How to Keep a Secret

Chapter 14- Black Out

Don't ask me how long we were making out in the hallway, because I don't know. It could have been seconds, minutes, hours-- I didn't check the time. When I finally went into my own room and locked the door behind me I sank to the floor, drained of energy.

Yet at the same time, I had never felt more alive.

I had kissed boys before, and they had kissed me: but nothing, nothing compared to that storm, that wonderful, fiery bliss I had just been released from.

Thank god I hadn't worn lipstick that day, otherwise both of our faces would have been an absolute mess.

I checked my watch. I had just about two hours before I had to be back at the training center, ready for the night's challenge.

Enough time to shower, grab dinner, and get ready, I thought to myself as I sorted through my clothes, looking for something camouflage.

"Seriously? Nothing?" I muttered to myself, pulling out the a clean pair of the same black training outfit we usually wore. "Guess this'll have to do--"

I heard my phone buzzing from across the room. I walked over and picked it up, reading the notification.

'Chatter: You have 1 new message'.

I opened Ian's app, and found a picture of him with a shiny, modern building behind him.

Ian Fairway: Hey Gracie! Just thought I'd send you a pic of me and the building I've been working at. They're doing some really cool things with microchip technology-- I'd go into more detail, but I don't want to bore you. Hope u can video chat soon.

I looked at his message with a smile. He looked relatively the same; if anything, he seemed a little taller, and his forgiving brown eyes seemed a little brighter. I quickly tapped and sent a response.

Gracie Roberts: hey Ian! Glad to hear you are having such a good time, maybe we can chat sometime this weekend? I'm pretty busy the rest of today, unfortunately, and i have to be careful bc of their phone policy :( talk to u soon, miss you lots!

I paused after I sent the message. How on earth had it only been five days? Five days, and so much had happened.

I had listened to everyone reveal their secrets, I had learned how to throw a punch and shoot a gun, I had seduced a stranger into giving me a flashdrive, I had walked around London, I had kissed the hottest guy I had ever seen. And to think, that was only one week-- we still had eleven to go before training ended.

I shook my head as I set down my phone and laid back on my bed, relaxing for the first time in days.

It was going to be a very interesting eleven weeks.

*********

"So, what kind of 'special game' do you think they have for us tonight?" Raj said through a mouthful of food.

In twenty minutes we were all expected to be waiting in the training room for some sort of game, as Derrick had put it.

"Well, Derrick's idea of a game might just be torturing us one by one, so I mean it's hard to say," Kenneth replied, and Eric shook his head.

"I heard him talking to Roger earlier. Something about teamwork and tranquilizers."

"Tranquilizers? That actually sounds kinda fun," Cam said, and our group looked at him incredulously. "What? Have you guys never been tranqued before? It's like falling asleep, easy as pie."