Exceptional (15 page)

   
       
Ally watched Luke leave the garden and enter the house, his words playing over and over again in her head.  
   
       
“I was hoping you would feel for me what I felt the first time I laid eyes on you.”
   
       
“I’ve given you a choice.”
   
        
Yes, but between the lesser of two evils.

And the words that weighed on her the heaviest of all.

 
“I chose you that day in the woods because I couldn’t bear the thought of you being with someone else.”
   
       
She eventually made her way back into the house and paused in the kitchen.  Sabine sat at the table, folding a large white shirt.
      
     
“Ally?” Sabine dropped the shirt and stood.  “Is he gone now?”
   
       
Ally could only manage a nod.
   
       
“Why don’t you sit?  Mazzi is going to make us some snacks.”
   
       
Ally smiled and took a seat.  She and Sabine hadn’t known each other long, but Ally couldn’t help but feel as though she had a friend again.   
   
       
“Well, look at you.” Mazzi’s eyes widened as she stepped from the pantry. “Did they even feed you there?”
   
       
Ally had forgotten about the weight loss.  Her hair had to be a mess as well.  A long, hot shower would help restore her later tonight, but for now she wanted to sit with the others and hold normal conversation.
   
       
“Yes, but nothing as good as your food Mazzi.”
   
       
The cook smiled and went back to work on preparing whatever fancy snack she had in mind for this afternoon.   Asher and Flint joined them minutes later, trying to look anywhere in the room except at Ally.
   
       
“Do I really look that bad?” Ally laughed.
   
       
“No,” Flint said.
   
       
“Yes,” Asher said at the same exact time.
   
       
Now the four of them laughed together, and Ally realized then how much she really had missed the company of friends.  Yes, Willow had been, and still was, her friend.  But the Willow that Ally knew back in the settlement was much different than the dazed, drugged out one she has been with in the ORC.
   
       
“We are glad you are back,” Sabine said.  “Mr. Lukin has been moping around the house for the past three weeks.  And every time Mr. Mathias came home from the office the two of them would stand in the dining room and argue.  I started saving all of my errands for the evening so I wouldn’t be here to listen to them.”
   
       
Ally pulled her feet up onto the chair and wrapped her arms around her knees.  “Was it really that bad?”
   
       
Asher nodded, looking hesitant to admit it.  “Sabine is right, Ally. Luk- I mean Mr. Lukin really cares about you.  It has been very apparent.”
   
       
Ally picked at the wood grain on the table.  “I’m having trouble processing what happened to me at the ORC.  I’ve been blaming Luke since the moment that I learned the purpose of that place.  Like I told him, Ordinarys have grown accustomed to serving the Exceptionals as workers, but not as breeders.  It isn’t right.”
   
       
Sabine took a deep breath.  “Can I give you another perspective?”
   
       
Ally raised her eyebrow.  “You aren’t going to justify the ORC, are you?”
   
       
Sabine shook her head.  “Not intentionally.  But Ally, did you ever think about it from Luke’s end.  Like we’ve been conditioned to work for Exceptionals, they’ve been similarly conditioned that all we are good for is work and breeding.  They don’t view it as wrong because no other Exceptional does, and if someone happens to find it wrong, they have never spoken up.  From a young age they are told to accept the laws of our City.  Luke has never been given a reason to doubt the ORC.  That is, before you came along.”
   
       
Ally froze in her seat, her eyes meeting Sabine’s gaze.  “I don’t know why I didn’t see it that way before.”

It was true.
 
Everything Sabine had said.
 
Luke had looked awful when she first saw him in that meeting room, with dark circles under his eyes and a dejected expression on his face.
 
Perhaps he had been suffering in his own way while she was in the ORC.
   
       
Sabine smiled. “Sometimes all you need is some group conversation.

Ally squeezed her friend’s hand and then sighed.  “I still can’t stomach the idea of the ORC.  I want nothing more than to have that place shut down.”

 
“Keep your ideas to yourself.” Sabine leaned toward her.  “You have a good thing going here.  Mr. Lukin cares for you, and since you are his contract, no other Ordinary can touch you with out his permission.  As long as you are in this family, you are safe.”
   
       
Ally let out a small laugh.  “Am I?”
   
       
After they ate their snack and the others dispersed to finished their work lists, Ally headed up the stairs and straight into the bathroom.  She ran the water hotter than usual and stripped out of her yellow clothes, dumping them into the trash.   She didn’t care if it was a waste, she didn’t want to own anything from the ORC.  After a shower long enough to prune her fingers and her toes, she finally stepped out and wrapped herself in a towel.  She took a brush from the cabinet next to the sink and pulled it through her hair until all of the knots were gone.
   
