Is This The End?

Chapter 2

The new girl was scheduled to move in tonight. The government would be bringing her at exactly 10:05 pm.

It was 8:47 and Andrew and I had just finished dinner. We agreed on playing some Xbox while we waited for the new girl, so I excused myself to the bathroom before we started.

I looked in the mirror at myself. I had short hair cut into an undercut that was messy on the top. My glasses perfectly outlined my face. The black uniforms we were given made my body look less androgynous than I would have liked. I discovered that I was nonbinary many years ago, but The Center did not believe that this was acceptable. Nobody in the community ever judged me but to The Center, I would never be non-binary. It was unfortunate, but I made due with it.

After washing my hands I walked back into the living room and sat down with Andrew.

The plan was that I would show the new girl around and would be sharing a room with her since I had the only available room. I already had everything set up so the only thing left to do was wait.

After playing Xbox with Andrew for a while, I drifted to sleep.

I later woke up to the sound of my name being called.

I was on the couch with my head jammed in an awkward position. Andrew's face was positioned above me. He was trying to wake me up. There was knocking at the door meaning the officials had arrived with the girl.

"Wake up Kai. She's here. I better go get the door," Andrew said before getting up and walking to the door.

I followed behind him trying to quickly fix my hair and clothing.

Andrew opened the door. "Good afternoon, officers."

"This is Emelia. She's been assigned to live in this housing unit from now on," the officer spoke in a monotone voice, pointing to the girl.

They were dressed in white clothing and carried guns on their backs. Not really people I would want to mess with.

"Thank you for bringing her. We are happy to have her here," Andrew smiled warmly at the new girl.

I didn't have a chance to look at her yet since my glasses weren't on, but when I looked up I was greeted by a warm smile. I could tell that something was off with her though. It was a fake even though it looked so genuine.

Her eyes were communicating something that she couldn't speak. I just didn't know what it was.

She was exceptionally gorgeous with long hair that fell into purple curls at the bottom. Her hair perfectly complimented her small, freckled face. She was a couple inches shorter than me, but not by much. So far, she seemed like a friendly, but mysterious person.

"Have a good day," said the officer gruffly before he practically shoved Emelia into the doorway and turned around. We watched him and his partner walk away before we shut the door.

Turning my attention to Emelia I greeted her. "Hey, I'm Kai."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Emelia," she stated with an air of confidence reaching out her hand.

I didn't have time to react before Andrew extended his hand and Amelia shook it, "Hi, Andrew is the name."

Andrew looked around before he spoke his next words, "I'm going to go get Josie and Jeffrey. They are our other housemates that you should meet."

Andrew headed towards the direction of their room and it was just me and Amelia standing in the entryway.

I searched my brain for things to say before I finally found something worth talking about, "So, we have everything set up for you. You'll be sharing a room with me. I can show you it after you meet the others."

She smiled at me. "Thanks. I've never had a roommate. This should be fun," she said half-chuckling at me.

By the time the awkward silence was becoming almost unbearable, Andrew returned with the lovebirds in tow.

Josie was the first to approach Emelia. "Welcome. I'm Josie. This is Jeffrey. We are the obnoxious couple you may have heard about. You won't really have to worry about running into us. We spend the majority of our time in our room." Josie laughed out loud. She was clearly drunk.

Jeffrey didn't say much other than, "Hi". He smiled, but it was extremely forced. He wasn't very good at meeting new people, but he was great once he opened up though.

Jeffrey awkwardly looked away until Josie spoke again.

"Well it was a pleasure to meet you Emelia but we have to get to bed. Hopefully we can chat in the morning. Breakfast is at 7 am. Pancakes are the plan," she said before taking Jeffrey's hand and walking towards her room.

"Umm yeah. Breakfast is at 7 as Josie said. You don't want to miss it, she's an amazing chef... I'm feeling tired too, so I think it's time I head to bed. I'll see you two in the morning," With that Andrew hugged me, kissing the top of my head, waved at Emelia and then disappeared into his room.

Emelia turned towards me. "So you and Andrew, huh?"

"Actually... no. He's my best friend. It's always been like that. It's just the way we are as friends, I guess," I said, yawning. I was getting tired.

"I think it's time I show you to the room. Is that cool?" I asked.

"Lead the way," she responded with that same fake smile from before.

And with that we began walking towards our newly shared room.