It's Expiration Date's 1st Birthday! Last year at 1 AM I was posting the first chapter!

Competition at the end of the chapter.

Jonas~~

An hour later, Riley pulls off at a diner that my phone directs him to. There's a storm coming in making the sunset take on a greenish quality. I haven't heard from the airport yet, so hopefully it won't ground our plane.

Inside the staff quickly push together six tables while Seong-ho rushes off to the bathroom, Brydan and Colton following after him. We don't even need to show our insignia. They recognize us.

Riley sits next to me while Iris sits across from me with Tobias and Sebastian on either side of her. She looks at them both before opening up her menu.

The two guns tucked into my waist band and hidden beneath my blazer dig against my back and seat. Growing up in the Society, you learn never to go anywhere beyond the Estate without one. And two is always better than one.

These rules only became more important once I Expired.

Propping open his menu, Sebastian looks at me over the top of it. "Meater," he whispers.

I rub my neck, choosing to ignore his insult. Sebastian has a penchant for using old curse words that most of us still don't understand after years of living with him. I've heard him use this one enough to know he's calling me a coward, but over what exactly, I'm not sure. Is it because I won't kill Iris or because he's noticed I've been avoiding her?

Brydan returns from the bathroom, taking the seat on the other side of Riley.

I decide on a chicken sandwich and lay down my menu. "How's your side?"

Iris folds up her menu. "Sore."

Tobias gives her a wink. "She definitely hurt it when she chucked her shoe at Seong-ho."

Iris drums her nails against the laminate of her menu. "It was worth it."

Sebastian hides his smile behind his glass of water.

My phone rings, and I pull it out of my pocket to find it's my mother. "Excuse me." I push back my chair and exit the diner, only answering it once I'm on the sidewalk outside.

My mother doesn't bother with greetings. "They're threatening to go to the Head Order."

My breath is knocked out of me. "Why?"

"One of you told someone in the Society you're bringing Iris back alive."

My fingers clench around my phone. "Who was it?"

"I don't know."

I shouldn't be shocked. I should have expected this. "Give me a minute." I pull my phone away from my ear and text Riley, asking him to come out here. "Do you have any suggestions?" I ask her.

"We were already going to tell them her Date was misprinted. If I verify her Date in front of them, no one will accuse me of lying." No one would dare accuse the former Preeminence's wife of such a thing.

The door closes behind Riley. "Jonas, what's wrong?"

"The Society found out Iris is still alive."

Riley mouths one word. Amoria. That word has always held both fear and excitement for me, but at this moment, all I feel is dread.

I press my palm against my forehead, letting my shoulders sag. "Yes."

"Call me whenever you land, Jonas," my mother says into my ear, "and I'll be waiting for you outside when you get home."

"Thank you, Mother. I'll see you soon." I end the call, slipping my phone into my pocket.

"You have to tell her," Riley says, and I know exactly what and who he's referring to.

"How?"

"Do you trust her?"

"She was raised a rebel."

"Do you believe she is one?" he asks.

"I don't think so."

"Think?"

"You've heard what happened to her orphanage. How our fathers ordered it burned to the ground with her caretakers inside. How could she not fight against us?"

"All right, so let's say she is a rebel, and we tell her. No one will believe her without proof. We should be more worried about Andrew—Erik even."

"I am worried about Erik. He's threatened to do it before."

"And Andrew?"

The name still holds pain for me. Andrew, my cousin who was the cause of my Expiration Date being a couple months ago. He set a bomb off in my office, but I had ended up going on a drive. A spur of the moment decision. When the bomb went off, Erik was the one who got hurt, not me. He was headed for my office to deliver a letter from his father to me but hadn't reached it yet. He was hit by shrapnel, leaving the cut along his jaw and cheek. The doctors said he'll have a scar for the rest of his life.

Unable to condemn Andrew with the torture my family expected of me, I exiled—or as the Society calls it—exported my cousin. I receive weekly reports on him.

"People know he would say anything to make us look back," I say. "Even lie."

"You'll tell her then?"

Feeling a weight settle over my shoulders, I nod. "Can you ask her to come out here?"

He bows. "Yes, Preeminence."

While I wait for her, I pace up and down the sidewalk, drawing the eyes of the dinners inside. I've never had to try to share this secret with anyone. I don't know how to.

The glass door of the diner opens, Iris stepping outside. Walking toward me, she tilts her head. "Is everything okay?"

"No. The Society found out that I'm bringing you back alive. They're threatening to report it to my . . . boss."

"You have a boss?"

"Other Orders that are above me."

"There are more than one?"

I rub my hand over my left arm. "Where do you think Expiration Dates come from?"

