Chapter Three
“YOU SHOULDN’T have told him anything about us,” Farlden said to Barve when his brother came to his room half an hour later. It was a good thing Fal was here or who knows what Barve would give away that he shouldn’t. Fal sat back down on the bed mattress, where he had been sketching the view from the window, and Barve took the room’s one chair. A large sports bag and several carrier bags held Fal’s belongings but he hadn’t yet bothered to unpack.
“I like him and I didn’t say anything that mattered.”
“You don’t know what’s important and what isn’t.”
Barve hunched over. “I’m not an idiot.”
“I’m sorry - I know you’re not. I didn’t mean it as an insult,” Fal said at once and reached out to put a hand on his brother’s arm, squeezing it before sitting back down. “There’s too much at stake to trust any of them. A lot of Saps would love to have a reason to wipe out our whole race.”
“Elliot’s on our side. He’s nice. Look, our parents agreed to let us come here and we have three years of mixing with Sapiens. There isn’t any way to avoid them.”
Fal pressed his narrow lips together. He didn’t think he’d feel safe the entire time he was here – surrounded by people who either hated him or thought he should be serving them – instead of being with his family. The thought of them gave him a pang of homesickness. “Why did I let you convince me to come here?”
“Me?” Barve laughed, his entire appearance brightening. “This was your idea as much as mine. You wanted to experience more of the world – admit it!”
“Maybe. If we stick to ourselves...”
“Bugger that,” Barve said. “We can’t discover more by going back to our old routines. I want to get to know some of the Sapiens and find out how they feel about the world.”
“I can already tell you how they feel about Neans. Didn’t you hear that boy when we arrived?”
“I heard Elliot tell him to get lost. That was pretty heroic of him.”
Fal looked at his brother with disbelief. Fal had been impressed that a Sapiens would defend them but that didn’t mean they could trust him. “Heroic?”
“I like him. I really like him.”
Barve was looking at him in a meaningful way that he didn’t get. “You don’t mean you fancy him?”
“Maybe.”
“Since when have you liked blokes?”
“Always.”
Fal’s eyes widened. “Why would you keep that from me?”
“I never had the chance to meet anyone before.”
“You’ve met loads of boys.”
“Name one that I’m not related to.”
Fal tried to come up with a name and couldn’t. Neans weren’t into big gatherings of people or socialising outside their own group. He hadn’t realised that Barve had found it as restricting as he did. They had been each other’s best friend their entire lives, though, so it stung to find out Barve had kept this from him. “You’re my brother. There isn’t anything you can’t tell me.”
“Great. Now you know. I want to get to know Elliot better.” Barve gave him a measuring look, silently daring him to get angry.
“Bloody ‘ell,” he complained. He wouldn’t be surprised if the heroic Elliot turned nasty when he got Barve alone – it wouldn’t be the first time a Sap had pretended to befriend one of them in order beat them up or mock them. There could be no good outcome to Barve’s crush, but Fal knew there was no point in his saying so. They both shared a stubborn streak.
Barve vanished next door to his room and Fal made his bed with the sheets and duvet the Uni letter had instructed them to bring. He then put his suitcase on the bed and emptied its contents, only half filling the big wardrobe and chest of drawers. He lay out his art supplies carefully in the top drawer: sketch paper and better quality sheets; watercolour paints; pastels with a pad of special paper for using with them; pencils; pens; rubbers. A lot of this was new, saved for during the last year when he had had a full-time job. He had an easel that his uncle had made him too and propped it against the wardrobe.
Barve was right: Fal had wanted this too. He’d waited a year so he and Barve could begin their studies together and he had no idea now what he’d been thinking. The Saps would make life miserable for them and Barve was way too trusting.
He thought of Elliot with his blue eyes and fine-boned face and his frown returned. How could his brother possibly like him? Elliot was everything that was wrong with the world. His clothes, accent and attitude all made it clear that he wasn’t just a Sap but, worst of all, an upper class, wealthy one. He would never in his life have to work to get anything. What he couldn’t achieve through his parents’ influence, he would win through his handsome face and charming manner.
He would never be picked on for not just being different, but for not even understanding the rules that made Saps like or hate someone. His family would never be harassed. He would never know the futility of working like crazy – harder than anyone else – and not succeeding because of his race.
The bastard would have everything he wanted for the rest of his life and he probably never even realised how lucky he was.
A knock on the door distracted him from his thoughts and he unlocked it to let his brother back in.
“D’you want to have a look round the town before we get dinner?” Barve was almost overflowing with enthusiasm and that, at least, was good to see.
“Okay. There’s a public phone downstairs and you know Mum won’t relax until she hears we haven’t got murdered yet.”
“Then I can’t wait to tell her that I’m happy here and looking forward to everything ahead.”
Fal shook his head as he locked his door and led the way down the stark corridor to the phone.
They would stick together, he promised himself as he began dialling his home number, and that’s how they would get through this. Barve and Elliot couldn’t possibly have anything in common so, in a few days, Barve would get over his liking for the irritatingly charming boy and then they wouldn’t need to have anything more to do with him.