“Shit, Sang, are you okay?” Silas called to me, his hands reaching for my shoulders. His eyes were wide, horror-stricken. He got on his knees on the couch, hovering over me. “Sang?”
I coughed, yanking out his cell phone. The screen was glowing. “What...” I panted, still short of breath. The shock was gone, but the area on my breast tingled.
“Fuck. I forgot you had that,” he said. He took the phone from my hands, but continued to hover over me. “What?” he barked at whoever was on the line.
I cupped a palm over my breast to ease the sting. “Ow,” I breathed, still clutching at my chest. What happened? Did his phone shock me? It felt familiar, but not as strong as a zap from a stun gun.
Silas’s face went dark and he moved off of me to sit back on the couch, listening to his phone. He grunted, handing it off to me. “He wants to talk to you.”
“I don’t know if I want it,” I said. “It shocked me. I think it’s broken.”
“Just talk to him,” Silas said, frowning.
I moved slowly but trusted him enough to take the phone. “Hello?”
“Sorry,” North’s voice powered through to my ear. “What the hell was his phone doing in your bra?”
“Wait...wait...ugh...what?” The shock had left my breast tingling and feeling weird and the questions I wanted to fire back at him weren’t formulating properly.
“Don’t put his phone in your bra. In fact, don’t hold his phone. And tell Silas to back off if he’s scaring you,” he ordered.
“How did you know it was in my bra?” I countered, finally finding the words.
North fell silent.
“North?” I demanded.
Silence.
Something clicked in my brain. “Were you watching us?”
“It’s a good thing I was.”
“There’s a camera on us now? I thought they were for emergencies.”
“I was making sure you were okay.”
“I’m with Silas,” I said. Didn’t he trust him? Wasn’t that enough? “Did you shock me? These phones can shock you?”
“I thought it was in Silas’s pocket.”
“So you were trying to shock Silas.”
“He deserved it.”
“Why in the world do you have shocking phones? And why are you watching us? And that was mean. I can’t believe you’d do that.”
“He’d do it to me.”
“I don’t care. Don’t shock. No more shocking. That hurts.”
“Sang,” he bellowed into the phone. “I will shock who I want if I think they need it. Don’t let Silas intimidate you. Tell him to back off if you’re uncomfortable.”
“I’m uncomfortable with someone watching us without saying they’re going to do it and trying to shock other people, North.”
“Don’t make me come over there.”
“Ugh,” I grumbled, and I moved the phone from my face, hitting the button to end the call. I tossed it to another part of the couch, falling back and putting my hands on my face.
My phone started buzzing in the other cup in my bra, scaring me that it might actually shock me, too. I quickly pulled it out of my bra, tossing it over with the other one. I caught North’s name on the screen, but I ignored it.
“Your phone isn’t set to do that,” Silas said. He had a knee up on the couch, sitting back on his heel, looking solemn and uncertain.
“Why is yours set like that?”
“It’s the emergency line,” Silas said. “When it rings through and it’s on silent, it shocks you to make sure you feel it.”
I sat up again, rubbing at the spot in my chest. “That hurts. Holy crow, I can’t believe you do that to each other.”
“It’s also not really meant for...I mean we usually carry those in our pockets. It’s not so bad when it’s on the ass. Or I guess I’m used to it.”
“Why isn’t mine set like that?”
His eyebrows furrowed. “What?”
“Why isn’t my phone set to shock?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I mean, why don’t I get an emergency line with a shock thingie? Why can’t you shock me for emergencies?”
His lips parted, his mouth moving as if he was looking for an answer but didn’t really have one.
I frowned. I knew the answer but I didn’t want to say it out loud. I didn’t have an emergency line because they wouldn’t call me if they had an emergency. Useless Sang.
“Can you believe him?” I groused. If Silas didn’t want to talk about Academy things, then he could listen to me complain. “He’s watching us and then tries to shock you.” I lowered the hem at the neck of my shirt a few inches, revealing the skin that had been electrified. The area looked normal. No burns.
Silas’s eyes followed the hem of my shirt down and he moved closer, hovering over me. “You’re okay, though, right?”
“I think so,” I said, replacing the hem up and pressing my palm down on my breast over my shirt. “You should shock him back.”
Silas smirked. “I’ll do it if you want me to.”
“No,” I said, even though I wanted to say yes. I dropped my hand from my chest. It still felt funny. “He’ll probably expects it and isn’t holding it.”
“We could wait until he’s asleep,” Silas said.
I laughed. I had to give North some credit. It was like a light switch. The Silas I’d been used to seemed to be back. He lightened the mood and I wasn’t nearly so stiff and afraid any more. “Let’s wait until we do another sleepover thing. Then we can watch.”
Silas beamed. “Kota will ground us.”
“Totally worth it.”
Silas boomed with laughter, sitting back on the couch and putting a hand on his chest. “You’re as bad as Luke.”
“Oh wait,” I said, getting up so I was kneeling on the couch, making my eyes wide. “It’d be really cool if we could get it to do it without using the emergency button and make it go off at random intervals. It’d totally drive him crazy.”
“Now you’re thinking evil.” He smirked. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.”
“I wouldn’t really do it,” I said, swinging slightly off balance. I shot a hand out to his leg to keep myself upright as I sat back on my heels. “It’s just fun to think about. Besides, North can beat me up.”
Silas turned to me, grasped my hands and held them up to stabilize me as I knee-balanced on the couch. “North wouldn’t beat you up.”
“He might if I zapped him.”
Silas grinned, squeezing my hands once. “You want to really drive him crazy?”
I bit my lower lip, nodding, but unsure if I wanted to zap North really. It really did hurt.
“Go put on something you can get wet in, and we’ll go down to the hot tub. No cameras there. He can’t watch us.”
I grinned, nodding. “Yeah. He’s not supposed to be doing that, anyway.” I jumped up from the couch, excited by the new plan. I grabbed the straps of my book bag to pick it up. “Serves him right.”
Silas stood up, took my hand and guided me back toward the hallway and stopped at a door, opening it to reveal a guest bathroom with just a toilet and sink. “You’ve got something that will work?”
I pushed a palm across my cheek, rubbing. “I might. The things I grabbed to sleep in should be fine.”