Gene. Sys. by Aaron Denius (best ereader for comics txt) 📕

at his picture. I wait for Ev to say what she thinks.

“I don’t know, Atom. There is something about him that just feels off.” She treads carefully.

“Yeah,” I agree. “I think we move him to the Mutineer pile.”

“Okay.” Ev exhales and moves him to the pile of Mutineers. There are only four people in that pile. We add Dr. Dennis O’Neal along the way, but he doesn’t garner much thought since he’s dead.

Among the last few files, we come across Dr. Peters and Dr. Metzger. Ev and I both decide that we don’t know enough about either to pass fair judgment, so we put them in the ‘no’ pile but choose to keep an eye on them. After a few more files, we come to the end.

“Did you see Brianna’s file?” Ev looks at me.

“I don’t remember seeing it,” I say. I thought we were attentive, but we could have just missed it with the number of files we just went through. “We must have accidentally moved her to the ‘don’t know’ pile.”

“I guess.” Ev scowls. She steps back and takes a seat next to me on her bed.

“How do you like her in your Language class?” I’ve been wondering if Ev likes the choice I made for her.

“The class is great! She’s hilarious too. I’m actually looking forward to the next class. We start learning Eastern languages like Japanese and Chinese.” She smiles at me and leans back in her bed.

“What languages did you already learn?” I ask.

“Aprendi Espanol, et Francois, und Deutsch, e Italiano.” She giggles.

I laugh as well. “Show off.”

“What did you learn?” She looks across her bed at me.

“I can build shelter anywhere and out of anything.” I smile back at her.

“That’s so cool.” She lights up. “So what is it we are doing tomorrow instead of the simulation?”

I turn over to face her. I’m excited to share. “We are playing a game of Breekbal against the drones.”

“Really? What if someone gets hurt?” She sits up, concerned.

“Dr. Peters will be there, and we need this. I think this will help bring us all together as a team. We need to learn to rely on each other,” I state, not giving her a chance to change my mind.

“You’re right. I hope it works,” Ev says absentmindedly. Her eyes look into mine, and her face gets serious. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.” I’m a little wary of what she might ask.

“Do you like me?” she asks, her eyes getting watery.

I don’t know what she means by that question. Why wouldn’t I like her? “Of course.”

She forces a smile, but the movement of her muscles breaks the dams holding her tears back. She wipes her cheeks and looks away. “I’m sorry.”

“Why? Don’t be sorry.” I really don’t know what to do or why she’s crying. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” she says through her tears while shaking her head to the contrary. “I just don’t know if I can handle all of this.”

“That’s why we are doing it together.” I put my hand on her back. My heart breaks for her, and I don’t want her to be sad.

She turns to me and looks through her puffy eyes. “Can you just hold me for a little bit? I don’t want to be scared.”

I smile at her and pull her into me. She rests her head on my shoulder, and then we fall onto our backs. We fall back a little too quickly, because when our heads hit the mattress, our foreheads collide.

“Ow.” I put my open hand on my forehead.

“Oh no. I’m so sorry.” She kisses her hand and places it on top of mine. We look at each other and smile.

“It’s okay. It’s all going to be okay,” I reassure both of us.

I caress her head as we both lie quietly. My mind races with thoughts of the Mutineers, Breekbal, and the outsiders. For a brief moment, I think about how comfortable this feels, but then my mind returns to the other thoughts, specifically the game tomorrow and what the best strategy will be.

I shiver awake, unaware of my surroundings. It isn’t until I roll my head over and see Ev that I realize I fell asleep in her bed. I have both arms wrapped around her. My movements must have woken her up because she rolls over to look at me.

Her smile quickly shifts to anger, and she stands next to her bed. “What are you doing?”

“What?” I sit up.

“Why are you in my bed?” she yells at me.

I stand up, confused. “You asked me to hold…”

“I didn’t ask you to sleep in here!” She scowls at me.

Why is she acting like this? “I’m sorry. I must have just…”

“What about Fe?” she demands.

“What about her?” I feel my voice rising.

“You kissed her, Atom!” Tears streak down her cheeks. “You can’t do that and then do this!”

“It was an accident!” I’m yelling now. “And you asked me to hold you. I did that because I’m your friend.”

“Is that what I am? A friend?” She stops yelling and speaks through her tears.

I feel tears breaking free from my eyes as well. “Yes. I don’t know. What do you want me to say, Ev?” I plead with her.

She just stares at me. She walks to her door and opens it. “Please leave.”

“Ev? Talk to me,” I beg. She doesn’t answer, so I have no other option but to leave. The second I step through the threshold, the door slams behind me.

CHAPTER XVI

There are still a couple of hours before my class, so I head back to my room and lie in my bed. I can’t wrap my head around Ev’s reaction, but it explains why she had been acting weird before. Fe must have told her about the kiss. Why would she do that?

With my head a complete jumble, I know that I’m not going to be able to get back to sleep before class, so I sit up and look at all the monitors in my