SAFE . . . reyna ramirez-arellano

53 - interrupted brunch dates

BRIAR WAS LAYING on her bed again, staring up at her ceiling, thinking about her heritage when she heard the door open and someone jumped onto her.

"Ow!" Briar screamed. All she saw were wild, dark curls. "Leo!"

"Sorry not sorry," Leo grinned at her, and she glared at him. "Fine! I'm sorry! I'll get off you!"

He scrambled off her just as Jason appeared in the room.

"Leo, what did we say about jumping on Briar?" He asked, walking into the room as if it was his.

"That it'll kill her one day," Leo grumbled.

"Exactly," Jason looked down at Briar, raising an eyebrow. "Are you going through a phase right now?"

"What kind of a phase?" Briar rolled out of her bed, landing in a heap on the ground.

"You're not wearing anything overly fancy," Jason listed off all the things wrong with Briar as of the moment. "You're not attached to the hip with Reyna, probably because you two got into a fight as soon as I left, and you're not drinking Sprite during breakfast."

She rolled her eyes. "Then I guess I'm in a phase. So what?"

"Have brunch with us?" Leo asked, moving to stand by Jason's side. "Just like old times, Briar Rose!"

Briar snorted. "I threw up, like, two hours ago. I can't eat even if I tried. Also, in those old times, you were forced out of Bunker Nine so Jay could make you eat and, you know, do normal human things."

"You know I'm not a normal human," Leo rolled his eyes. "Just indulge us, Sleeping Beauty. For me?"

"I'd never do anything for you," Briar huffed. They both knew it was a lie, but that was how they communicated. "Fine. Let me get changed first. Just to convince Jason that I'm not in a phase."

Jason's eyebrow raised. "I've known you for nearly my entire life, Bri. I've been through your phases, good and bad."

"Uh huh." Briar pushed him away from her. "Shoo."

She changed into a white top with puffy sleeves and matching half-skirt before going to the mess hall, passing no one on her way, though she heard voices in Hazel's room.

"Is there, like, no one on board?" Briar asked as she walked into the mess hall, collapsing into the nearest chair to her as she started doing her hair.

"Reyna, Percy, Frank, and the coach went to find the salt water in Atlanta," Jason took a bite out of his piece of toast.

Briar's heart did a little dance at the mention of Reyna. Stupid, stupid, stupid, her brain told her heart. She was supposed to be mad at Reyna, not filled with butterflies when her name was mentioned.

"Cool," she said, putting her brush on the table in front of her. She started doing her hair, as she usually did when she got anxious. "So . . . brunch."

"Brunch," Leo agreed, his mouth full of scrambled eggs.

Briar scrunched her nose up at him. "You're disgusting."

"Eat it all before you talk," Jason ordered, and Leo nodded obediently. Jason looked over at Briar. "Talk."

"What do you want me to tell you about?" Briar continued doing her hair, tying small ponytails on the top of her head.

"Why are you and Reyna, like . . . not attached at the hip?" Leo asked, just before he shoveled another spoonful of eggs into his mouth.

"You're disgusting," she said. "But fine."