Purple

Twenty-Eight

Dedicated to Areesal

"She'll be okay," Ruby said. "They'll take care of her. She should be with her family. Her real one."

Luce scoffed as Liam said, "She should be with us." He shook his head, his breath catching in his throat.

"Then maybe we should follow her."

Liam, Luce, and Ruby turned to look at Chubs.

"You know we can't," Liam said. "Not yet."

"Why not?" Chubs asked as he went toward them, his voice losing its calm.

Luce and Ruby glanced around as they saw some other kids look at them. The two looked at each other, both sharing a look that they thought the same thing. So, to get away from the attention, they took the two away from the main path.

"Why not?" Chubs repeated. "Clearly we aren't going to get the help we need to track down our parents. It'd be better for us to just go now before anyone misses us. We could still catch up with her."

"I'm not leaving my brother," Luce told him as she crossed her arms. She shook her head. "I just found him."

"Then take him with us," Chubs told her like it was an obvious idea that she could have thought of herself.

"And do what?" Liam asked. He ran a frustrated hand through his already messed-up hair. "Wander around until we just so happen to stumble on them? Hope that we don't get our asses caught and thrown back into camp? Chubs, it's safe here. This is the place we're supposed to be—we can do so much good from here."

And that was the wrong thing to say. Proof: Chubs' nostrils flared and his lips twisted with anger. Whatever words were going to come out of his mouth, they would not be positive at all.

"I get it—I get it, Lee, okay?" He shook his head. "You want to be the big hero again. You want everyone to adore you and believe in you and follow you."

Liam tensed. Angrily, he began, "That's not-"

"Well, what about the kids who followed you before? What about Jack, and Brian, and Andy, and all of them? They all followed you, too, it's easy to forget about them when they're not around, isn't it?"

"Chubs!" Luce said as she stepped between the two before anything could happen. Looking at the two, she could see they were obviously pissed.

"Can't you just admit you're doing this to make yourself feel better, not to actually help anyone else?" Chubs demanded.

"You think..." Liam almost couldn't get the words out. "You think you're not in my head every goddamn second of every goddamn day? You think I could ever forget something like that?" He didn't hit Chubs, but instead, he hit himself by banging his fist against his forehead until his arm was caught. "Jesus Christ, Charles!"