The Day Earth Died

27. "It's Me"

"Tonight. It's tonight," I announced under the cafeteria chatter.

Amell tightly nodded next to me. Cygne wasn't there; she had an urgent meeting with the other tutors. I entrusted the guys with the task of briefing her while I prepared with Earl.

"Good luck," Neith said, munching on some pieces of corn, facing us.

Amell softly gasped.

"Don't say that, it's bad luck," he scolded.

"How is wishing 'good luck' bad luck?"

"Stop saying it! It just is," Amell snapped and Neith put his hands up in capitulation.

They kept bickering. I laughed at them, knowing that deep inside, Amell was troubled. He cared; of course, he cared. I watched him argue with Neith with a subtle sly smile on his mouth. Under the neons, his golden hair glistened. A week ago, I had noticed for the first time that he had specks all over the skin of his cheekbones, as well as around his collarbone. It wasn't something I paid any mind to in the past but now that we were... closer, I found myself marvelling at the sight of him. At his eyes, his mannerism, his voice; just who he is. I meant it when I called him pretty. I still mean it.

"What?" Amell asked, noticing how I scrutinized him.

I chuckled the prickle of embarrassment off.

"Nothing. I'm leaving, see you," I said and stood up.

Without hesitation, I pressed my lips against the side of Amell's head and left without another word.

∗ ∗ ∗

"Whose room is this?" Earl asked, sitting in Guillebault's kitchen after I explained we weren't recorded in there.

Singh's death was announced; "his illness killed him," the governors had said. It was enough to fully convince Earl that I was right.

"A friend's fiancé's." I coyly drank in the glass of water I had served myself.

He narrowed his eyes at me.

"And that friend's fiancé is aware we're here?"

"Most likely not."

Earl pursed his lips disapprovingly. The funny part was that he definitely knew both Aspen and Guillebault, but Aspen had precisely asked me to keep their identity hidden.

"He wouldn't mind." I tried being reassuring but the words came out with a skittish aftertaste.

"Okay then." He shrugged.

"Alright so, I got my hands on this," I said and laid a blueprint of the spacecraft flat on the island.

He grabbed a corner and yanked it towards himself, spinning the layout around until it was on the side he preferred. Earl thoroughly examined its whole surface.

"Where did you get that?"

"... A friend," I flatly replied as I brought my lips to my glass for a quick sip.

Amell did work near the engineering team after all. They let him borrow it, too busy to care.

"You seem to have a lot of those," he observed.

"Not really. I just have the right ones."

"Clearly." He trailed his fingers down a corridor and stopped at a small room.

"304?" I asked though I didn't actually need the confirmation.

I already knew it was the right one. Aspen had shown me the other day but Earl couldn't know that. He couldn't know anything about him, that's what Aspen and I agreed to. No one could know a governor's son was helping.