Her
face obscured by the hood of her long black cloak, a girl hunched over her
half-finished beverage. She took another
sip of the cool, vaguely luminescent pink liquid and glanced at the other
patrons of the bar.
A
boy slid into the seat across from her.
His hood was thrown back, revealing an honest face with dark hair
sweeping into good-natured hazel eyes.
“I thought I’d find you here, Jai.”
Jai
looked up and brushed back her cowl, shaking out her short black hair. Out of habit, her smile was almost a
smirk. “Ah, I see I’ve gotten
predictable. Spontaneity is hard to
attain on purpose, I suppose.”
The
boy, whose name was Worth, flashed a grin at his friend and gestured at her
drink. “I see you took my recommendation
and tried the Bubble. It’s quite good,
isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.”
Jai tapped the cup with a fingernail, sending a couple of the bubbles
suspended in the liquid swirling up to the top of the beverage, where they
burst. “Worth, you know – ”
Something
beneath Jai’s cloak interrupted her with a polite beep. “Oh.
Excuse me.” She reached down and
unclipped a device from her belt. It was
a messenger, very similar to the communicators she had learned to use at the
Academy. Like the Academy’s
communicators, Jai’s messenger could send messages, whether verbal or written,
and had a retractable keyboard. Jai
rubbed her sleeve across the touchscreen to clean it and tapped in her access
code.
She
pulled up one of her messages to read it.
As he waited for her to finish, Worth drew invisible designs on the
tabletop with his finger.
“It’s Tor.” Jai slipped the messenger under her cloak
again. Tor was one of her old friends
from the days of the rebellion against the Academy. “He doesn’t have transport fare.” She rose, leaving her drink on the
table. “I guess I’ll have to go pick him
up. Do you want to come?”
“Sure.” Worth pushed his seat back and stood. “Lead on, then. Where is he?”
As Jai approached the door of the
restaurant, it slid open silently. “He’s
in the market near the 117 cross 110 transport station.” She stepped through the doorway, slowing to allow
Worth to catch up.
