Amongst the worst

He looked sick, Rose

"Come on, pick anything" Maya begs me

"I already put an apple on my tray" I say

"A single apple isn't going to fill you up. At least take some fries or something" she pleads again

"Fries and an apple? Weird combination don't you think" I laugh awkwardly

I really don't feel like eating.

"It doesn't even matter at this point, you need food" she says again

"Fine" I scoop some tries onto my tray

But before I manage to walk away, she grabs something else and puts it on my tray. "Don't forget the ketchup" she says with a smile

"Right" I say "What's next?"

"Um, we find the others. Which is not going to happen, and frankly I don't think either of us really have the motivation to scan through this big crowd so any table will be fine" she says quickly

I nod in agreement.

"This table should be fine" we both sit down at an almost empty table.

Almost empty because there was a girl by the looks of it. Her hood was up, everything covered apart from but her long strands of hair.

"Uh hi" Maya says

Nothing.

"What's your name?" Maya asks

Nothing.

Until she puts her hood back down.

I couldn't hide my shock when I saw their face.

"Raven?" Maya questions a bit too loudly

"Shhh" she hisses "I don't want anyone else to know I'm here"

"Why-? What are you doing here?" I ask still utterly shocked "Where did you go?"

She moves a seat closer to me "I went back to my adoptive parents, or at least I was planning to. But then I saw something"

"And here I actually thought you came here because you missed us" Maya says, looking down at her plate

"For the past few days I was at my adoptive parents but I- well I came back. To see what was left" she admits "They heard about what happened and they let me"

"Rose I saw your father. He was standing over this collapsed building by the looks of it, and he looked like he was looking for something" she finally says

My father?

Why would he be there?

The only explanation would be that he was looking for Greyson, maybe to see if he was truly dead?

The thought of it made my heart ache.

Or the other option would be he was looking around to see if any of his soldiers were still alive.

That seemed more likely.

"You missed quite a lot Raven, look, the reason he was there was probably because he was looking to see if any of his soldiers were still alive. Or maybe my brother" I say, ignoring the urge to sob

"Your brother?" she asks, her eyebrows furrowing

"Yeah, Greyson. He's dead" I almost choke on the word "There was an accident, lots of people died"

"I'm sorry, Rose. I didn't know" she says

I don't say anything to that.

"He didn't look well, Rose" she admits "Your father"

"What do you mean?" I ask

"In some way- when I saw him. He looked sick"

"He was probably just tired" I say

"No, Rose. He looked sick"

Sick?

Why would he be sick?

But before I could answer my own question, I knew he was behind me.

Somehow I always knew.

Raven immediately put her hood back up, now looking straight down at the floor.

"Hey" he walks up to us. Elliot and Andrew closely following

"Eat your food or I will" Andrew says and sits down next to me

"If you want it take it" I say truthfully

"No no, Rose you have to eat something" Maya quickly says

I watched as Tyler took a seat opposite me, he took his time with it too.

"Who's that?" Tyler asks gesturing to Raven

But just as I was about to answer, Raven pulled her hood back down again

"Hi" she says

Something in Tyler's expression changes

Something in his eyes.

"You came back" he said as more of a statement than a supposed question

"Clearly" she rolls her eyes "I didn't come for you"

"I didn't ask" he says so plainly and without emotion it scared me.

I guess. I should be used to that by now.

"Soooo...how is everyone doing on this fine, sunny day" Andrew says with an awkward smile

"How you doing?" Elliot asks me in particular

"Fine" I say, stopping the ketchup packet and squirting some next to my fries

I felt Tyler's eyes on me. Scanning me.

Observing.

I try not to pay too much attention to the obvious glaring and pitying stares as I picked up my fry.

But the ketchup was just so- red.

So red, it almost remind me of-

In that moment, suddenly I was back at the building crash and I was surrounded by blood again. Surrounded by the blood of my friends and the blood of strangers.

I put the fry in my mouth before any thought came back, before quickly putting my hands under the table so no one saw them shake so harshly.

"Show me your hands" Tyler tells me

"What?"

Of course he knew.

He looks to my plate and back up to me, and I see a hint of realisation in his expression.

He swaps our plates, so that I had his with no ketchup.

I give him a slight smile, which he either ignores or doesn't see.

Andrew looked as if he was about to say something, but manages to hold himself back.

I force myself to eat.

I don't look anywhere but my plate.

We sat together in silence. Not an awkward silence though.

More of a peaceful type of silence.

The type I liked.

It was the type of silence that didn't need conversation or talking. We were all just too tired, and somehow there was a sense of comfort in that.

Talking or not.

The only thing on my mind being.

He looked sick, Rose.