Page 19 of Beta Lies and Cursed Lives
Because I want you to look at me, dammit.
“You’re new, right? May as well get to know some of us.” I lean in a bit closer. “Some of the cool ones, anyway.”
Holy shit. This girl has turned me into a complete dork.
Her eyes do a little rapid blink thing as her brows knit, but she gives me an affirmative nod. “Okay.”
Yes!
“Come on,” I say, ushering her inside the cafeteria. “You like mac and cheese? They actually make a pretty good one here. And the pizza’s not bad either. Oh, man, and the pies! I don’t know where they get them or if they make them here, but they are delicious.”
I need to shut the fuck up. It seems relief turns me into a jabber-jaw.
She peers at me—or at my chest—from over her shoulder with a raised brow. “You like carbs.”
Well, yeah. Who doesn’t like carbs? People who stay away from carbs aren’t doing it out of hatred.
I give her a shrug and keep my mouth shut as we get in line and grab trays.
I grab two slices of pizza, a coffee, and a slice of good ol’ apple pie.
She hesitantly takes a turkey sandwich and a bottle of water before pausing at the dessert station a moment. I grin like a madman when she picks up a slice of chocolate pie with lots of whipped cream on top.
One thing I can say for this place is that they treat us well when it comes to food. I’m sure that’s Laurant’s doing. We won’t be treated anywhere near as well once we’re sold and shipped off to wherever-the-fuck.
“This way,” I tell her and gesture with my head to the back corner, where I see Rai is already seated. As we walk, I say, “I’m Colt, by the way. What’s your name?”
“Mira,” she says over the clatter of voices in the room. The dulled thoughts around me try to permeate my brain, but that subtle static still keeps them mostly at bay.
I don’t have much time to consider why before we reach our table. “Rai, this is Mira. She’s going to join us for lunch.”
Rai was already seated with his back ramrod straight before we reached the table. His nostrils are flared, a sure sign that he’d scented her before our approach.
He wears his usual Mandarin-collar black shirt and pressed black pants. The wrap around his eyes is also black, making his snowy hair stand out in stark contrast, his bangs hanging over his eyes as always.
“Hello,” he says, all stiff and uncomfortable. Not abnormal for him, but maybe a bit more than usual.
I sit beside Rai, and Mira sits beside me, making me grin like an idiot. Like she chose me or something.
Get over yourself, idiot. You’re probably one of the only people she’s talked to.
“So, Mira,” I begin as I remove the cover of my coffee cup and add sugar before the cream, “we don’t get many older intakes here. Where are you from?”
There’s a loud bang as pain shoots up my shin. I shout in pain and glare at Rai, the obvious culprit, who looks calm and collected, if not stiff as a board.
What’s wrong with asking where she’s from?
“I, um…” she trails off, staring down at the half of her sandwich in her gloved grasp. “UNA, Sector Two-B,” she finally finishes.
“I grew up in Fifty-Two A,” I tell her. “Rai, here, was from One-A. Right?”
Rai nods slowly. “I was born there. My family is still there now.”
“Were…” Mira hesitates. “Were you close? With your family?”
Rai’s body relaxes a bit. “Very,” he whispers. “I miss them every day. My older brother was here with me until…”
He doesn’t have to finish. I can see that Mira understands. Kiyoshi was here a few years before Rai, and he was sold off to some unknown army about three years back. Rai had been inconsolable.
