Survivors

Chapter 8: Jada

Chapter 8: Jada

          It’s been three days since I’ve seen Izzy Garder plunge a knife into the table and storm off. The whole table seemed frightened. Clay was last to leave the table. He was so traumatized that he didn’t flex a single muscle.

          Xain hasn’t been to the training center for the past two days, niether has Katya, the red-head he’s always with now. She’s very beautiful, and seems to have an attraction to Xain. I’ve watched her a couple of times. She’s great with throwing knives, hand and hand, and swords. Melissa told me that she’s a very skilled climber, but she has an injury to her hands. She’s supposed to be taking it easy with the use of her hands, but she’s obdurate towards those commands.

          I tried to approach her one time before, during our morning session, but she ran off before I could utter a word. She’s fast, it only took about 2 seconds for me to lose her in the small crowd of people. It seemed almost purposeful that she ran. I’m beginning to wonder if it were from me.

          I eavesdropped on Izzy’s trainer one time before. He was talking to Abi as he smoked a cigarette. They were both concerned about Izzy, who from what I’ve picked up, is training more ferociously. None of them are able to calm her. The trainer said he’s seen Vice’s training sessions. She’s apparently been reduced to an hour of training since she destroyed her whole private training area. He was shaking his head as he told Abi “I don’t know what else to do or say, Abigail.” I’m assuming that means for her to spend her last few hours with her sister, that he has given up hope, because Abi begins to walk away with tears forming in her eyes.

          In lunch, I can’t help staring at Xain’s table. Clay is nowhere in sight, which is understandable after what happened. I haven’t seen him since Izzy’s knife almost killed him. No one at the table seems to be talking.

          “Jada,” Melissa cuts my apparent stuper, “Did you hear a word I said?”

          “Huh,” I’m confused because I really have no idea what she has been saying. How long has she been talking? I didn’t even hear her.

          Melissa looks over her shoulder towards Xain and just sighs, “Poor Xain.”

          I sit there silently looking at Melissa, who seems like she is trying to hold back tears. She turns to look at me and just says, “I don’t know how I’d feel if it had been...”

          She drops her head, then looks away again. She didn’t have to complete the sentence for me to know what she was thinking.

          “Me,” I say in an almost frustrated voice that captures Melissa’s attention, “You meant me, didn’t you?”

          Melissa turns the shade of red she always turns when she’s about to cry and looks downward. She gives a tiny, almost unnoticable, nod that means yes. I don’t know why, but suddenly I find myself deeply angered by that answer. The room seems to feel about 10 degrees hotter. I search for something to say, but all that comes from my mouth is, “How could you think that?”

          If Melissa wasn’t crying earlier, she is now. Tears are pouring down her face so quickly that it’s hard to even imagine that her eyes have that much water to sustain them. She just looks at me with reddening eyes and says my name, followed by, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

          “Yes you did,” I say as if indifferent to the tears, “but it’s okay.”

          I don’t know if I just lied or not. I have a feeling I just did. Melissa reaches across the table and grabs hold of my hands in her warm, drenched ones.