Chapter 17; No Choice

                                    

                                          

	"What do you mean by that?" Brynne argued, her cheeks a bit flushed, like she was about to blow up.
	Alvin crossed his arms, his own cheeks ballooning out like they did when he got frustrated. "I meant what I said! That's a horrible idea - do you really think that us, a bunch of hormonal teenagers with parental or mental or emotional issues that can barely deal with our own lives can go and rescue Aru?" At Brynne's expression, he held up two hands. "I'm not saying we should do nothing because I really do think we should go rescue her, but..." he hesitated. "It's a suicide mission."
	Brynne jabbed a finger in his chest. "What I think is that you're being a goody-two-shoes like always! Why won't you just accept that for once we're actually going to have to do something instead of lying around and just making plans?"
	Aiden resisted the urge to facepalm, getting horrible flashbacks from the other petty arguments they'd had as kids (by they, he meant Brynne and Alvin), but the only difference was that this was not petty, it was serious and they were honestly just wasting time.
	"Do you guys want some snacks?" Aiden tried unsuccessfully, waving a small baggie of premade samosas. They were cold but samosas were samosas.
	Brynne ignored him, but Rudy, who was right next to Aiden, helped himself to the savory, crunchy snack.
	"I think we should just stay here and let everyone else do the work," Rudy mumbled through a mouthful of food, flakes of the samosa's crispy surface falling on his bright blue collared shirt with tiny snakes drawn everywhere. Brynne glared at him.
	"Are you really taking his side?" She demanded. "I know you're an idiot, but seriously?"
	Rudy dropped his jaw in a shocked expression. "I am not an idiot!" He huffed, quite unconvincingly, even more so when he swiped the crumbs off his clothes, held them up to examine, shrugged, and licked his fingers clean. From the other side of the room, Mini cringed, and then stepped forward.
	"You're all being stupid," she declared. "Honestly! Can't you talk it out like two sane people?" 
Brynne turned to her with a wounded expression and Alvin just threw his hands up, his face clearly screaming 'that's what I've been trying to say!"
"Here's what we'll do," Nikita sighed, getting up from her spot in the corner of the secret room. 
Brynne had gathered Aiden, Alvin, Rudy (because he tagged along), Mini, Nikita and Sheela in Aru's hideout, which had become more like a meet up spot with how many times they had met here in the past couple of days trying to decide what to do with no avail. 
"You both will stop arguing like toddlers," she pointed at Brynne and Alvin. "You have to actually contribute to this conversation besides just offering snacks as a peace offering," she accused, looking straight at Aiden. "You need to learn some manners and Mini, you're doing great which is why you're my favorite right now." She looked at Rudy and Mini in turn, the latter seeming a bit taken back, but also extremely happy, while the former just looked disgruntled.
"You didn't say anything to Sheela," Rudy pointed out, seeming a bit annoyed, though Aiden wasn't sure he could really say anything about annoyance considering he was talking through a mouthful of samosas again.
Nikita placed her arms on her hips and rolled her eyes. "That's because she's my twin sister and clearly smarter than all of you combined - again, not you Mini because you're practically the only other sane person in this room." 
Mini beamed and squirted some more hand sanitizer on her hands before rubbing them together ferociously.
Alvin raised his eyebrows. "Well, that's a start then. What do you propose we do?"