Chapter 7: Apologize to the "Chud"

Sam's POV

"What happened?" I demanded.

"Diana!" Caine said desperately. "She left, just suddenly."

I sighed. "What did you do, Caine?" Back in the days of the FAYZ, Diana was Caine's right hand, and he was – and most likely still is – in love with her. Now, soon after he had left when the FAYZ went down, Diana wanted nothing to do with him, but I could tell by the hint of her attitude, she wanted him back. Now that he's back, she kept pushing him away.

"Me?! I didn't do anything!" he almost yelled.

People had started to pay attention. "Caine, calm down for a moment, will you?"

He sighed.

"Now, tell me what happened."

"I kind of asked her to dance. She reluctantly agreed – which, by the way, I hadn't expected – and we started to slowly dance. Out of nowhere her expression showed fear and she immediately ran off."

"Did she tell you why?" I asked. This is stupid, why am I even bothering to ask? Oh yeah, he's my brother.

"She said….'I can't do this' or something."

I frowned. "Can't help you there, brother," I told him.

He sighed. "I have to go after her, she still goes to Coates, right?"

I shook my head. "You're not going, Caine. You just came back. I promised Mom I'd let her see you as soon as I could."

"Sam!"

"No." I said firmly, and then softened up. "Just enjoy the party." I turned to see Astrid and Taylor watching. I hid a smile as I walked over to them.

"Good job, Sam." Taylor complimented sweetly. Taylor always struck me as a sweet girl, since I got to talk to her after the block incident Caine caused. But this is different. This is the real world, not some sphere.

"Thanks Taylor," I said kindly and took Astrid's hand. She smiled and Taylor took the cue to leave.

"Nice job, Mr. Mayer." She teased.

I laughed softly. "I'm not the mayor anymore. There's no more FAYZ."

"So?" her intelligent smile shined at me. "Someone kind of wants to apologize."

"What?" I asked confused.

She looked ahead. "Come."

I looked and saw Zil, the now 9th grade boy coming up to apologize.

"H-hey," he said hesitantly looking at the ground.

"T'sup?"

"I-I'm sorry for, you know, being all bold and stuff for the 'normals'." He told me.

I remembered that night clearly. Caine had the power plant and I had gone back to town to see Astrid, to keep me sane. There were a large group of kids asking questions.

Zil stepped out from the crowd. He planted one fist on his hip and pointed at me with the other. "You're supposed to be the big boss."

I didn't' say anything. Was this young boy challenging me? The crowd silenced.

"You're the big boss of the freaks," he yelled. "But you can't do anything. You can shoot laser beams out of your hands, but you can't get enough food, and you can't keep the power on, and you won't do anything about that murderer Hunter, who killed my best friend." He paused taking a breath. "You shouldn't be in charge!"

Whoever was talking, became silent and the crowd just watched. I nodded to myself, almost in agreement. I got up on the passenger seat. Suddenly, I wanted to scream at him. But I knew that wasn't going to be a good idea. I managed to keep a blank face and a calm voice. "You want to be in charge, Zl? Last night you were running around trying to get a lynch mob together. And let's not even pretend that wasn't you responsible for graffiti I saw driving into town just now."

"So what?" his voice demanded. "So what? So I said everyone who isn't a freak is thinking."

My patience was running low. He said "freak" like it was an insult.

I stopped thinking about it before the worst part came. Astrid squeezed my hand gently. "I know, it's just you couldn't understand how hard it was to be out there."

"So we're cool?"

I nodded. "Yeah, we're cool. We'll pretend just like it never happened." I said. But I knew that I could never forget what the FAYZ caused in Perdido Beach.