But he held the door shut for just one more minute, and he pecked me on the lips.

  He urged me out of the way and then opened, leaving the room. “I’ll be right back,” he said in a hurry.

  Gabriel scratched his scalp, puzzling over Silas’s quick departure.

  I stood in the doorway in the darkness of the closet, but I couldn’t help reaching up to touch the spot where Silas had bitten at my neck.

  Gabriel caught this quickly and pulled my hand away from my neck. “Did he do that to you?”

  I grimaced. The spot was still a little wet from Silas’s mouth. It was pretty clear he’d just been doing that.

  Gabriel made a face. “He did that on purpose.”

  I wanted to say he did, yes... because he did. But also, I was puzzled by what he meant.

  “He knew I was out here,” Gabriel continued.

  Oh. “He didn’t mean it like that.”

  “He’s mad at me. For the thing yesterday.”

  I blew a short breath out between my lips. “No, he feels bad.”

  This stopped Gabriel from saying whatever he was going to say next. His mouth hung open for a moment, enough that his tongue was hanging out a little.

  I poked at it with a forefinger.

  He corrected his mouth but still blinked at my direction. “For what?” he asked.

  “Because now he knows everyone bad when he was my boyfriend at school. And you all weren’t.”

  “Yeah, so you’re my girlfriend at school now,” Gabriel said. “Gotta be. Everyone saw us yesterday.” And then as if realizing what I was meaning by it, he went on, “So he’s going to be mad at me. And then he leaves a mark on you when he knows I’ll see it and I’ll know.”

  I didn’t know what to say. A growing rivalry? It wasn’t the first time Silas left a mark, that Gabriel got upset, despite that fact Gabriel left marks and Silas only... retaliated... usually by leaving more marks.

  “Should I... not... anymore?” I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to continue like this if jealousy was a concern.

  “Not any more what?” he asked.

  I just pointed to my neck.

  Gabriel did a mock whining teasing tone. “But that’s my favorite.”

  It wasn’t really what I meant, but I was starting to learn that maybe Silas and Gabriel’s rivalry wasn’t entirely out of any angry jealousy. It was different. Playful. Gabriel had been fully aware of us in the closet and he didn’t enter when he had every ability to do so. Silas had known Gabriel was behind the door and continued to kiss on me and leave a mark.

  Maybe it was all intentional. Like teasing each other.

  And Gabriel... it wasn’t like when he was really mad. If he was really mad, he’d be... more angry. And he wasn’t angry.

  He mumbled a little more and then, as if realizing we were alone, he urged me into the closet. “Can I have a turn?”

  Something in the way he was asking made my heart flutter. Instantly gone were the complaints about Silas, the mark and how things were going to work at the school.

  Spending plenty of time with him was important. He seemed to need it more than some of the others. Days passed without seeing North or Dr. Green or some of the others.

  But Gabriel? He wanted every moment. He would rearrange everything for more.

  I was starting to understand. His pouting didn’t have anything to do with Silas. It was that he wanted more of me and seeing a mark was a reminder of what he wanted.

  As bravely as I could, when he had me in the closet, I reached up for him, to direct his attention and to kiss his lips. I needed him to know I needed him too.

  He responded to this quickly, forgetting the door, pulling me in deeper into the closet, turning a little so he had a good brace of the wall to place me gently against it.

  His lips met mine. Where Silas’s kisses were deep and slow, Gabriel started short, but then grew deeper and faster. His tongue explored my mouth.

  His hands found their way up to my face, cupping either side of my jaw to hold my head.

  His lean, muscled body pushed against mine. I enjoyed the closeness, the feel of the pressure.

  In a way, when he kissed me, it made me think of how passionate he often was, and that he threw that passion into most things in his life.

  That I was one of those things in his life that he was super passionate about.

  When he kissed deeper, he made me feel like I was.

  He continued to put pressure on my body with his, against the back wall.

  His mouth slid down to my jawline, trailed down my neck.

  He found the edge of my collar and pulled the material down, exposing my shoulder.

  He avoided the space Silas had kissed me and clamped his lips against my skin. The sensation was different. It still tingled, still felt nice, but it was different enough that I realized I liked the neck more than the shoulder. I hadn’t even known I had a preference.

  The pressure his body made against me, I liked much better. I wasn’t even sure why.

  He sucked deeply, but only grazed his teeth along my skin. After, he drifted his kisses up my neck again, and then bit gently at my ear. “By the way, North wanted you, too. I just sent Silas down first.”

  My lips hurt for how much I was grinning at his mischievousness. I appreciated a minute with him, too. Although we were about to go on this road trip together.

  That thought of being alone with them for so long, out of range of parents and more supervision, left me thrilled and near terrified at the same time.

  ♥♥♥

  It was only a couple hours of sorting any supplies that were available at the Taylor compound and North reciting loads of instructions to everyone, before Luke, Gabriel, Nathan, Dr. Green and I were in the RV and starting out.

  Phones, swapped. Victor was our one connection via his own burner phone and would manage each of us by responding to any messages as needed.

  Clothes, we could make do with what we had and buy more on the way.

