When the Smoke Clears

james

Azure

Perhaps the one thing I didn't expect from the meeting that morning was silence. I imagined yelling, screaming, arguing. There was no sound. I didn't have much to look at besides the Ruan counterpart opposite me. I just found myself lost in his eyes; they were different than anything I had ever seen.

Before my grandmother died, she kept a small golden ring with her constantly. I always assumed it was my grandpa's, who died before I was born.

This boy's eyes were the exact color of that ring.

I couldn't help but stare at him. In the silence, there was nothing else to do. I knew my team was studying his team as well, but I felt more personal staring at him. Less trying to find weaknesses and more just admiring the view.

The silence was cut in half by a boy on their side with dark orange eyes. "Well, if no one is going to speak up, I'll introduce myself. I'm Lukas Prescott. What are your names?"

"Quinn Bartell, nice to meet you," Quinn proclaimed from beside me. Her hand twitched at her side, showing that she was going to try to shake his hand but remembered.

"Louise." A woman far across from me on the other side simply introduced.

A woman wearing red pearls raised her hand. "Beverly Erist. Are we really going to introduce ourselves like kindergarteners? It really shows the maturity of you Cians," she snapped.

Mindy Greyson rolled her grey eyes and replied, "Weren't you the reason we had to come to this meeting? Plus, it was a Ruan who suggested the name idea in the first place." She glanced at Lukas across the table.

Beverly sniffed and glared at the slightly smirking Mindy. The boy across me suddenly pounded the table with his palm.

"It doesn't matter what our names are. I honestly don't care. Let's just get our job done," he belligerently whispered.

"Alright James," A soft calming voice said from beside him.

"James is right," Quinn exclaimed, "We have a job to do."

"Well," Mindy started, "Our population sucks right now and you should give us more water."

Beverly shook her head. "If we give you our water, our population will shrink. Then we'd be back where we started."

James from across me murmured out, "Maybe if you guys would stop murdering each other, your population wouldn't be shrinking."

I was taken aback. How dare he accuse us of more illegal activity than Rua?

"What could you possibly mean by that?" My voice came out bright and clear. It was out of my character to argue, but what James was suggesting was nothing more than a rumor.

"I mean that your crime rates are rising. Your police aren't doing anything about it."

"Are you kidding?" I said, getting a little louder, "Our police are working themselves to the bone. And we don't have high crime rates! Not as high as yours."

James flinched and I knew I hit a nerve. "Perhaps we have the wrong laws in place," he mumbled, "Cian's need to control everything we do is constantly​ proving itself to be more harm than help."

"We don't-" I started, but he continued, "You do though. Your laws are crap just like your country."

"Excuse me? Our laws are to keep us safe, you idiot. Without the law, we would still be in war right now!" My voice rose. I knew it wasn't great to draw attention to myself right now, but I argued back anyways.