"Just turn around and walk away, sweetheart. I'll be nice and pretend I didn't see you, just for today"
With amusement in her tone, Mars gives Amaya a wink. Still, it does not feel overly flirtatious or amusing in any way. Instead, it is almost thre...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
🪷
Friday, late-October.
"Come to my place today, please!"
"No! I have to study Zaccai, and you should too!"
The sound of a bag zipping shut is quickly followed by another, and after that it's a chain reaction. They manage to drown out the teacher's last few words about weekend homework, as the clock strikes four. Already way too late for a Friday afternoon at school, to be honest. Especially since autumn is already entering its darkest period, and the sun has begun to set somewhere up on the higher horizon. The distant sunlight shines directly into the classroom and wraps it in a dull light.
"Do you know any place we could all gather? I can't risk Julia knowing about what we're planning, so school is out of the picture"
Amaya leans away from Mars, her whisper still halfway echoing in Mars' ears. The rustling of papers, notebooks and zippers closing on bags drowns out their voices completely. Mars is subtle. She glances behind herself, spotting each and every person of interest and making sure that they're not hearing or seeing anything. Then looks back at Amaya. The words that she knows she has to say lay heavy in her throat, to the point where she decides to answer with something else.
"Couldn't we just meet at your place?'
For a moment Mars doesn't know whether to sound genuinely curious or just bored when she asks. Her usual tone is more dull, so it would make more sense to sound that way now. But she doesn't actually want everyone to meet up at Amaya's house, so her question is complexly useless, and the fact that she is lying is making her feel nervous, and the nervousness is making her think that maybe she should sound more genuinely curious when asking. Then she thinks it might sound even more like a lie and so eventually her sentence comes out a little weird.
Mars analyses Amaya's expression to see if she noticed. Amaya looks a little taken back, and then it fades into a quick expression of nervousness, before she has time to hide it. Mars frowns. It looks like she's not the only one holding back on something. It makes her oddly curious. What could be making Amaya so nervous? Is her house really bad, or something? That would make sense considering the state of the country, with the poorest living in absolute hell. But that wouldn't make sense. She wears pretty jewellery now and then, and her uniform is always pristine and washed.
"I don't know, I'd rather want it to be somewhere that isn't in any of our homes. Do you know some place that is a bit more... secluded?"
That's the problem. Mars sighs. She does know.
In fact, that's what she's been wanting to tell Amaya about for the past three days. But every time she gets close, they either get interrupted, or she chokes up and can't bring herself to say it. She's going to take Amaya and the rest of them to meet her old friends at the place where they hang out. She's already agreed with her old friends about the time and place and everything. But she just can't bring herself to tell Amaya because...
