Undesirable

Chapter 3

The moon is high in the sky, the streets are quiet, and I've been staring at my letter for a good couple of hours now. I suspect my father is fast asleep in his chair, whilst Mother is washing up the plates from the table, listening to him snore.

It's around about ten o'clock, Karissa's bedtime. She has already had her nightly argument with our mother about how none of her friends have bedtimes, and that she thinks she is old enough to go to bed when everyone else does. This usually drags on for ten minutes or so, before she storms up the stairs and slams her door shut in defeat, loud enough for the whole village to hear. I was the same when I was her age, and now I crave nothing more than sleep. It's funny how the tables turn.

Shortly after, Ana slides through the doorway and sits down on the bed. We are sharing a room again, just like we did when we were growing up. I hated it back then, but I'm happy about it now. She stares at me, her face full of excitement, looking like she is about to explode with joy. I frown back at her, wondering what she wants and why she has such a stupid grin on her face. Normally, this expression means she wants something, and it usually involves breaking the rules.

Fed up with the silence, I finally cave, "Are you ok?" My eyes narrow at her suspiciously.

"I was just checking if you are going to Evangeline's tonight," She replies, phrasing her sentence like a question.

I should have known that's what she wanted to ask, Evangeline's is her favourite place in the world and she hasn't been since moving away.

I sigh, "I don't know." I've just got into bed and can't be bothered to go out no, especially when I wasn't planning to in the first place. Normally we would have set off hours ago, so we are already late and the walk can be gruelling enough as it is.

However, Ana isn't willing to back down so easily, "Kya's outside," She says, hoping it will persuade me. Like Marcus Alexander's invitation, I haven't had a chance to tell her that Kya and I are not on speaking terms at the moment, adding to the list of things I need to catch her up on.

"Great," I moan and roll onto my side, turning my back to her. To be honest, I'm shocked that Kya even turned up at all. After a fight, we usually give each other space to cool off.

"I thought you two were best friends," She says.

"We are," I sigh. "We are just having a 'thing' at the moment." Kya and I fall out all the time, it's no big deal. In a couple of days, we will be friends again and things will go back to normal. Although, she is engaged now, and that changes our 'argument dynamics' entirely.

Ana huffs and rolls her eyes, "Well, I'm sure you can still have your 'thing' at Evangeline's." She insists, pulling at my covers to get me out of bed. I fight back, clinging onto them for dear life. "It's either that or listening to Mother's tips and tricks."

Hmm, she knows how to drive a hard bargain.

"Fine," I groan, peeling the covers off of my body and swinging my legs out of bed. Nothing is worth risking listening to my mother talk about sex. Plus, it'll be nice to find a distraction from my pending meeting with Marcus Alexander.

Kya is waiting outside when we get downstairs and a gut twisting tension grows between the two of us. We say 'hi' to each other, but that is it. We've never had to face each other so soon after a fight, it's strange to be in such close proximity. Luckily for me, she is more interested in speaking to Ana about married life than trying to make up, giving me a welcomed escape from forced conversation.

We all set off to the watergate just on the edge of the village. There's a small pool that is cut off by a bamboo stick barrier, built by Queen Octavia's guards to stop people from going through. Little do they know, decades ago, someone dove down to the water's bed and began to cut away one corner of the gate. Now anyone can get through, by driving under and swimming along the bottom, and the Queen has no clue about it.