The Moon Dwellers (15 page)

Tawni
stops abruptly, her eyebrows r
ising.
“Sorry.
Your father first, then the other stuff.”

She si
t
s on the bed and motions for me to join her.
I don’t feel like sitting, feel
too wired to do anything but pace
around
the room, but I don’t want to argue
,
as I’m afraid it will
delay
the conversation further.
I si
t next to her, tapping my toe rapidly on the stone floor.

Tawni
looks
at me wit
h
sincere blue eyes and says
, “My parents were the ones who recommended t
hat your parents be taken away.”

It wouldn’t sti
ng any
more if she’
d
slapped me across the face.
My parents dragged away in the middle of the night, out
through the kicked-
down door; E
nforcers swarming through our home, smashing picture frames and tables and chairs and anything
they could
get their hands on; m
e, fighting li
ke an animal to defend my family, who are
eventually wrenched away
anyway
.
The most disturbing image f
rom that night:
m
y father’s eyes, intense and scared
, not fearful for his own life, but for mine and Elsey’s.

All because of
Tawni
’s parents.
I don’t think kids should be judged by what their stupid parents do.
Tawni
’s words from
before sud
denly mak
e sense.

I want
to walk away from her, to leave her and her evil fam
ily behind forever, but I stay
for three
reasons.
First, because I owe
her for sitting down and talking to me in the first place, in the yard; for not walking away when I was rude and acting like a nutter
.
Second, because she still hasn’t told me everything she kno
w
s about my father—and I have
to kn
ow.
And third, because I want
to believe in her words about kids having the potential to be different than their parents.
I wa
nt
to believe it for T
ristan’s sake.
Because if he i
sn’t different than his father, then all my thoughts and feelings ove
r the last day—and my dream!—have
been fake, pure fantasy.
Which mean
s that my heart will
die again, and me with it.

As I t
ry
to make sense of my thou
ghts, of my feelings, I realize
Tawni
i
s c
rying.
Her earlier strength gives way, her body crumples
,
she tucks her face into her hands.
I know she’s
been
putting on
a front—an attempt
to be strong, to chase away her sadness
w
ith a brave face.
She thinks I’m going to leave.
She doesn’t know I
have three reasons to stay.

I feel
warmth in my bones, welling up from b
eneath my feet, until it reaches
th
e top of my head.
The warmth i
s compassion for
Tawni
.
She didn’t ask for her parents to be trait
ors.
And from what I understand, their treachery
caused her to run from them, to leave home all alone, and to eventually be caught and
brought to the Pen.
No, she i
sn’t like her parents at all.

The sudden compassion
I feel reminds
me
of my mother.
I always think I am
more
like my dad, but now I wonder if there i
sn’t a lot mo
re of my mom in me than I realized.
I hope
so.
My mom is a special soul.

Instinctively,
I
put my arm around her and pull her close.
Her eyes flick
open for a moment
, red and wet, and then reclose as she buries
her head in the nook between my shoulder and chest.
“
I’m so sorry, Adele,” she moans
.

I say nothing—there is nothing to say.
I just hold her while sobs shake her body.
I rub her back, smooth
her hai
r—even kiss
her forehead.
Tho
se were the things my mother used to do to me when I was scared—usually
when
still stuck in the throes of a waking nightmare about
drowning.
Slowly
,
Tawni’s body stops
shaki
ng and her
muffled sobs relent.
Her choked breaths beco
me deep and consistent.
For a
moment I think
she might’ve
fallen asleep.

But then she says, “Why a
re you forgiving me?”

I have
n’t s
aid a word to her, certainly have
not uttered the words
I forgive you
, but I guess my actions speak louder.
But I have
n’t forgiven h
er, not really, because there i
s no need.

“You hav
en’t done anything that requires
my forgiveness,” I say
.

Her puffy eyes look into mine as she si
t
s
up straight again.
“Thank you
,” she says
.

“My father?” I say
.

Her words co
me out in a rush, without pause to breathe.
“He’s been taken to a camp set up for traitors—my parents called it
Camp
Blood
and Stone—where the prisoners are made to work in some of the most dangerous mines in the Moon Realm.
I understand it’s somewhere in one of the Northern subchapters,
my parents mentioned subchapter
twenty-six
, I think
.”

