Famished Read online

  Honestly, I could trust Grace with my life. She was such a loving and loyal friend. Every time I was feeling down she was always there to pick me up. The same went for me.

  The week after Monica disappeared, I sat up with her night after night while she cried herself to sleep. In a way, I knew exactly what she was going through. I had a sister and even though Frankie got on my nerves sometimes, I couldn’t imagine losing her.

  Grace patted her belly. “I know. I’m hungry too.” Grace walked ahead of me and I continued walking a few feet behind her.

  In the mess hall, I weaved through the rows of tables, listening in on the colonist’s topic of conversation, ‘the meeting.’ I knew once the subject was leaked it would only be a matter of time before everybody found out. I glanced over at my parent’s table and my father was wagging his finger in Frankie’s face. Frankie nodded and rolled her eyes. It didn’t matter how hard my parents tried to break Frankie of the habit of eavesdropping, none of their punishments worked.

  Hearing everyone whispering about the meeting made my anger resurface. Just who did the council think they were? And my father disappointed me the most. He had always been so open and honest. He’d tell me anything. Why not now? Was it just because Mr. Baker told him not to? Even though my father denied it, I knew it was true. That simple act of denial reassured my gut feeling that this meeting was going to be bad.

  I made my way to the back of the room. I shared a table with a group of kids my own age from the other families. Lifting each leg, I hovered above the sturdy wooden bench, ramming my butt into my seat. The whole table shook. I huffed, folding my arms across my chest as all sixteen eyes at the table turned toward me. “What?”

  Exhaling slowly, I lowered my arms as another rumbling growl escaped from my belly. All of my worry about the meeting mixed in with my hunger was making me a little bit cranky.The rest of the eyes turned away from except for Colin Martin’s. His hazel eyes burned into my chocolate brown ones. “Who peed in your Wheaties?”

  “I’m just hungry, that’s all,” I scoffed.

  There were a lot of times when Colin caught me off guard and I always wound up snapping at him. I never meant to. Honestly, every time I heard the sound of his deep, smooth voice my heart would begin racing, my cheeks would get red and tingly and my stomach would do a back flip.

  One time, during recreational time he gave me a cocky smirk, his perfect white teeth glowing in the candlelight, and I got flustered and smacked my head into the side of the doorway. Out of all the boys down here, Colin was by far the most attractive. He had a perfectly proportioned heart-shaped face, chiseled jaw line, and hair the color of the sky at midnight.

  Sometimes I caught myself staring at him, only to look because half of the time he walked around shirtless. And Colin shirtless was like staring at one of the those old ads in Cosmo with the toned underwear models.

  A few times, when I caught him walking around in nothing but a towel, I had to pick my jaw up from off the floor. It was difficult not to let my teenage hormones get the best of me, when I lived this close in proximity with boys my age.

  Colin knew he was good looking. He had this arrogant way about him. There were plenty of times where I’d seen him with other girls and he’d ask them to feel his bicep, a smirk on his face and dimples present on his cheeks. And Colin took full advantage of the way he could manipulate the girls down here.

  We weren’t forbidden from fraternizing with the opposite sex but the council didn’t want teenage members of the colony running around fornicating everywhere. Pre-marital sex was something that was severely frowned upon.

  Part of me thought that the council should spend less time worrying about pre-marital sex, and more time worrying about our future. Like when or if we’d run out of food.

  Colin got caught in compromising situations on more than one occasion. I didn’t think it ever got as far as him going all the way with a girl. But it was close. I’d actually walked in on him one time when he was with Anna Shafer in the rec room.

  He hovered over top of her, shirtless, the contour lining of his abdomen tightened, his back muscles flexed. I froze at the sight of it. I tried to speak but I couldn’t get the words out. My veins pulsated. My breathing quickened. My brain kept telling my feet to move but I couldn’t. Finally Colin lifted his head, gave me a haughty grin and winked at me. “What’s up, Georgie? If you don’t mind I’m kind of busy.”

