PODs (16 page)

What next? We’ve already dealt with the loss of our families, our friends, and our old lives. After dealing with quarantine, being sealed in a small space with a bunch of strangers, and being told what jobs we’d be doing for the rest of our lives, now we have to worry about this? We feared the virus, but now we also have to fear the very thing that was supposed to save us from it
.

“Eva,” he whispered outside the bedroom door. “I’m sorry. Please, come out.”

He’s another thing that’s changed. From an awkward friendship, to a one-sided attraction, to a mind-numbing first kiss…and now, all I feel is anger. Anger that he’s hiding things from the POD, from me
.

“Eva? Please.”

I reached for the doorknob. My hand hesitated over it. The fingers of my other hand rested on my bottom lip, which was still sensitive from his kiss…wanting more.

What will happen if I open the door? Will he kiss me again? Do I want him to now that I know he hid information from me—from the entire POD?

I dropped my hand and turned from the door, climbing into bed.

Month Six

“I hate Scrabble,” I said with a grimace.

“You’re an English genius.” I snorted a laugh when George said the word ‘genius.’ “You must kill at Scrabble.”

“Nope, I can’t spell to save my life.”

“Then how do you do so well in English?”

“Spellcheck. If I hadn’t had spellcheck I would’ve failed. Besides, well, Scrabble was the last game I played with my parents. We had pizza and played Scrabble the night before I left. It’s…it’s a reminder of them. I remember the good times, like the laughter and teasing that night. But I also remember the horrible parts, like…like watching my parents get smaller and smaller through the dirty windows of the bus as it drove away. It’s odd how things can change so drastically in just a day.”

Tiffany laid her hand on my arm, giving it a light squeeze. She smiled sadly.

Josh sighed and rolled his eyes. “Oh, please. Stop your freakin’ whining.”

“Don’t pay attention to him, Eva,” Aidan said. “We all know how messed up things can get in just a day.”

Katie picked up the Scrabble board, placed it in its box, and then stood on tiptoe to place the box on the top shelf, out of sight. “Boggle?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah, Boggle sounds great,” I whispered.

David walked toward the table, and I said a little prayer that he’d keep walking. I never had been very lucky. “Do you need a fourth?”

“Sure, Dav—”

“Nope. Boggle doesn’t require teams. The three of us are just fine. Thank you very much.”

Tiffany’s eyebrows rose at my tone. Katie, who’d been grabbing a pen and paper for David, froze and looked at me.

“Eva, can I talk with you for a minute?”

“I’m busy.”

“Tiffany and Katie won’t mind. They can play a game while we’re talking.”

“I don’t mind,” Tiffany agreed with a smirk. I kicked her under the table. I hadn’t told her about David’s kiss, but she’d guessed.

“Fine.” I tromped down the hall toward our bedroom, where I could yell at him without the whole POD hearing. He followed close behind.

Halfway down the hall he reached out and grabbed my wrist, jerking me to a stop. I whirled around to face him. His free hand grabbed my other wrist, holding my hands above my head, pinning them to the wall behind me. He leaned forward and kissed me hard, his tongue gliding between my lips.

I turned my head—intending to yell, tell him all the reasons we shouldn’t do what we were doing, all the reasons I didn’t want to—but his lips followed mine and, instead of telling him all the things I’d rehearsed, I kissed him back.

He let go of my wrists, but kept his hands against the wall on either side of me. I knew I could push him away if I wanted. My brain told me I should leave. His kiss told me to stay. Instead of pushing him away, my hands gripped his shirt and pulled him to me.

He groaned deep in his throat when I sighed in pleasure. I wrapped one hand in his shirt and threaded the other one into his hair. He let his hands drop from the wall to frame my face.

“Oh!” Jai Li gasped.

Startled, I tried to pull away from David, but he wrapped his arm around my waist and held me to him.

“Kiss,” she said in her heavy accent.

“Yes, Jai Li, ‘kiss,’” I whispered. My breathing was heavy and I felt my heart beating a staccato against my ribs.

“Love.” She grinned.

I opened my mouth to answer. I’m not sure exactly what I would’ve said.

David answered before I had a chance. “Yes.” He looked into my eyes, his thumb moving gently over my bottom lip. “I think it is.”

I forgot how to breathe. “I—”

“Goodbye,” Jai Li said. I’d forgotten she was there. “Kiss, kiss,” she said, waving her hands, telling us to finish what she’d interrupted.

“David—”

“Don’t. Don’t say anything. I don’t want you to say it until you know for sure. Just because I said it—well, Jai Li said it for me,” he chuckled, “doesn’t mean I want you to say it back to be polite. And I definitely don’t want to hear you deny it.”

The room seemed to tilt to one side and then the other, like I’d been twirling around in circles and was dizzy. I opened my mouth to say something, but couldn’t seem to put a coherent thought together.

Did David just tell me he loves me? He loves me? David…loves me. David, Greek-god handsome…no…underwear-model sexy…no…Greek-god underwear-model sexy David loves me. Oh wow. There is going to be so much kissing!

A warmth started building in my chest and spread throughout my body; even though I was warm, my skin was covered in goosebumps.

I had to concentrate on what David was saying, “I know what you said about a relationship down here not being a good idea—”

Yeah, I take that all back. I think a relationship down here is a great idea
.

“—and you’re probably right. But I don’t give a damn about the POD. I don’t care where we are or where we end up. I just want you to be mine. I don’t want to wait until we’re out of here.”