       
Ally took in how her collarbone jutted out above her chest and how the spaces underneath her eyes were tinted a deep purple color.  She turned away from the image in the mirror quickly, not wanting to look at the result of that horrible place.  She set the brush back in its place and walked to her room, grabbing a fresh pair of clothes from the drawer.  She lifted them to her nose and smelled them, taking in the familiar scent of Luke’s home.  It was oddly comforting.
   
       
By the time she was ready to leave the room, she had already decided what she needed to do.  The hall felt longer than usual as she walked toward Luke’s room, her bare feet sinking into the plush carpet.  She raised her hand and knocked lightly on his door, willing her heart to slow down.  Luke’s Exceptional ears could certainly hear it on the other side of the door.
   
       
“I already told you Mazzi, I don’t want any food!” Luke’s voice yelled from the other side of the door.
   
       
“It’s Ally”, she responded.
   
       
She heard something bang in Luke’s room and in a few seconds he opened the door.  Ally had to contain her shock when he stepped into the open space.  He stood there shirtless, the hard lines of his muscled body exposed to her. She was used to seeing similar bodies back in the settlement, since the woodcutters often worked shirtless, but Luke’s body had a different effect on her.  He held a book under one arm, which told her that he had probably been sitting on the couch reading when she knocked.
   
       
“Hey.” The nervous tone to his voice said that he hadn’t expected to find her standing in his doorway, and she hoped that kept him from noticing her reaction to him.  “Come in.”
   
       
She stepped into his room slowly, waiting as he closed the door behind her.  She had been in here once before, on her first full day in the City, and it looked exactly the same.  Clothes and books were still strewn about the floor, and the large bed against the left wall was unmade.  
   
       
“Luke.” She rubbed her hands together nervously.  “I want to apologize.”
   
       
He placed the book on the dresser near the door and faced her, his eyes wide with surprise.  “Why are
you
apologizing?”
   
       
“Sabine said something to me, downstairs, and it has stuck with me all for the past hour.  It isn’t your fault that the ORC exists, and it isn’t your fault that you’ve never questioned it.  You are only doing what you you’ve been told to do.  I am still upset that you didn’t tell me about the ORC from the beginning though, and I wish you would have just been honest with me.  At least then I wouldn’t have spent the past few weeks completely resenting you.”
   
       
Luke stepped toward her.  “Trust me, I wish I would have told you as well.  I had planned to, but chickened out at the last minute.  I thought maybe it wouldn’t matter, since you probably wouldn’t be going there anyway, but as usual my father managed to come along and screw things up.”
   
        
“What happened that day at the Institute, after they took me away?”  Ally hadn’t forgotten about her fall from the fifth floor and how Luke had saved her life.  Much of what had happened at the ORC in the past two to three weeks had overshadowed it, but the memory of that afternoon was still fresh in her mind.
   
       
“I started my training immediately.” Luke sat on the edge of the bed and patted the spot beside him.  She sat down carefully, keeping some space between their bodies, even if it was small.
   
       
“You seemed to have pretty good control earlier, when you lifted me into the air.”
   
       
He nodded.  “I’m lucky that I was able to catch you that day in the lobby.  I had never used my abilities on anything other than inanimate objects before.  I think it was pure adrenaline mixed with fear that made me so successful.   My father told me that if I wanted you to come home from the ORC, I would need to prove to him that I could control my abilities and harness them into something great.  He needed to see dedication from me, so that is exactly what I gave him.”
   
       
Ally was having trouble controlling her feelings as she listened to him speak.  Her hands felt clammy just from watching him, and she felt an inexplicable urge to reach out and touch him.  She knew she would be angry when she was reunited with him, but what she least expected was to come to a realization of how much she had missed him.  And how much she wanted to be with him.
   
       
“Why are you staring at me like that?” He laughed.  “You look like you might faint at any moment.”
   
       
“We are a lot like that couple in the book your mom showed me.” She said suddenly.
   
       
“What book?” Luke’s expression was genuinely confused.
   
       
“I’ll show you.”  She took his hand, thankful for a reason to touch him, and led him out of his room and down the stairs.  Once they were in the library she began to search for the book, pretty sure she remembered which shelf it was on.  After pulling the wrong book twice, she finally found it on the third try.  
   
       
“This one.” She showed him the cover.  “Your mother said that it is about two people who fall for each other despite the differences in their family.  That is kind of like us, except that our differences are that I’m Ordinary and you are Exceptional.”
   
       
Luke gave her a crooked smile.  “You’re falling for me?”
   
       
She rolled her eyes.  “Is that what this book is really about?  I couldn’t tell if she was being serious or not.”
   
       
“Why don’t you read it and find out.” He tapped the cover with a single finger.
   
