The City - PewdieCry

16: Another Late Night Meeting

 "What did he want with a low ranked soldier like yourself?" I returned inside, finding the whole of my gang staring at me in the most intimidating fashion. M had asked the question, his eyes glaring down upon me as a few soldiers watched Cry walk away. All the stares, especially the ones from the higher ranked soldiers made me weary to answer, and I had no good excuse. I, however, had no intention of selling Cry out. Instead, I used the split second of thinking to wonder what Cry would do, how he would act in this situation; I felt a burst of confidence.

"He was hoping, since he'd been so nice to me before, that I would sell out secrets to him about our gang." I scoffed at this, spitting on the ground, feigning anger. M lifted his eyebrows suspiciously, and after a few seconds of consideration, he seemed to buy it.

"Did you tell him anything?"

"Absolutely not!" I spat back, as though the idea offended me deeply. "He can be polite all he wants, but this is my gang and he has no right to expect his benevolence to buy my support." M liked this answer, and he grinned. He gave me a quick nod of dismissal, and I grabbed my food before making my way up to my room once more.

I hadn't been sleeping very much, rather I'd been volunteering for several patrols in the evening and daytime hours. I wanted M to feel like I was loyal, and so I was working my hardest to prove it. Cry's sudden appearance would have been a major setback had I not been so convincing in my story, but I was lucky. His presence, although short, had given me the confidence to weave a tale worth believing. Not only that, but I also got to meet with the masked man tonight. It had ended up being more or less a double win.

A knock on my door jolted me from my thoughts and absent eating, and I cleared my throat to welcome the person in. As I had predicted, it was just Covert, and he came inside quickly, shutting the door behind him and locking it before turning to me. He gaped at my serenity despite what just happened, and I frowned in confusion.

"Tell me that he actually tried to buy secrets off him and you'll stop seeing him." Covert hissed at me, and I ignored his angered and fearful worries, rolling my eyes. I finished the food in my mouth before shaking my head.

"Cry just wanted to see me, and that means he has something really important to tell me, I assume. I need to meet him tonight like he asked." I explained, and Covert huffed, inhaling a deep breath and I prepared myself for his lecture.

"You don't understand, that's dangerous for you both. If you get caught out there meeting a leader of another gang you are dead on the spot, and they'll declare war on him. He won't be prepared and chances are he'll die too, and if not then M will call a Grouping and point him out in front of all the other gangs. Who knows how many of them will try to war against him, especially after your excuse that you created. He's naturally benevolent, everyone will think that their gang is next to be targeted." Covert said, and as I thought about all of this, a small flicker of doubt crossed my mind. This was possible, it was a scenario that could occur, yet the thought of leaving Cry sitting on his tree, alone at the park as he awaited my presence made me shake my head.

"I don't care about that." I said, glancing at him as I finished my meal. "I made a promise, and dammit if I have to go down just to see him then I'll go down fighting." I said, and Covert looked at me.

"You love him, don't you?" the question took me by surprise, and I sat there. Did I? Cry was from a different gang, and despite the fact that we had indeed been talking for several months, there was no way that I could love him, right? That was impossible, but then again he walked right up to me at the first Grouping I'd ever gone to. He'd escaped his own duties to visit me, give me advice. He risked his right as being a leader to train me to defend myself, and today he barged into my HQ building without a second thought, demanding my presence. It was hard not to admire his persistence towards me, and my willingness to see him only made it logical that I had some form of feelings for him.