  Loads of cash for everything else we needed. Even I was given several hundred dollars to squirrel away. I tucked mine in with the emergency phone I was given.

  The only other things I carried with me were the family Bible and Gabriel’s art and poem journal that Kota had given me. I hadn’t had a moment to myself since to look at any of it closer.

  Dr. Green drove. He was the only one confident enough to attempt to drive the huge vehicle. Nathan copiloted when needed.

  Luke and Gabriel and I sat together at the table, going over a paper road map, picking out possible routes with campgrounds. We weren’t supposed to use the phones to pick destinations if possible. It was one of the conditions to help throw off anyone that could be following us.

  Phones stayed off. Any tracking in the RV was off. We simply disappeared.

  I kept glancing toward Gabriel, who seemed so serious about this trip. I’d replaced the jacket and had just a lightweight hoodie on. I fiddled with the hood’s string. His fingers drummed against his thigh. When he glanced my direction, I smiled back.

  “What?” he asked.

  “You look like you have something important to say, or maybe not. You seem nervous.”

  His smile widened into a grin that made him even more attractive than usual. I liked how his cheeks bunched when he smiled. It looked so mischievous.

  “Nothing much, just thinking about what we should do next if we run across trouble.” He winked at me. He continued, “The bad kind, not your kind of trouble, Trouble.” He hummed a few bars of some tune I didn’t know. He leaned closer, whispering conspiratorially, “Don’t worry. If anything happens, I gotcha covered.” He said it in a sing-song way by the end.

  My heart skipped a beat. He’d been in a good mood since we’d left the closet.

  I also was in a good mood, with two more marks he’d left on my neck in addition to Silas’s, although Gabriel’s were closer to my shoulder.

  Staying close to them, to Gabriel... it helped to soothe my mind that this was all happening.

  Part of me was convinced that when we got there, my grandparents would have forgotten all about me. Or just assumed I was off living my own life. Or didn’t care.

  Maybe they thought about me as little as I’d thought of them over the years. I’d been curious, but a long time ago, I’d learned not to ask questions about family. The topic never came up much. In later years, we never saw anyone.

  They’d said my stepmother’s parents lived far away from us. My dad’s parents... they came when I was little. I remembered watching hours of baseball, the only thing my grandfather did when they visited.

  They’d stopped visiting. I’d forgotten what they looked like mostly.

  And now I was looking for my real mom’s parents. People I was pretty sure I’ve never seen before.

  And my father’s father... if he had stayed in the same area after my Grandmother Sangrida had died. I’d find out on this trip.

  I’d know what happened soon enough.

  Would anything change just knowing things like this?

  It made it easier to continue this journey when I thought of this as just a curiosity mission. Maybe because I’d already made my mind up to be with my team and to join the Academy. It was so important to me. My extended family... the people I never saw, my only mission was to find any background information that might be out there about me and to verify if I wanted to adopt any of them.

  I didn’t expect anything more. We’d be back after a week.

  With the others there with me, it was starting to feel like just another trip to take, just one more project before I was settled.

  Settled with them.

  What I Never Knew Could Be Consequential

  Gabriel

  The RV rocked gently while on the move. Bare trees and thick pines lined the highway and appeared as a blur on either side. It was often too dizzying to watch out the windows, and Gabriel focused on the table and other distractions.

  Out of habit, he thought about colors. He wasn’t always in artistic mode. When he was sad or depressed or feeling defeated, he turned to music and lyrics. When he was feeling a bit melancholy, it was art. Fashion, chemistry, fragrance science, it was all based on his mood, and he switched it often enough.

  He could play his guitar. It’d happened to be in Luke’s room and for the sake of it, he brought it along. He’d stored it in one of the bunks for now. There was enough room in the RV for him to play if he felt like it.

  But right now, all that could distract him were colors. That cloud in the distance that he could focus on wasn’t just white. There were shades of yellow and blue and purple that he picked out, and his brain was putting together various base colors in order to get the same hues.

  The early afternoon was cold, but the inside of the RV stayed warm with heaters running. Luke was taking a nap in the bunk. Nathan sorted through supplies in the kitchen close by.

  Gabriel remained sitting right next to Sang in the RV’s dining nook. He smoothed a palm over Sang’s knee as she sat next to him, but he remained focused out the window, on the trees on occasion, the cars driving past their slower crawling RV... and her. Mostly at the lightweight jogging pants she was wearing, the white and pink Nike sneakers, and considered what might be on the road ahead, which shops, so he could get her out of wearing Luke’s shirt and get her some of her own clothes.

  It felt good to travel. For once, he was doing something other than trying to outwit Volto or deal with Pam or worrying about what the kids at school thought or any of that. A weight off of his shoulders, seeming lifted when he’d told Mr. Buble about Pam, and knowing the rest of the team was staying behind to watch for any trouble.

  Finally free? Even if only for a week or two.

  Although he couldn’t stop thinking about what Mr. Blackbourne had said. His dire concern about Sang leaving...

  Was he right to be concerned? Despite what her grandparents or other relatives might think of her, Mr. Blackbourne might be right, at the least, about not having spent enough time with her.

