Free Quarantine #2: The Saints by Lex Thomas

breath. “… Leonard. All gone.”
    Will slumped. “Matter of time, I guess,” he was barely able to say.
    It was just the two of them.
    Will’s headache tightened like a fist inside his head. Nausea bubbled in his belly. He had failed David. The Loners had fallen apart. He took deep breaths. Lucy was staring at him, clearly concerned. He didn’t want that.
    “It’ll be all right,” Will said.
    It was the most he could muster. He wanted to promise her that he’d protect her and provide for her, that was what she wanted. But, he couldn’t promise what he couldn’t deliver. He couldn’t even protect himself. He’d proved that when Sam dug a trench in the quad with his face.
    “What do you think we’d be doing right now if none of this ever happened?” Lucy said.
    “For real?” he said.
    “Yeah.”
    “You want to talk about this now.”
    “I see you as really fat,” Lucy said.
    It made Will smile.
    “Out of all the possible scenarios of being outside, you’re fantasizing about me gaining weight?”
    She bounced as she laughed.
    “I’ve seen you scarf cans of clam chowder with no spoon,” she said. “I’m just saying. You’re going to balloon. It’s gonna be scary.”
    “Okay, you want to play like that?” he said. “Have you watched yourself chug fruit punch? You’re like a pelican.”
    “A pelican!” Lucy said with mock outrage. “That’s not the kind of thing you just make up! You’ve actually thought that before, haven’t you!”
    That made Will laugh even harder. “See, this is great. Maybe the Loners fell apart for a good reason,” Will said, excited. “Who needs all them? We have each other. It can be just the two of us. We could go back to the elevator. We could be happy.”
    Lucy twisted her lips from side to side. Her silence made the crackling fire sound loud, like crumpling cellophane in his ear.
    “Will, I’m worried about you.”
    Ouch. The scenario of the two of them in the elevatorhad just spilled directly out of Will’s heart, and it clearly did nothing for her. He felt like an idiot for blurting out his feelings.
    “I’m fine,” he said.
    “You haven’t seemed fine lately.”
    God, why was she saying this? She could just turn him down instead of keep reminding him that he was a broken person.
    “Same as always,” he said, working hard to keep a lid on any angry tone.
    “Will, I think … We need to get realistic—”
    “I am being realistic. David and me had a whole business before the Loners. We did fine as just two people.”
    “You barely pulled it off, and that’s when things were stable. Who knows how reliable these parents will be?”
    That was a bullshit excuse. If it were David asking her to go live in the elevator, just the two of them, she’d be there in a second.
    “Are you joining another gang?” Will said.
    Lucy opened her mouth. It hung open for a moment and then she closed it.
    “I’ve thought about it …,” she said. “I mean, wasn’t being in a gang the whole point of forming the Loners? Isn’t that what we fought for?”
    He wasn’t going to beg her. He wouldn’t sink that low. He really wanted to beg. He was ravenous to beg.
    “… And I know you probably think that nobody wants you because of … what happened,” she said.
    “You’re right,” Will said.
    “But that’s not true,” Lucy said, pouncing. “I mean, okay, you’ve got a lot of enemies. The Freaks and Varsity. And the Skaters probably haven’t forgiven you for their boards, but—I talked to some Geek who said they’re desperate for people to join, and Zachary hasn’t seemed to hold a grudge about the Loners putting him in a cage.”
    The Geeks wouldn’t have Will. Not after what happened in the quad. No one would. Lucy was fooling herself. She needed to believe it. He guessed she’d never forgive herself if she bailed on poor, little, epileptic Will.
    “Geeks, huh? That seems like a good gang for a coward,” Will said.
    Lucy stared at him,