Lex Thomas - Quaranteen

… He looked at me like I was his property. I couldn’t do it. I said no again.”

“Damn right you did,” Will said.

“What did she do then?” David said. He’d placed the stained shirt aside.

“She dragged me in front of all the girls. She tore the Pretty Ones insignia off of my sweater and said I was banished. She said I was dead to them. I kept looking at my friends in the crowd, but none of them would look back at me. And then Hilary made an announcement to all the Varsity boys that I was no longer protected by the Pretty Ones.” Lucy took a deep breath to steady herself. “She said they were free to do what they wanted with me.”

“I hate that bitch,” Will said. “I always did.” David looked at Will, but Will wouldn’t look back. David clenched his eyes shut and rubbed his temples. He wanted to forget everything he’d heard. He wanted to forget that Brad was dead too, but he couldn’t.

“I ran out of there. I was so scared. I thought they were going to pop up behind me at any second.” Lucy finally crumbled. She couldn’t get any more words out without crying. “You saved me,” she said between sobs. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that happened. And that Brad-” Lucy’s tears took her over again. David was glad. He’d heard enough.

“Sam’s gonna go crazy,” she said.

David stood. He was done. He put his tools and the shirt away and snuffed out the candles in his corner.

“I’m going to hide out here for as long as I can stretch out our supplies. Hopefully, things will cool down. You can stay tonight. Don’t eat any more of the food. I’m going to bed.” He lay down on his bed with his back to them both. He could hear Will say that Lucy could have some of his food.

Will could say what he wanted. She couldn’t stay.

David imagined Varsity swarming the corridors in search of him. He saw himself staying in this elevator for months, gripped with fear that the hatch door could be torn open at any moment. That they’d come crashing down through the ceiling, stuffing themselves into his secret home until they blocked out the light. Then they’d stomp him into the floor until he stopped breathing.

David clung to the belief there was a chance of survival. If the elevator stayed hidden and Will found a way to bring him food… If he could trust Will to keep his mouth shut, and if the girl kept quiet, and if no one saw Will come and go and no one caught him while he was out there. If all that, maybe he could last until his graduation. He could find a way to sneak all the way to the front door without being noticed, scan his thumb, and get his walking papers. He might be able to last.

In the hour it took him to fall asleep, David’s mind whirled with nightmares to come. He did his best to stay focused on the hope that he could do it, that he could get out, without ever having to answer for what he’d done.

Will wasn’t sleeping. How could he?

Lucy was there. There was only two feet between him and the girl he’d dreamed about since Wild-Trek. And there weren’t two inches between her sleeping body and David. It made him crazy. Before Lucy went to sleep, Will tried to persuade her to take his bed. She insisted on the floor. She said she didn’t want to be a burden to anyone. Once she was asleep, it was as though her body was magnetized to David’s. She tossed and turned, moving an inch closer here, two inches there. Will could count on his hand how many times Lucy had looked at him since they got back to the elevator. She had spent the rest of the time staring at David.

She was almost entirely on David’s mattress now. Was she really asleep? It would be almost worse if she was asleep.

Then she’d be subconsciously trying to spoon his brother. It was torture, and Will couldn’t take it anymore.

Will rose to his feet, quiet as a burglar. He looked down at David and Lucy, still curled up together. He knew David was asleep, his snoring had started right on cue. Will monitored Lucy for any more movement. The tear in her sweater revealed the butter-soft skin of her chest as it gently rose and fell with each breath. Were all girls this beautiful when they slept?

He could’ve stood there and watched her all night, but if he was going to leave, he had to do it now. He slid his fingers up her shoulder. He just needed to make sure that she was asleep first. She didn’t stir. He did it again, but much slower, just in case. He could still feel the summer breeze slip through the tent the night they spent together; her head on his chest; the stars twinkling through the mesh skylight overhead; the sweet smell of lemon juice in her hair.

Lucy murmured and shifted her body closer to David again.

Ugh. Why did he have to go to the bathroom after the market? He’d been kicking himself for the past year that he never made a move, never took things to the next level with Lucy.

Will had planned to ask her out on the first day of school.

When the East Wing exploded, it threw his plan off the rails, and it never seemed like the right time after that. How do you ask a girl out when the world’s ending? He wanted everything to be perfect when he asked, but once the gangs formed it was too late.

Now, out of the blue, he had a real chance, and David was trying to take it from him. Will should have been the one to save her. He would have done it. And probably wouldn’t have killed someone in the process. She should have been looking at him the way she’d been looking at David all night. It wasn’t fair.

David didn’t get to have Lucy just because he had to take a monster dump.

Will pulled one of David’s buckets off the shelf and laid it in the center of the floor, upside down. He placed his toe on the bucket and stepped up as quietly as he could. He pulled himself out of the elevator. He’d been sneaking out for months without David knowing. Usually he was satisfied just wandering around, getting into trouble, but tonight he had an actual mission. It was the beginning of a plan that would keep David alive, and keep him away from Lucy.

First step, Will had to get to his locker.

He wasn’t dumb. He knew he had to nip this David-the-hero business in the bud. It was just the kind of thing girls melted over. David didn’t deserve her; he didn’t even know anything about her. He didn’t know that she makes amazing quesadil-las. He didn’t know that she does a hilarious French accent.

But Will did. He knew everything about her.

Will stepped out of the elevator control closet and into the dark hallway. An uneasy smile stretched his lips. Ventur-ing out now, after what David had done, was idiotic. Danger

tickled his fingertips, vibrated through his arms, and sent a shiver rippling up his neck. He couldn’t stop smiling. He felt electric.

Will sprinted softly down the hallway, gaining confidence with every footfall. He hated being cooped up in that elevator.

Running through the empty halls, all alone, while everyone else slept, he almost felt like he was outside again.

Something rumbled toward him out of the darkness. He jumped into the nearby stairwell. A Skater with a spiked Mohawk bombed past on a longboard, with three full garbage bags slung over his shoulder. The skateboard’s rumble came to a stop. Will peeked around the corner. The Skater dropped his bags on the floor and jumped up to place an adhesive label on the high wall clock. It had a ballpoint pen drawing of a duck on it. The Skater picked up his bags and kicked away down the hall. Will exhaled with relief. If Will wanted to pull this off, he had to remain unseen. It was a real possibility that some gang could kidnap Will, trade him over to Varsity, and maybe use him as leverage to lure David out of the elevator.

Will ran and fantasized about his plan. He would return to the elevator with enough food for David to survive on for weeks, then announce that it was too dangerous for Will and Lucy to keep coming and going from the elevator. The two of them would have to move out and find somewhere else to live. Together. He pictured the look on their faces when he returned with arms full of food. Both David and Lucy would realize that Will had risked his life to get it. David would flip out, but that would only make Will look more brave.