  When he was in the closet with her just a little while ago, kissing her, it seemed like she felt as strongly about him as he did about her... but could they even ask her to stay with them if her own grandparents ended up wanting her?

  She hadn’t spoken since leaving Charleston. Not really. Just mumbled answers to questions asked by others.

  He cleared his throat. She shifted slightly, leaning forward. Her head rested on his shoulder. He could feel her breath against his neck. There was a light scent of lavender to her.

  Her hand tightened on his arm.

  “Hey, Trouble,” he whispered.

  “Mmm?”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “About what?”

  “What you’re thinking about right now,” Gabriel asked. “Is there something bothering you? Anything you need to tell us?”

  Sang turned her gaze inward, focusing on nothingness. “I’m just nervous I guess.”

  “We understand.”

  “Yeah, yeah, don’t worry.” She rolled her eyes and sighed. “I’m trying.”

  Gabriel brushed his lips against her forehead. Maybe he shouldn’t focus on stuff that would make her more anxious about this trip. “Don’t worry. That’s right. Nothing to worry about. Let’s talk about something else.”

  “Like what?”

  What could he do to distract her for a while? Maybe he could spend the time to get to know her better. And get her to know them more? Wasn’t that what Mr. Blackbourne had suggested? How did he do that? They needed to pass the time anyway.

  He tried to remember back when he wanted to figure out dating and girls. He used to read articles online about getting their attention, or how to be a great boyfriend.

  What to know about your girlfriend...

  Lists of questions popped into his mind. Things to ask her. He picked some of the questions he could remember, basic ones to start with.

  “I never even asked you if you preferred hot pink or a softer pink,” he said.

  “Yes,” she said, although he couldn’t tell if it was a tongue-in-cheek coy yes, or a statement of yes he hadn’t asked.

  But she remained silent after, like she had answered the question, so he assumed it to be the former.

  He tried again with something else. “Do you have a favorite animal?”

  She tilted her head curiously. “Animal? Why are you asking?”

  At this, Gabriel, shifted in embarrassment, and then his phone slipped out of his pocket, onto the seat cushion then the floor. It slid under the table. He let out a frustrated sigh as he tried to kick it to where he could reach it. “I’m just trying to get to know my girlfriend better.”

  “You’re my... boyfriend?”

  The way she said this was distinctly not a question at all, and it wasn’t exactly a statement. It fell directly in the middle. It was like she hadn’t ever heard of the concept and didn’t understand it.

  “Yes,” he said quickly, but his voice cracked at the end and he never followed up with any explanation.

  She fell into a silence, continuing to sit next to him, but stared out into the distance, seeing but not seeing the trees and vehicles they passed. Zoned out again.

  He spent the next several miles pondering this whole business, of them being together.

  Weren’t they boyfriend and girlfriend? And not just at school. It would be the next step at school, to tell people they were together. But it wasn’t like they weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend in real life.

  It had been months that he’d known her. The relationship between them all sort of fell into place, and since the beginning, it was new territory for all of them.

  Had no one even asked her out officially? Or asked her to be their girlfriend? Silas had been a ‘fake’ boyfriend at the school. She was his girlfriend to Pam. She was Kota’s and Nathan’s girlfriend to Erica. There were a few other scenarios where it was discussed that she was in a relationship with at least one of them.

  But they’d never even asked... had they? Suddenly he couldn’t remember at all.

  Could he even be the first to suggest the idea that they were actually a couple? And then here he was, just saying they were boyfriend and girlfriend without ever even doing anything to ask. Not in the way you were supposed to.

  And he wanted her to say yes. Holy fuck, he wanted her to say, ‘Gabriel is my boyfriend.’ He hadn’t realized it before now.

  And that thought alone tormented him. He couldn’t bear to bring it up again. Not now. And he hoped she forgot what he just said. He wanted to start fresh. To wait for a nice moment, a nice date, and then ask her out. Officially.

  Be my girlfriend. Be mine.

  How could he have assumed so much and yet never just asked her anything?

  Maybe Mr. Blackbourne was right. Maybe... they hadn’t gotten as close to her as he felt.

  He couldn’t stop thinking of how they’d been at school. How he’d hooped with her and had been so close to her. And then kissing in the closet just now. That connection they shared... it felt distant now. But it was real.

  He had to get close to her like that again. Close to her for a few moments, kiss her, ask her out. He wanted to hear her say it.

  Somehow...

  My Heart Fears That Existential Moment

  Sang

  The first respite destination that Nathan chose was a small, privately owned campground that was nestled right next to Pisgah Forest in North Carolina. A wooden sign, carved out and painted in bright yellow, said it was open year-round.

  There were cabins available for rent, along with tent sites and RV spots. As a bonus, it was pretty much empty. The place was perfect.

  Luke pointed out the bear crossing sign on the way in. “Look at that.”

  Nathan tapped at the window. “Bear country, but they are probably sleeping still. At any rate, don’t let the bears see you, and don’t leave any food out.”

  I shifted to kneel on the floor between Nathan in the passenger seat, and Dr. Green driving. I couldn’t see out the windows from where I was sitting. “Should we worry about any of the people here?” I asked. Volto was pretty clever, so I’d become suspicious of everything.