The Waiting Game

chapter eleven

“What is she doing here?”

Amina waved her fingers in a lazy salute. Grace Kingston didn’t look the least bit appeased, her pissed off expression grew and she clenched her jaw so tight that Amina could hear her teeth grinding. Granted, Grace had plenty reasons to despise Amina but still, Amina thought the other girl was being a tad too angry. Or maybe Amina was used to working frequently with her enemies and get over their betrayals. She worked with Joshua Phillips for heck’s sake, if she took into consideration all the things Joshua had done to sabotage her while they’d trained to join Orion then she might have murdered him a long while ago. She’d sucked up her feelings of anger and became his second in command.

All things considered, Grace needed to get over herself. So Amina wound down the rest of the car window and told her the same thing.

“Excuse me?” Grace hissed, she looked even more livid than before, a furious pulse beat above her left eyebrow. “You almost ruined my life.”

Amina sighed, she cast Tope a warning look, the both of them might have settled on a shaky truce but Amina wasn’t past being incredibly petty when it was necessary, for Grace’s sake, she had been willing to be cordial and polite but she wouldn’t if she was insulted.

Tope was wise to heed to the warning, she placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “It’s an Artemis thing.”

Grace rolled her eyes and last minute caught the thin strap of her bag from sliding down her shoulder. “I don’t trust her.”

“Nobody asked you to, darling,” Amina quipped, she ignored the gasp of outrage. “I blame Joshua for letting you think you’re as important as you think you are. You are worth nothing to me, Kingston and my business is with Adebiyi.”

“Khalid!” Tope snapped and Amina shrugged unapologetically. To Grace she said, “I just need to take care of some business Artemis has with Orion.”

Grace shrugged like she didn’t care. Amina saw that she very much did, she wondered if Grace felt betrayed, if she wished her best friend would pick a side or maybe she didn’t because she clearly didn’t know how important Tope was to Artemis, how long she’d been a member. “Be careful.” She said grudgingly. Tope gave her a one armed hug and when they broke apart, Grace sent one final glare at Amina, she looked as if she was squinting, Amina wanted to laugh but then she was a little impatient to get on the road. She’d been waiting for Tope for more than an hour since she’d been in class.

When Grace was gone, Tope walked around to enter the front seat and wordlessly connected her iPhone to the car speakers, a second later, Fireboy was playing. Amina started the car and drove away from the Faculty of Education.

“You’re not going to chastise me for snapping at your friend?” Amina asked. Tope ceased her humming.

“I don’t care about your little exchange with Grace and can you blame her?” Tope answered.

“The whole ‘you ruined my life’ spiel comes off as dramatic.” Amina wanted to roll her eyes but she dutifully kept her eyes on the road.

Tope’s voice was cold when she spoke. “The Orion Project singlehandedly turned her life upside down, revealed that she was adopted and thrust her into a world she had no business being in. Her father bled to death in her arms. You might not have been involved in everything that happened but you’re far from innocent and if she wants to rant about you ruined her life then she has the right to.”

Amina’s grip on the steering tightened. This was particularly what she hated to think about when it came to working for Orion, Grace wasn’t the first person to lose their family because of Orion and she wouldn’t be the last. Amina was torn between a strange feeling of pity and anger because she’d had no choice either. All she did was follow orders.