Sunset Rising (3 page)

“Oh
, Summer. If you weren’t so picky, you could have been married by now. But whenever a boy is interested in you, you’re suddenly not interested in him. I think you like flirting more than actually having a boyfriend.”

“That’s not true.
I just haven’t met the right one yet.”

“
Though you do bring up a good point. You’re running out of time.”

Summer could have
had her pick of any boy in the Pit. A full head shorter than me, her small stature and delicate limbs gave her an elegant, feminine quality. I always felt large and clumsy next to her.

“
You know, we’re always talking about me,” Summer said. “How are you? How’s your dad?”

She might regret asking that question, but I gave her an honest answer.
“Dad lost his job yesterday because he didn’t show up for work.”

“Oh, Sunny. What are you going to
do?”

I heard sympathy in her voice,
and exasperation, too. My father had always been a little self-destructive. My mother had done a fairly good job of protecting me from it, but without her, I was on my own with him. “I told Reyes last night I couldn’t marry him until after the next Cull.”

“You’re postp
oning? Again?” she asked. “That’s a bit drastic. I’m sure your father can get another job. He’s had a lot of experience in the mines.”

“He’s barely been eating since
Mom left, and now he’s too weak to get out of bed.”

“But you’ve put your marriage on hold once before
, and I can’t imagine Reyes is happy with postponing again. And you’re not getting any younger, Sunny. You’re almost eighteen. Aren’t you afraid Reyes is going to get fed up with waiting and move on to someone else?”

I had never thought about Reyes being with someone else.
We had been together forever. And at our age, it was getting kind of late to go looking for a new partner. Of course he would wait for me. If I gave him enough time, he would eventually understand that my father needed me right now, and I couldn’t leave him.

But there was wisdom in her words.
At seventeen, I was middle-aged, and that didn’t bode well for getting approval to have a child. Population control in the Pit was getting stricter all the time. Reyes really wanted a child, but if I was being honest with myself, I didn’t. I guessed that was why I didn’t feel an urgent need to get married right away.

I finally reached th
e top of the shaft and crawled onto the platform.

“We
will
finish this conversation, Sunny. You have to talk about it,” Summer said as she scrambled up behind me.

I slowly opened the door to make sure there weren’t any guards in the hall to catch us.
The light on the main floor was so bright that I had to struggle to keep my eyes open until they adjusted. When I was able, I focused in on the clock.

“We’re two minutes late.”

Summer gave an exasperated sigh. “And after all that climbing.”

“Let’s see if the bac
k door is unlocked and sneak in.”

“We still have to sc
an in. They’ll know we’re late.”

“Yes, but
forgetting
to scan in won’t get us fired. We’ll probably just have to go without lunch or something.”

Summer moaned and gripped
her stomach. We had both missed breakfast.

When we were sure no one was around, we stepped out of the shaft and quietly made our way
down the hall until we reached the back entrance to the kitchen. I breathed a sigh of relief when I turned the knob, and the door opened. All kitchen staff had to wear clean uniforms, so we took off running toward the changing room. I pulled up short at the sight of our supervisor, and Summer slammed into my back.

“So you thought
you could put one over on me?” Bailey asked.

“No
, ma’am. Traffic in the stairwell was heavier than usual, and it made us late. We were running to make up for lost time,” Summer said.

Bailey
snorted. “It makes no difference why you’re late. I should fire you, O’Donnell. You’ve been nothing but trouble lately.”

Maybe it was
just from the long climb, but my limbs suddenly felt weak and shaky. She couldn’t possibly fire us after we’d tried so hard to make it here on time. Summer caught her breath, and I knew she was trying to hold back tears. Then I realized that my own eyes had started to sting.

“I can offer you an alternative to
being fired,” Bailey said with a sly glint in her eyes. “The president is hosting the bachelor party tonight, and they’ve requested servers to entertain
the gentlemen guests.”

