Between Gates (The Gate Chronicles Book 1)

Chapter 13: New Friend

Nari stood in the dining hall, gazing around. No one waved her over to sit with them. Shrugging, she slid into an empty chair at one of the small grey tables, staring into space as she shoveled the rubbery eggs into her mouth, grimacing.

Whoever was cooking for Amory at East Base was terrible at their job.

Someone slid in beside her at the table. “Hey… What’re you doing sitting over here by yourself?” Chenn’s deep voice hit her ears, sending strange tingles down her spine. He was leaning so close that she almost banged her nose into his face when she turned her head to look at him.

She glared at him, scooting over. “I’m sitting here because I don’t know anyone, and no one wanted me around. That’s what I’m doing over here by myself.”

He grinned. “Well, I want you around.” He murmured, picking at his eggs.

She huffed. “That explains it.”

“Explains what?” He looked up from his breakfast.

“It explains why you are sitting here with me instead of with your friends.”

Chenn shrugged, smirking. “You mean the friends I don’t have?”

She rolled her eyes. “You can’t possibly mean to tell me that you are an outcast too. Chenn, with your looks and personality, that’s not a plausible explanation.”

He turned back to his eggs with another shrug. “Yeah, it is.”

“Well, what about Ali?” Nari was determined to prove he had friends.

Another shrug. “He’s more of an acquaintance, to be honest. I didn’t even know who he was until Vanessa told me, and he walked into our bunker.” He stared at the food on his plate, pushing the unsavory eggs around in circles. “I’ve spent most of my life without friends, anyway. So I’m used to it…”

Nari felt a sudden pang of empathy for the man beside her. He wasn’t faking this, nor was he projecting the usual sarcastic façade everyone else saw. Here, with her – for now at least – he was being open and showing the true man beneath it all.

“I…” She cleared her throat, hesitating. Taking a deep breath, she murmured, “I know how you feel. I’ve spent most of my life on the outside – shunned and despised… I spent most of my life alone, unwanted, and rejected… And… it’s the worst thing I can imagine – the worst fate I can imagine… To live alone, with no friends, with no one – not even a single person – who loves you or needs you. To die in despair and utter wretchedness without a single person to mourn your passing…” She stopped, realizing that she had laid her own soul bare in those words to him without even meaning to.

She blushed, embarrassed that she had done something so foolish.

He did not laugh though. Instead, he sat in silence, absorbing her words. Then he nodded. “Yes…” He whispered. “I have often believed the same in the solitude of my mind… And it is a truth I had hoped would not be realized in my life. But now… I am afraid that is how it will be.” He whispered.

He sighed, scooping the last cold bites of egg into his mouth before starting on his toast.

Nari looked down at her own plate where the rubber eggs sat, cold and untouched. Grabbing the saltshaker, she shook a substantial amount of salt out onto the eggs, hoping to improve the taste.

Putting a bite into her mouth, she grimaced. The salt did not improve the taste in the least.

Chenn looked up from his toast then and saw her expression. Seeing the saltshaker beside her, he grinned. “Maybe a little less salt would’ve been a good idea?”