Alienated (14 page)

“I agree,” Syrine announced without a shadow of doubt in her voice. “Eron, you know I’ve always admired your empathy.” When he nodded in response, she softened her tone in comfort. “We’re not like the Elders. Our emotions are volatile, but never forget what humans are capable of. Even if one shows potential, never forget the species as a whole is inferior. Watch and see how they react to the
sh’alear
. They’re already starting to notice—I’ve been searching their online discussions. Some of them believe the crops are wilting near us because we’ve angered their God. Humans have waged wars over less than this.”

“But maybe we’ve created a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Eron objected. “Set them up to fail.”

Syrine shook her head. “If they were truly evolved, they’d pass the test. Don’t you agree?”

Eron didn’t deny it, but Aelyx contributed to the argument anyway. “I know our tactics are dishonest, but humans would rise to the occasion if they were capable. The Aegis agreed on this months ago. Are you going to be the one to tell them the plan’s changed? That you support the alliance now?”

“No,” Eron said, leaning back against the tile wall. “You’re probably right. It’s only—” A distant knock followed by a child’s voice interrupted Eron, who held two fingers forward in a hasty good-bye before shutting down his sphere and disappearing from view. Syrine gave a heavy sigh and followed.

A familiar pang throbbed beneath Aelyx’s breastbone. By now, he knew it well. Guilt, his constant companion.

If sabotaging the alliance was the right thing to do, why did it feel so wrong? His instincts told him it had something to do with the red-haired girl sobbing in the next room—Cara, or Elire, as he’d come to think of her. When he returned home, he’d leave her to face the consequences of his actions, alone against all those furious humans. He couldn’t deny that was wrong in every possible way.

U
sing her thumbnail, Cara traced the engraving on the heart-shaped sterling pendant Tori had given her last Christmas. “Friendship is one mind in two bodies.”

Right. Until your BFF went out of her mind and after your ex-boyfriend’s body.

If she closed her eyes, she could still hear Tori’s smiling voice.
If we’re sharing one brain, it’d better be yours
, she’d said.
Or
we’re screwed like a
puta
on payday.
They’d laughed and spent the day bouncing back and forth between their houses, gorging themselves on
panetón
and pecan pie, finally crashing in Tori’s room at midnight to play dirty Mad Libs.

How had everything fallen apart so quickly? Had they really let something as trivial as a boy come between them? Cara never thought it would happen. She missed Tori already, and a full day hadn’t even passed.

She tossed the necklace inside her jewelry box and slumped onto the bed, trying to work up the will to leave for school. As much as she wanted to obey the first rule of debate, she just didn’t have the energy. To hell with it. Let ’em see her sweat. Let ’em see her swollen eyelids and reddened nose, her sloppy ponytail and frumpy track pants. Who cared anymore?

Three soft knocks sounded at the door. “
Cah
-ra?”

“It’s open.”

Aelyx peered inside for a moment, gauging her mood before joining her in sitting at the foot of the bed. His added weight shook the mattress and tipped her sideways until their shoulders touched and he scooted away.

He handed over a blueberry muffin. “Want to stay home today?”

“No.” She brought the muffin to her nose, but the sweet scent turned her stomach. “Yes. But I won’t.”

“We could go in late. Avoid the morning protest.”

“Here.” She passed the muffin back to him. “Let’s just get it over with.” But when she stood, he remained seated, fidgeting with his sweater’s zipper pull.

He glanced up beneath a fringe of dark lashes, his eyes intense with some unspoken message. “Maybe it’s time I left.”

“What do you mean, left?
Left
left? To another family?” His slow nod confirmed it. “No! Don’t be silly.”

“
Cah
-ra, your walls don’t block much sound. I heard you last night.”

“Oh.” Under any other circumstances, the idea of someone listening to her cry would have bothered Cara, but for some reason, she didn’t mind Aelyx seeing her at her weakest. It felt kind of liberating to show how much she ached inside.

“Things will only get worse. I know the scholarship is—”

“I don’t care about the money. I don’t want you to go. Besides, I can’t come visit you if I quit the program, and if I’m not mistaken, you promised me some kick-ass
larun
. So don’t try backing out on me now.”

He laughed softly but wouldn’t meet her gaze. He probably felt responsible for what’d happened, especially after listening to her cry all night. Maybe she didn’t have the energy to put up a brave front for the rest of Midtown, but she could do it for Aelyx. He didn’t deserve to feel low because of her personal problems.

“Come on, I’ll let you escort me to my very first shunning.” That earned a half smile from him. “I think this means I’m a woman now.”

“And me with no gift for the occasion.”

Another joke. He’d changed in the last couple of months. “Guess I picked the wrong day to dress down. A girl’s gotta get her glam on when the world turns its back on her.”

He shook his head. “I like seeing you like this.”

