Wilde Card, page 37
“Didn’t anyone ever teach you not to throw knives?”
Zeta’s eyes were twinkling. “It was a throwing knife…”
Oh, my God. Tia decided to step back. She didn’t want to be involved in this any more than she had wanted to see Jay tonight. Zeta could handle herself - he wouldn’t hurt her, not really.
Jay tilted his head. “Funny girl.”
His arm flew out so fast that it didn’t even make sense for Zeta to twirl gracefully into his embrace. In a parody of a dance move, she wrapped her fingers around his outstretched arm, brought her knee up into his groin and then flipped him over her shoulder as he doubled over. He hit the mat with a groan. Zeta pinned him to the floor with her knees. The whole manoeuvre took less than 5 seconds.
“Remember earlier on, when you thought I couldn't fight back?” A very cheeky grin slid across her face. “That was because I didn’t want to.”
Her point made, she stood up and held her hand out to help him up. He watched her instead, an expression Tia recognised as respect growing in his eyes. He was trying not to grin - he was always quick to laugh at himself, something she had liked about him. She found that she wasn’t so amused anymore, not at the way he was looking at Zeta, and not at the flirtatious way she cocked her hip over him. He accepted her hand. He stooped a little, undoubtedly in pain from the connection her knee had made.
“Well.”
Zeta smiled sweetly. “All warfare is based on deception.”
“You kicked my arse, and now you’re quoting Sun Tzu. Are you the girl of my dreams?”
And Zeta did something then that sent heat roaring through Tia’s head. She blushed.
23 - Semantics
There comes a time in every person’s life - at least once - when they must admit that they have been a fool. The coffee is strong and the embarrassment even more so.
Tia was experiencing this moment.
She had not slept throughout the night, had tossed and turned instead. At the first sign of movement within the tunnels, she was up and dressed. She sweated it out for a few hours in the sparring room with a lovely girl whose name she hadn’t bothered to memorise. She had let her body’s defences flow through her with all the passion of an artist...and now had a new scar on the side of her neck to show for it. Though exhausted, she was not satisfied. She was, in fact, far from it. She had been up all night thinking about the predicament she had gotten herself into.
Or rather, the predicament she needed to get herself out of.
“Raghida!” Tia called, relief, desperation.
Raghida, from her seat at the back of the library, was barely recognisable as a separate entity from Eliza. Their heads were close together, bent over the table, whispering. At the sound of her name, however, Raghida turned around. She was laughing at something, her mouth suspended into an ‘O’. Tia didn’t wait for an invitation - she dropped into the spare seat at their table.
“Hi, Tia,” Eliza murmured, her voice softer than usual, her cheeks only a few shades lighter than her hair. She was embarrassed. Or shy. Tia didn’t really care which, or if even either. She replied half-heartedly before saying, “Can I get a minute with Raghida, please?”
Eliza was standing before Raghida could even open her mouth to protest. Tia smiled, for real this time. “Thank you. I’m sorry, I need her advice. I won’t be long.”
She did like Eliza; she had a kindness to her face that she certainly hadn’t inherited from her mother. Tia watched as she walked off, the heel of her boots ringing off the library floor. There were only a few people around, very little of them actually reading books. She met Raghida’s eyes again and saw that she was not pleased.
“I haven’t had alone time with Eliza in ages-”
“I’m sorry...this is important,” Tia pleaded.
“Somebody better be missing a limb,” Raghida quirked a thick eyebrow. “Is somebody missing a limb?”
“Somebody’s about to be missing a limb. Or two. Or all.”
Tia sat back in the chair and sighed. She needed to calm down before she attracted attention to herself. Jay was well known in the Tunnels; his fighting skills were so good that he was the go to guy for most new Rebels. She didn't want any of this conversation to find its way back to him. Not unless she was ready to talk to him about it herself.
“Tia, what's going on?”
“I...am...stuck...in what you'd call - what you have called - a love triangle.”