"Growing up I assumed it was some computer algorithm, but now I don't believe that."

"Then where do they come from?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because I don't know how to say it."

"If it's not a computer, then what is it?"

I take a seat on the sidewalk, my feet planted on the asphalt of the parking lot, not caring if anyone sees the Preeminence sitting on the ground. "The reason the Society is so in love with stars is because they remind us where our blood comes from."

Iris blinks. "This isn't the part where you tell me that you're some supernatural, celestial being that's actually a star, right?"

I surprise myself by laughing. I wasn't expecting to laugh during this conversation. "No. Most of the Society are descended from . . . Amoris, and then there are those who are full-blooded Amorian."

"Amoris?"

Will she even believe any of this? "They don't look much different than you. They could pass for human. Most of the Amoris at the Society were born on Earth as well as their parents and their grandparents. Elleany is their home, like it is yours."

She looks wary. "My uncle believed there were aliens in the Society."

"I've never very much liked the term. Humans use it to set things apart from them. To create a us verses them mentality and to create fear." I look down at my hands. "I've met a good many 'humans' who people should fear more than the members of the Society."

"The world doesn't know to fear you as aliens." She sits down next to me, and I have to remember that I can't touch her, can't pull her against me without worrying that I'll hurt her. "They fear you as humans."

"Fear, if wielded properly, is a powerful weapon, but in the wrong hands, it's basically a disease. My family wants to be feared, but not for what we are." I curl my hand into a fist to keep myself from taking her hand. "We're more scared of the world than they'd be of us. There's a reason we've kept this knowledge hidden throughout the entirety of our reign.

"So what are you? Are you human at all?"

"Partly."

She takes a deep breath, staring down at her feet. "So on Amoria, there are other Orders?"

"Yes. Four, plus an Order that rules over all of them. They all have some say over Elleany."

"So you can tell the Society not to kill me, but Amoria can order you to?"

Pressing my hands together, I rub out the joints. "Amoria can't make orders that regard my citizens, but they would try to pressure me. As far as anyone knows, someone living past their Expiration Date hasn't happened before. I don't know how Amoria would react. It's best they don't know."

She picks at her nails, staring off into the distance. "What then?"

"We'll tell them that your Date was misprinted, and one of the Amoris will confirm that."

"Why would they lie?"

"I trust them. Completely. I know you don't have much reason to trust me—"

"Why did it burn when you touched me?"

I bounce my knee, looking up at the sky, at the dark clouds rolling in. "I honestly don't know. If I—"

My phone rings. It's the pilot. "I have to take this. I'm sorry." I answer, and the pilot informs me that the plane is grounded because of the approaching storm. He suggests we find a place to stay for the night.

I slip my phone back in my pocket, not knowing how I'm supposed to fall asleep when every nerve feels like a lit sparkler in my body. I let Iris know what the pilot said, and she runs a hand through her hair, and I imagine she'll have a hard time falling asleep too.

"I don't trust Erik," I say, but you are valuable to him, and I know he won't let the Society harm you. I won't either. You can trust Riley, and possibly Sebastian and Tobias. And if you were ever trapped in a dark room with one of the others, pray it's Enzo."

She meets my eyes and for a brief second I drop my eyes to her lips, recalling the first and last time we kissed—on the roof of the Society, and I'm tempted to do it again, to ignore the fact that I shouldn't—that I never should have, to forget that my world is a mess as well as hers, and to not worry about burning her and convince myself for a few seconds that she had only ever imagined the pain.

"What if I don't go back to the Society?"

Her words pull me away from the direction of my thoughts, dousing me with a cold bucket of water. "If it were possible to let you go right now I would, but my cousins"—I glance inside the dinner—"would prevent that."

"Letting me go would give them enough reason to overthrow you, wouldn't it?"

I wet my lips. "Don't worry about that." I wasn't supposed to be Preeminence right now anyway. "We had better go order if we ever hope to eat."

"Right." She stands and offers me her hand. For a moment, I contemplate taking it, wondering whether her skin would be cold or warm. But being Preeminence is never about what I want, so I stand on my own and watch as her hand falls to her side.

Last year, right around this time, I saw a prompt, and I wrote the first words that came into my head, not realizing what that first sentence would turn into. "I'm going to die tomorrow." That was only the beginning for Iris and me.

In honor of this story being a year old, I'm having a competition for Expiration Date.

Create a description of Expiration Date in your words. It can be how it made you feel, or a description of the story. When it's done, comment it here.

By posting your description you agree to let me share it. I'll give you credit for it.

In two weeks I'll choose the winner, and it will be posted in an update. The chapter will be dedicated to you.

To increase your chances of winning, grammar is a plus, and foul language is a negative.