Evolution - The Oasis Project Book 3

Ten - Ira

I made a detour to check the time before I arrived at Linkin's room. "Oi, it's 11:50," I grumbled, knocking. "Is everything okay?" When I didn't get a response, I shoved the door open. The room was cold and empty. I rolled my eyes and walked down the corridor to Thierry's room, this time repeating myself in a louder voice.

There was the shuffling of feet before the door squeaked open. Linkin was dressed in only an oversized t-shirt that functioned as a dress, and she was shivering. She looked up at me and smiled, the happiest I'd seen her in a while. "Hi?" I said, trying not to judge her outfit. I couldn't see Thierry past Linkin's head. "You good?"

"I'm great." Linkin was beaming and to my horror, instead of excusing herself to get dressed, she stepped outside, closed the door, and laid a hand on my shoulder. "You're all waiting for me, aren't you? Sorry."

"Uh, Linkin..." Surely she didn't drink that much champagne. My headache was coming back with the confusion she was causing me.

"Can I ask a huge favour, Ira?" She didn't even wait for me to blink. "Can I borrow some of your clothes?"

I was so stunned that I had no idea what to say. "Would they fit you? Why?"

She led me to my own room and only answered me when I shut the door. Linkin looked so excited even though I was slow to catch on. "I wanted to tell you something."

"Yes?" I found a clean t-shirt and tossed it at her, and looked away to search for more clothes as she slid Thierry's giant t-shirt over her head.

"I can touch people without hurting them now!" Linkin was almost singing.

It was my turn to be excited. "That's great! How-"

"Which means that Thierry and I were able to-" she cut herself off and wiggled her eyebrows. She was grinning and nearly fell over attempting to put the socks I had given her on as she waited for my reaction.

I looked at her for a long while, and my discomfort built up. So this was why both of them missed the entire morning. "Link, I love you, but did I really need to know that?"

"Yes, you did." Her voice was muffled by my hoodie, which hung loosely from her shoulders when she put her skinny arms through. "Don't tell me you and Stewie have been boring."

"I am not answering that," I snapped, my face going red.

Linkin looked at me with enough innocence to warrant a halo. "This is what girl talk is about, isn't it?"

"Is it?" I smiled awkwardly. There'd never been any sort of girl talk for me. "Well, I'm happy for you. I really am. How come you don't hurt people anymore?"

"Don't you want to hear more about..." Linkin arched an eyebrow before laughing. "Alright, you awkward turtle. If you make me something to eat, I'll tell you how it happened, okay?"

󠁌♟♙♟♙

Linkin didn't seem to be hungover at all as she told me how Thierry suspected that the pain she caused had psychological reasons between bites of an unburnt sandwich and sipping her second mug of tea. All the annoyance I felt towards her yesterday about the phone call to Asmar dissipated as I listened to her cheerfully talk about how she finally started to feel normal again. I didn't even notice how big a grin I had on my face when Linkin pointed out, "Ira, are you crying?"

"Hell yes I'm crying." I squeezed her in a tight hug, aware that she still had a half-eaten sandwich in her hand. "Linkin, we never saw you that way, you know that."

She pulled back and stammered, "I-I did, I j-just didn't believe it." She looked down and tapped her mug. "I know, I'm an idiot." I must have given Linkin a look that made her backtrack. "But I'm so happy! Is everyone free for that team meeting now, or do we have to make up some Oasis excuse first?"

I looked around the kitchen before realizing that it wouldn't give me an answer. "I'll check. Meet in your office in ten?"

"Bye, Rina."

"Who?" Maybe she was hungover after all.

"Race you," she said, happily returning to her food.

I managed to find Four, Yulian, Thierry, and the twins standing awkwardly in the hall, but no Stuart. "Is he trying Alessia and Trevor?"

Four shook her head, looking a little annoyed. "They are with Mel and the rest of the tech team to go over some intel."

I looked at the sunlight streaming through the windows and something came to mind. "What day is it?"

"Saturday. Why?" Thierry said.

"He's probably phoning home," I said, eliciting shocked expressions all around except for Four, who would have known and encrypted his communications. Most of us came from broken or tragic backgrounds that family was never on our minds. We'd been so focused on survival on our own that when Stuart told me that he and his dad still had a close relationship. "I'll see you in Linkin's office," I said, making my way upstairs. I knocked on Stuart's door softly before opening it. As I expected, he was sitting on his bed with a phone to his ear, smiling as he talked.

"No, you know I've always hated that..." He trailed off and mouthed Hi Ira. Stuart pointed at the phone and waited for me to nod before adding, "Oh, guess who's here? Yep, gotta go very soon, though."

Stuart turned on the speaker and invited me to sit down. His dad's voice crackled into existence. "Oh, not yet? Hello?" He sounded warm and personable, sweet like Stuart.

"Hi, Aaron," I said, trying not to let my nerves creep into my voice. "How are you? It's nice to meet you... meet your voice?"

"It's nice to meet you too, Ira, whatever this is!" Stuart's dad laughed along with us. "Hopefully I'll see the two of you soon in Philly, ya?"

"Of course, we'd love that, thank you." Blood crept to my face and Stuart gave my hand a squeeze.

"Hey Dad, sorry, we have to go," Stuart interrupted. "Love you."

"Another party?"

"You wish, Dad."

"Well, enjoy," Aaron said. "Talk to you soon, Stuart, and love you too. You too, Ira!"

It was hard not to smile as we said our goodbyes. Stuart slid the phone into his pocket when he hung up. "Not bad?"

"He's sweet," I admitted. I knew that even though Stuart couldn't tell his dad what exactly was going on in his life, he tried to share everything he could like he always used to.

"Good." He smiled and stroked my hair before standing up. "I'm really late now, aren't I?"

"You are, but no one can be mad at you. Plus, you already know most of what Linkin is going to say."