Raghida laughed, although it was not unkindly. “Oh, my God.”
“It's not really funny!” Tia scowled. “I went from having no romantic interests in my life to having too many. I don't even know what to do. I shouldn't even be talking about this; I have more important things to do!”
“That's the thing about falling in love...you don't have a choice anymore. You should be thinking about things that matter, you're right. But now these are the things that matter.”
Tia scoffed. “I'm not falling in love.”
Raghida tilted her head and her curls fell over her face. She pushed them back leisurely and fixed an amused look at Tia. There was silence as Tia was forced into self-reflection. Could she honestly say that she didn't have feelings for both Jay and Talia? She missed both of them when she wasn't with them...was that enough evidence? She asked Raghida as much and she shrugged.
“I can't tell you how you're feeling, Tia. But do you maybe think that with one of them, you miss them because you're just close?”
“Maybe. But which one?”
“You know what I do when I need to make my mind up? I make a list.”
Tia was sceptical. “A list? Come on, Raghida, these are my emotions. What is a list going to achieve?”
Raghida tore out an empty page from the back of the book in front of her. She drew a crude line down the middle and labelled one column Jay and the other Talia. “Tell me what makes Jay so great.”
Oh, dear. Tia’s brain short-circuited. She'd never sat down and thought about Jay. She pictured him in her mind’s eye, the scar on his back, the habit he had of quirking his mouth when he was being sarcastic.
“He's very kind.”
“And…?”
“He…” she thought some more. “He's confident; the most confident person I've ever known, and it kind of pushes me to believe more in myself too.”
“And…?”
“He acts like a bimbo-”
Raghida laughed. “Really? You're gonna call Jay a bimbo?”
“He acts like one! But he's actually very smart, and he has a lot of talent. He gives off the appearance that everything just falls into his lap but he's fought for it all.”
Raghida wrote it all down in her flowery scrawl. Tia watched the words appear on the page with a kind of void in her stomach. It was like watching a part of her future take place on paper.
“Okay, and what makes him not the one?”
“Come on, you're his best friend. You know those things already-”
“Tia.”
Raghida was watching her carefully. She looked tired. Tia sighed. She thought about the way Jay had approached her the very first time they were alone together. She thought about the way he had refused to teach her the throwing stars out of a senseless need to be protective. She thought about the way he had treated her after being rejected.
“He feels that he’s entitled. He's vain and arrogant and entirely too flirtatious.”
“Good. More.”
“He tried to get me to believe that he only had eyes for me but the second I pushed him away, he practically ran to Zeta,”
Raghida stopped writing and looked up. “Oh.” She dropped the pen. “That's what this is about.”
“What?” Tia paused in the middle of her tirade.
“You're jealous.”
“I am not.”
The pen was rolling towards the edge of the table. Tia watched it wobble precariously before it pitched to the ground. When she looked up, Raghida had raised her eyebrows and was obviously waiting for her to explain herself. She shrugged, “I'm not. I think subconsciously I'm just distracting myself. It would make sense, right? There's a lot going on right now; what better way to distract than with boys?”
“Wow, you're really reaching.”
“Reaching for what?”
The girls jumped at the interruption. They turned to see Chloe standing behind them, her familiar scowl in place. Tia rolled her eyes. “I don't remember either of us inviting you into the conversation.”
Chloe laughed, once - sort of like a bark. She took the third chair, flipping it around and straddling the seat. Tia couldn't help but wonder who she was trying to impress. There was something different about her, though Tia couldn't quite put her finger on it.
“That's the beauty of being friends, I don't need an invitation.”
Tia and Raghida exchanged a loaded look. It was Raghida who spoke. “I've been a Rebel for just under a year now and you've never so much as waved at me…”
Chloe tilted her head reptilian-like. “Semantics. I acknowledged your presence, I just didn't need to advertise it.”
“Oh, my God. You're so odd,” Tia shook her head. “What do you want?”
