Page 71 of Beyond The Maples
"No worries at all! Honestly, I might just chop it all off anyway," I say with a laugh.
Shetsks. "Now, don't do that. This place takes too much of us already."
She says it like she knows first-hand, and our eyes meet briefly. I give her a nod of understanding and a quick thanks before I leave her to her work.
I'm heading back up to the dorms when I see something in the courtyard. Tarius stands with what looks like another crew surrounding him, and they don't appear to be having a friendly chat.
A blonde girl, who's about my size and weight, slaps his things tauntingly out of his hands. I roll my eyes. This shit is getting old. He scrambles to pick up his stuff, his tall frame oddly hunched over, as the others snicker at him. Blondie whispers something to him and, by the grimace on his face, it's not kind.
"Tarius, you good?" I ask, loudly calling their attention before I get there.
The blonde straightens, and her friend comes to stand beside her defensively. I'm not looking for a fight, but these women appear to be. The three men in their group saunter off, unwilling to involve themselves.
"No problem––just making sure Tarius here keeps his distance from now on," her friend sneers.
"We haven't met," I say coldly. "I'm Maple, and you two are…?"
"Amber Kagan," the blonde says, tilting up her nose.
"Dell," the other one says. I don't know if it's a last name, or a first name and she doesn't seem to want to say more.
"We're sorry you got pegged with such a weird crew mate. It must suck having him lurking around you all the time," Amber snickers.
I guess she's under the assumption I'm an asshole like herself, because she looks at me, waiting for me to agree. I catch Tarius's flush and sigh, stepping towards him and ignoring the other two.
"I was just heading up before class. Wanna join?" I ask.
He glances at the girls now behind me. "Sure," he shrugs.
I link arms with him and begin pulling him towards our dorms, but the gremlin twins behind me start in again. All I make out is some ridiculous comment, before I'm whirling around, I let a fraction of my temper flare from beneath the surface. I walk towards them with slow intention, every word coming out of my mouth growing more quiet the closer I get.
"Look, I appreciate he's not your cup of tea. That's fine. I'll admit I thought he was a little odd too, at first. But I'd happily have an oddball in my crew who's not only resourceful, but clever and kind, then raging assholes like yourselves." I grit my teeth before adding, "Do notfuckwith my friends."
They both look stunned, and Dell even looks a little remorseful.
Turning back to Tarius, I motion for him to follow. There's a grin on his face I've never seen before, and I smile.
"Thank you," he says finally, as we make our way up the stairs.
"You don't have to thank me, Tarius. People should just be decent," I huff. When I look over at him, the sleeves on his shirt are rolled up higher than usual, and my eyes catch on the odd rectangular scars peeking out.
I pause, and he notices where my eyes have landed, and stills.
"Tarius.. what are those?" I ask, barely above a whisper. Because these are not normal scars, they are perfectly symmetrical. I'm covered in scars and not a single one looks like that. A sinking feeling washes over me at the sight of them.
Grabbing his arm, I shove the sleeve up, needing to know how many mutilated patches of skin there are. I count six, but I suspect there's more. He rips his arm away from me violently, reminding me there's a person underneath my curiosity, and when I look back up to his face, his eyes are wide with panic. I gape at him, unsure of what to say, but he gives me a pleading look, and I somehow know he's begging me not to ask, to pretend I didn't see anything. To forget the clinically scarred skin he's got hidden under his clothes. My heart softens. I've often wondered if something bad had happened to Tarius to make him the way he is, and now I know. Because someone cruel did that to him.
I nod at him; I don't need to know, if he's not ready, and he slumps against the concrete wall behind him in relief. Giving him a soft smile, I start the ascent up the stairs again.
"I've always been an easy target. Cadets are getting antsy as everyone rushes to get points for their units, and no one is willing to mess with most of our crew, so I'm the default."
"I'm sorry," I offer.
At first, I wasn't all that concerned about the points system. I figured we were all being sent out either way, but it’s become clear that the higher we rank, the better opportunities we'll get. And with Farra in rough condition, I worry we're going to fall behind and get sent somewhere awful.
"Where are we at for ranking, anyway?" I ask.
"We've been hovering at the top for a while now, hence people trying to pick fights and knock us down the board. Especially with the first trial field assignments coming soon."