Her
meaning was clear. Prostitute ourselves, and we could keep our jobs. That kind of request wasn’t unusual in the Pit. The supervisors who sent the prettiest girls were usually rewarded. She had been in the changing room, waiting for us. The fact that we were late only gave her the leverage she needed to force us into accepting.

“No,” Summer said resolutely.

“I’ll do it,” I said.

“Sunny, no.
” Summer grabbed my shoulders and turned me to face her. “
No
!”

“I don’t think I have choice,” I said in a low voice, hoping
that Bailey couldn’t hear me.

Summer stood up taller and squared her shoulders.
“I’ll do it, too.”

“Summer, you don’t have to do this.
If you’re fired, it’s okay. Your parents are still earning credits.”

“I’m not
going to let you do this alone.”

Bailey cut in.
“I don’t know why you’re arguing. Being asked to serve at a presidential party is a great honor. I’d do it myself if I was allowed.” She walked toward us and waved her scanner over our hands. “There. You’re both signed up. Be there or you’ll be punished.”

She started
to walk away but stopped before she left the room. “This is the second time you’ve both shown up for work filthy. You’re really starting to make me look bad. No lunch today and you both lose half a day’s credit. Now get to work.”

At the end of the day
, I stripped off my kitchen uniform, taking great care not to tear or damage it because I would have to pay for any repairs. I placed it in the big hamper. The laundry staff would clean and fold it, and have it waiting for me in the morning.

I tried to ignore the cramps in my stomach, but they were
terrible after a full day of work without food. I wished I had time to eat supper before the party, but Bailey told us we needed a bath more than food.

Summer moaned beside me.
“I’m so hungry.”

“Me
, too.”

“I heard that if you’re a good
server
, they give you a plateful of food.” Summer’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

My mouth watered a
t the mere mention of food. It had taken every bit of my will power not to eat the carrots I peeled at work. But if I had been caught eating even the peelings, I would have been beaten. Vegetable scraps were meant for the compost, which was far more important than a hungry urchin. In the Pit, our food was whatever was left over after the bourge and livestock had eaten their fill.

“Maybe they’ll even
give us dessert,” I said. I had never had dessert, but I’d heard it was heavenly.

Summer licked her lips
dreamily. “Mmmmm… I can only imagine how it will taste.” She sobered after a moment. “Come on. We better hurry up in case there’s a line at the bath. We don’t have a lot of time.”

I laughed at the thought
of a line at the bath. No self-respecting urchin went to the communal baths unless ordered. Next to oxygen, water was the most important resource in the entire Dome, and, like the food, we only got the leftovers. The bulk of the water supply went to the bourge and the agricultural sector. The Pit received the least, and what we did get was rationed for both drinking and bathing. We wouldn’t waste it on bathing at all if the bourge hadn’t made weekly bathing mandatory in order to prevent disease.

The traffic on the stairs was always faster going down than climbing up
, so Summer and I made good time getting back to the sixth level. We parted ways to go to our respective homes and collect our towels and soap. My father hadn’t moved much since I left him this morning, but, at my arrival, he turned over to look at me.

“How was work?” he asked
, but his expression was vacant.

“S
till there.” I sat on the side of his bed and placed my hand on his back. He felt frightfully thin. “I got a job tonight, too, so I won’t be home until later.”

“What kind of job?”

“Just some extra kitchen duties.” He didn’t need to know what I would be doing. I couldn’t bear the thought of adding to his pain.

“P
robably to do with that wedding.”

“Probably.
Since I have to get back upstairs, I can’t take you to get dinner tonight. You’ll have to go by yourself.”

“Th
at’s okay, dear. I’m not hungry.” He rolled over, turning his back to me.

I sighed.
“Dad, promise me you’ll get up and eat.”

“Okay, Sunny.
I promise I will.”

