"What do you an, i rejected Ryan?"
Christopher’s voice carried a mix of disbelief and amusent as he stood in the middle of his room, one arm halfway through the sleeve of his vest, eyes fixed on Sydney like she’d just told him the sky had turned green overnight.
A full day had crawled by since the hostage exchange had failed as expected, since i had stood her ground in that tense mont and sent Ryan away telling her to not co for her. And yet, true to his stubborn nature, Ryan had already decided he wasn’t done. i’s rejection hadn’t stuck. Her words, don’t co for had bounced right off him like everything else did. He’d made up his mind to go back into Brigantine himself and pull her out, whether she wanted it or not.
Not long after, he’d left for the Boardwalk with Molly and Maribel, honoring the promise he’d made to Marlon about pulling his weight over the next few days. But before going, he’d laid the whole plan out, the broad strokes of his half-insane idea to slip into Brigantine and extract i directly. Everyone had heard it. Everyone had, with varying degrees of reluctance, agreed to it.
It was a crazy plan. The kind that only worked on paper and in desperate situations. Which, to be fair, this was.
Sydney had shown up that morning to check on Christopher, who was healing at a pace that bordered on unreasonable for soone who’d taken the kind of hit he had. She’d barely stepped through the door before skipping past any conversation about the plan, and what happened there altogether, and launching straight into a detailed account of the conversation between i and Ryan. Her version of it, anyway since she wasn’t even there to witness it!
"She did," Sydney nodded, letting out a long sigh like she was still processing it herself. "You should’ve been there, Christopher. Ryan walked up to her, cool as anything, telling her he was definitely coming to get her, like it was already decided and i just..." She paused, almost for dramatic effect. "She cried. Actual tears. Asking why that blockhead couldn’t understand her feelings."
"Wait." Christopher stared at her. "For real?"
He honestly couldn’t picture it. i crying. i saying sothing that embarrassingly honest out loud to Ryan’s face. The i he’d known, sharp-tongued, composed, the kind of person who’d rather swallow glass than show vulnerability didn’t line up with that image at all.
"I am telling you, I was standing right there," Sydney said, her sigh deepening. "And you should’ve seen Ryan’s face when she slapped him. Told him she hated him. Told him not to co for her."
"Okay, now I’m starting to doubt you," Christopher muttered, grimacing slightly as he wrestled the vest into place, his healing side still protesting the movent with a dull, nagging ache.
"What is there to doubt?" Sydney threw her hands up. "Even an idiot could see i’s already on the first step of falling for him. She’s just not there yet, she’s fighting it."
Christopher pulled the vest straight and gave a noncommittal shrug. "I an... I don’t know about falling for him. But she was definitely more irritated around him than any of us. I’ll give you that."
"Exactly," Sydney said, crossing her arms with the satisfaction of soone whose theory had just been confird. "Tsundere. Classic case. She won’t admit it easily, probably not even to herself."
"Maybe," Christopher said slowly. "But here’s the thing, I’m pretty sure i isn’t oblivious. She was in my class, I know how she thinks. She’s likely already figured out the kind of... polygamous relationship you and Ryan have going with the other two. Rebecca, Daisy may be oblivious but I doubt she is, like Miss Ivy by the way.."
Sydney’s expression shifted, a brow arching with curiosity. "You think she knows?"
"I’d bet on it," Christopher said flatly. "Which ans if she does have feelings for Ryan, she’s not just dealing with her own pride, she’s dealing with that on top of it."
Sydney went quiet for a mont, stroking her chin slowly. "Hm. So you’re saying she might be... positioning herself? Trying to find a spot?"
Christopher turned to look at her. "Not everyone thinks the way you do, Sydney. Not everyone looks at a situation like that and sees an opportunity." He grabbed his jacket off the chair. "And honestly, Ryan wouldn’t have ended up tangled with multiple won if it weren’t for his Curing ability pulling people in. You know that. Half of this happened to him, not because of him, and he still loses sleep over Rachel, Elena, and Cindy. He hasn’t moved past any of that."
Sydney clicked her tongue, shaking her head like she was watching soone leave money on the table. "That’s exactly what I an. He’s a goody-two-shoes idiot. He’s got everything it takes, the ability, the presence, honestly the looks if you clean him up, and he doesn’t even realize it. Just stumbles around feeling guilty while half the won around him are quietly losing their minds. He should think about expanding his harem!"
Christopher stared at her speechless.
She was, without question, built differently from everyone else he knew.
"Thank god he isn’t like you," he said finally, grabbing the door handle. "And honestly? Thank god you weren’t born a man." He pulled the door open and stepped out into the corridor.
