he's really good at fake IDs."
"And you're sure we can trust him?" I didn't give out my trust very easily, I was always skeptical and usually had a good reason to be.
"We don't have a choice, Char. He's the only one who can help us." He grabbed my hand and squeezed.
I thought about it despite knowing he was one hundred percent right. We were desperate and didn't have time to find somebody else.
"It's okay. I trust you."
➷
It's almost one o'clock at night and I have work at seven tomorrow morning but I'm making the sacrifice for you guys haha