The Apocalypse of Plants

Morgan

I watch Laina fall asleep. She tosses and turns and a frown has taken up residence on her face. I wonder what she's dreaming about. Hopefully not her brother.

Then I turn to Kenzie, who's smirking in her sleep. I wonder if she's actually asleep. I doubt it. She suddenly stirs and opens her eyes to find me staring at her. Her smirk widens.

"What's going on, Morgan?" she asks and props herself up onto her elbows.

"Nothing," I say with a scowl. "I'm watching. You should be sleeping." She laughs.

"Nonsense. I'll sleep when I'm dead."

"That might be a little sooner than you're expecting," I grumble.

"Is that a threat?" Suddenly, I'm so mad. She looks exactly like Mother Nature from my dream and I'm so afraid of her hurting Laina. I just want her to go away and stop ruining everything. She's already ruined Laina's and my relationship. What's next?

"I don't know, is it?" I growl. I don't know if it's possible, but her smirk widens even more.

"For yours and Laina's sake, I hope it's not." In an instant, my hands have closed around her throat.

"What does that mean?" I snarl, squeezing her throat tighter with each word. And she still has the nerve to smile.

"Let go of me, or I'll scream and wake everyone else up," she rasps. My eyes narrow.

"You wouldn't. You're bluffing," I say, hoping I'm right.

I'm wrong. She lets out a blood curdling shriek and everyone else bolts up and looks around frantically. Kenzie smirks and pulls me to her by my sweatshirt laces and kisses me. I freeze in shock.

Then she pushes me away and slaps my face. "Get off of me!" she screams.

"Wha-what-what's going on? You kissed me!" I splutter.

"Okay, what is happening?" Tally shouts, grabbing me by my hood and pulling me away. Oh no. I spin around to see Laina, her eyes filling with tears. But her expression is filled with fury.

"He kissed me!" Kenzie says, pointing at me. I don't even try to defend myself. There's no point.

"Morgan, is this true?" Tally asks. I glare at Kenzie, who raises her eyebrow at me. Then her eyes dart to Laina and Kenzie smiles wickedly.

I don't say anything. My head falls and my shoulders slump. Whoever this girl is, she's won. I don't know if she has anything to do with my dream, the one with Gaia, but Kenzie is evil. Pure evil. I'm not even sure if there's a reason.

"Yeah," I mumble. I should say that Kenzie's lying. I should defend myself and protect Laina at the same time. But I just feel so weak.

I glance up at Tally's disbelieving face. Then I look at Laina, whose jaw is set and is determinedly staring at a tree. Preston's eyes are wide.

"That's unexpected," Tally says finally, breaking the silence. "Kenzie, are you okay?" My jaw drops open. She's seriously asking if Kenzie's okay? What about me?

Kenzie sniffs and wipes her nose with the back of her hand. "I'll be alright." Laina walks over and pats her on the back. "I'm good, I'm fine."

"Well, we might as well start walking to Miami now that we're all up," Tally says. I make a mental note to thank her later for switching the subject.

"Sounds good to me," Laina says. Preston nods his head in agreement. We all turn to Kenzie.

"Sure," she says, a smile spreading across her face.