M3RG3

Chapter 25

Monday

"When your partner happens to faint, you should always check for these five factors: Danger, Response, Airway, Breathing and Circulation," Coach droned, his voice melting away into the distance to my train of thought.

"You look far from well," Kyle interrupted my reverie, concern laced in his tone. The thought of it made my stomach flip repeatedly, for he no longer seemed to be mad at me. "You can catch up later. I'll lend you my notes."

"That's because she was attending a pivotal meeting," Lauren's snotty and nasally voice interrupted. "You know, the Revolution and stuff."

"She was at training yesterday." I detected a hint of bitterness in his tone. "I think she wore herself out."

"Humph," Lauren snorted, flipping her jet black hair over her shoulder.. "As if."

"Lauren, shut up." I muttered, glaring into her pitiless eyes. "Find someone else apart from me to pick on."

"Look, I know Arista better than anyone else, especially compared to you. I've spent enough time with her, and I know she only lies when necessary. Otherwise, she's very open and honest. So stop accusing her unless you have good evidence to do so." Kyle's tone was sharp and authoritative, each word razor sharp and hostile. Lauren flinched at his tone but quickly recomposed herself, rearranging her face into a sneer.

"For someone who's such a good friend of Arista's, you sure are dense," She retorted with a smirk, crossing her arms together smugly.

"For a person who knows me so well, you sure don't sound friendly at all," I snapped, watching her eyes narrow in revulsion as she abruptly faced the other side of the room, away from me and Kyle.

When the lecture ended, Lauren wordlessly dragged me by my hair towards the edge of the hall where it was dark enough that the cameras couldn't catch us. 

"Call the Revolution off, now," She demanded, her entire body tense like a livewire, her face pinched and stretched to a paper-thin consistency. Like me, she was tired, because of the Republic.

"I thought we had an agreement," I seethed, my fists tightly clenched.

"Desperate times call for desperate matters," She dismissed, her eyes briefly flickering to the blinking light of the camera. "Your little party is taking it too far. If you plan on stopping the Republic, don't even think about it."

"You hate the Republic, yet you side with them. Why is that?" I asked softly, searching for a flicker of humanity within Lauren apart from her indifferent and smug statuesque. Still, her eyes remained bottomless and depth less, their inky black colour absorbing all traces of light within.

"Shut up," She whispered, her body trembling like an electric live wire. "Just shut up."

Inside my mind, something about her clicked into place. "You want freedom," I started. "Freedom from all the Republic affairs, and from your parents."

"I don't-" She paused, taking in ragged and bated breaths, the indifferent mask beginning to crack. "You don't know me. At all."

"They gave you a job didn't they?" My voice rose, each syllable broiled with anger, frustration and confidence. "Track down the infiltrate and get your freedom. Once you're done, you get out. Don't, you belong to the Republic."

"Shut up!" Lauren roared, her face ashen and glistening with sweat. For the first time, her eyes glimmered with something other than her confident and chilling demeanour. A weakness. She was scared that people would know her desperation, her secrets, and who she really was. "I'm done with you." She latched a gun from the waistband of her pants, directing it at me right in the forehead. "I can't do this anymore," She whispered, flipping the safety off, her mask of indifference peeling away, revealing a broken girl who just wanted out, out from the life of the Republic.