I was almost certain he wasn’
t going to get out of bed, but there was nothing I could do about it. If only Mom were here. I kissed his cheek and left him to get a bar of soap, a piece of coal, and the one towel assigned to me. I made my way to the bathroom and, as I suspected would be the case, there was no line. Summer was already waiting for me.

“I’
ll wet my towel,” I said.

The trick to taking a bath in the Pit was never
to set foot in the bathtub. The cold stone tub was fairly large and deep, so if the water was allowed to sit undisturbed, the dirt and sediment fell to the bottom. By bathing in pairs, we could soak one person’s towel to use as a washcloth and then dry off with the other. But a completely soaked towel down here in the Pit took forever to dry.

“No, let me
,” Summer said. “It’s my fault we were late this morning. I got us into this mess.”

“You didn’t hav
e to say yes to tonight, Summer. I wish you hadn’t.”

I
stripped and let her clean my back. The water was freezing, and I shivered.

“And you didn’t have to wait for me this morning
. Best friends do things for each other.”

I
snorted. Going with me tonight went well beyond friendship. “You know what you signed up for, right?”

“I know,” she snapped.

Her anger took me aback but made me realize that she was feeling every bit as apprehensive about tonight as I was.

“I know
,” she said again, a little more calmly. “But we don’t have to make it all about
that
. I mean, it’s just sex, right? How bad can it be? We’ve never seen inside the main part of the Dome, and they might share the food. I
hope
they share the food!” She handed me the soaked towel so I could sponge the rest of my body clean.

Summer
could always see the silver lining in every situation, a talent I wished I could learn. But I couldn’t even squelch the anxiety that was growing inside me. I had never had sex. I always thought my first time would be with Reyes after we were married, although I hadn’t spent much time thinking about it. Now I was terrified.

I finished bathing
and handed her the wet towel. Picking up the dry one, I wrapped it around me. I used my piece of coal to touch up my hair. “One of the things I love most about you is that you can take a bad situation and see the good in it.” I took the wet towel out of her hand and started washing her back. “But I worry that your love of life is going to get you into trouble.”

“Which brings us back to our conversation this morning
. Reyes.”

“
No it doesn’t!” Although her back was to me, I drew my brows together and made a face. “I’m not sure how that brings us back to Reyes, but for the record, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Why? I need to understand why you keep putting him off
.”

“My dad is useless on his own
, and I miss my mother horribly.” Tears stung my eyes. I didn’t want to cry. Crying was such a weak thing to do. “Things are changing so fast, and I don’t want them to. I need to be me for a little longer. You know, before I become Reyes’s wife. Before I become someone’s mother.”

I wasn’t sure where the
words were coming from, but it felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders. When my tears began to spill, there was no way I could stop them. I handed her the towel and busied myself getting dressed. Summer wrapped the towel around her and turned to look at me. Her expression was sad.

“You should never have postponed your marriage in the first place. I really think your mom wanted you out on your own before she went.”

I was pretty sure my mom wanted me married off before she left too, but how could I abandon my own father? Maybe he hadn’t been the best dad in the Pit, but he was
my
dad.

Summer put her hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged it away.
I regretted that immediately. She was my best friend. We met on the very first day of school and had been inseparable ever since. No matter what happened in my life, she was my support.

“I don’t mean to upset you, but you need to accept that things will never be the same again
,” she said. “Reyes loves you, and that’s the greatest gift any of us can ever hope to get.”

I wanted to tell her that she was right as usual, but
I couldn’t speak past the lump in my throat. I nodded. I was a fool to keep Reyes waiting and yet powerless to leave my father.

Suddenly Reyes
yelled my name from the other side of the locked bathroom door. By the sound of his voice, he knew I was being sent upstairs. I quickly dried my eyes.

Summer dressed hurriedly.
“Meet me by the stairs, and don’t be late.” She picked up our towels and opened the door to leave.

Reyes
bolted through the door and almost threw Summer out of his way to get to me. “Is it true?!”