“I come bearing gifts.” Chloe’s round face widened into a smile. “My date with Kal went well, thanks for asking.”
“I didn't.”
Tia had heard all about it from Kal. He, surprisingly, had enjoyed their trip to Roger’s - a small and quiet affair not far from the university. He hadn't given her too much detail over text message but Tia knew enough to confirm that Chloe wasn't as big of a bitch as she pretended to be. He hadn't wanted to ask Chloe out but Tia told him she needed it done to help her get answers and he had never been any good at saying no to Tia.
Now Chloe looked like the cat who'd got the cream. She leaned over the table, her makeshift bangles falling to her wrists. It really was terrifying to see her happy.
“So anyway, whilst I was doing my dailies in Summer’s office, I overheard her on the phone. She was booking herself in for an appointment in Bloc 3.”
Tia and Raghida shared the same confusion. “So?” Raghida asked.
“She's going in for an insemination. Her own words.”
Tia’s heart threatened to catapult through her chest. She sat forward so fast that the legs of her chair wobbled. “Chloe, if you're fucking with me-”
“Not this time.”
An insemination. Tia smiled slowly. “This could be exactly what we needed. Tell me exactly what she said.”
“She said she appreciated the fact that they had reserved a slot for her, she was sorry to waste their time but her plans had fallen through and she was ready. Then she made arrangements for insemination at Bloc 3.”
“When?” Raghida asked.
“In a week, on her day off.”
A week would give her just enough time to get everything together. Because a plan was forming in her mind and she was already lost in the intricacies of it.
◆◆◆
It took her an hour to fully formulate a second infiltration attempt. She practically ran through the Tunnels to find Talia. She caught stares, a few whispers, some laughs. She didn't care.
Tia found her in the Council room and had to wait outside until her meeting was finished. Tia leaned against the wall and tapped her foot impatiently, glancing at the time on her phone every time she felt that more than two minutes had passed. When the door opened, she catapulted herself in and closed it before Talia - the last one to leave - could do so. She was surprised to see Tia, and was taken aback by her fervent behaviour.
“Something’s come up that I need to talk to you about,” she said.
Talia lowered the folder in her hand to the table. She looked tired, a dull shine to her eyes. Despite this, Tia’s heart still gave a painful twist at the sight of her.
“Hello to you too, Tia.”
Tia waved the comment away. “Summer was overheard talking; she booked herself in for insemination at Bloc 3-”
“Wait, what?”
Her tone was enough to give Tia pause and she scrutinised her expression. She looked...shocked. It wasn't something she expressed easily, Tia realised. “She's booked in for a week’s time. She told them that her plans had fallen through...”
“Wow,” she huffed out a laugh that sounded more like a sigh. “I was part of her plan?”
Tia approached her as she tried to place her emotion. Talia was shocked, but was she upset? The second question that was taking centre stage in Tia’s mind was: if she is upset, what is she upset about? She looked up as Tia came to stand in front of her. She was wearing a navy blue jumper that brought out the darkness in her iris. She hadn't bothered to iron it so the creases were extensive. She looked tired.
“Talia, does this upset you?”
She looked away briefly, thoughtfully. “I...don't know. But I shouldn't be surprised, really. She wanted children young.”
Tia couldn't help but laugh. Young? Talia caught the joke and even she couldn't resist the tiniest smile. “Okay, yes, you don't need to make your tried and tested joke. So what's your plan?”
She had changed the topic quickly - Tia’s mind was still in overdrive so she didn't stop to think about how she had avoided giving her a clear answer. She would address it later. “I need you to be my Trojan horse.”
“Your Trojan horse? As in Troy, that story they told us in college?”
“Yes. Summer is already booked in. According to Chloe, the only information she gave on the phone was her name and her date of birth.”
Talia caught on quickly. “So you want to send someone in her place.”
“No, I’m going in her place.”
Talia’s face deadpanned. “What? Are you crazy?”