"If I’d had his power and been a man?" Sydney followed right behind him, a wide grin spreading across her face. "Fifteen won. Easily. Probably more by now."
"That says a lot about you," Christopher scoffed.
Sydney snorted, then let the grin settle into sothing more self-satisfied. "Alright, alright. So, finally heading to go find your beloved Lucy?"
Christopher didn’t dignify that with a glance.
"I still can’t believe Ryan actually told you to seduce her," Sydney continued, glowing with approval. "Honestly, I’m proud of him. Real growth."
"He never said anything like that!" Christopher spun around mid-step to glare at her. "We’re just using the fact that she’s obsessed with her brother. That’s it. We leverage that, we get what we need. It’s manipulation, not—"
"Manipulate whom?"
The word landed like a stone dropped into still water.
They both stopped.
At the far end of the corridor, just where the hallway opened up near the staircase, Lucy stood watching them her arms crossed.
"What is this woman wandering around here like she owns the place?!"
Christopher’s voice ca out sharper than he probably intended, but he made no effort to dial it back. The sight of Lucy standing there, calm, composed, like she hadn’t just been living on the other side of a very real enemy line less than two days ago, scraped against sothing raw in him.
"She had so urgent needs, Christopher." Rachel materialized beside Lucy almost on cue.
"Urgent needs." Christopher repeated it slowly, letting the words sit in his mouth like sothing sour. "Right. That’s a fun one coming from her, that’s basically her signature move. Flash a need, reel soone in, and then put a knife sowhere painful." He crossed his arms, jaw tight. "Ask Rebecca how her urgent needs worked out for her."
Lucy didn’t flinch. She didn’t fire back, didn’t even blink at him for more than a second. She just leveled him with a long, flat stare then turned and walked straight past them toward the staircase, heading up to the top floor where they’d given her a room.
The silence she left behind was sohow more aggravating than anything she could’ve said.
"Wonderful," Sydney said, her voice dry as dust. "Really masterful work, Christopher. Very convincing. I’m sure she’s already warming up to us."
"What do you want from ?" He turned to her, genuinely baffled. "She was standing at Callighan’s side until yesterday. Like, literally yesterday. You want to roll out a welco mat?"
"I want you to not torpedo the only plan we have before it even starts," Sydney said plainly.
Christopher opened his mouth, closed it, and decided that particular argunt wasn’t going anywhere useful.
Sydney, apparently unbothered by the tension still hanging in the air, tilted her head with the look she got when her brain wandered sowhere it probably shouldn’t. "You know... you did put your life on the line for her, Chris. That’s not nothing." A slow, thoughtful nod. "Though I have to wonder what exactly inspired that level of sacrifice. Her temper? Very fierce, I’ll admit. Or maybe..." Her gaze drifted upward in theatrical contemplation. "...the more architectural aspects of her. She is built impressively. Nice sexy figure. The rear view especially, genuinely worth noting."
Christopher went very still.
He turned to look at Sydney with the hollow, slightly dead expression of a man questioning his own life choices.
He thought, not for the first ti, about Ryan. About the fact that this woman was one of Ryan’s girlfriends. That Ryan woke up and dealt with this energy on a regular basis, voluntarily, and still managed to function as a human being.
"I pity Ryan..." Christopher muttered, and turned to walk the other direction, down the stairs, away from where Lucy had gone.
"Hey... hey!" Sydney spun around after him. "Where are you going? We’re supposed to be going up! The plan, Lucy, the guilt, the leverage, what happened to all of that?!"
"I’m hungry," Christopher called back, not slowing down. "I need food before I deal with anyone."
"Deal with her, okay I don’t know why that ca out sounding vaguely erotic but please keep it professional, Christopher, we need her functional—"
"Why aren’t you at the Boardwalk with Ryan?" He asked flatly, hitting the bottom of the stairs. "Remind ."
The question landed. There was a brief, uncharacteristic pause from Sydney, just a beat too long.
"He refused," she said, sighing. "Said he’d rather stay with that warrior girl." She sighed through her nose. "Maribel. Though honestly, give it a week. She’ll be head over heels and I’ll be completely unsurprised."
Christopher paused on the last step, glancing back up at her. "Maribel? The one from that group?"
"That’s the one," Sydney said, perking back up. "Funny enough, she’s cut from the sa cloth as Lucy, that whole dangerous, intense, will-probably-hurt-you type." She gave him a pointed look. "You’d like her."
Christopher turned back around and walked down.
So conversations, he’d learned, were best ended by simply removing yourself from them entirely.
User Comments
0 comments from readers