“Is w
hat true?” I hoped to downplay the importance of my serving that night. I could see by the wild look in his eyes that he was ready to explode.

“Are you se
rving at that bachelor party tonight?” He grabbed me by the shoulders.

“Yeah, but it’s no big deal.
” I couldn’t even look him in the eyes.

“You can’t.
You have to back out.”

Now I did look
him in the eyes. “We both know I can’t do that.” I would be beaten, quite possibly to death, if I didn’t report to work for such an important event.

“How did this happen?
How did you get picked?”

“We were late, Reyes.
Bailey was going to fire me if I didn’t agree. Dad has already lost his job. I can’t lose mine too.”

“You should have let
her fire you and come to me. We could have gotten married and been assigned our own apartment. You know that!” He was losing his composure. I had never seen him this upset before.

“Reyes, I can’t ju
st leave him,” I said softly. I laid my head against his chest.

He shifted his arms to encircle my waist and pulled me tight
ly against him. “Sunset. Do you know why your mother named you that?”

“
Because of the color of my hair.”

“Did you ever wonder how she knew what a sunset looked like?” he asked as he pulled away from me
and tilted my chin up to look at him. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but your mother was sent upstairs when she was young, too. If the stories are true, she was requested for dinner parties a lot.”

The empathy I
’d had for Reyes suddenly turned to anger. I pushed against him, trying to break out of the circle of his arms. “Who told you these lies?”

“Maybe I shouldn’t h
ave told you.”

“No, you shouldn’t have!
Why do you always have to find some way to hurt me when you’re mad?” I pounded my fist on his chest. Finally, he released me. “I can’t be late,” I said with disdain and headed toward the door.

“Wait!” Reyes stepped
in front of me to block my exit. “I’m sorry.”

He reached out to take me back
into his arms. I pulled away from him for a moment but relented even though I was still angry. I didn’t want to face what was waiting for me upstairs knowing we were in a fight. It would be better to put things right between us before I went.

“If anything happens…”
He paused, a grimace of pain crossing his features. “I want to protect you. I’ll always be here for you. I’m not going anywhere.”

I understood what he was trying
to say. Regardless of how the bourge used me tonight, he still wanted to marry me. Requests for young girls to entertain the bourge weren’t unusual in the Pit, but marriage prospects were frequently poor for those girls who went.

He studie
d me for a moment, and I smiled, hoping to convince him that everything would be okay. I brushed a dark curl away from his brow, and he pulled me toward him roughly. He lowered his head to mine and captured my lips with his own. His arms wrapped tighter around me. I had never felt this kind of desperation in his kiss before. Slowly, he pulled away from me and cupped my face in his hands.

“You can’t be late,” he said sadly.

“I’ll see you tomo
rrow.” I spoke it like a promise.

I couldn’t stand to see the pain in his eyes
, and my own tears threatened again. I left him and caught up with Summer by the stairs.

“
Are you okay?” she asked.

I didn’t respond
. I needed a moment to compose myself.

“I’m sorry
,” she said. “This really is all my fault for making us late this morning.”

“We have to stop blaming ourselves
, Summer. We didn’t ask to be playthings for the bourge. It was forced on us. We had no choice.”

“Don’t talk like that, they’ll hear you,” she whispered.
We all knew the stone walls had ears, and my ranting was only going to get us into more trouble.

My limbs
felt like dead weights as I made my way up the stairs. I shouldn’t complain about the climb. The people who lived the furthest down the Pit had a two-mile climb up. Then there were the miners who had to descend three miles down into the mine every day and then back up again. One mile wasn’t much, but I hadn’t eaten all day, and it felt like a lot.

Finally, we reached the main level and stepped into the lobby.
Usually we would make a right turn toward the kitchen to go to work, but tonight we walked straight to the reception area in front of the big steel doors that led inside the Dome. My mother took this same walk when she was Culled. I tried not to think about how she must have felt, but it was impossible not to. I was petrified to go through those doors myself.