Chapter Fifteen

I really miss the time when Jessica and I had the pure innocent relationship. At least everything wasn’t of life and death. But soon it became complicated.

I went with Jessica last time to a whole date thing, well we just went to a mall and ate and hanged around, after the confrontation with the four bullies, but it was great! The point wasn’t what you did, but who you were with. Now I got Skye, my only friend, inside the camp.

I was walking with ecstasy when I went back to the camp, my feet almost floating on air. I couldn’t help but smile at anything I saw, even if it was a tree. But then Skye was there, sitting under a tree, waiting for me. Her expression was grim. She looked a bit sad, and a bit nervous. Her eyes were shooting in different directions and her hands were shaking slightly as she tried to stand up; her legs seemed wobbly.

“Skye, is everything alright?” I asked her.

She scanned around and check that there was no one around, then she came over to me. “Andrew, I have something important to tell you.” Her voice was a bit higher than usual.

“Why are you making it sound so tense?” I laughed nervously, desperately hoping that she was just joking.

But she surely wasn’t.

“Andrew, I saw what you did.” She couldn’t even look right at me. Her hands were clasped tight together.

“What?”

“The four guys who tried to hurt the girl you loved. Jessica.”

Oh shoot, she saw everything!

“I understood what you meant by love,” she continued, “at least a bit. I realized I must not keep this from you anymore. I’m supposed to be a spy from the Higher Officials to monitor your daily activities.” She blurted out the last sentence quickly, hoping to not linger on this topic a second longer.

“You’re what?” I didn’t know what to say. It shocked me. I trusted her! And now she was telling me she was supposed to betray me?

“I’m sorry Andrew. I really am. I know I should have told you this earlier.” She said it with so much guilt in her voice that I even felt a bit sorry for her.

“But why are you telling me now,” I said accusingly. It was hard to conceal my anger.

“Because… I don’t know, but my heart is telling me that I must not keep this from you anymore, in order for our friendship to continue, or whatever’s between us.”

My logical sense is slowly coming back to me. I shouldn’t be so accusing to her, at least she told me now. She probably broke fifty rules just by doing that, yet she risked it. However it was still a bit hard to convince myself completely.

“What were you supposed to do?”

“I’m supposed to track where you go everyday and report to them, but I promise I didn’t tell them anything about Jessica or love or emotions. I made up things.” Skye looked anxious trying to make the point. It was hard not to believe her.

“Is that why you are following me?”

“Only partially.” She said it with a changed expression. Her face seemed lit up a bit.

“Okay. It’s okay.” I actually meant it when I said it. I would still trust her, because she trusted me with this big intel.

Skye stood there in silence, expecting a barrage of bad words and disdainful looks, but I gave her none.

After a minute or so she replied, “Aren’t you gonna be really angry and do anything?”

My hands were clenched in fists, but my logical mind took control.

“No, I shouldn’t blame you. it was the order from the Higher Official, and everyone would have obeyed them out of fear. And you put a lot at risk to tell me this. Just tell me that everything you told me about yourself is true.”

“Yes, every word.”

“Then you have earned my forgiveness,” I smiled for a bit.

Skye finally relaxed. It should be time to change a topic.

“Did you see the announcement in the village about the oncoming dance?” I asked Skye.

“Yes, I heard a bit about that.”

“It said all high schoolers were invited right?”

“Yeah.”

“We are technically high schoolers aren’t we?” I made an evil-looking grin. Skye laughed.

“Oh Andrew, what are you gonna do?”

“You know exactly!”

Again she smiled. She looked ten times prettier when she smiled. But the things she experienced traumatized her, if those were true. Of course those were true! Skye risked her life to tell me this.

“You will bring Jessica?”

“Uh-huh. I’ll try at least. There is probably half the the school pursuing her.”

“You wanna go to the village again?” Her eyes refocused back to me.

“Sure, why not!”

This was hope.