CODES

E I G H T

I wasn't grumpy because I was hungry; I wasn't grumpy at all. Confused, yes. Very confused.

As I sat at the table with Clara and my friends, I couldn't help but remain quiet and...listen. With my chin in my hand, my eyes scanned the restaurant. I wasn't looking at the customers eating, chatting away about the excitement in their days, no. Glancing at all the heads was a distraction, a small one, until my gaze made its way back over to Pete.

Because I heard him, clear as day. And I wasn't sure why he'd said it.

Are the troops advancing...

"Are you going to eat?" Clara bumped my arm, a slice of pizza in her hands. I gave her a side glance before weakly smiling. A look she didn't accept. And frowned at it. "I know you don't need to eat, but you like pizza."

"I do," I mumbled, glancing back at the front of D'argio's. At Pete. "But I think I lost my appetite."

"How?" Xerses heard me and chuckled. When I looked at him, he wiped his hands with his napkin and lifted his brows high. "Too excited? Is that what it is?"

Pursing my lips, I shrugged and said, "Sure."

Xerses was good at seeing through my lies. Normally, I'm pretty convincing, but even he'd catch on. Sometimes, he'd congratulate me on my ability to stay calm when I did it. Tonight, however, he shook his head.

I failed that bad, huh?

"I think Prime finally getting down to the nitty-gritty about the domes is exciting," Erica said, drinking from her glass of water. She glanced at me before looking at Xerses. "I mean, we all knew it was going to happen, but it's not a rumor anymore. It's a fact. It's happening. And it needs to."

"Seriously," Clara sighed. "I mean, take that guy, for example." Turning her head, she looked back towards Pete. "He's a great server, funny guy. And yet, he's the only Code here, probably employed to abide by some Provincial law stating they need at least one Code in their establishment or else they'll get fined or something."

"True." Erica scrunched her nose as she looked at Pete, too. "It's not right."

"No, it's not." Clara reached for her glass. "And that's where we come in."

What they were saying made me happy. I should've chimed in with them, agreeing, openly defending my people and the treatment we went through daily just because of our artificial makeup.

But I couldn't. I stared at Pete instead. Nothing about him seemed familiar; at least, nothing really out of the ordinary. He was just a Code, like me. Living, like me. When I tried to dig into my past, into the memory files I never accessed because I saw no need to, I thought I'd find him there.

And that's when I realized... I found nothing at all. My eyes widened.

"Welp, ladies." Xerses dropped his napkin on the table and pushed his chair back, standing. Erica and Clara looked at him, curious, as he made his way around the table, towards me. Pushing his hands into the pockets of his jeans, he sighed, chuckled, and looked at them once more. "Rog and I need to go outside," he said.

I blinked. What?

"Really?" Clara pouted before looking at me. "We're not even done with dinner."

"We're not leaving, baby girl," Xerses said, bumping her shoulder. "We just need to talk business, that's all."

Business? I couldn't help but clench my jaw. I knew he was going to ask me what was wrong, what was going through my head. And I wasn't sure how to answer him. A part of me didn't want him to. I wanted to remain silent, deal with what I learn,ed and heard all on my own.