Labyrinth of White - The Moon Trilogy - Book #1

Chapter thirty-five:

Clarity looked at the telepath. For someone who had only just awoken from a technology-induced coma, he was pretty cheerful.

She wondered what his name was. It was getting a little awkward to keep thinking of him as just "the telepath."

"August King." The telepath said, breaking her out of her thoughts. The others seemed just as confused as she was.

"What?" Clarity asked, hoping he would explain himself. It seemed to her that people hadn't really been doing that very much lately.

A smile spread across his face yet again. "You wanted to know my name. August King." He said, nodding.

"Oh." Clarity said. She didn't know how she felt about someone poking around in her head. She didn't have anything to hide, but still...

"I can stop if you want," August offered, taking another bite of his cinnamon roll.

"I don't really mind." Clarity mumbled. It was actually rather easy to communicate when she didn't have to put her thoughts into words.

"She minds. She minds very much." August said, once again gesturing with his fork in Rachel's direction. Another grin was forming on his face. Rachel shot him a look.

Johnny had been silent the whole time and he'd barely touched his food at all. For a brief moment, she wished she was a telepath so that she could figure out what he was thinking.

The table fell silent for the remaining duration of the meal.

After it was clear that everyone was done eating, Clarity grabbed the dishes and brought them to the sink, flicking up the faucet to start running the hot water. Once she added a drop of soap, she was ready to start washing.

She heard a chair scoot across the tiled floor. She saw out of the corner of her eye that it was Rachel, getting up out of her seat.

Rachel put the chair back into its original position before walking over to where Clarity was doing the dishes.

"What's up?" Clarity asked, scrubbing at an icing-caked plate.

Rachel sighed, opening her mouth to speak. It took a moment for her to find the correct words.

"I'm going to leave." She said, wincing as if she expected Clarity to react badly.

"Why? You don't have anywhere to go." Clarity demanded, drying her hands on a towel and turning to face Rachel.

"I'll figure something out. I can't stay here forever. Now is as good a time as any to leave." Rachel said, her eyes trained on the floor. She shook her head so slightly that Clarity almost didn't catch the movement.

"If you really want to, then I can't stop you, but I just hate the thought that you don't have anywhere to stay." Clarity said with a sigh. Somewhere at the back of her mind, she'd already sort of adopted Rachel as something like a sister. It hardly seemed like a mere few days since they'd met.

She heard more chair-scooting noises. Johnny and August left the room, leaving Clarity alone with Rachel.

"So I guess this is goodbye." Rachel said with a tiny shrug. She took a deep breath and held out her hand.

Ignoring the fact that she wanted to say farewell with a handshake, Clarity dove forward and enveloped her in a hug. She felt the other girl stiffen, but after a second she relaxed into the embrace.

"Goodbye, Rachel. I'll still miss you." Clarity said. She felt tears pricking the back of her eyes. It felt more like a year had passed that less than a week since she'd met Rachel.