I raised my hands, torn between wanting to punch this guy in the nose and the need to ask him what he's talking about.

"Excuse me?" I challenged, going for the latter of my two ideas. While my knuckles were incredibly better than the day before, they weren't all the way healed. "I haven't-"

"Venny saved you, and you turned him in," Redhead seethed.

"Venny?" I repeated. "You mean Ven? You lot knew him?" Funny, that Jaxon said he'd never heard of him. I frowned, wondering why I was surprised. I mean, sure, I wasn't exactly up there in the honesty rank, but I scarcely straight up lie to a person in front of their face like that. Keep things hidden, sure, and I had the nasty habit of not correcting what a person assumed from what I told them at times - but Jaxon literally lied through his teeth without a moment's hesitation.

Blonde looked like he wanted to answer, but Redhead was trapped in his own world of perception at the moment. He snapped his head down to glare at Blonde.

"Remember that guy I told you about?"

"You mean the one that got us into this?" Blonde retorted dryly. Redhead waved away the comment like an annoying fly.

"He had names, Yoshe. He knew who was going to get snatched, and you want to know who he decided to save, of all people?" he gestured angrily to me, and when he looked up, I'll admit that I might have winced a bit at the hatred so easily visible in his face. I knew that look. He was grieving, and he was trying to hide it - and he was doing a pretty damn good job, too. "The white-haired bitch who's too chicken to do what's right."

Okay, so he lost his friend. I understood that, but I wasn't about to let him talk down to me as if I was a piece of shit he just stepped in. I straightened myself and pushed my shoulders back.

"Listen, he asked me to march head-first against these guys-" I began just as Blonde said,

"Not everyone is meant to be a vigilante, Quil . . ."

"Oh, don't you start excusing her-"

We were so caught up in trying to talk over each other that I didn't even realize a fourth person until he shouldered past me, raising his hands in a peaceful gesture. I paused in mid-sentence, doing a double-take as Jaxon strode in the room like some sort of king demanding to be listened to. His jaw was set, but other than that, he had no expression whatsoever on his face.

High-school, I thought numbly. Remember, we're supposed to be in high school.

"Okay!" he shouted over everyone else, and Blonde - Yoshe - and Redhead - Quil - paused in their arguing. Yoshe took the moment to rise from his sitting position on the bench as Jaxon forced a smile to his lips. "Leave you guys alone for a few hours, and you look like you're getting ready to kill each other."

Quil pointed an accusing finger at Jaxon.

"It's your fault he's gone, you know. You're the one who suggested-"

"I wasn't the one in direct contact with him," Jaxon interrupted, his voice cold and sharp. "You could have easily just stayed out of it."

Quil opened his mouth, then closed it. He turned his head away to release a low, bitter laugh, but not fast enough for me to miss the tears surfacing his eyes. When he faced us again, though, they were gone.

"You know what, you're right," he said, throwing his hands up in the air. "That'll be the last time I do you any favors." He went to walk out of the room, purposely bumping into Jaxon on the way. He paused, briefly, when he got to me. Then he scoffed, clearly not liking what he was seeing. "I don't know what he sees in you." And he was off to that cursed door that led to the hallway with all the insane bedrooms and kitchen.

"Quil," Jaxon said over his shoulder.

"I'm going to check on Buddy," Quil snapped in reply, not easing in his stride.

Buddy. Must be that boy from earlier.

Jaxon looked as if he wanted to go after his friend, but Yoshe rested a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"He's just scared."

Jaxon sighed and shook his head, passing his hands over his face.

"Aren't we all," he grumbled in reply. Then they seemed to remember that I was there. Yoshe gave me a brief nod, bent to pick up a shirt he'd thrown next to the bench, and walked out of the makeshift gym - only instead of going to the hallway, he went through to the door that led to the stairs to get out of this place, leaving just me and Jaxon.

"Thought you said you didn't know Ven," I said absently, crossing my arms over my chest. I really wanted to know what the hell all of that was about, though by this point, I've just about given up trying to receive honest answers from people. Jaxon shrugged.

"I didn't. Still don't. Quil never told me his name - he just said that the guy was working to help the kids."

"So it was the redhead that got you guys into this." I didn't phrase it as a question, but Jaxon still took it to clarify himself.

"No, it was me. Was doing some stuff I wasn't supposed to - saw some stuff that wasn't meant for me to see, and did some investigating. Ven - assuming we're talking about the same guy - approached Quil and told him that he could help, which led to Quil giving us information about the entire case."

"Wait, why wouldn't Ven introduce himself to you or that other guy?"

Jaxon shook his head.

"My theory is that he must be someone close to Quil's family, someone that we already know but wants to keep it secret. Kind of how a superhero keeps his identity a secret to those except for who figures him out - which Quil must have done. I don't even think it was Ven's intention to let Quil know, but I had already asked Quil to help me, and I guess Ven saw that he needed to step in."

"So his real name isn't even 'Ven'?"

"As I said, it's just a theory."

I met Jaxon's eyes.

"What did Quil mean when he said that Ven 'saved' me?"

Jaxon snorted.

"He bought you a little bit of time, but he didn't save you."

"That doesn't answer my question," I said. Once again, the boy shook his head before walking over to me.

"Listen, I can't tell you much right now-"

"Can't, or won't?"

"Both," he replied. "I still don't know how Ven helped you, but if what you've told me so far about what's been going on with you is true, I'm guessing it has something to do with that flashdrive. As far as everything else . . ." he paused, and it was then that I saw how tired he truly was.

He was developing circles under his eyes, dark circles that I missed either because he was good at drawing attention away from how he was feeling or because I was too caught up in everything else to notice. He was still looking at the ground when he continued softly, standing beside me.

"Listen, Tria, I know you hate not being straightforward, but this is delicate. You have a group of high school kids trying to battle conspiracies far older than their grandparents' grandparents. I can't go around telling everyone I trust what I do," he finally looked up at me at this. "For the same reasons you don't tell Hadi half of what you do."

I scoffed, but found it hard to come up with a suitable reply. Hadi knew I got into fights, but she never really knew the reasons behind it. Not every fight I've gotten into had to do with gaining our right to living peacefully without getting mugged.

"If someone gets captured," Jaxon continued, "it's best that they're able to tell as little information as possible for their own sake as well as for everyone else - and you can only achieve that by simply not telling them."

"Yeah, I get it," I said numbly. I pressed my fingers to the bridge of my nose. "Fuck, I can't believe this is happening."

Jaxon went for a smile, but it was more sad than it was cheerful.

"You want to go catch a bit of fresh air? You've been here for an entire day."

"Glad someone noticed," I muttered, looking down at my shoes. Jaxon nudged my shoulder.

"C'mon. I'll show you a cool site I like to go to when I need to think."

I shrugged.

"As long as it's not downtown, sure." Not like I had anything better to do than wait for the bad guys to take me - whoever the 'bad guys' were.