NUMB

Day Forty-One (pt. 1) - Elyse

Krysta shows up at my room before it is time to be awake. Her knocking is just a soft tapping on the door, but it wakes me up all the same. Edie, of course, does not stir.

I slip out of bed and move to the door. I press my palm against the pad on the wall and the door slides open. Krysta looks like she has just rolled out of bed and walked up the stairs, which she may have. Her hair is tangled and there are still pillow creases on her cheek, but her eye is wide and her whole body radiates energy.

"Krysta?" I ask.

"Morning, Elyse! Sorry if I woke you up, I figured you'd be up. You don't sleep much, right?" She sidesteps and passes me, her back brushing my side as she comes into the room. "Oh, Edie's still asleep." She turns to me and visibly winces, lowers her voice to a harsh whisper, "Sorry!"

"It's okay. She sleeps through everything." I finally take my hand away from the pad on the wall and then press it once more, quickly, to shut the door. "Why are you here?"

"It's the Two's weeklies. They woke us up way early this time, like they're taking us in before breakfast and classes now. The Ones went yesterday, Quinn told me they did the same to him. He didn't get away though, poor kid got the shot."

"Why would they be taking you so early?"

"I don't know? Get us while we're still half asleep so we can't freaking run away from them?" Krysta folds her arms over her chest and her gaze bounces around the room.

"How did you get away?"

"Psh, easily." She blows a strand of her hair out of her face. "They corralled us all into the stairwell and during that chaos, I just slipped away and went up instead of down. They didn't even see me." She glances towards the door. "At least, I don't think they did. So, can I like camp out in here for a little while? Just until they finish up the shots? Then I will be out of your hair."

"Yeah, that's fine." I move towards my bed. "Do you want to lie down? I can get in bed with Edie. Or I can take the chair, since I probably won't be going back to sleep."

"Shit, you were sleeping? Did I totally ruin, like, the only couple of hours you've gotten?"

I look Krysta over, my eyes dropping to her bare feet and then traveling back up to meet with hers. She bites her lip, stretches her mouth into a smile. "Edie talks about you. She told me that you don't sleep all that much."

As if on cue, Edie turns over on her bed, murmurs something in her sleep. I sit on the edge of the chair and then lean backwards in it. Krysta sits on my bed and eyes me as she twists a strand of her hair around her fingers.

"So, what's going on with you and Jet, huh? Are you two, like, y'know?" She wiggles her eyebrows at me and flashes her teeth.

"I don't know what that means."

She lets her hand drop to her lap, the strand of hair she was playing with falling back into place like she had never touched it in the first place. "I mean, are you two together? Has he kissed you?" Her eyes light up with the question and she crawls across my bed so she is sitting closer to me now. "What's that like?"

"Jet hasn't kissed me," I say. I am not sure if what happened between us before he left counts as kissing. "I've never kissed anyone before."

Edie sighs in her sleep and both Krysta and I look in her direction. When it is apparent that she's still asleep, Krysta speaks, but keeps her voice down. "You never tried it at all? That must be a Three thing. You guys are so boring." She quickly tacks on, "No offense."

"It seems pointless to do it if you cannot even feel the other person there. Also, lack of emotions negates the entire purpose of kissing."

"Yeah, but it's still interesting. I bet Jet's a great kisser." She tips herself backwards and wads my pillow up under her head. "He has a really nice mouth."

I listen to her for a little while as she goes off and tells me about all the people she's kissed in the Compound, but it is easy to tune her stories out.

Instead, I find myself thinking about Jet.

And kissing.

And kissing Jet.

Thankfully, Edie wakes up and stops both Krysta's stories and my train of thought. Krysta fills Edie in on pretty much everything she had been telling me until the alarm sounds signaling breakfast. Krysta does not comment on how long she stayed in our room and nobody in the hall seems to even notice the extra girl come out, so Edie and I do nothing but share a look about it.