Aurore

13- Love?

Drip... Drip... Drip... I watched my sweat drip from my forehead to the floor. I panted heavily, barely able to support myself on my hands and knees. I tried to swallow, but my throat was dry.
"We've done all we need to do to him." General Stewart said to the robot.
"Are you sure? There's so much more we can do-"
"I said," the robot fell silent. "Send him back up. But put a tracker on his ankle."
"Yes sir." I felt Andrew's robot's hand wrap around my stomach to help me stand up. I pulled away from him, though I would have appreciated the help. My legs shook, and I was unsure of their ability to hold me up. Robot Andrew led me down a hallway, where he had me sit in a room similar to a doctor's office. He placed the ankle tracker on me, a little too tight, might I add, and walked me to the elevator taking me back to the regular floors.
"Hope I see you soon." Andrew said evilly.
"I don't." I got in the elevator and waited for the doors to close. Just before they closed, Andrew opened his mouth and sprayed an acid like substance all over me. I was able to close my eyes and mouth in time, but I felt my chest and stomach burning. When I felt that the acid mist had cleared, I opened my eyes and saw that the skin on my front was bubbling and burnt. I shuddered and tried to block out the pain. I looked up, to lunge at Andrew, but the doors were closed and I was already on my way up. I wouldn't go back there for anything.
I stumbled to the front desk of Floor One. The receptionist, Linda, eyed me suspiciously.
"Your new room number is 728. And your colors will be orange."
I sighed. "Rank six? I went down four ranks?"
"You're lucky it didn't go down further." She remarked. And with that, she returned to her paperwork.
I went to the Dressing Quarters on Floor 13 and got my new clothes and put a shirt on.
I had a new room, thankfully one without memories of Andrew. I couldn't have forgotten him anyway.
I went to the Commons and looked around. Everything seemed the same as it always was. People watched movies, played table tennis and ping pong, took naps, sat and talked. For some reason, though, I felt like a different person, and this place was then unfamiliar.
Then I saw Shasta. She was leaned over a table, chatting with a boy I recognized, but didn't know the name of. She laughed heartily with him. I couldn't help but smile, and let out a sigh. I hadn't killed her. I walked up behind her.
"Shasta?"
She turned around, confused.
"Jason!" She shouted. She wrapped her arms around me, my entire front stung in the contact with her.
"Shasta. You're alive."
"Of course I am." She said. "Why wouldn't I be?"
She pulled away and looked at me.
"I... Just..."
Her eyes widened. "Were you on floor 0?"
I nodded slightly.
"How'd you...I thought you were..."
I interrupted. "Turns out Sabrina is a traitor."
Her eyes darkened and became cold.
"Maybe you'll choose your real friends next time."
She turned away angrily.
"There won't be a next time." I remarked and walked away.
"What?" She asked.
"Nothing." I stormed away.
"Jason, you're not going to-"
"It's none of your business what I do. You're the one who decided we aren't friends anymore. Not me!"
She was taken aback by my anger.
"No! It was you!" She argued.
I rolled my eyes and grabbed the hem of my shirt, pulling it over my head. She gasped as she saw my bubbling skin and the pus coming out of it.
"See this? This was for you! You'd have gone to floor 0 if I hadn't stayed down there for so long! That's friendship! Apparently you don't care enough. So you may not have officially cut it off, but now, I am."
I pulled my shirt back on and stormed away. I ignored her pleas for me to answer her and continued on my way. I wandered to Kyle's room. He wasn't my first choice of people to talk to, but Andrew was dead, Sabrina was traitor, and Shasta hated me. I didn't have much choice.
"One sec." I heard his muffled voice through the door.
He opened the door, his hair in a mess and all he wore was boxer shorts.
"Jason!" He exclaimed.  He wrapped his arms around me.
"Are you okay?" I asked him. His breath was overwhelmingly saturated with the stench of alcohol. Beer? No, it was too strong. Whiskey.
"I'm fine." He said, slurring his words.
"Have you been drinking?"
"Nope!" He exclaimed and laughed maniacally. "Never drank a day in my life!"
He lost his balance, but I caught him.
"Okay, well then, let's just go in your room."
