This chapter is entirely my own creation and is not in Cress.
I wrote this on a plane, a subway, and my hotel room bed. Obviously I'm not home. I can't post from my phone either, so I thought I wouldn't be able to post at all. BUT! My best friend agreed to post it for me from her computer! Yay!
Unfortunately, I can't do all the formatting I can do from my computer. My friend will try to replicate my formatting but she may not get it right... so I apologize in advance for any mistakes. I won't see it until after it's been posted.
Actually, I'm writing this right now on Thursday evening. Hi from the past!
I also can't control anything... extra she might put in here, so if anything weird happens, blame her. :)
And now onto the story!
Chapter Fourteen (the four days that pass in between chapter 43 and 44)
The meeting disbanded fairly quickly after that. Everyone went their separate ways, contemplating Cinder's proposition. Thorne got up and tapped his cane after Cinder, locking his ears onto her uneven footsteps. Huh, never noticed that before. Her metal foot made every other step louder. He tucked the information away for future reference.
"Cinder!" he said.
She stopped.
"I didn't hear a yes or a no," he said, casually leaning up against the wall. "What do you think of my brilliant plan?"
She scoffed. "I wouldn't call it brilliant."
"But you have to admit that it's good."
Instead of answering, she started walking the other direction. Thorne pushed off the wall and chased after her, nearly tripping over a misplaced... thing... he didn't know was there. "Cinder, wait!"
He crashed into her suddenly and took a step back, stabilizing himself.
"I get that you want to fix your eyes," she said, soft yet stern, "but the plan is shaky as it is. We don't need to add something else that could go wrong. I'm sorry."
He frowned. "It'll work!"
"How would you even get there? Sorry to tell you this, but you can't see and you're a wanted criminal. You're not going to be able to just ask for directions."
He gasped dramatically. "No way! Are you serious?" Thorne quirked his head to the side. "Of course I know that. Spades, I'm not stupid. Dr. Erland will go with me, and he can help. I'm sure there's lots of stuff to use as a distraction in the medical labs – after he fixes my eyes, of course."
She didn't say anything, so Thorne figured he was getting through to her and kept talking.
"We could make – stars, I don't know – an alarm go off or something."
"The letumosis alarm," she whispered.
"Sure, yeah. That'll work. So, deal?"
"No, hang on. If you do go, and you activate it, all the palace staff will come straight to you, and you don't have a way to defend yourself. And Dr. Erland is too old for that kind of fighting."
"Then we'll activate it and leave, no problem." He crossed his arms. "Just say yes."
Thorne didn't hear anything except for the subtle whirring of the spaceship all around them. Finally, he heard Cinder sigh.
"All right."
He grinned. Cinder turned and stomped off, uneven steps thumping on the ground.
oooOooo
Thorne made his way back to the galley – where Cress was waiting – not without error. He spent the better part of five minutes trying to create a map in his head of where he was to her. After a few wrong turns and several stubbed toes, he made it.
He leaned on the doorframe. "Cress? You in here?"
"Yes," she said, her small voice barely causing an echo, unlike his.
He slid his cane over the floor and found a chair, pulled it out, and sat down. "I managed to convince Cinder that my idea is brilliant," he said. "She agreed, just like I told you. You, my dear, owe me ten univs."
"What? I don't—"
Thorne laughed. "Relax, I'm joking. We don't have that much between the... let's see..." He counted all the passengers on his fingers. "Five of us. Wait, do androids count?" He figured it didn't matter. "Anyway, we're broke."
She giggled. "So, you'll go to the labs and get your eyes fixed?"
"That's the plan. Then I won't have to wear this stupid thing anymore." He tugged the bandana down around his neck and rubbed his eyes. "Personally, I can't wait until the wedding."
"You..." She trailed off. Her voice had gone suddenly serious. Thorne tilted his head, nonverbally telling her to go on.
She let out a breath slowly. "You've been very brave. I don't know how you've done it, but I just wanted to say..." She choked on her words and had to stop.
Thorne leaned forward and rested his head on his palms. "You think so?"
"Yes," she said nervously.
A warm feeling fluttered in his chest. "Well, thank you." He cleared his throat. "But if we're choosing who the bravest is, then it's you, Cress."
"What?"
"You were stuck in a satellite basically your whole life – only seven years, I know – but you still managed to survive the desert, led me through it, and you were the one that saved us from going splat on impact, anyway. You're the hero here, Cress."
"T-thank you."
Thorne grinned and thought about what she'd said. Was he brave? Did his actions make him brave? Cress seemed to think so. She seemed to... admire him. There was still a fluttery feeling in his stomach. Did that mean...
Surely not. He barely knew her.
That's not it, he thought. There's another explanation for it... I'm just anxious about the wedding!
