Where the Roots Begin

Chapter XV

Take her head upon your knee;

Say to her, "My dear, my dear,

It is not so dreadful here."

-Edna St. Vincent Millay

Dmitri had a room in his cabin for Alessandra.

Normally, she wouldn't accept sleeping on a boy's house, especially considering she met said boy the same day.

But normally, her other choice isn't a cage in the middle of a forest.

She entered the cabin hidden in ivy and headed for the only other door she saw.

She got in the room and sat on the bed. It was one of the big ones adults had back in Onixyade. She had only slept on one when she was very small and her parents were still alive.

There were some clothes on the bed.

She put them on, thankful for taking the suit off, the one the Lab had provided days ago. It was a grey cotton shirt a few sizes too big, and black cotton trousers that fell to her hips but didn't fell lower. She felt guilty thinking of Orion in the cage. But there was nothing she could do for now.

Alessandra couldn't sleep, so obviously, she started thinking.

Something was bothering her. She couldn't tell what, as always, and then made her angry. She would always get the feeling. The bothering, the shivers, the uneasiness. But she could never tell what was causing it, until it was too late, or until someone else told her. Which didn't happen often.

The door opened and Alessandra sat up. Dmitri walked in wearing the same clothes, but unlike her, they fit.

Of course. There was one cabin. One door. One room. One bed. Where was Dmitri supposed to sleep?

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

She didn't want to admit she hadn't thought about it. She didn't want to seem selfish. She was so ashamed. And Dmitri probably meant for her to sleep here when he offered since he looked casual about her being in his bed. His bed. God, she had been away from Onixyade for only a few months and she was sleeping in a boy's bed. With said boy next to her. If only Atticus could see her, he would get a stroke.

Dmitri smiled at her, but this time with a raised eyebrow.

"What is it?" He asked.

She had been smiling. Smiling. At the thought of Atticus, dead. What was wrong with her?

"I just... remembered something", she said. It wasn't completely a lie.

"Other boy's bed?" He teased, but he wasn't smiling anymore.

"No, my guardian", she said.

He looked at her with an expression that was a plate of surprise, maybe anger, and horror on top.

She blushed hard.

"Not my guardian's bed". She tried to improve a situation that simply couldn't be improved. She decided to shut up now, since if she opened her mouth again, she wouldn't be able to.

She moved away from Dmitri, to the edge of the bed, to seem like she was making space for him. But the real reason was if she stayed in the middle of the bed, she suspected, Dmitri would still get in. And he would be closer.