  Outside of the room, I rested my back against the wall of the muddy corridor, panting. Colin made my insides burn like a crackling ember in a fireplace. But after seeing him like that with Anna, I knew he was the type of guy who couldn’t be trusted. I couldn’t understand why he was always giving me mixed signals if he didn’t have an interest in me. So, from that moment on, I vowed to keep my feelings for him to myself.

  My attention averted to my left when Grace took her seat next to me. As she brushed a strand of her honey colored hair off her shoulder she beamed at me, her pale blue eyes sparkling “Hey you,” she said excitedly. “Don’t look so glum. I can smell the food. I’m sure they’ll be bringing it out any minute.”

  I admired the way Grace always tried to look at things in a positive light, especially after what happened to Monica.After going through something like that, I thought Grace would be more negative than positive. That wasn’t the case. When you went through the hardships that we did, we had to step outside of the box and consider ourselves lucky. We could have been on earth, rotting away. Instead, we were down here, eating and living our lives.

  “It’s not just that.” I tucked my fiery, auburn hair behind my ears. “I’m just distressed about this stupid council meeting.”

  Grace shrugged. “I’m wouldn’t overexert myself by worrying about it. The council knows what they’re doing.”

  “We put too much of our faith in the council. What if it’s something bad?”

  Grace stole a glance around the room. “Shh,Georgie! Don’t say that!”

  I leaned into her ear. “What? You don’t think it’s odd that this is the first time in two and a half years that the families have actually been invited to a meeting?”

  “Georgie’s got a point, Grace,” Colin spoke up.My eyes flashed over to his. He crooked me a smile and winked.

  I shook my head and faced Grace.“Seriously, Grace. I have this terrible, feeling in my gut.”

  Grace raised her hand. “I don’t want hear about it anymore. Can’t we just talk about something else?”

  At the same time I opened my mouth, people started coming around with bowls of food. Three ceramic bowls were set down on our table. Each person took one helping and passed the bowl down. We never allowed seconds. We also weren’t allowed to waste any. We had to consume every piece of food that was on our plate.

  In the beginning, after starving on and off for three months straight, inhaling all of the food was a challenge. When you starve for that long, your stomach shrinks to the size of a peanut. Now, after eating well for the last couple years, it was hard not to ask for seconds.

  For dinner, we were served scrambled eggs, cooked carrots, and a piece of flat bread. Every day it varied. Like I said earlier, each family in the colony had something to provide. When we ate, three times a day, each family donated part of their food so that we could actually have a full course meal.

  My mother was a botanist and my father was an electrician. Together they concocted this genius idea before the colony was built, that with artificial lighting, and soil deep beneath the earth’s surface, plants could be grown and survive. So my family provided all of the vegetables.

  We grew carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers and potatoes. Sometimes, when the crops were harvested, we’d get a bad batch. For example, the carrots rotting before we picked them from the soil. Potatoes not being any bigger than a pebble. But most of those mishaps were in the first few months of The Great Famine.

  The Baker family used to own a chicken coop so they provided all of the eggs. They managed to save several
chickens from the coupe after the apocalypse. So we always had fresh eggs. Grace’s father, Ed Vickers, was a baker. He provided the flat bread. Grace’s mother May was a doctor, and she ran our infirmary. Colin’s family used to own a ceramic’s shop in what was once Omaha. Without them, we’d be eating off of the table with our hands.

  Each time I took a bite of the food on my plate, it felt like a gift. When I finished, I thought about licking my plateand cleaning up all of the crumbs. That’s how valuable food was anymore. Even crumbs were worth a person’s weight in gold.

  After dinner Grace appeared next to me and laced her arm through mine. “What are you going to do now?”

  I shrugged. “Probably just go back to my room.”

  “Or…” she grinned.

  I shook my head. “No way.” I knew exactly what she

  wanted. Grace had this crazy obsession with checkers. Anytime we had free time that’s always what she wanted to do. I didn’t like playing with her. Mainly because she beat me every time.

