Displaced

Wicken - Thirty

Lilly dressed my wounds in silence, again. Setting her up with Justice was going to be a whole lot harder than I anticipated. She just didn't talk, and it was to the point of it being annoying. Either she hated my guts, or she was a lot more introverted than I thought. I leaned more toward hating my guts. During down time when the men and women were allowed to mingle with one another, she was a lot more chatty and friendly with everyone who wasn't me.

I studied her interactions with Justice during those moments. He was pretty smitten with her. I could tell because he got super shy and awkward with his body language. It wouldn't surprise me if he had similar problems with expressing himself around her, as I did whenever I was with Chevelle. Cute, or it would be if I were a girl and into that sort of thing. Watching them was refreshing, I'd give them that much. So many people down in the Pit were hard and difficult to read. They didn't wear a whole lot of emotions on their sleeves. I thought I was guarded with my heart, but these people took it to a whole new level.

Long story short, Lilly and Justice were gag-inducingly sweet with one another, but I liked to see it because it was a change from all the rough and tough. They laughed and smiled, and did more besides grunt and yell. Furthermore, I noticed he respected her a whole lot more than a lot of the other men did down in the Pit. My stomach turned into knots every time I watched a guy give a woman a slap on the butt, or felt her up in public. And these women let them!

Some of the ladies would gaze at me while another man made his move. Like she was trying to say "this could be you and I can make you happy." Yet, they would go off to the closets with their current male counterpart and do...whatever. Something tells me I wasn't any woman's one true love. I saw that when I watched Lilly and Justice -love. A degree of it, at least. No clue how I could help him out with her when he seemed to have a pretty good handle on her as it was. I could help protect her. A lot of guys propositioned her.

"So, do you do anything else besides help the wounded?" I asked, trying to get her to talk about something, anything, so I didn't have to listen to all of the mechanical sounds of the ship. It was too awkward.

She let out a rather agitated sounding huff. "I clean too."

"Cool."

"Sure."

"I don't bite, you know," I said. "And I'm not trying to get into your pants. Promise. I'm just getting bored and you're the only person I have to talk to right now."

Lilly pulled a bit tighter than usual on my bandages. "There are plenty of other girls around here you could talk to if you wanted."

"I don't think we have the same definitions of talking." I rolled my eyes.

She shrugged. "If you're gay or something, just say so. I won't tell anyone if that's what you're worried about."

"I'm not gay," I said flatly. "Like I said, I'm bored. The reason I don't want to go hang with the other girls is because I know they'll try to talk me into something I'm not ready for. Besides, I'm saving myself for another. She's on the Surface. We're supposed to be meeting up again relatively soon."

"Oh." Lilly moved away from my back. "I'm done."

I pulled my shirt back on. "Gonna ditch me now?"

"I guess not. I can try to be more of a bodyguard so your chance with the Surface girl isn't ruined. The other girls in my clan talk about you a lot." She was so matter of fact, blunt. I was not used to that.

Slowly, I stretched out my arms, mindful of the bandages and my still sore stripes. They didn't hurt as much as they were initially, so that was a plus. "There's nothing all too special about me."

"You're one of Patriarch's. That automatically makes you special. He told you about his program, I'm sure."

"Yes, he told me."

"So if one of my comrades can get to you, then she thinks she'll be set. Patriarch only picks good guys to work with. All women want a good guy."

I snorted. "Which is why so many of them fling themselves onto the bad ones?"

"Babies, remember? They want out."

"So they'll procreate with the jerks, but not stick around for one of the good guys to actually notice them?" Sounded like a whole lot of logical fail. Because even if the guy was a sure thing to get into bed, it also added to a whole lot more drama. I frowned. "Unless the guy doesn't get to come with to the Surface."

Lilly smirked. "You're catching on. Unless the guy is special. There are eight single guys on Patriarch's current crew. Five of them are from the Pit."

"Not everyone who works in the restaurant is from here? I thought that was the whole point?" I frowned.

"It is the point, but he's not going to take just anyone to place on his crew. Some of the guys down here are violent and scary."

I'd noticed. Some guys got up in each other's faces just for being looked at the wrong way. Come to think of it, some of the women were like that too.

Lilly gazed at me for a moment, her head tilted ever so slightly to the side. "Justice tells me you were just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"I was."

"He's very passionate about getting you onto the Surface."

"I didn't know that."

She shrugged. "It's what he does. It's why he got his name. Someday I hope he gets his own justice and he can get out of here."

"He's a good guy. He deserves it."

Nodding, she stood. "Tomorrow I'll see you after training. Try not to get yourself into too much trouble, okay?"

"Sure thing." Progress, but not much.