"Thomas!" My eyes wide at the sight of his face, bruised and bandaged. "What happened?"

"Got beaten up," he groans. Straight after he sits down, he buries his head in his hands. "Everything hurts."

"Let me see." Teresa scoots closer. At that, he perks up, but only a little bit, which betrays how bad he actually must feel.

She cups the sides of his face. Moves it to the side to inspect the abrasion on his cheek. Her finger wipes over it softly. "That'll heal just fine. Your eye looks pretty bad, though."

Oh, wow. Watching Thomas's eyes as she touches him makes me believe not all love is ruined these days. He doesn't even seem to notice it when she lightly presses against his blue eyelid.

She finishes looking by ruffling through his messy hair, fixing it. "Perfect."

His eyes are still on her as he speaks, "Perfect, indeed."

I think they're both referring to different things.

Teresa smiles so hard her eyes squint. After she places a quick kiss on his forehead, she turns back to Miyoko and they continue talking like nothing happened.

Thomas? He stays in the exact same position for at least two full minutes before he turns to Newt and I, eyes and mouth wide open. "Did you see that?"

"Yeah, we did." I chuckle.

"She kissed me," he says.

"We know," Newt says. He smiles.

"Wow."

I nod. "Wow it is."

"Wow," he repeats. "My day is made. My headache just flew away. Is that possible, Newt?"

"I'm sure it is."

In the next minute, Minho slides next to the boy. "What're you so drunk about? And why are you freaking bruised?"

"She kissed me," he gulps.

"What? Teresa? She—"

"On the forehead," Newt quickly says. I guess it's good he does, 'cause Minho would've start thinking they actually shared a kiss kiss.

"Oh." The disappointment is visible. "Well, that's still good. Improvement, man."

"Where's Lelia?" I ask. My eyes are on Minho as I do so. He's the one I expect to know now that he's her boyfriend and I'm... busier with... Newt (?).

"Probably still asleep."

I frown. "She loves to sleep, but she loves food more. And she knows they're serving scrambled eggs today."

"You're actually a horrible boyfriend, Minho," Newt comments.

"I know. My mom is going to kill me if she finds out."

Newt's eyebrows rise. I don't know, but something about the way he sometimes replies in such a triumphant way, mixed with the accent... "Well, do something about it," he says.

"And Lelia will kill me if I wake her up," he then points out. "It's either the first choice or the second one."

Thomas, who finally seems to be lucid, turns to Minho. "Wrong. You were supposed to immediately choose the first one and say that Lelia would be allowed to kill you."

"See?" I cross my arms. "Be as in love with my sister as Thomas is with Teresa. I don't think I can share her with you if that's not the situation."

"Alright. You know what? I'll go get those flowers again. I'll make my own bouquet and add little notes inside."

"Hm. Only if you mean it," Newt says. "Don't do shit like that because we told you to. She'll find out. Be genuine."

"Look who it says," mutters Minho, yet he nods in an understanding way. "I'm going to be genuine."

"And I'm going to check if she's alright," I reply as I get up, already in quite a hurry. "See you later."

My feet move fast as I go. One thing I know is that I hate it when Lelia isn't where she's supposed to be or things close like that. Take the cornfield as an example. Worry always starts to fill my whole body until it feels like I can't breathe. I'm sure that sometimes, I actually can't breathe.

"Lelia?" I knock on their hut's door. "Are you there?"

There is no reply, but I still open the door after a minute of waiting. I don't want the situation to be like one where you're looking for your phone, only to see it in your hands or pocket later on.

I can clearly see someone under the blanket of the top bunk bed. I know that's her bed, so I expect to find her below the sheets when I lift the up.

"Hey, are you alright?" I ask. My voice comes out softer than I intended to; I can't help it.

She has wrapped her arms around herself as if she's in a cocoon. Her hair covers her face. It's undone. I put half of the blanket back on her body once I notice she's not wearing a lot to cover her, then look back at her face, very concerned now. The relief I felt to have found her, disappears as quickly as it came. She doesn't look very well.

"Lelia. What's going on?" I whisper.

She shakes her head. "Nothing. I don't feel very well. I forgot to tell Thomas because he was treating his wounds."

Usually, I notice she's lying by her eyes or face expression. I can't see her face right now, but I can still tell she's lying.

"You can tell me anything," I respond, praying it doesn't sound too forcing.

"I know," she says.

