It's been a week since that night Lucas kissed me. We never really talk about it, and Lucas has been acting strange to me since then. He's been avoiding me and didn't try to hide what he was doing.
When I came down for breakfast this morning, the house was empty. So I go straight to the kitchen and sit on the table where Daisy left me a bowl of porridge with berries and almonds.
After I finish breakfast, the front door swings open, and someone slams it closed.
A second later, Lucas walks into the kitchen with a basket full of peaches. I watch his every move without saying anything as he puts the fruit into an empty basket near the sink.
"I didn't know peaches can grow during winter," because I never intended to pretend as if nothing happened, so I decided to talk to him first.
I take my bowl to the sink and stand beside him.
"Haven't you ever heard of a greenhouse?" he finally answers me after the peaches are perfectly cleaned up and set in the other basket. Then he looks at me before averting his gaze to the empty bowl in my hand. "I'll wash it for you," he proceeds to take the dish from me.
He turns the faucet on, and water splashes directly into the bowl, knocking it off his grip. Thankfully, the sink is flooded with dishwater, so it didn't break and splatter across the floor.
Lucas dives his hand into the water but his body suddenly freezes, as if someone just pushed the pause button on him.
"Lucas?" I frown as I look at him. I put my hand on his arm and follow his gaze to the darkening water in the sink.
We both look down at the same time, making sure it's not an illusion. "Uhm," he mumbles beside me, scared to take his hand out. But he finally manages to push his fear away and lifts the sink plug quickly. The water drains down the p-trap slowly until it reveals the knife slicing his right palm.
He washes the cut on his palm and covers it with the nearest towel. It's useless because the blood quickly seeps through the towel.
"No, you need to keep-" I take the drenched towel from his hand and feel something wrong. I'm not sure why I'm surprised, knowing he is like me, but I'm still as dumbfounded as when he found out about me the first time. "Your blood..." I stutter. The thick liquid feels hot on my skin, almost leaving this tingling, burning sensation. It's almost like a hallucination; the subsequent drop feels like prickling ice piercing through my palm—his blood changes in a blink of an eye, as cold as the pomegranate juice I just had this morning. I have never experienced this with my condition. It would take almost thirty minutes for my blood to change, but Lucas... he's different.
"Why are you surprised?" Lucas snatches his hand back before rinsing the remaining blood again under the running water. "I thought you knew."
"Yes, I did. I'm sorry," I feel like an idiot right now.
***
Lucas burned the towel in the fireplace after I put a bandage over his wound. He asks me to go to the greenhouse to avoid any awkward encounter like last time if Daisy comes home.
"You've never seen a greenhouse before," he said when I asked why not just talk at home.
He never showed me this place since my arrival, so I was surprised when I saw a giant greenhouse in this supposedly hidden Camp.
"We grow various fruits and vegetables here, so we don't have to go to the City to buy food," he says while unlocking the door. "I hold the keys to almost any important buildings in this Camp. We already harvested the fruits and vegetables this morning so nobody will come here around this hour."
I know I must look like a child discovering a magical land. I have never seen a natural greenhouse in my life before. I know what it is for, but I never thought it would be this big and pretty. Especially during winter and when the sun is so high, the light is transmitted through the glass. I feel so relaxed here.
"Do you want me to start talking, or do you want me to leave so you can enjoy the scenery?"
I turn my body back to him and shake my head, "oh yeah, sorry."
He chuckles, "don't be too serious. I'm joking! To sum up all my story and to save us both from the time, you and I are the same..." he walks closer to where I'm standing. After that night, I tend to become more aware of his existence.
"What a surprise!" I reply with a sarcasm as I nod at him to keep my gaze anywhere but his face.
"But I don't know what I am...yet," he points out the last word like it was supposed to be a big news.
"Well, that makes two of us."
Lucas ignores me and continues his monologue, "I was shocked that night when you showed me your secret. Not because I have never seen someone like you but because I never knew there was someone else like me. Daisy already knew about me, but she warned me from the first day she found out that I should never mention this to anyone.
She has a friend, Thomas, a doctor, and scientist, and he agreed to help me. He took my blood sample to do some research. But after two years of researching, I never get the answer. Whenever I ask Daisy or Thomas about it, they tell me to be patient. Thomas had to build his lab at his house, but it took longer to do the procedure because of the Monarch. They can never find out about it, or he will be sent away to Faubourgh."
"Why would he be sent to Faubourgh for doing important research?" I knot my brows into a frown.
Lucas shrugs before continuing, "it's because he's doing something illegal. What he's doing is the same reason why you're on the Test Subject list. If the Monarch gets the answer first, they might do something that will harm us. We'll be in danger, Ava! So, I gave up on that. I don't want to put Thomas and Daisy on a risky path to help me."
"But you can't give up!" I raise my voice, and it startles him. "I know it will probably be hard to find, but there is an answer. I'm sure there is! If you give up, what will happen to you then, to me, and everyone else like us who have died sacrificing themselves for the Monarch?" I honestly never really thought about other people like us until I just mentioned it.
Lucas is my only hope now. He is already on the right path to getting an answer, but I have not even started. If Lucas stops, I have to find my way to start.
Lucas sighs, and he sounds tired. I wonder if I am the cause of his exhaustion.
"It's not that easy, Ava!" He puts his hands on his head and kneads the edge of his hair like he wants to pull them out. "I don't even know if there are other people like us. I didn't even know there was someone like me before last week!"
"There's a reason why the Monarch has the Test Subject for the research. Aiden said most subjects had their birth data falsified, or some were just Anarals. But I'm sure there are others like us out there! Why would the Monarch even go through doing that research for years, killing people, spending millions if not because they found someone like us?"
Lucas looks exasperated even more. The bag under his eyes suddenly darkens in just one second we've been here.
I shift my gaze from Lucas, who is now staring at his shoes. To my surrounding. This place is built with transparent glass, so everyone who passes by can see us, but they don't even glance twice. What do they think when they see me here with Lucas?
"Don't you think it's better if we get what the Monarch has been looking for first? We need to find the answer before they can get their hands on it, Lucas!
He stays impassive the whole time, and I almost lose my temper looking at him so detached, as if he's had enough of life when he's just supposed to get started living it.
I sigh, resigned to pushing him further into my selfishness. "When was the last time Thomas came here?"
Lucas shrugs. "Two months ago or so," he squints his eyes in my direction. "Why?"
"Nothing, I'm just curious. Do I need a reason to ask that?"
"Well, you don't have to be a bitch about it!" Lucas rolls his eyes at me.
"Fuck off, Lucas!"
There is another silence until Lucas starts to walk toward me. "Ava about that night..." he finally said.
I don't want to discuss it today, not when I plan to see Liam later. He will find out something happened and then ask me, and I have to lie again. I hate that I have to lie or hide things from everyone.
I hold up my hand to stop him from talking any further.
"Let's just pretend nothing happened."
He nods submissively like a puppy being told not to make a mess.
"I have to meet Savannah," I take the key chain that probably has twenty keys on it from Lucas's hand. "She is going to slit my throat if I'm late again."