Chapter Three
I was surprised when Reid followed me out to my car when we were all leaving Nicky's.
"Hey, Karli, wait up," he said, walking up behind me. I closed the car door and leaned against it, facing him.
"What's up, Reid?" He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when Pogue and Caleb walked up.
"We're going to take Ashley and Sarah back to the dorms and then we'll meet you guys and Tyler at the colony house," Caleb told me. I nodded and looked at Reid. He licked his lips and looked from Caleb to me. "We've got a lot of talking to do."
"Yeah," I whispered, still looking at Reid. "You need a lift?"
"Sure."
"Good, that way Gorman won't shoot at you," Caleb said.
"He's still doing that?" He flashed me a smile and nodded. He kissed my cheek and walked back to his car and Sarah sitting in the front seat. I watched him walk away until I heard Reid scoff and walk around to the passenger side of the car and open the door. "What was that for?" I climbed into the car just as he did. I cranked the car and pulled out of the parking lot. Pulling onto the highway, I glanced at Reid.
"Reid?"
"Some things never change." I waited for him to elaborate, but when he didn't, I was confused.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I see the way you still look at him, Karli." I glanced at him again.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You know exactly what I'm talking about." Of course I did, but I wasn't about to admit that I still had feelings for Caleb, especially now that he had a girlfriend.
"Whatever, Reid." We were silent the rest of the drive save for my gum popping. I knew that would get on his nerves, so I did it continually until he turned the radio up loud enough to drown me out. When I pulled to the end of the dirt road, I was surprised to see that Caleb, Pogue, and Tyler were already there. I got out of the car and slammed the door shut before I stalked to the door and through the house down to the basement. I brushed past Pogue to sit on a short wooden stool and pout.
"What's wrong?" Caleb asked, sitting on the chair beside me.
"Reid's an asshole."
"That we've established, thank you," Reid said, walking down the last three steps.
"Reid, what did you say?" Pogue asked him, walking towards him and getting in his face about it. That was the best part about being with this group, they always protected their own whether the conflict was inside the group or out.
"Nothing," he replied, staring at me.
"Do you have to start shit already? Can you at least let her get settled in?" Caleb asked him, obviously showing how pissed off he was. Reid said nothing, only took a seat across the fire pit from us.
Two hours later, and I had heard every last detail of what had happened since I'd left. The boys told me about Chase Collins who was actually related to John Putnam through Hagen, the bastard son of Goody Pope, Caleb's ascending, his father's death, that Kate and her family had moved to Georgia to get away from Ipswich, and how Sarah knew everything.
"Everything?"
"Well, she doesn't know about you," Pogue said, leaning forward to put his elbows on his knees.
"Are you going to tell her?" I asked Caleb. He shrugged and sighed.
"What am I going to say? Yeah, Sarah, I've actually been lying to you this whole time. There were actually six families, but nothing is ever said about the sixth because it's the only generation that can ascend a female, though it usually does not. Oh, and we act as though that family does not exist because our ancestors were male chauvinists and it was only mentioned in the prologue of the Book of Damnation and those pages are lost forever. The only reason we even know about all of it is word of mouth." I raised my eyebrows and looked at him. "Yeah, that'll go over real well."
We sat in silence before Tyler finally broke it.
"You ascend next week, right, Karli?"
"Yeah," I answered, not looking up from my nails.
"Are you scared?" That got my attention, so I looked him. It was common knowledge within the Covenant that a female had a 50/50 chance of surviving the ascending. I thought I was strong enough to survive it, but the thought that I might not was always there, nagging in the back of my head.
"Yeah, Tyler, I am." I looked at Reid and I saw his jaw clench before he looked away. I looked at Pogue and Caleb and got the same response both times. They didn't think I'd make it.
: x : x : x :
"How was Nicky's?" Celeste asked from the breakfast nook table. I put the boxes of cereal away and sighed. Travis had just retired to bed, so we were now free to talk about the Covenant.
"Nicky's was fine. It was the drive to the colony house that was the bad part."
"What happened?"
"Reid just, he just hasn't changed at all."
"Don't be cryptic."
"He just called me on some shit that I'm not prepared to be called on."
"Your feelings for Caleb?" I unloaded a bag of fresh vegetables and stuck them in the refrigerator, avoiding answering her. "Karlissa, talk to me."
"Yeah," I paused to push some things around, "my feelings for Caleb." Celeste and I talked. She was more like a mother to me than anything else, but she was still young at 20, and often had amazing insight into what I was going through. I told her nearly everything and she returned the favor. She never judged, only allowed me to vent before taking a problem-solving approach to every situation. I couldn't wait until she had the baby, she was going to be an incredible mother.
"Are you going to tell him that you still have feelings for him even though it's two years later?" I stuck all of the plastic bags into one, tied it, and set it aside to be recycled.
"Definitely not. He's got a girlfriend and they've been together for three months."
"Ouch."
"Yeah, and it's not fair to him for me to dump all of this onto him. He's happy, you know? And I don't want to mess that up for him."
"What if he'd rather be with you than her?"
"Then he'll find his way to me."
"Aw," she said, standing up from the table and walked over to me to hug me. "You're such a romantic."