Chapter 51: Dumb (Part 2: Finale)

Layla spun him by the shoulder, and shoved the notebook against his nose before he could ask what she wanted now.

"Gaahh! Get it off!"

"You will answer those questions."

"I can’t even see them!"

Blurry ink strokes filled his vision, the page so close to his eyes that it stung them.

As the pages lowered, he tried to duck beneath them, only for Layla to snag the back of his sweater and push him down. He landed on his elbows in the grass, rolled over, just for her to plant her boot on his shin.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I will not let you walk yourself to death."

She meant to put him in a capsule with other people.

After the dining hall, he couldn’t even be certain he would stay conscious for the journey, much less prevent whatever was inside him from reaching the passengers.

For now, he dug his palms into the turf and tried to shuffle backward.

The strain reopened a split across his knuckles, and Layla followed him without removing her boot.

"What?!" He jabbed a finger at her. "You’re not gonna break my legs like some cartel member, are you?"

"Stop wriggling."

His backpack thumped into the grass beside his hip. The girl tucked the notebook inside and knelt by his feet.

"Forgive me! Oh, please forgive me!" Milo draped a forearm over his eyes. "Breaking my legs for wishing to walk home alone? Where are the lesson and justice in that?"

Her fingers closed around his ankle.

"If you want to break my legs this badly then you might as well let it happen gradually!! Fifty kilometers of hills ought to do the job...!"

Cold air slid over his heel.

He uncovered one eye and realized that she had taken his right shoe.

By the time he sat up, she had worked the other one loose.

"Hold on."

Layla straightened with both shoes in one hand and hoisted the backpack with the other.

"If you want these back, you’re coming to the platform."

The first shoe went into the bag sole-first.

"Hey! Those are muddy!" Milo cried. "Do you want to spend your evening cleaning my backpack? Because I’m not doing it."

"Maybe you can save your notebook in time."

With the second shoe inside, she slung the bag over her shoulder and set off.

A smear of mud marked the opening, where he could imagine it working its way between the pages. Apparently the bag hadn’t suffered enough in his absence.

Milo scrambled up...

"Come ba—Ow!"

...and immediately folded over a raised foot.

A severed stalk had prickled his sole. The ground under the other was cold enough to make his toes curl.

"Cool, now I’m going to freeze!" he shouted. "What the hell is this grass, anyway? Hay and needles?"

Layla continued without looking back.

Hopping after her only drove more stalks into the foot he was using, so he abandoned that method and hurried along a flattened strip beside the beams.

He wouldn’t last fifty meters without his shoes, never mind kilometers.

Recovering a backpack should be manageable after defeating a Parish Warden and a goddamn Host. Unfortunately, it was attached to a girl he couldn’t simply bowl over and leave in the grass.

Whenever he drew alongside her, she shifted the bag to her far shoulder.

"I swear, if someone sees us on the way I’ll kill you!"

"I’d like to see you try!"

The boy who got his shoes stolen by a girl. Given the enthusiasm with which his classmates invented things, providing them with something true would be a mistake.

Milo lengthened his stride.

Layla clambered over the beams and was stepping up onto the boarding area of the first platform when Milo lunged after her, hooking his fingers through the backpack’s top loop.

"I’m here, okay? Now give it back!"

She wheeled around with a fist around the strap.

Between them, the bag twisted, and he tugged until her heel slid back to the platform’s edge.

"Milo, let—"

A rising whine cut across her answer.

Layla released the strap and caught his sweater as a capsule tore past.

Its wake flung the bag against his chest. He toppled down the beam, taking her with him. Cold metal grazed his shoulder blades before he rolled off into the dirt, her sleeve tangled under his arm.

For a moment he could hear only the receding capsule and her breath beside his ear.

...Off.

The backpack had fallen open a short crawl away.

While she wrestled her sleeve free, Milo fished his shoes out and crammed his feet in.

"Are you hurt?"

"See? I nearly killed us there!" Milo scanned both directions along the beams to confirm no other capsule was coming. "And you forced me—"

"Can you stand?"

"I’m wearing shoes, aren’t I?"

Layla shook grit off her palms. Several pink coils had spilled over her face, and a blade of grass protruded beside her mouth. She plucked it out, looked up at him, and made a small, strangled squeak.

"Oh, I can’t..."

"What?"

"Your face. You’re so much fun when you’re angry."

"Yes." Milo crossed his arms and leaned against the beam, which was the height of his waist. "Almost being flattened does that."

"Pffhm... I know. That part was stupid." She beckoned him closer. "Come over here."

"Count yourself lucky no one saw us." He strode after her, pulling his sweater straight. "This was not funny. At all."

"All right." The girl wiped her eyes with the clean side of her wrist. "Let’s go before someone finds us laughing on the tracks and calls the psych ward."

"Us? I’m not laughing."

"But you’re smiling."

Rather than try to disprove it, Milo concentrated on brushing the dust from his trousers.

Layla cleared the backpack of soil and threaded an arm through its strap. "The capsule home’s in three minutes."

"Careful with that!"

"Your notebook’s inside. And since you’ve admitted the walk would break your legs all by itself, there’s no running away."

"I was exaggerating. People do that when they’re being threatened with dismemberment."

"You were having your shoes taken off."

"Which I know now." He ran a hand through his hair, and a flake of dirt fell out. "Look, I get that you’re feeling victorious because your elaborate plan convinced me to come over here, but I really answered the notebook’s questions."

"Sorry, did I not mention my own questions?"

"Come on, I—"

"Why did you want to walk fifty kilometers?"

"Come on! We covered this. Fresh air."

"But you knew how ridiculous that was."

"I didn’t know it, I know it now. Congratulations, you’ve enlightened me." Milo clapped his palms twice. "Am I not allowed to be dumb every now and then?"

"Who was going to find you out there if you fainted again?" Layla nodded at the boarding line, the sign for Jence ticking down to two minutes, then smiled. "Whatever. Dumb or not, I want you to walk me through it."

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⋆˚࿔ Coming right up: "I’m Hungry (Part 1)" ... ⤵︎ [!]