up.”
He gives me a hard look, his scars making him look even surlier, but I’ve been in this class and working with him for long enough that I just bat my eyelashes back at him.
He grunts at me, “I’m a mandatory reporter for students in crisis, don’t say that shit around me because I’d rather not have to fill out all of that paperwork, kid.”
I grin at him and shrug, feigning sheepishness. “Got any teachers you hate? I’m happy to mouth off elsewhere as an apology.”
He shakes his head at me, grumbling under his breath about his pay scale and dealing with this bullshit, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary.
I choose to stick to my usual workout because I’m both stubborn and stupid sometimes. Whatever is hiding in the basement isn’t going to stop me from proving myself to Vivian, and it’s not like North would allow me to die here, no matter how badly I might want to some days.
I don’t think I’ll die until he signs off on it.
After the full hour is up, every muscle in my body feels like jelly and my legs are just barely holding me up. I’m so used to it now that I hardly register the shaking, only huffing with frustration when my water bottle shakes in my hand too much for me to get a decent drink.
Vivian only gives us a minute to hydrate before he’s barking out orders and staking out the door on the far wall, one we’ve never been through before and I’d always assumed was just storage.
Guess I was wrong there.
“You’re going to regret working out as hard as you did, reject,” Zoey snarks as she shoves past me, knocking into my shoulder so hard it wrenches. The tingles that shoot down to my fingertips spell trouble for me but I do my best to ignore it, rubbing at my shoulder and neck as best as I can with my trembling hand.
“She’s not wrong.”
I roll my eyes at the sound of Gabe’s voice but I don’t answer him or react, I don’t have the energy to spare for him and his bullshit right now.
I need to figure out how to survive whatever Vivian is leading us to today.
“You’ll be out in the first three minutes if you don’t team up with someone. It’s a shame Sage or Sawyer aren’t in this class, you might have survived if your girlfriend was around to save you.”
We’re at the back of the group, so I feel comfortable enough to call him out for his attitude once more. “Your writhing jealousy is showing again. You know, if you stopped being an asshole, we could be friends too. If you want what Sage and Sawyer have with me so badly, all you have to do is stop sucking up to North and just be my friend.”
He grunts at me and shakes his head. “I don’t want to be your fucking friend, Fallows.”
I laugh at him, a dark and mocking sound. “No, you want to own me and take what you think you’re owed. You’re as bad as the rest of them.”
A couple of his football buddies glance back at us, overhearing enough of what we’re saying to check up on us. I flip them the bird and Gabe knocks me with his shoulder gently, but thanks to Zoey’s rough treatment it jars me and knocks the air out of me.
“Stay away from everyone in the maze. Vivian has people watching the entire simulation but you could still get pretty severely hurt if you’re not careful. This is the one place on campus where we’re allowed to use our gifts to their full extent and there’s a lot of guys who like to flex here because it’s safe enough to. The entire basement is bombproof. Unser once went off down there and the place is still standing, so we know it’s safe.”
Unser? I raise an eyebrow at him but Gabe is still pissed off at me and just smirks, shrugging with feigned nonchalance. I turn away from him so he doesn’t see how much it digs under my skin not to know who he’s talking about.
What the hell does ‘went off’ even mean? A living bomb? A flame who has a little extra bang for their buck? The possibilities are literally endless in the Gifted community so I’ll have to ask Sage about it later.
The staircase is long and winding, the temperature rising the further we get down until it feels as