I led him in while he continued to laugh. As he sat down on the bed, his laughter turned into quiet sobs.
"They told me you were dead." He managed to get out.
"What?" I asked. What was he talking about
"They said you died from a snake bite or something. Some kind of venom. They said they didn't even have your body."
"They told you I was dead?" I asked.
He nodded and covered his face with his hands.
"That's why you were drinking." I concluded.
He nodded.
"You don't even like me. Why would you drink over my death?"
"Sure, I don't like you sometimes. But you're my little brother. I love you. I'm supposed to protect you and make sure that you don't get too hurt. You're the only family I have and if you're gone, then...then I'm completely alone."
Kyle loved me? He'd never said it.
"Alone? What about your girlfriends?"
"It's not like I have... connections with them. Just something to try.... I don't know."
I put my hand in his shoulder. "You're alright."
He smiled and hugged me again.
"Did you go to Floor 0?"
I nodded.
"Need any help? Treating the wounds?" He asked.
"I could use some..."
With that, Kyle nodded and found found his First Aid Kit in the bathroom and brought it out.
"Sit down. Show me what you need help with."
I pulled my shirt off for the second time and waited for Kyle's reaction. His was different from Shasta's and even my own. He looked at my chest quizzically, not gasping in disgust or alarm. He kept a straight face and dug through the bag.
"This is gonna hurt." He said calmly. I braced myself for the pain.
The moment he touched the soft rag to my skin, it felt like needles were piercing into my skin- millions of them.
I clenched my fists to stop myself from crying out.
Someone knocked softly on the door.
"Kyle?  Is everything okay?"
"Uh, Ruby. Come on in." He muttered.
"What? Kyle-"
"Sh." he hushed me. "We can trust her." I closed my mouth, though I doubted Kyle's judgement.
As the door opened, I watched as a girl, about 11 or 12, with so-dark-it-was-almost-black hair and light skin entered the room.
"Dude. She's like, 11!" I whispered to Kyle, "What's wrong with you?"
"She's 12. And she's not my girlfriend!"
"Oh." I glanced at her. "Hi. I'm Jason."
"Ruby." She replied and smiled at me. I felt like I knew her, but I didn't know from where. I'd never seen her before.
"She's... a friend." Kyle remarked.
"What?"
"A friend. I just got here a week ago." Ruby said.
"How long was I away from here?"
"Two weeks."
I closed my mouth again.
Finally, Ruby and Kyle finished mending to my wounds. When I left the room, I knew something was going on, with Ruby, but that was the least of my problems.
I was walking down the hallway when I heard Shasta's voice. She was screaming, and it wasn't a happy scream. I knew she was in trouble. Part of me wanted to help her, but part of me told me that she deserved whatever it was that she was experiencing. I knew that if I heard anyone else's screams, I would help. I searched the hallways, trying to find the room in which Shasta was.
Finally I found it. I burst into the room, and the first person I saw was the boy Shasta had been with earlier. "Jason!"
In the corner of the room, Shasta was standing.
"Jason-" She exclaimed.
The boy's hands were clenched into fists and his face was red with fury. I saw Shasta's swelling eye and instantly knew what he'd done.
"You hit her?" I spit out.
"Look, man. She's not your girlfriend anymore so it's none of your busine-"
"I don't care if we aren't together anymore. It doesn't matter! No man should lay their hand on a woman or child."
"Right." the boy said and laughed, "Whatever you say."
I lunged toward the boy, tackling him to the ground.  He grabbed at my chest, causing me to cry out in pain. I shoved him into the wall, where he proceeded to nail me in the nose with full force. I staggered backward, holding my nose.
He lunged toward Shasta, but I grabbed his arm, causing him to fall to the ground.
I kicked him in the stomach multiple times until his body went limp.
I stood up, my vision becoming blotchy from the boy's hits.
"You okay?" I asked her. She nodded, breathless.
"Okay, then I guess I'll go then."
I turned to leave the room, but Shasta stopped in front of me.
"Thank you." She said quietly.
"Don't mention it."
"But-"
I cut her off, "Seriously. Don't mention it."
"Jason-" she started again. I walked away before hearing the end of her sentence.
I found Kyle's room again, this time, I didn't leave until the next morning.