Lawless

Chapter Six

"What do you want?" Jace asks as he scans through the menu. We are sat in 'Pockets', the locally owned diner. Floral décor decorates the entire place, white and pink flowers everywhere with big windows at every table, gazing out onto the street. People are busy, rushing in and grabbing a coffee before work before leaving again.

"Nothing, I'm not hungry" it was true, I never had much of an appetite in the mornings.

Jace raises his eyebrows as he looks over the top of his menu at me. He suddenly slams the menu down and reaches across the table, grabbing my wrist before yanking it towards him and dragging me half across the table.

"You need to get the fuck over whatever it is that's giving you this attitude" he speaks quietly between his teeth; spit hitting me in the face. "We're getting married, whether you like it or not" he says before roughly throwing my arm back towards me.

I sit shocked as I rub my red wrist. I knew Jace wasn't the nicest guy but I never thought he'd put his hands on me.

"What can I get for you two?" the pretty, young waitress asks nicely, although none of her attention is on me.

"I'll get eggs with the lot and she'll have a fruit salad" Jace answers for me while giving the waitress a dazzling smile and a wink. I just keep my head down, tucked into myself and willing the tears away.

Not a lot was said for the rest of breakfast, Jace informed me on where and what was happening with the wedding and I answered with nods of my head while picking at my fruit salad.

I had never been more relieved than to walk the opposite direction of Jace once breakfast was done. He walked towards High Class main building while I took the long way home to avoid walking with him.

I take a detour before going home, walking up the hill and out of town, into the more rural areas. I find a path that weaves in between houses and acres of open land. I get to the end where a beautiful view reveals itself up on a hill, looking down at fields of yellow flowers, the dried grass reaching up to my waist. In the distance the fence came to a point, two sides meeting and showing the farthest Class residents could travel.

The sun is still rising higher, casting an orange glow across the land.

Movement on my far right catches my attention; someone is walking on Class' side of the fence. I could hardly see due to whoever it was ducking down into the long grass, the grass swaying as they move through it.

They reach the end of the fence line before standing up and looking around. It's a young boy, maybe 15 in age. He's dressed in old clothes that were too big with a cap on his head. It becomes clear then that whoever this was wasn't from Class.

Then our eyes meet, mine full of wonder, his full of fear.

He turns around and scampers up the fence. I take a few steps forward, willing him to stop before the fence alarm alerts everyone to his presence.

But he is already almost to the top when I go to shout out. The alarm still hasn't gone off. He gets to the top and climbs over. I anxiously look around, waiting for the alarm to ring and for the guards to come running.

He drops down onto the other side and runs into the bush without looking back. I look left and right, not seeing anyone in sight. I decide then that it's time to investigate for myself how Lawless are so easily coming into Class.

I jog through the tall grass and yellow flowers and by the time I reach the fence I'm bent over catching my breath.

A twig snaps and my head shoots over to the fence, the boy slowly coming out from behind the bushes. He's noticeably young, although his face shows his been through it. Dirt and mud covered parts of his face and is stuck in his hair, making it hard to determine his hair colour. His eyes are a deep blue.

"Are you going to tell the guards I was here?" he asks in a hushed tone, his eyes running right and left along the fence, keeping an eye out.

It takes me a minute to shake my head no, before I take a step closer. I dont know why I always imagined Lawless to be scary looking and the thought of there being Lawless children never even crossed my mind. I guess High Class brainwashed us there too.

"Who are you?" the boy asks. He seems calmer now that I've assured him I won't tell anyone.

"Dove" I say, he looks at me for a moment, a spark of something lighting up his eyes before he steps back and starts to turn away. "What's your name? And how'd you get over the fence?" I rush towards the fence, careful not to make contact with it.

The boy turns back around and opens his mouth to answer.

"Axel!" a voice from behind him shouts and heavy footsteps run through the bush, twigs snapping as he comes closer. The boys eyes widen, not in fear, just in more of an 'oh shit' kind of way. @What the fuck are you doing?" the bush parts forcefully as the man that had broken into my house makes an appearance.

The gasp is stuck in my throat and I stagger backwards, nearly falling on my ass.

"Sage!" the boy gasps before jogging over to him. "This is Dove" he introduces me. Since the moment Sage had stepped out of the bushes our eyes had remained locked. His holding anger but also concern, mine fearful but intrigued. Only he could turn a sweet name like Sage into something sinister.

"Go the fuck home" he says it calmly and pushes the back of the boys head in the right direction. Axel runs off, eager to leave.

Then it was just me and him.

"Why're you talking to him?" he grunts, clearly not happy about it.

"He was in Class, I-I saw him jump the fence" I muttered, unable to keep the eye contact any longer. I do a quick check of the surrounding area before looking past Sage and into the bush.

Sage fumes, breathing heavily in and out of his nose. "Go home!" he shouts back at me while he walks into the bush, surely to find the boy.

"Wait! Did you return the bag?" I yell, running up to the fence, stopping a few inches from the wire.

He stops, back still turned to me before continuing to walk until he is no longer visible. That gave me my answer. He was in my room and he was the one that returned the bag. I hurriedly made my way home, shrugging off anyone that tried to stop me for a chat.

I need to get home and process what had just happened.