  “Come on,” she whined. “Do you honestly think you’ll have more fun sitting in your room alone?”

  I grumbled in defeat. “Alright.” She had a point. There were too many things on my mind for me to sit alone in my room and dwell on them. “Maybe I’ll actually beat you this time.”

  “Ha.” Grace laughed. “I doubt that.”

  * * *

  An hour later we were on our third game. Grace picked up her black piece and jumped over my red one. “King me.”

  I moaned. “Don’t you ever get tired of winning?”

  She pondered the question for a second. “Uh. No.”

  I turned my gaze to the open doorway as Colin walked passed us. Grace looked over her shoulder, then turned back to me smiling. “Somebody has a crush,” she teased.

  I blushed, looking down at the floor. “I do not.”

  Grace rolled her eyes. “You know you can’t lie to me.”

  “Fine. Maybe I like him a little bit.” It felt odd that I finally admitted it out loud to someone. And who better than Grace? I knew she’d never say anything to anyone and she probably would have some good advice.

  She clapped her hands together. “I knew it!”

  I pushed the checkers off of the board and started putting the game away. “I wouldn’t get so excited about it. It’s not like he has the same feelings.”

  Grace leaned in close. “Are you freaking blind? He’s always staring at you. And whenever you’re around, he always tries to find an excuse to talk to you.”

  I put all of the checker pieces in the box and closed the lid. “That doesn’t mean he likes me,” I began, “He does that same stuff with a lot of the girls around here too.” Colin never struck me as a loyal type of guy. He was way too charming and did way too much flirting with other girls.

  Grace stood up and extended her hand to me. “You still don’t get it, do you?”

  I took her hand and stood up. “No. I don’t. And besides, why would he want someone like me? There are girls that are way prettier than me down here.”

  We walked toward the door and hung a left. Grace’s families quarters were right across from the infirmary—which was on the other side of the mess hall. Grace nodded toward me. “I think you underestimate yourself, Georgie. You’re a lot prettier than you think you are.”

  I smiled. “Thanks.”

  Grace went on, “And I also think Colin flirts with those girls to get your attention.”

  My mind went back to the time I caught him with Ana. He didn’t seem like he was trying to get my attention. He acted like I interrupted him. “Maybe.” I wasn’t going to disagree with her. Even though I knew what she was saying wasn’t true, I didn’t feel like talking about Colin anymore. All I wanted to do was go back to my room and get some sleep.

  After I said goodbye to Grace, I walked back to my room, lost in my own thoughts. The meeting still loomed in the back of my mind, but I’d blocked it out thinking of Colin. Damn him. He was always distracting me.

  I couldn’t help but let my worry drown me. People like Grace were fine with being kept in the dark about certain things. But not people like me. I had to know what was going on. Perhaps it would have been better if Frankie would have kept her mouth shut and not said anything at all.

  Out of nowhere, I felt an arm wrap around my waist. I opened my mouth to scream, but before I could even utter a squeal, a warm, moist hand covered it. I couldn’t get a look at my attacker. They came at me from behind. In attempt to free myself, I extended my arm back and elbowed the person in the face. Whoever it was, growled out in pain as they pulled me into a dark room.

  The person shoved me backwards, slamming me into the cold, damp dirt wall. Breath caught in my lungs as I felt the wind being knocked right out of me. I flapped my arms wildly, trying to slap the person away. Keeping my mouth covered, they pressed their body into mine. I reached out, hands sliding up their shirt, feeling the muscled torso of a man.

  A match sparked and Colin brought it to his face as he grinned. “You’ve got spunk, Georgina. I like that about you. ”

  I shoved him backwards as the match went out. “Colin! You jerk! What the hell were you thinking, sneaking up on me like that?” My emotions were torn. Part of me wanted him to hold me and another part of me wanted to slap him across the face.

  He hovered over me, arms placed on the wall above my head. “Hey now, you’re not the one who got elbowed in the face.”