“With no makeup, bad hair, and clothes I found in my gym bag? Yeah, I’m dead sexy.”

He pushed off the bed, his face breaking into a warm smile. “You have freckles. Right here.” Holding his fingertip an inch from her face, he traced an imaginary line down the bridge of her nose and across the apples of her cheeks. “I can’t see them when you wear cosmetics. And look.” He brushed his thumb over her lashes, lighter than a butterfly’s kiss. “They’re gold at the tips.”

Before she knew what she’d done, Cara closed her eyes and lifted her face, willing him to keep going. She wanted to feel the warmth of his skin so badly she could hardly breathe. “I’m…”
Not wearing lipstick, either. Touch me there.
“Uh…” Oh, good God, what was wrong with her? Stepping away, she opened her eyes and plastered on a smile. “I’ll grab my Tiara of Shame and meet you outside.”

A frosty autumn breeze lifted Cara’s ponytail and brushed the sides of her neck. She shivered and plodded ahead on the wooded path. “I need a distraction. Tell me more about the animals on L’eihr. Which one’s your favorite?”

Aelyx pulled up his hood and rubbed his palms together briskly. “That would be Vero.” He smiled silently for a few seconds as if replaying a memory. “He’s our house pet at the Aegis. Similar to a lemur—quick, agile, a good climber—but larger. Like the size of a chimpanzee. He has dexterous hands with opposable digits like a raccoon.” He leaned close to her ear and whispered, “I even taught him to write.”

“Shut the front door! He must be really smart.”

“Well, I may have misled you. I taught him to hold a writing utensil and scribble. But he is intelligent.”

“Does he have fur? And how does that work with your controlled climate? Don’t your animals with thick coats get too hot?”

“They adapted hundreds of years ago. Most animals on L’eihr have what you’d call peach fuzz instead of true fur. Vero’s skin is beige, but he can darken it to gray if he needs to camouflage.”

“So let’s see if I’ve got this right,” she said. “Vero’s a cross between a lemur, a raccoon, and a chimp, but he’s hairless? I can’t picture it.”

“I’ll draw him for you sometime, though I’m not a great artist.”

She gave a theatrical gasp. “There’s something you’re not good at?”

“Three things.”

“You’re joking.” She pulled back his hood to gauge his expression. No humor in his eyes. “I don’t believe it.”

“Every child on L’eihr is tested at age six, then assigned a career based on his or her strengths. I demonstrated superior language skills, so I was chosen to serve as a translator.”

She nodded for him to continue.

“But I had a passion for science, not communication, so I appealed to my Elders a few years later. They said my scores were far too inferior to qualify for a laboratory position.”

“Sorry.” She gave his arm a little pat and quickly drew back. “What’s the other thing you struggle with?”

Aelyx kicked a pile of leaves and his smile returned. “Obedience.”

She laughed and pointed at him. “You’re making this up.”

“I promise.” He held up one hand. “I rebelled by refusing to participate in my foreign language classes. That earned me five strokes with the
iphet
across my backside.”

“Like a paddle?”

“Imagine an electric paddle, more like a whip. And then no meals for the rest of the day.”

“Hot damn.” L’eihrs didn’t mess around.

“Hot damn is a perfect description for the
iphet
. I’ve experienced it two times, and that was twice too many. Anyway, Syrine—she’s the female you met at the gala—snuck food into my dormitory and gave me a lecture on duty and responsibility. After that, we became friends, and a few years later, roommates.”

“Wait. Your roommate’s a girl?” Cara felt uncomfortable with that for some reason.

“And Eron. He’s in China right now. After the three of us were selected for the exchange, we started sharing a room.”

“Oh.” That made her feel better—less like Aelyx and Syrine were shacking up. “So, are the other two exchange students good with language like you?”

“Eron’s a translator. Syrine has…other skills.” He pressed his lips together, pulled his hood back up, and quickened his pace. Just like that, the mood changed.

“Like what?”

“She’s an emotional healer.” Then he added in a reverent tone, “I swear she sees into my head, even when we’re not together. She’s one of my closest friends, similar to your Tori—” He paused on the trail, tripping over his own words, mouth agape for several seconds before he managed an apology. “Sorry. I keep forgetting.”

A dull ache spread through Cara’s core, like he’d just smacked her in the stomach with a Wiffle ball bat. But when she considered her feelings, she realized hurt wasn’t the only emotion threatening to double her over. Syrine wasn’t just his roommate; she was his best friend, too? Just how close were they? Close like
that
?

“It’s okay,” she mumbled.

They continued in silence until they reached the street and witnessed the largest crowd of Patriot protesters to date. Radicals spilled out onto the vacant lot where Aelyx’s supporters used to sing and dance, back before fistfights and flying beer bottles had scared away all the hippies.

“I’d half expected them to stay home,” Aelyx said.

“Yeah, I’m not feeling very ignored.”

