Chatty Town

Chapter 21

A/N: Welcome to part two. This takes place within the same second after "No matter the cost." from the last part.

...

The diner's bell rings as the door jerks open.

"Olsen!?" A mousey haired girl runs into the diner followed by a scary muscular teenage boy. Olsen's head casually turns around annoyed.

"Here." Olsen raises a hand and turns back to me, "Speaking of our cause."

The girl squeezes past the adults and teens leaving the tables but as soon as they see the boy behind her they freeze and jerk to the side making a clear path for him. He towers over the girl, a fifteen year old boy slouching at 6 foot 2 inches. A thick scar stretches across his face over his left eye but it seems to be fine. His muscles are similar to that of Merrick's but he's slimmer than Wren's boyfriend. The girl is terrified but he's unbothered. Bored, actually. She makes her way to our table and her eyes scrutinize me for a few seconds before Olsen growls, "What is it, Nora?"

The boy leans back and puts a hand on the back of the booth near Olsen's head as he lets out a sigh of boredom and Olsen catches his eyes.

Olsen throws a hand in the air, smacking his lips, "Great it's both of you. Just when we were having a lovely lunch."

Nora's monolid eyes narrow before they leave me and she stares at Olsen, "It's them." Olsen nods and waves at her to get close and in a heartbeat she leans into Olsen's ear and shields her mouth as she whispers to him.

His eyes narrow and the orange in his eyes grows and he pushes her off him before she's done and he growls, "Let's go." He grabs his coat from the booth and Nora and the boy step back giving him room. He looks at me as he pulls money from his coat pocket and throws it on the table.

"I'm sorry about this, Rowan. Something obnoxious came up." The orange in his eyes keeps growing, flooding the color in his eyes. "It's not safe for you to go back to the shop. Finish up here quickly and make your way to the Library. I'll meet you there when it's safe for you to leave."
He stands up and I glance at Nora, "Wait, what's going on?"

Olsen turns to me and starts, "We've lost some numbers on the-"

Nora grabs his arm and snaps at him, "Why are you telling her for?!"

Olsen shrugs his arm out of her grasp and ignores her, "-far side of town."

She scoffs and glances at the ceiling, "Since when did we start trusting comies on the second day?"

"Nora!" Olsen barks and he reaches for a butterknife on the table behind her but then he groans. Keeping his eyes on her while he addresses the boy, "Kane, take Nora outside before I take her eyes out."

The freak brushes his dark hair back as he smirks at her, "Come on." He wraps his hand around her arm and pulls her down the aisle towards the door and Olsen rubs his finger across the handle of the knife. I glance around the diner and I notice everyone's eyes on him. Frozen behind the counter, Leean stands with a coffee pitcher in her hand. Her knuckles are white and her eyes are watchful.

Olsen lets out a deep breath and he turns around to me. He lays the knife on the table and he leans towards me as if to kiss me and I lean back quickly in disgust and then I worry what I must look like to him but his eyes are lowered and I quickly think of the little boy who's depending on me. I shake the disgust from my face, "What is it?"

"Just go to the Library." Olsen lifts his eyes to me and all I see is pure orange, the blue is completely gone from his eyes. "I'll explain everything when I meet you there." He nods and then leaves the table, walks down the aisle and out of the diner doors in three quick heartbeats.

The diner is silent for a solid thirty seconds before everyone returns to normal. Then I realize even the cooks in the kitchen stopped when Olsen snapped at Nora. Slight chatter from the tables around me grows in volume as Leean gets called to tables and her shoes squeak against the floor. A squeak that's soon drowned out by the clattering of dishes and running water from the kitchen. The jukebox plays the next track as a ten-year-old, who should be in school, hits a button on the panel. This is real. This is the world I woke up to. I drop the grilled cheese on the plate and I reach for the flesh on my arm as I pinch it. As the blood is pulled into a hill creating a valley around it of deprivation, I squeeze harder until I wince and realize This is real. Leean walks past my booth refilling people's mugs and I stop her as she walks back.

"What is it hun?" Her southern accent is calming but not welcoming at all.

"I-I."

She sighs and pours coffee into my half empty mug, "You best be on your way to that Library. Want me to bring you a box for this?"

I shake my head and she sighs, leaving me alone in the booth.

She comes back with a plastic bowl and a styrofoam box and a to-go coffee cup already filled to the brim. But when it becomes evident to her that I can't move she packs everything up for me. The sandwich is first. Then the soup. As she pours it into the bowl it spills off the side and drops onto the table and my hand gets splashed and the heat from it wakes me up. I squeal and she apologizes and I look at her. Her eyes are calm but filled with hate. For Olsen, or for me, or for herself, I'm not sure.

"How can you do that?" I whisper as I lean in towards her.

Her eyebrows pull together as she glances at me, "I said I was sorry. What, do you want me to say it like a normal person?"

I shake my head and she locks the lid on the soup. "No, no. I mean, how can you act normal and like that-" my eyes fall away and I stop myself as I wonder out loud, "-unless you're one of them too?" My eyes lift up to hers again and she shakes her head.

"I don't know what you're talking about. You should get to the Library." She turns around and walks back to the counter and I close my eyes as I remember my first day here. She warned me and Arden about talking too loud. Saying stuff we shouldn't. Arden turned out to be on the right side of this war, so she must be too. My eyes shoot open and in a second I'm holding the carry-out and running to the counter after Leean.

"Leean." I reach the counter and set the boxes down.

She turns around and sighs, "What is it?" She grabs a towel from under the counter and starts wiping the crumbs under an abandoned half-eaten burger. The counter stools have-- all but one-- been abandoned, I glance around the diner and notice most of the seats are emptying out now. I lean into the counter and whisper, "Whose side are you on?"

Leean's eyes lift to mine in an instant and her face contorts, "What kind of question is that?"

"An honest one."

Her head shakes violently and she wipes the counter with more vigor. "You've got some nerve, coming into my diner asking me about my loyalties."

Leean grabs the abandoned plates on the counter and crouches to reach a grey opaque bucket and starts piling up the dishes. I lean over the counter to stay with her in case she whispers her answer to me but she doesn't. She moves down the counter and I bob and weave through the bar stools and tables to keep up with her. She sighs and avoids my eyes, "Will you think for a second about what you look like to everyone here?! About what this looks like?"

I glance around the diner and see five different tables out of the minimum 30, filled with couples or groups all occupied with their conversations and meals.

"No one cares." I glance back at her, "I talked to Arden. I just want to know if I can trust you."

A plate clashes into the bin and she avoids my eyes, "God, I hoped you'd be smarter than this. Get out of my diner before you get us both killed!"

She hauls the bucket up to her waist and waddles towards the kitchen.

I step back from the counter lost in the moment, as I glance around the diner. She's afraid of being killed for talking, that's a good sign right? I just have to get to her when no one's around. I glance at my watch and wonder when Olsen will meet me at the Library. 12:22. I walk out of the diner with my take out boxes and walk towards the Library on Conrad Street.