"Oh, right... I brought my DoD notice to show you." Bo started to reach into his bag, but Luna grabbed his hand before he could find what he was looking for.
"No! I already told you Bo, I don't want to see it."
"Ah, c'mon Lu. It's no big deal. It doesn't even matter, you know that."
"I don't care. I still don't want to see it. Just thinking about it freaks me out."
While Luna didn't turn 17 until the spring, Bo had celebrated his 17th birthday 2 weeks ago and as such he'd already received his day of discontinuance notice. 21 days. That's what he'd gotten. Just 3 measly weeks. Other than Gary's notice of just 10 days, it was the lowest number received by anyone she knew.
Thankfully in Bo's case it didn't really "matter", at least not as much as it normally would. Since both of Bo's parents had died before he turned 17, he'd been granted a 25 year "addendum" by the state to be added to whatever number of days he received. So, while you couldn't really fully escape the shock factor of receiving a notice with such a small number of days, as it stood, thankfully Bo was set to live to the ripe old age of 42 years, 21 days old. What a freaking messed up world they were living in... that they could be any sort of "happy" or even have some semblance of gratitude for being told "No, we're not going to kill you right now. We'll let you live for a while - you're welcome - then we'll kill you later." What a crock.
"Lu. Lu... stop it! Are you ok Lu? Let me look at that."
Luna quickly shoved the sleeve of her sweater back down to cover the lines of scratches on her arm that she'd obviously been aggravating again while lost in her thoughts.
"It's nothing. Don't worry about it" she said coldly. She sat and stared at the back of the seat in front of her. A moment or two of awkward silence passed before she continued.
"And yes Bo, I'm ok." She flashed Bo an intentionally over the top fake, toothy smile. "Why wouldn't I be?". Her voice was edged with bitter, angry sarcasm. "Just don't show me that stupid letter" she mumbled as she slouched back down in her seat and turned to stare out the window.
YOU ARE READING
DISCONTINUED
Teen FictionCertainly they could trust that those in power ultimately had the best interests of the people in mind, right? ~~~ Luna slouched low in her seat, staring at droplets of water that ran diagonally down the window of the bus. The sky was a flat, depre...
