Before the Ever Green (BTEG #1) ✔️

Chapter 21

I awake with a large jolt that sends me flying into the table not a foot away from me. It hits right at the bottom of my rib cage, and I let out a noise that I can't really describe; kind of like a wince and a scream. I try to push myself off the table, while I listen to the sound of metal on metal and a lot of friction. I lift up my shirt to inspect my rib cage. No damage I can see, but it hurts. I look out the small window; we aren't moving. I am about to stand up and leave when a voice announces something, "We have arrived at station 5580, anyone who needs to get off do so now. 5 minutes. I repeat we have arrived at station 5580, anyone needing to get off, do so now. 5 minutes." Then the voice cuts off.

I look down at our 2 tickets; we're station 9631. I lay my head against the back of the seat and take a deep breathe then let it out. I look at the muscular light brown hair person in front of me. Some how the jolt didn't wake Everett. He looks sound asleep, I can't believe he slept through that. I adjust in my seat, and lay my head against the window with my feet up on the red seat. My feet are touching the other wall. The seat isn't that big, because I am a pretty short person, and that was just my legs.

I hear a groan, and look over at Everett. He is blinking, lifting his head from the table and wiping his eyes. He yawns, "Are we there yet?"

I shake my head as he out stretches his arms above his head, "Nope," I say, "We still have a few hours, I think."

He sighs, "Well, we might as well kill the time." He reaches into his black leather bag, pulling out a deck of cards, "What do you want to play?"

"Go fish?" he laughs when I say that.

"Okay, I guess," then he deals out the cards. 7 cards each and a pile in the middle. I pick up my hand from the table, and so does he. I look at his face, trying to see if he has any matches, because I don't. "You go first," he says. I don't argue.

"7," I ask, and he concedes with a glare, and gives me a 7. "How about a King?" He glares at me again, before handing me the King of hearts. I laugh a little, "Okay... a Queen?"

"Go fish." He says, and I pull the top card off the pile. To my surprise it is a Queen; the Queen of hearts. I show it to him, and his jaw drops open. I give a half-hearted laugh because I am tired.

We continue playing, me asking for cards which he doesn't have or occasionally ones he does. The reciprocal is also correct, being that he sometimes got cards and sometimes didn't. Finally after 10 rounds, we gave up, since it was a 50/50 game.

"Fine," I say "Lets just... talk."

"Okay," he says, "What do you want to talk about?"

"I don't know."

"I have an idea." I nod, "We go back in forth asking questions. The person being asked the question has to answer 100% truthfully, but... for every 5 questions, you don't have to answer one. Basically you answer 4/5 questions."

"Okay, you go first." I say

He looks like he is thinking through his question very carefully before he speaks, "Why do you want to go to the capital so bad?"

Honestly, I don't know. Why did I want to go to the capital, even after Mom told me she thought it was bad news, "Um-I wanted to know something knew, and when Mom told me I had powers, I thought maybe people there could tell me about them, being as my mother wouldn't,"

"Oh," is all he says, before gesturing for me to go.

"Why did you move away from the capital? Why were you willing to come back with me?"

"That's 2 questions," he points out

"But, they go head in head,"

"Fine," he concedes, "Well, I moved away because I hated all the people, and my parents hated me. I-I was w-willing to come back with you, because you're a great friend, and I wanted to help you," he's looking down at the table as he says it, and it's like it's hard for him to speak.