“What about my mother?” I say
, realizing
Tawni
has
n’t mentioned her.
She was very specific:
Your father is alive
.

“I don’t know,”
Tawni
says
, “they only mentioned your dad.”

“How did you know they were talking
about my dad?”
My questions a
re coming rapidly n
ow, as all of the investigative skills that my father has taught me a
re coming back.

“The
y said that the traitors they’
d turned over to the authorities had two daughters, A
dele and Elsey.
Your name isn’
t that common, so when I heard it and then later you told us about your parents, I made the connection.”
Tawni
crinkles up her nose, like she kno
w
s what my next question will
be
and i
s dreading it
.
But I have
to ask it.

“Why didn’t you tell me last n
ight when you realized?” I ask
.

“I do
n’t know.
I should have.
We’
d just met and I usually talk to Cole about stuff before I do anything.
He’s my best friend.
Has been for a long time
.”

I’m not
mad
at her.
S
he wa
s in a tough position, not knowing
how I would react when she told
me, an
d yet she told
me anyway.
She could’ve just kept it to herself
, told me to go stuff it when I eavesdropped
on her, but she didn’t.
She did the right thing.
She’s not
like
her parents.

“What
about the other stuff?” I ask
, not wanting to specifically mention Tristan’s name.

“You mean about Tristan?”
Tawni
says
, unders
tanding immediately what I mean
.

I nod
, feeling my face flush slightly.

Tawni
says
, “We should include Cole in the conversation.”

My heart si
nk
s
.
Cole
.
For a
moment I’ve forgotten about him.
He
looked so angry at me.
I’
ve
j
ust met the guy, so I shouldn’t
care
what he thinks
abo
ut me, but to my surprise, I do
.
Probably because of what he did for me yesterday during the riot.
Or perhaps because he i
s
Tawni
’s best friend, and she seems
like a good person, so that must
mean he is
,
too.
Or it might
just be because I actually like
hi
m.
Certainly his sarcasm works
well with me.

“Will he sti
ll be pissed off at me?” I ask
, frowning.

Tawni
laughs
.
“Don’t worry about him.
Sometimes he has a bit of a temper, but he makes up for it by forgiving and forgetting faster than anyone I know.”
Wiping the tears from her cheeks,
Tawni
rises
, offerin
g her hand to help me up.
I ta
k
e
it.

I allow
myself to be pulled down the hall.
Already some of the juveniles a
re leaving the cafeteria, looking unsatisfied by their breakfasts, heading outside for another long, boring day spent lounging in the yard.

When we enter the crowded eatery, I notice
Cole right away, sitting alone i
n the corner.
Thankfully, he i
s facing away from us, so h
e does
n’t stare at us as we approa
ch
.
When
Tawni
slid
es
onto the
bench across from him and he sees
her tearstained face, he
nearly knocks over the table as he leaps
to his feet.

“What h
appened?
Are you okay?” he says.
His eyes flit
back and forth between
Tawni
and me
, one minute showing concern for his friend and the other angry and glaring, like
how he’d looked
at the janitor’s closet before.

“I’m fine.
Please calm down, Cole,”
Tawni
says
, reaching across the table to put a comforting hand on his should
er.
At first his body stiffens at her touch, but then he relaxes
and
melts
back into his seat
.
For a second I am
jealous of
the kind of relationship they have.
It i
s
a
true friendship i
n every sense of the word.
I’
ve
never had that kind of frie
ndship—probably never will.
There i
sn’t room for it in my world.

I tense
up, waiting for the next s
pout of anger from Cole.
It does
n’t come.

“I’m sorry,” Cole says
.

Never would I have expected those to be his
next words.
To be honest, I do
n’t understand why he should speak them.

“What for?” I say
.

Th
e corners of Cole’s mouth turn
up slightly, a complete one-eighty from his tense expression a moment ea
rlier.
The steely twinkle I saw
in his eyes the day before i
s back.
“For my temper,”
he says
.
“
Tawni
tries to help me with it, but it usually gets the
better of me.
Sneaking around and
spying on us wasn’t right, but my reaction was even worse.
I should’ve let you explain.”