"Then what else is wrong?" My hand reaches for hers. I open her palm to start tracing the lines on there, using just my fingertip. Dad used to do this to motivate and wake me up in the morning for school. I guess it worked, otherwise I wouldn't be attempting this on her now.

"Did someone hurt you?"

She shakes her head again.

"I told you before, I'll hurt them back."

"No one hurt me. And Lyndon, even if they did, you wouldn't hurt them back."

"Yes, I would," I say firmly. "Believe me."

"You wouldn't harm a fly."

"Yes, I would— wait, stop. We're not going to argue about me when the focus should be on you. Please let me help."

"There is nothing you—"

A phone goes off. I nearly fall over with how hard I startle. Lelia finally shows her face, surprised, and quickly grabs a phone from below her pillow.

My mouth is wide open as she picks up. "Yeah? Mhm. Finally. Took you long enough, you know that?"

"Put it on speaker," I whisper. Rolling her eyes, she does as I say, and I can hear a voice I don't immediately recognize.

"Look, Lelia, I'm sorry for what I said. I should've called earlier, but I didn't know your number."

"What do you mean you didn't know the number of this phone?"

"Like I'm saying. I knew once you sent me that text from yesterday, asking if I was ever gonna act. So listen, I'm sorry for what I said. That boy made me—"

"That boy is my boyfriend."

"Right. Sorry. I did not know. He just made me pissed. I bought you clothes and he tells me to sod off. I had no idea how else to insult, as he seems pretty confident."

"So you used me," my sister states, jaw hard. "Angry or not, you had absolutely no right to say that."

"I know. I should've apologized earlier and—"

"Yeah, why didn't you?"

"Like I said, I didn't know your number."

"Jesus, Eli, you literally gave me this phone and you didn't think of remembering the number?"

Both of us wait in silence. Lelia is too busy on the phone to even acknowledge I can also hear every word of her conversation with Eli. Or she just doesn't care, I don't know.

"...what phone, exactly?" He eventually asks, very careful.

"The one you gave me," she says. "Well, you put it in front of my feet with..." her voice fades into a sharp inhale. "...a note."

"I don't remember giving you a phone."

"You said it was your old one," she adds. Something about her tone sounds... begging. As if she's hoping he's lying. "And there were pictures of you, too."

"What kind of pictures?"

"You, with your back turned to the camera. They were all quite recent. I think one of your friends made those pictures of you."

"I haven't seen my friends in a long time, Lelia, and I can't think of anyone who would make pictures of me. Neither do I remember giving you a phone."

The color drains away from her face. I watch, still quiet, so confused that I have no idea what to do. Then my eyes fall on something on the ground, at which I (of course) have been staring.

I pick the pictures up before I can stop myself. Then I nearly drop them, afraid I just saw something that was definitely not meant for me.

But no. It can't be. Lelia would not make nude photos. If she did, she also wouldn't stand like this. It's more like... someone made the pictures of her. While she was changing.

My eyes linger on the phone before I snatch it out of her hand. I inspect it. It doesn't take long to find the red little button in the corner of the screen.

Someone was watching her through this phone. The phone must've been on her nightstand as she changed, which explains the pictures. Now that I'm looking at the angle of them, it does seem like the pictures were made from a nightstand's height.

"Destroy it." I stare at the phone. "Lelia—" but she's too busy staring at the pictures of herself, now as pale as a ghost.

A rush of anger rises in me. Before I can even tell I'm doing it, I'm outside, crushing the phone with my shoe until I know for sure it is demolished. I swear I even hear a click of the camera before I've completely jumped on the thing, grunting.

I see it when I walk back to the hut. One of the pictures of Lelia as she's getting dressed is hanging beside their door. I rip it into a million pieces so no one will ever see it.

But the problem is that I see the exact same photo on so many more huts and objects.

☀︎︎

A/n: uhm

Okay it was vaguely explained so I will do it here:

Eli never gave Lelia a phone. It was Him who lay it down, knowing she'd come across it. He has been watching her through the phone's camera, which made him see anything as long as the phone was close. She happened to have been changing while the phone was still on the nightstand, and to deliver another one of his threats and show how dangerous he is, he hung the pictures all over the camp.

The pictures of Eli in the camera roll? Him just made it seem like his friends/family took pics of him, while He actually took them of Eli without Eli knowing. Get it??

Anyway, I should probably keep up with the author notes more.

Oh, and check out the 50k special I posted in this book if you haven't yet :))

have a good day/night!! - Vera