Free Luminary by Krista McGee Page B

walking. I fall into step beside him. “You and Rhen are just about the best-looking girls I’ve ever seen. I know you have a thing for Berg—”
    “His name is Berk, and I don’t . . .”
    “The dude is hot. I get it. If I were a chick, I’d be into him too.”
    I have no idea what Dallas is talking about, but neither his mouth nor his legs slow down, so I remain quiet and let him continue.
    “But Rhen—she doesn’t have a boyfriend, does she? I mean, it’s just the four of you, right? No one else?”
    “Correct.”
    “So if you’re with Berk, and the old guy is just old, then Rhen is available?”
    “Available?”
    “No boyfriend?”
    “Boyfriend?” I’m familiar with the words, but they seem to carry more of a meaning than what I know.
    Dallas groans. “Someone she likes, that she’s dating? Like you and Berk?”
    I want to tell him Berk and I are not what he thinks we are, but I cannot get those words out.
    “Forget it.” Dallas slows down. “That was rude of me—introduce myself and try to get info from you about your best friend. Mom would kill me.”
    “She would kill you?” I thought this village was peaceable.
    Dallas laughs—a loud, genuine sound that makes me smile. “It’s a saying. My mom wouldn’t actually kill me. But she has tried to teach me to be polite to people. Tried being the key word there.”
    I’m still not entirely sure I understand Dallas, but I keep smiling anyway.
    “Want to see our farm?” Dallas speeds up again.
    I recall Rhen telling me she has been spending time on a farm. She mentioned horses and trees. But she has not mentionedDallas. Of course, we have not spoken much. I have been busy reading. I don’t care if it is a primitive form of entertainment. I find reading about others’ problems to be quite soothing. And it keeps me from having to hear from Rhen what I do not wish to hear.
    I follow Dallas past a grouping of trees. Orange trees. The oranges aren’t perfect, like the ones grown in the greenhouses in the State, but there are many of them. Some are on the ground, turning brown. I stop to examine one and see tiny insects crawling around the rind, dirt and grass around the trunk. A light wind lifts my hair, bringing with it the scent of oranges. So different but so beautiful.
    “You coming?” Dallas is far ahead of me, and I race to catch up with him.
    In the distance, a large building looms. As we get closer, the smell of oranges is replaced by a smell far less pleasant. A young girl with hair and eyes as dark as the minor keys on a piano runs out of the building and leaps into Dallas’s arms.
    “D!” She looks at me and grins—revealing a hole where her two front teeth should be. “Is this the girl you like?”
    Dallas turns red and lowers the girl to the ground. “That’s Nicole—my sister. Nicole, this is Thalli.”
    “You didn’t answer my question.”
    Dallas turns to look at a pod on the other side of the large building. Rhen steps out of it and waves at us.
    Nicole laughs. “ That’s the girl you like.”
    I am not sure how to respond to this conversation, so I walk ahead to greet Rhen.
    “Peter was about to take me to the horses.” Rhen sounds so excited. I have never seen her like this. “Come with us.”
    I look behind her to see a blond young man walk out of the house. He appears to be older than I am, shorter than Dallas, but just as muscular. His face seems much sadder than Dallas’s, though.
    “If you want a tour of the stables, I’m your guy.” Dallas takes Rhen’s arm and moves with her toward the building. I follow. “Peter is new here. He doesn’t know much about the place. We just let him bunk with us because we’re such good people.”
    Rhen and I look at one another. “He’s new here?”
    Dallas shrugs. “Escaped from Athens a few weeks ago.”
    Peter turns around and starts walking. “I need to run into town for a couple things, all right?”
    “Doesn’t like to talk about it,” Dallas whispers