Project Oxygen

10 | introspection

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          ISLA'S IMPATIENCE KEEPS GROWING THROUGHOUT THE FOLLOWING WEEK. It begins when she's woken up by a phone-call at three in the morning, muttering every possible curse word she can remember under her breath, and Rhiannon barely lifts her head from her pillow to follow the source of light coming from the opposite side of the bedroom.

          Luckily, it's now officially Saturday, as it has been for the past three hours and fifteen minutes—according to the time plastered on Rhiannon's own phone—and no one has to get up early in the morning (except for Isla, who simply loves to study in the morning, as everything is a lot quieter than it is as the hours pass). Next to her, Jude mumbles something unintelligible, tightening the hold around her waist and she falls back to the mattress with a soft thud.

          The gentle pressure of his lips against the bare skin of her neck is more than enough to spread noradrenaline through her bloodstream and quicken her heart rate.

          "Rowan?" Isla mumbles, voice so slurred her words are barely comprehensible, while Rhiannon wishes the guy had the decency to call at more godly times during the day. "It's . . . three in the morning. What is it?" Isla only waits around ten seconds before kicking off the covers, grabbing her robe and exiting the room, being considerate enough to talk outside. "Slow down."

          She stays outside for long enough to let Rhiannon and Jude almost drift back to sleep, with Rhiannon rolling to the side to turn into the big spoon, holding him with both an arm and a leg. Unfortunately, they never go any further, as Isla accidentally slams the door on her way back inside and Jude jumps on the bed, like an alert cat, startling Rhiannon in the process as well.

          Jude asks her to tell her boyfriend to learn how to be a decent person, Isla retorts said guy is definitely, definitely not her boyfriend, as she has plenty of better things to focus on and they're technically only business partners. Besides, he's also worried someone is playing some sort of macabre game with him, trying to make him lose his mind, and Taylor having gone missing is only making it worse.

          Rhiannon says nothing, scooting closer to Jude, and presses a quick kiss to one of his vertebrae, the one right on the base of his neck, feeling him shiver. At the end of the day, she, Rowan and Isla are following the same goal, even though Isla is the one using a more direct approach by taking matters into her own hands.

          Rowan reads and writes about mythology while his feelings of paranoia grow. Rhiannon tries to come up with an excuse to check the footage from the surveillance cameras, even though the police said there were no signs of struggle and they must have already had the same idea.

          "Also," Isla whispers, with a slight note of irritation twisting her voice, "care to tell me what the hell you're doing in this room? This is a sacred place!"

          "'Teo snores," Jude grumbles, voice muffled thanks to his pillow. "Rhea doesn't."

          "Rhea's also dating you. I have no idea if Matteo wants to tap that."

          "Yeah." Jude yawns. "There's that, too. Guess which of them I'd rather tap."

          Rhiannon playfully sinks her teeth into his shoulder, over his thermal sweater. "You're terrible."

          Things quickly go from bad to worse in a span of merely a few hours. Though Rhiannon wakes up feeling relatively well-rested, choosing to ignore all the work she still hasn't done, including an assignment due on Tuesday (which is something she knows she can perfectly wing), her gut tells her those feelings of bliss won't last throughout the rest of the day.

          For starters, rumor has it Beatrice and Frances are revealing the list of participants later today, sending the entire student body into panic mode. Personally, Rhiannon thinks there really shouldn't be a reason for so many people to be feeling this way, with the symptoms of mass hysteria easily spreading around the campus like they did on that episode of House MD, but she's not one to talk; she, too, has freaked out over seemingly minimal things and maybe some people actually give a damn about the experiment.

          She's not one of them. When you live in a world that revolves around money instead of the sun, those things are easily shoved to the back of your brain and turn into the least of your concerns. Easy as pie.

          Second of all, Isla returns around lunch time, stomping her feet as she barges into the cafeteria, dropping her backpack over the table and startling poor Gabriella. Apparently, she had scheduled lunch with Rowan, just to see if the guy could finally calm down and think things through, as they all doubt someone is really trying to mess with his head, but then his ex-girlfriend decided to show up. He was the one who called her last night, after Isla hung up the phone, but couldn't even remember having done it.

          "It's Jasper St. Claire," Isla complains. "He dated Jasper St. Claire for six years. Hell, even I wish I had dated Jasper St. Claire."

          "So?" Jude asks. "What's the drama?"

          "I mean"—Isla wrinkles her nose—"I don't want to get involved in their drama because that was a really messy break-up, let me tell you, and the dude is absolutely wrecked, but you should have seen the way he was looking at her."

          "I bet it's the same way Laura looks at Frances," Sutton jokes, and Laura elbows her, while everyone else chuckles. "It's the whole 'why does it feel so good but hurt so bad' business all over again. People tend to want what they can't have, unless they suddenly turn into annoyingly sappy creatures like certain people." She discreetly points to Jude and Rhiannon with her head, but the smile on her lips is genuine as she does it.

          "Are you okay, though?" Rhiannon quietly asks Isla, as she sits down next to her.

          "Yep," Isla replies, in a breath. "Why wouldn't I be? It's not like we owe anything to each other."

          "Still." Jude's knuckles gently graze against Rhiannon's shoulder blades. "I don't want you to get hurt."

          Lastly, Matteo decides to take Jude's place as the bearer of bad news (though the role of prophet belongs to him and the Universe will never stop reminding everyone of it, especially through Murphy's Law) by bursting inside the cafeteria, panting as he stops by their table, with a hand pressed against his side.

          "The list is out," he chokes out, and everyone falls silent. "We're all in it. Yes, you too," he tells Rhiannon, when her eyes widen. "Call me paranoid all you want, but I don't think this is a mere coincidence."

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THE TIMELINES HAVE FINALLY CAUGHT UP AND I AM DONE WITH NANO

so, uh, ben barnes liked my tweet. again. it was the third time. my heart doesn't know how to handle this BUT I AM STILL ECSTATIC I LOVE HIM SO MUCH ps watch marvel's the punisher on netflix