At least the government had finally stepped up and sent some troops. About two dozen armed soldiers donned in green camo corralled the demonstrators. Too bad they couldn’t contain the cigarette butts, discarded leaflets, and cardboard coffee cups that blew around the parking lot like tumbleweeds.

Cara couldn’t help scanning the lot for Tori’s Prius, but she quickly forced her gaze back to Aelyx. Clearing her throat, she wiped one dampened palm on her pants. Could she really hold it together? Eric and Tori hadn’t even crossed her path yet, and her eyes were already welling up. She faced the frigid breeze and blinked repeatedly until the tears dried.

“You can do this,” Aelyx promised.

“I know.” But despite that, her feet wouldn’t budge.

He studied her for a long moment, then did something she couldn’t believe. He reached down and took her hand. His long fingers were stiff, but he laced them between hers and tightened his grip, fusing their palms together in a mesmerizing contrast of skin.

Cara stared at their intertwined hands and went a little gooey inside.

“You don’t have to do this,” she said. “I know you hate it.”

“Quite the opposite.” He smiled down at her. “Consoling you brings me comfort. Listening to you cry while I’m trapped on the other side of the wall is what I can’t stand.”

“You’re too good to me.”

His smile fell. “I wouldn’t say that.”

He towed her ahead by their linked fingers, and they faced the crowd as a united front—the two of them against the world. It sparked a flicker of hope inside her chest.

Before they even made it across the street, someone on the fringes of the crowd blew an air horn in four quick blasts. Then, in eerie synchronization, the entire assembly turned to the left and faced the opposite direction. They must’ve rehearsed it all morning.

Message received: she was invisible. But for the first time since bringing Aelyx to Midtown, Cara felt comfortable gazing into the crowd. She slowed her pace to study the backsides of her would-be foes.

She recognized Mr. McFarland, one of her neighbors and the owner of the Midtown Grocery, and sweet Lord, there was Mrs. Fraker, her old Sunday School teacher. So much for peace, love, and understanding. A lot had changed since HALO’s early days, when squirrely radicals dominated the group. Men still outnumbered women, but Cara noticed several high ponytails, French twists, and a few full-length cashmere coats. A little red-haired toddler with wide, curious eyes peered at Cara from behind his mother’s hip. She smiled at the boy, but he thrust out his tongue and hid his face.

Inside the school, most students still parted like the Red Sea, while others stopped and stared as she clung to Aelyx’s hand. She knew the kind of rumors this would fuel, but who cared? She didn’t have a friend in the world except for Aelyx, so his opinion was all that mattered. Strike that—judging by the L’annabe loitering at Cara’s locker, it seemed she had two friends.

“
Haleem
!” The girl backed away from Aelyx to avoid killing him via hair dye.

“Actually, that means good-bye,” Aelyx said. “
Mahra
is the word you want.”

“Maaaa-hraaah.” The L’annabe closed her eyes, savoring the exotic greeting in her mouth like a truffle. Half an inch of dishwater-blond roots told Cara the girl had quit coloring her hair, but unfortunately, she hadn’t ditched the Quick Tan.

“What’s your name?” Cara pried her fingers loose from Aelyx’s, then shook her hand to get the blood flowing before entering her combination. “And where’s the rest of you guys?”

“Ashley.” An unnatural shade of orange darkened her cheeks as she glanced down, straightening the L’eihr Lover! button tacked to her sweater. “And it’s just me now.”

“Oh. Right.” Apparently the other L’eihr Lovers couldn’t take the heat, so they’d vacated the kitchen. Cara couldn’t really blame them, but she admired Ashley’s tenacity. A girl with enough guts to flaunt her unpopular beliefs could make a valuable addition to the debate team.

“Hey,” Cara said. “You doing anything after school?”

“I don’t think so. Why?”

“Want to come to debate practice with me? We only meet once a week now that I’ve got Aelyx to look after, so it’s not a huge time commitment.” She sized Ashley up—confident posture, articulate speech, and most importantly, she didn’t say
like
or
um
after every other word. “I think you’d be good at it.”

“Really?” Ashley beamed bright enough to turn her skin from orange to yellow.

“Really, really.”

The warning bell chimed overhead, and Ashley managed a squeaky, “Okay,” before waving good-bye and rushing toward the freshman wing.

“That was nice of you,” Aelyx said from behind after Ashley had left.

Cara shrugged and popped open her locker. “I admire her guts. Not even my best friend wants to stand up for—” She cut off abruptly as a folded sheet of paper sailed out and drifted to her feet.

She tried hiding it from Aelyx, but he nudged her aside and scooped it off the floor. When he unfolded the sheet, she rested her hand on his forearm and peered around his shoulder. A message penned in meticulously formed capital letters warned, T
HE COP CAN’T ALWAYS BE THERE TO WATCH YOU.
B
UT I CAN.
—H
UMANIST