“He's been gone for a while,” Sky voices, looking down at the watch strapped to her wrist. “One of us should go check up on him right?”
Neith and Casey lock eyes, her gaze lingering the longest before coming out with a response. “You think?”
Sky flutters her eyelashes, unconsciously straightening her posture. “What's that supposed to mean?”
“Well we all know what he's like.” Neith replies, continuing to wrap her short curly hair around her finger. “When things get rough he pushes people away.”
Well there's not much to say to that, partly because it's true, but mostly because she doesn't feel comfortable discussing his shortcomings without him being present to defend himself.
Topher clears his throat before speaking up, twisting the silver rings on his index and pinky finger. “We've been here for quite a while and I doubt there'll be any good news soon.”
“Giving up already?” Neith asks.
“No,” he replies, going on to correct her before they start to get the wrong idea. “No, but it's getting late and we're all hungry. Right?”
“I can help with that.” Sky voices, reaching below her feet to pull out a ginormous carrier bag.
Neith shakes her head knowingly. “Did you bring the entire supermarket?”
Sky rolls her eyes before shifting through the bag, going over everything she packed. “I have sandwiches, drinks, water, fruit, biscuits, granola bars, a half eaten baguette for whatever reason-”
“-i'll take that.” Neith chimes, stealing it right from her hands.
“I bought yoghourt too but they've gone warm which, admittedly, was a small oversight, not going to lie.”
Casey lets out a huge sigh of relief. “Oh thank god, I thought I was the only one.”
“Only one?”
Before Sky can question him further on his meaning, Casey opens his unusually long trench coat, revealing an entire shelves worth of sugary contraband taped on the inside.
Neith snickers, tearing off small chunks of the baguette and throwing them into her mouth. “Okay, no, this is weird Greyson one point zero, even for you and you're like the third weirdest person I know.”
“Thanks for that,“ Casey scoffs, feeling the need to explain further, briefly closing his jacket when a nurse passes by. “The thought of eating anything that was made in this place makes me physically want to hurl.”
“You're applying an irrational fear onto something because of one bad encounter you had years ago.” Topher remarks, standing on his feet to stretch his legs. “It's, well, irrational.”
“How long did it take you to come up with that one boy genius?” Neith snickers, her amused grin only growing when left uncontested.
“It's called evolution!” Casey yells, ignoring the turning of heads in his direction.
“Wait, are those Nerds?” Neith asks, doing a double take to confirm her suspicion. “Toss them over here.”
“Not so weird now, am I?”
“Nope, still weird.” Neith retorts, playfully winking once she has her hands on what she desires.
Sky smiles fondly as her friends bicker amongst themselves, catching herself when her mind lingering on past memories that feel like world's ago.
In her experience looking back on things only causes unnecessary pain and so she chooses to keep looking towards the future.
Almost to a fault.
YOU ARE READING
The Initials | Nanowrimo 2023
Fantasy[Book 1 in the Displaced Angels Series] "You took the life of my best friend, made her life a living hell...so I took your building and everything inside, and turned it into ash." °°° Being abducted the first time was already crazy enough, but twice...