Satisfied, he pushed his mind to other topics, but the feeling still lingered – a feeling he'd felt before, but never quite like this.
oooOooo
It was great to take a shower. Thorne was in heaven – figuratively, of course – as the water pounded on his head and the steam flushed his skin. It felt amazing. Back at the hotel in Kufra, he didn't get the chance to take one because Cress was in it and he went to play cards. Then he and Darla drove for two days straight, and then the military showed up before he even had the chance to think about it.
Thorne grimaced. He probably smelled terrible. It made him scrub harder.
The second he stepped in the streaming water, he slipped and fell against the side. After that, he was careful to stand near a wall to keep himself balanced so he didn't fall and bust his skull... he'd seen – or rather, not seen – the effects of a concussion firsthand.
But his greatest challenge of them all was trying to figure out which bottle was body soap, which was shampoo, and which was conditioner. He was pretty sure he knew which the shaving cream was, but did he really want to attempt shaving?
He sighed. I should've asked before I got in the water.
He picked up two identical bottles, one in each hand. He figured it was shampoo and conditioner, but which was which? Frowning, he set one down next to his foot and popped open the top of the other. He sniffed it. It smelled like vanilla, but with... coconut, he thought. He tested the other can and found that it smelled the same.
Then he tested their weights. One was a little heavier than the other. But he couldn't tell if it was shampoo or conditioner just on that.
So he took one bottle and squeezed out a bit of its contents into his palm and felt the consistency of it. Smooth and very similar to lotion. He thought back to when he could still see. Was it his shampoo that felt like this, or conditioner?
He tried the other bottle: waxy as opposed to the lotion.
Thorne sighed and slicked his hair back. He decided – for lack of another option – that the waxy bottle was shampoo and the lotion bottle was conditioner and got to work.
His hair required special care to make it look good – lather the front, lather the back, rub his fingers over his scalp, rinse, rinse, and rinse again. But the ladies loved it, so he did it every day.
Once his hair was properly washed, or so he hoped, he picked up what he guessed was body soap and found his rag. Then he worked to get all the sand, dirt, and grime off his body.
He stowed all the bottles back on the ledge and turned off the water, listening to the last of it drip down the drain. He dried off and stood in front of the sink, razor on his right and shaving cream on his left.
Did he dare?
He fingered his scruffy chin.
He dared.
Thorne smeared the cream over his chin and cheeks and gripped the razor in his hand. Carefully, he swiped it down his face and rinsed it in the sink.
So far, so good.
oooOooo
"How do I look?"
Thorne grinned as the conversation between Cinder and Iko stopped. He'd followed the sound of their chatting down the hall after he dressed to ask them if his shower was effective or not.
"You missed a spot," Cinder said dryly.
He frowned. "But I checked twice."
Iko giggled. "The third time's the charm?"
"You have shaving cream on your face," Cinder said. "By your ear."
Thorne felt where she said.
"Other ear."
He found the glob of cream and wiped if off. "Better?"
"There's some in your hair."
"What? I rinsed it under the water!"
"Well, it's in there."
Thorne rubbed his hands through his hair and flicked off the shaving cream – why was it in his hair?
"How about now?" he asked, smoothing down his ruffled locks.
"You're good."
"And handsome!" Iko added.
He grinned. "I try." He tugged the bandana from his neck to his eyes. "See you at dinner."
He turned and walked out the door, thoughts roaming. Even if he couldn't see himself or the soap bottles, he thought he did a fairly good job. Especially since it was his first time doing it without seeing.
Hardly anyone was blind nowadays. They either had cyborg implants or surgeries to correct the problem. Thorne had neither. His only chance of seeing again was with a crazy old Lunar doctor – not his first choice, but it was his only choice.
It really didn't matter what he looked like anyway. He had a good excuse.
A very good excuse.
Thorne's cane struck his bedroom door and he fumbled for the knob. He opened it and stepped inside, but his foot caught on the threshold that had gone unnoticed by him. He yelped and fell to his knees.
He glared at the invisible tripwire. He couldn't wait to see again.
Greetings, readers! No, this is not Disney-fied speaking (it's tragic, I know!) As stated earlier, posting in places such as a subway or cardboard box or wherever one might stay on vacation without a laptop might be difficult, so I volunteered to help post it! *Takes a bow* I apologize for any formatting that differs from Disney-fied's, and I hope you enjoyed this week's chapter!
The tally:
- the 39 reviewers!
- the 19 favorites!
- the 28 followers!
- the 3,643 views!
You guys are amazing! And on a side note: currently there are 39 reviews for this story. My friend (the wonderful writer of this story) will be returning home tomorrow late in the day. It would be awesome if we could make it 40 (or more) reviews when she returns!
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