  I raised my voice. “I thought you were attacking me!”

  He looked over his shoulder. “Keep it down, nobody can hear this conversation.”

  I ducked from underneath his arms. “I don’t want to be a part of this conversation.” I headed straight for the doorway.

  Colin caught me by the wrist and pulled me back toward the wall. “You’re going to want to hear this,” he murmured, his deep voice hushed.

  I glowered. “You sound awfully sure of yourself. What’s the topic of this conversation?”

  He leaned in close, his warm breath caressing my ear. His lips being only an inch away from my neck made my spine tingle. “The meeting.”

  “Oh yeah,” I snapped. “What about it?”

  “You know how you said you had a terrible feeling about it?”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “You were right. It’s going to be bad.”

  “How do you know?”

  “These walls are thin. I heard some things.”

  I folded my arms across my chest. “Like what?”

  He grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me back into the wall. “Like that there is going to be chaos tomorrow when the families find out what they have planned.”

  “I don’t believe you.” Colin Martin was not the type of guy who gave out free warnings. As long as I’d known him, he always had ulterior motives.

  He pressed his body into mine. “You don’t? You’re a terrible liar. You’re the one who thought something was off about this whole meeting in the first place.”

  “And I still do. I just don’t believe you have any knowledge of it. I think you concocted this whole story in that little mind of yours to try and get me in here, alone.”

  “Oh, feisty and smart. This is a win-win situation.”

  I shoved into him as he wrapped his strong arms around my waist. “Colin, I’m going back to my room.” I pushed on him harder. Still, he didn’t budge.

  “I am serious about the meeting though. I did overhear a conversation. And you are also right about the second part.”

  “What do you mean? What conversation?”

  He craned his neck, his face inches away from mine. “Something about gatherers.” He brushed his soft fingertips against my cheek. “And I also wanted to get you alone.”

  He took me by surprise when his full, wet lips fluttered over mine. I fought it at first, then as he wrappedhis arms around me tighter, I relaxed, losing myself in thekiss. He was a good kisser, almost too good. I could seewhy he drove all the girls around here
mad.

  Then the thought of us getting caught planted itself in my brain. I inched away from him, walking to the doorway. “Where are you going?” he asked, puzzled.

  “To my room,” I said, hanging half-way out the door. “Thanks for the information but, the last thing I want to do is get caught having a tryst with you, Colin Martin. I know what kind of guy you are. And I’m not interested in becoming one of your band of merry followers.”

  “Georgina, it’s not even like that.”

  “Whatever, Colin. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I walked out of the room and left him standing alone in the dark.

  In my room, I collapsed on my cot, smiling up at my ceiling. That kiss made my stomach swirl. It wasn’t my first. God, I had done my fair share of kissing. I recalled one kiss in particular that involved spin the bottle and a lot of slobbering. Ugh. But out of all the kisses I had experienced in my life, the kiss with Colin was by far the best.

  I was so confused. What did he want from me? Could he see through me? I didn’t like the way he teased me. I liked when people were upfront and honest about everything. Then again, whenever I was around him I tried to act like I wasn’t interested. Even though I totally was. And it wasn’t just because he was attractive. There was a sweet side of him. A side that rarely came out. But when it did it made me swoon.

  One day, I was walking down the corridor, carrying a whole stack of textbooks for Mrs. Edwards, our teacher. There was a crack in the concrete and I accidentally tripped. The stack of books toppled over and Colin rushed toward me, lifting me off the ground. “Whoa, you okay?”he asked. There was no sarcastic tone to his voice. He wasn’t smiling seductively. He seemed generally concerned.

  Thankfully, he gave me a tidbit on the meeting and a wave of relief washed over me. The meeting had something to do with the gatherers. But why did he say it was going to be bad, then?

  Frankie walked into the room, noticing the glazed over look on my face. “What’s with you, sis?” she asked.

  I continued staring at the ceiling. “Nothing.”

  She fell backwards on to her bed. “Are you sure?”