Chapter Twenty-Eight

Throughout the day my sorrow and self-pity eventually turned to anger and by the end of the day, I was furious. Not so much with Michael, although it did take two, but mostly with Yvonne. She knew that I liked Michael. A lot. And she had deliberately stolen him. Whether or not she planned for me to find out (probably not), it was unfair and so ... like her. Why was I even surprised? Michael was a challenge for Yvonne – something that was supposedly mine and something she was determined to make her own.

I stormed into our room once David drove me back to the Institution. Yvonne was sitting on her bed reading a magazine with a picture of a beautiful girl with soft brown hair adorning the cover. It didn’t help my mood to notice that Yvonne was at least twice as pretty.

“How could you do this?” I nearly screamed at her.

Yvonne didn’t look the least bit concerned, or even surprised, which made me just that much madder. She calmly studied me.

“How?” I cried again.

“What are you talking about?” Yvonne asked, her expression telling me she knew exactly what.

“How could you kiss Michael?” I snapped, trying to lower my voice to a normal tone, hoping that maybe we could discuss this civilly, but seriously doubting it.

“Oh ...” Yvonne drew out the word. “I see. You’re jealous.”

I stared at her in shock. “Jealous? How about angry? Why would you do that? You knew I liked him.”

Yvonne shrugged. “I didn’t know you liked him that much. You said you weren’t a couple.”

Her words were spoken with soft nonchalance, but hit me like a smack in the face. And Yvonne knew it. I had said that, but we hadn’t even had enough time to become a couple. So how could that even count? “You knew I liked him,” I repeated.

Yvonne was starting to look uncomfortable. She ran her fingers through her hair, a habit she did whenever she was annoyed. “Oh please, Drew, this is so ... human, for lack of a better word.”

I simply glared at her.

“Besides, he would never like you if he knew what you really were,” she added, watching me closely.

I stopped for a moment. But he does know, I wanted to scream back. Then my heart sank to the bottom of my chest, a realization dawning on me. That’s why he had left. That’s why he had kissed Yvonne. He didn’t want to have anything to do with an android. Who would? My head hurt. My heart hurt. I felt hot tears well up behind my eyes, but I held them back. “It was you who said that fishing around for guys on the human level was beneath you. Beneath all of us,” I snapped back.

Anger flashed in Yvonne’s eyes and she stood up. “I get what I want, Drew,” she spat through clenched teeth. “And don’t you forget it.”

“Even when it means betraying your closest friend?”

For a second, regret flashed in her eyes, but in an instant, it was gone, replaced with a fresh round of anger. “I know how to get what I want and I’m not afraid to get it.” Her voice was cold and merciless.

“Well what do you want, Yvonne?” I yelled. “You always say you know how to play it right. You know what to do. You always get the tiniest thing you want.”

She glared at me, living hatred seeming to burn through her eyes.

“Your choices come with consequences, but that’s something you don’t seem to have learned.” I was almost shouting now. “You think you can steal Michael away from me, and come back here, and everything will be the same?” I glared at her incredulously. “What about when you’ve gone too far? Has that ever even occurred to you? That maybe you’ve been hurting others?” I suddenly stopped, not wanting to do this anymore. A tense silence hung in the air while I stood there, breathless.

For a moment, I thought Yvonne was going to apologize, but I guess I had mistaken her shock for remorse because in the next second she lashed out again.

“You’re weak, Drew.” She flung the words at me. “You could be one of the most powerful people in the world, but you’re too afraid to use what you’ve got.” Her dark eyes blazed with anger and her voice was edged with disgust. “You’re no better than the humans,” she said as if she were comparing me to a roach. And with that she turned and left the room.