       
“I can’t read, I thought you knew that.” She opened the cover and stared at the scribbles on the page.
   
       
He took the book from her.  “Well, I guess I could read it to you.”
   
       
“Just tell me if I’m right.”
   
       
Luke looked up at her and smiled.  “Yes, it is about a forbidden love.”
   
       
“And do they really die in the end?” She recalled that part of his mother’s summary the most. “Because of their love for each other?”
   
       
He nodded.  “They do, but more from their own stupidity.  The girl fakes her death but the boy misinterprets it and kills himself.   When she finds out that he actually killed himself because of her, she ends up stabbing herself with a knife.  In the end, their families come together and agree to get along, but it is still very tragic.”
   
       
Ally wrinkled her nose.  “Yeah, I think I’ll pass on you reading it to me.”
   
       
“It’s a good book, don’t let me sway you otherwise.  How about this, one day you’ll read it on your own.” He slipped it back on to the shelf.
   
       
“We’ll see.”
   
       
He took her hand in his.  “So, you’re falling for me?”
   
       
She laughed at his question.   “As much as I would like to say no, there is a small part of me that might find you rather intriguing.”
   
       
He leaned close to her, and for a moment Ally thought he might kiss her.  A chill ran up her spine and her heart beat so fast she could swear her chest was moving up and down with the rhythm.  Luke must have heard it as well, because a sly smile fell over his face.
   
       
“I want to show you something.” He stepped away from her and moved over to the other side of the room.  He approached a small black box that was set up on a shelf, and pressed a few buttons on it.
   
       
A loud sound immediately filled the room.  Music.  It was much different than the sounds that came out of the piano.  Even back in the settlement they had a few old instruments that some of the older Ordinarys would play during the feasts.  But this music was a combination of instruments, and they were accompanied by voices.
   
       
“What is this?” She laughed, listening to the fast pace music coming from the box.  The voice was shouting out words rather than singing.
   
       
“They called this rock and roll, I believe.” Luke smiled and played with the box some more.  “Ah, here we go.”
   
       
The music that filled the room now was much more serene and beautiful, the instruments accompanied by a female voice.  Ally could almost make out what sounded like a piano in the background, and she found herself closing her eyes.
   
       
“Now this... this is beautiful”, she said.
   
       
“Yeah, it is,” Luke responded.  
   
       
When Ally opened her eyes Luke was standing inches from her, having moved across the room quickly and quietly.
   
       
“It is said that humans from the old world used to dance to music like this,” he added.
   
       
“We dance back in the settlement sometimes, but never to music this slow.” She looked up at his violet eyes and noticed that they shone brighter than usual.
   
       
“I’ll show you.” Luke placed a hand on her waist and raised the other up near her shoulder.  “Give me your hand.”
   
       
She raised her hand up to meet his, and mimicked him by placing her other hand on his waist.  Slowly he began to move to the side, taking her with him.  Ally stumbled at first, but soon fell into a rhythm, finding that his feet moved in a sort of pattern.  She leaned her head against his chest while they moved, listening to the steady beat of his heart.
   
       
The song ended and he stepped back so that he could see her.  “My mom taught me to dance like that.”
   
       
Ally smiled and nodded, not sure what to say.  The moment was more intimate than any she had ever experienced, and it appeared as though Luke felt the same.  They watched each other for a long moment before Luke made a move forward, his lips pausing inches from hers.
   
       
Ally had only ever kissed one boy, and it had been a dare from her friends.  She had run up to him in the gathering hall at the settlement, planted a big, wet kiss on his lips, and ran away giggling.  She had been ten, and she was pretty sure it didn’t even count.  To this day that boy still denied she ever touched him, especially around his girlfriend.  She smiled at the thought.
   
       
“Does that smile mean that you’re not going to slap me?” He hovered in front of her, his forehead leaning against her own.
   
        
“No, I think you’re safe.”
   
       
This time he moved all the way in and pressed his lips to hers.  She found herself pushed up against one of the bookshelves and Luke’s hands came up to cradle her face.  This was nothing like the kiss she shared with a boy when she was ten.  Luke had probably kissed dozens of girls for practice.  His lips moved expertly over hers, and soon she found a cadence to follow along with.  She brought her hands up to the back of his neck, running her fingers over his thick hair.  It had begun to grow out and she could almost hold onto it.
   
       
Ally had always thought that kissing a boy would be awkward, and that she would feel nervous and embarrassed afterward, but once Luke pulled away all she wanted to do was stare at him.  She might have pulled him in for more kissing if Sabine hadn’t showed up in the doorway and cleared her throat.
   
       
Luke didn’t take his eyes off Ally. “Yes?”