Free Rise Against the Faultless by Melissa Hardaway Page B

clothes and freshen up before we left for
the lounge, so I went back with her to get ready. She very carefully applied
makeup to my face. Surprisingly, I could open my eye more now than I could this
morning, and my reflection wasn’t quite as scary after she got done. She was very
handy with the makeup, which made me think that maybe she had practiced with it
before.  
    The alcohol did not taste good,
but after a few sips I felt my face start to warm up and I had a funny feeling
in my legs. I wasn’t sure that it was all that it was cracked up to be, but I
decided to finish my drink along with two pieces of bread. The lights were dim
in the lounge, and they were playing loud music. It was a nice distraction from
the day and I started to loosen up a little bit towards the end of my drink.
Jubal was making jokes and very directly hitting on Lo, which was always
entertaining. I was just starting to enjoy myself when I saw Shane walk in the
side door. I did not want to see him or talk to him right now. We locked eyes
for a split second before I realized he started to make his way over to our
group. 
    I quickly jumped up and gave
Adrian a kiss on the lips. I smiled at him and told him that I was tired and
was going back to my dorm. Lo looked at me wide-eyed as I walked out of the
door. I rode the shuttle back to my dorm and threw myself on the bed. I
considered opening up my Training Manual again, but after a few minutes I had
nodded off to sleep. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when I heard a
knock on my door. I guess Adrian didn’t feel like staying at the lounge anymore
either, I smiled at the thought of our kiss.

Chapter 11
    I opened the door and couldn’t
get it shut back fast enough before Shane threw his arm in to block it. “Sorry,
we’re closed!” I said in a plainly annoyed voice. He pushed his way in, anyway.
“Don’t you ever wait to be invited in? Didn’t your mother teach you any
manners?”
    “I get it, you’re mad.” He came
in and plopped down on my bed, so I took the chair by my desk.
    “Yes, please, sit down. Would
you like any refreshments?” I gave him a sarcastic smile. “To be mad, I would
have had to be shocked by your behavior, and I wasn’t.”
    “Well, now you’re lying,
because I can definitely hear some annoyance in your voice. “
    “Maybe that’s because you
barged into my room without asking and woke me up.” Why am I even entertaining
this?
    He stretched out on the bed and
patted the spot beside him. “You’re welcome to come back to bed.” I rolled my
eyes at him.
    “What do you want, it’s...” I
checked my PID for the time, “it’s midnight and we both have to be up in a few
hours.”
    “I don’t need much sleep. It’s
a rare thing, but some people are just built like this. I didn’t tell my mother
about your fight with Dione.”
    “Well, Oren was nowhere to be
seen, so I’m not sure who else would have spilled.” I crossed my arms and stood
up now, hoping that he would take the hint and leave.
    “It could have been any number
of people, Raily. Look, if you and I are going to work together we need to
trust each other. If I had told her, I would admit it.” He did look like he was
telling the truth, but I wasn’t exactly ready to cave in to him. He was just so
smug. “I heard what Dione said, I can’t blame you for how you reacted.”
    I finally nodded at him to
acknowledge that what he was saying was, in fact, true. I walked over to the
door. “Ok, well, good night.” He stood up and walked beside the door and shut
it back.
    “That’s not all that I came
for.” He moved a little too close to me with a slight smile. I looked at him
quizzically. “We need to work on that temper. You are pretty good about keeping
your cool, but when Dione made it personal, you lost it. He won’t be the last
bully you run into, you know. In your position people are going to come after
you. They’ll use anything they can to get to you.  You quickly let