“Well you can’t do it; you’d stick out like a sore thumb plus I need you for other parts of the plan.” Tia shook her head. “It has to be me. I need you to go to Summer one last time. I need documents for identification.”
That didn't sit well with Talia. She dragged a hand over her face. “The last time I ‘went to her’, she stabbed me. Are we forgetting that?”
Without even thinking about it, Tia’s hand gravitated towards her arm and her fingers fluttered briefly over the material where the scar would be. She lowered her hand, “Talia, if she tries to hurt you again, I’ll make sure she regrets it for the rest of her lonely life.”
The words were more acidic than she had meant them. She had a harsh burning in her chest for the scars on her body, and a newly formed defensive mechanism for anyone who hurt her. Talia’s eyebrows rose at her tone. Tia made herself laugh so that she would think it was a joke. Even though it wasn't.
“What do you want me to do?”
Tia felt her shoulders relax. Okay, okay. If Talia had refused, her whole plan would have fallen in on itself. She suddenly felt giddy on the idea of finally bringing the Bloc down. She realised that she was standing close enough to Talia to feel her breath fan across her cheeks. She took a step back, raising her eyes to meet Talia’s.
“I need you to get her to take you back to her house-”
“Tia!”
She ignored her. “You need to find out where she keeps all her private documents and then you need to keep her distracted so that I can sneak in.”
Talia sank her hands into her hair and ruffled it until it was standing at odds. Now that it wasn't so long anymore it was an adorable look, giving her the appearance of having just rolled out of bed. She pushed the thought away, of Talia in bed.
Talia was trying not to raise her voice. It was a visible effort on her part. Her jaw always tensed up - one of her tells that she didn't know she had. Grandpa Adrian had taught Tia how to play poker as soon as she was old enough to deal a deck and she liked to think of herself as very adept at identifying tells. Also, she just knew Talia too well.
“Why is it so hard to say no to you?” Was what Talia did say.
She smirked. “I'm my mother's daughter.”
The mention of Jessie, however, wiped the smile right off her face. Talia, not one to miss anything, noticed. “How is she anyway? Everything okay?”
She hadn't told anyone about the argument she'd had with her mother. Even Adrian wasn't aware that it was still ongoing. She had assumed that Jessie would be the first to crack…but she had assumed wrong. Jessie was as strong as they came and she didn't back down. It was one of the reasons both Andy and Tia had always loved her. Now, it was a point of irritation, stuck in her craw like bread in her windpipe.
“Yes,” was her only reply.
She wasn't sure why she lied - it was something that just happened. Nothing was okay, everything was wrong - but she didn't want to talk about it. Talia tried to fix everything; if she knew Tia had an issue, she would try to fix it...but that wasn't what Tia wanted right now. Right now, she wanted to be angry at Jessie and she wanted to ruminate in all her tempestuous emotions until her soul was satisfied. She tried to keep all of this out of her expression. Talia was sceptical, obviously, but didn't push the topic - she knew all too well about harbouring secrets.
Talia backed up to the table and sat back on the surface. “So when do you want to do this?”
“Soon. I've got some stuff to take care of before then.”
“Alright. Keep me updated?”
Tia sighed in relief. “I will. And Talia?” She laid a hand on her arm. “Thank you for doing this. It means a lot.”
Her responding smile was as heartwarming as it was exasperated. “After all these years you still seem surprised when you get your way.”
Tia narrowed her eyes. “What does that mean?”
“Never mind Tia,” Talia shook her head as Tia withdrew her hand. “I'll see you around.”
Tia knew a dismissal when she heard one. She thanked her again before leaving, a thousand cogs whirring away in her brain. She needed to find Raghida and tell her the good news. Tia felt a pang; only last week she would have been looking for Raghida and Jay. But things had changed. He was licking his wounds and she had more important things to worry about. She couldn't help but wonder, however, how she would be taking it if it was Natalia who had decided to stop talking to her...again. It would be painful, to say the least. Raghida’s words were floating in the back of her mind, about being jealous.
