Olive Juice

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| 6

            As six o' clock approaches, a blemish tarnishes my plan to meet Landon. An imperfection. A hole that, somehow, I hadn't noticed. Sure, he will be at the Togethe Town Store waiting for me. But, at least one of his Companions will be there as well, not to mention three of my own. Despite all of my obvious hints at only wanting to go with Gianna since Freder is unbearable and Wyatt notices everything, all three of them are accompanying me.

I make one last desperate attempt at shrinking the size of the group. "Are you sure we all need to go? Gianna and I can check out the town and you two can explore the area around the Lodging."

Wyatt grunts disapprovingly. "What is there to explore? On the ride up here, all I saw were fields of grass. Why don't you want us to go?"

Just as I expected, he picked up on my persistence and knew something was wrong. "I want you to go, but I don't to waste your time. Boys don't like grocery shopping. Gianna and I can handle it."

"Wow, that was really sexist, Olive. I could turn you in for that," Gianna gasps.

"No, what I meant was I think Gianna and I need some roommate bonding time."

"So, you prefer Gianna over me and Wyatt?" Freder asks.

I sigh and wave my hands in defeat. Everything I say seems to be a breach of the oath. If I can't get rid of them, then I'm left with the daunting task of communicating with Landon while our Companions surround us. If it weren't for the stupid oath, this wouldn't be so hard.

Then, I stop myself because even thinking of the oath as stupid feels sickening, like a rotten seed sprouting in my brain. All these thoughts on the oath remind me of my old Companionship. The boy that broke the oath and left me. Darren. Was it Darren? I grope for my lost Companion's name, searching for the right one in the locked files of my memories. The harder I think, the more certain I am that Darren was not his name and I will probably never remember it.

"Are you okay? You look sick," Wyatt says.

My eyes pop open; I had subconsciously closed them in concentration. "Yeah, just a little queasy."

His eyes spark with realization. "Were you thinking of him?' he whispers.

Him? Landon.

Wyatt knows.

He knows my plan. He knows about Landon. How? I grossly underestimated his vigilance. Or, more accurately, I grossly overestimated how discreet the interactions between Landon and I were while everyone was distracted by Katrina during the seminar.

"Y-yes. I was," I stutter. There's no point in lying. He already knows the truth.