My heart twirled and did a nosedive into my toes before springing back into place. I could hardly breathe. I had to remind myself how. I pulled him to me and kissed him slowly, exploring his mouth, tracing his lips with the tip of my tongue, losing myself in his taste, in his smell. Our lips never leaving each other’s, we stumbled into the bedroom. David kicked the door closed with his foot before we fell across my bed. I lifted his pullover, running my fingers over his bare skin. He ground out a curse between his teeth. He unbuttoned my shirt, his fingers shaking so violently he ripped the last two open. He skimmed the tips of his fingers over my skin, dipping just below the lacy edges of my bra. I shivered and felt more warmth growing in the pit of my stomach.

“Eva,” he whispered and rolled over on his back next to me. He threw his arm over his eyes.

“I know. We aren’t alone.”

“No, we aren’t.” He let out a long breath. Standing, he opened the drawer under my bed and pulled out the purple hoodie. “Here, put this on. You can’t go out there with two buttons torn off your shirt. It looks like something you’d read about in a racy romance novel. The bodice-ripping rogue out to defile the innocent damsel…or something like that,” he said, laughing.

“Okay, bodice-ripper, but that’s not what I want.” I smiled and took the hoodie from him. I threw it back in the drawer and pulled my shirt closed, covering myself. Crossing to his bedroom, I opened the drawer under his bunk.

“What are you doing?”

I pulled out his U of M sweatshirt. I pushed the shirt I was wearing off my shoulders and let it pool around me on the bed. David cleared his throat and turned his back to me.

“What?”

“I’m just…giving you some privacy.” His voice sounded strained.

“David, two minutes ago you had your hands all over me. Seeing me slip out of one shirt and into another isn’t a big deal.”

“Yeah, well, you aren’t a guy. We’re not good at window shopping. If I can’t have it, I don’t want to torture myself by looking at it.”

I laughed.

“I like that.”

“What?” I asked.

“The sound of your laugh.”

I smiled at him. I didn’t know what to say in response. Did I tell him I liked that he liked my laugh?

“I like that, too.”

I blew out a breath. “What?”

“When I compliment you your face turns red. You don’t try to act shy and timid. You don’t have to—your face shows me. You don’t act coy or play hard to get. Your racing heart tells me everything I need to know. And I love how you look wearing my favorite sweatshirt,” he said, grabbing the front and pulling me to him. “You realize if you go out there wearing that it’ll be like you’re wearing a neon sign. Everyone will know, Eva.”

“I think they already do. And…I want them to know. I don’t want to wait, either. POD or no POD, I want to be with you.”

He smiled his crooked smile and nodded once. He took my hand in his and we walked back into the main living area. Seth and Aidan didn’t pay any attention to us. They were involved in a battle of galactic proportions on some videogame. George looked up from his packet of schoolwork. He raised one pierced eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. Everyone was quiet, politely giving us our privacy…except Katie.

“What were you guys doing? You took so long.”

“Just talking,” I said.

“Then why do you have David’s shirt on?” she asked.

I shrugged. “I was cold.”

David coughed to hide his laughter. We both knew I was far from cold.

Josh gave us a scathing look.

M
onth Seven

“Do you two have to do that now?” Josh snapped. He glared at us over the screen of his laptop.

David and I were each walking on treadmills, talking and laughing. By that point, we were eating together, doing homework together, exercising together. He even tolerated playing Wii Bowling with me.
Inseparable
.

“What?” David asked.

“Giggle like that. You sound ridiculous, and the treadmills squeak.”

“Are we bothering you, George?” David called.

George sat in his beanbag in the corner of the room studying. “Not bothering me.”

“You’re the only one with a problem, Josh. Besides, you’re just sitting there making a nuisance of yourself online. You can go in the other room and do that.” David didn’t look at him.

Tiffany came in, the baby in her arms. “Hey, has anyone heard anything about the villages?”

“No, what—” I took a breath. “What about them?” Trying to keep up with David’s pace was making me winded. David hadn’t even broken a sweat.

“There’s a rumor online that the government is setting up villages throughout the country; when we get out of here we’ll be assigned to villages.”

“I haven’t heard anything, Tiff. I thought we’d all be in one area.” I lowered the setting on my treadmill to extra, extra slow.

“Geez, you people are stupid. Of course they’ll be separating people into villages,” Josh snapped.

I took another deep breath. “I hate to ask you this, but why?”

Josh huffed and rolled his eyes. “They have to make villages near resources. The resources we need aren’t all in one area. We’ll need to disperse and set up communities according to the resources available.”

“There aren’t that many of us. They can’t spread us out too much.” Tiffany bounced baby Faith on her shoulder.

“They’ll do whatever they want to.”

I frowned. Josh had a point. We were at the mercy of the government.

“Now take your lovebird crap to another room; you’re making me sick.” He flicked his hand toward David and me.

“Stop eating in the living area, Josh! Geez, you’re a slob. Look at the crumbs you’re getting everywhere,” Tiffany said.

“Well you’re a—”

George turned a page in his textbook, not looking up. “Choose your next words
very
carefully.”

“Whatever,” Josh took another huge bite, intentionally dribbling bits of food. Crumbs landed on his t-shirt and the strip of hairy belly that was exposed where it rode up. I shook my head. If anyone needed to be on the treadmill, it was Josh.