Read Online Apocalypsis 03 - Exodus by Elle Casey - Free Book Online Page B

remembered from one of my sessions. She’d voluntarily walked out instead of fighting anyone, which had been a relief to me. She was too tiny to go up against those canners without serious training.
    “Whoo hoo! You hear that, Fohi? I win!” yelled Rob.
    “You cheated,” he grumbled. “I’m outta here.”
    “Poor Fohi,” I said quietly to the girls. “He doesn’t get any respect.”
    “I actually think he’s kinda cute,” said another girl. “But we don’t need to tell him that. His stupid head gets swollen just looking in a mirror.”
    “Honest to God, I think the chiefs are the best lookin’ guys in this place,” said LaShay. “You guys musta picked ‘em for that, right?”
    “No,” said Winky. “We picked them for their parents’ positions in the tribes before. But they’re kind of natural leaders anyway.”
    I nodded. They had different styles, but both of them were effective in their own ways.
    I almost didn’t want to broach the subject, but I had to because it was niggling at the back of my mind and I knew it wasn’t going to let me sleep. “Why’d Fohi say Trip is gay? Is he just messing around?”
    No one said anything for a few seconds and LaShay let out a burst of air. She was feeling the tension just like I was apparently.
    “It doesn’t matter to me. I’m just curious,” I said, trying to shrug it off. Hopefully I hadn’t just dis-invited myself from future pool parties.
    “It’s just a rumor,” said Winky. “Nobody really knows.”
    “Oh.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say. It’s not like it was my business, really. I was starting to really regret saying anything.
    “I think he is,” said the girl who said she thought Fohi was cute. “He’s never really had a girlfriend.”
    “Yes he did, Mandy,” said Winky. “He dated that girl two years ago … what’s her name?”
    “Yeah, but they never did anything. They just went to that formal together and that’s it. Just a kiss goodnight. And it wasn’t very hot, either, from what I heard.”
    “How do you know that?” asked Winky. “He acts all manly man around us all the time. I can’t believe he gave an un-hot kiss.”
    “Seriously,” said LaShay. “The boy is hot. But that don’t mean nothin’. There’s plenty of gay hot guys walkin’ around. Like Peter.”
    I giggled. “You think Peter’s hot?”
    “Sure, in a prim and proper boy-next-door kinda way. Right? Am I crazy?”
    “No, you’re not crazy,” said another girl. “He’s adorable.”
    “They would make the absolute cutest couple of all time,” said Mandy.
    “Who?” I asked. I was totally lost now.
    “Peter and Trip, duh. Who’ve we been talking about this whole time?”
    “Yeah, but …” I shook my head. Peter and Trip? Is that even possible? I tried to play back the memory of seeing Peter meeting someone in the woods. He was tall and broad-shouldered like Trip. Could that have been him? And if it was, what were they arguing about? Whatever it was, it had upset Peter a lot.
    “I gotta go, girls. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
    “Yeah, see ya, Bryn. Glad you came out tonight.”
    “I probably would have sooner if I’d known about this place,” I said, swimming away backwards so I could still see them.
    “How’d you find it this time?” asked LaShay. “It ain’t like you can just stumble on it. Everything’s a dang maze in this place.”
    “Paci brought me.” I’d almost reached the spot where my clothes were waiting in a pile.
    “Ooooh, Paci!” yelled Fohi from across the pool. “Paci brought her. Did ya hear that?”
    “Shut up, Fohi,” said Rob, sounding tired of his friend’s nonsense.
    I heard some wrestling around after that and was able to see what looked like Paci and Rob working on drowning Fohi. I smiled to myself as I got dressed, happy in the knowledge that the gossip wasn’t going to be taken too seriously by anyone. Too bad for Coli. Turns out I wasn’t going to be rejected for being a