Chapter 7 - Growing

                                    

                                          

We had reached the 2 week of being trapped here.  
George and Alfred have introduced harder longer training sessions. The courses were more intense and training would run on for longer periods of time, making us work till our limbs were numb.
Andrew frequently disappears for hours with Alfred, sometimes missing training.
He started to distance himself from us even more. I would occasionally see him, making nothing but awkward eye contact. We hadn't  spoken since I saw him at the pool a couple weeks ago. 
He looked drained. Most of the time his eyes were half shut, the whites of them coated in pink. He had gotten slightly paler and constantly looked disoriented and hazy.
We had finished training a short while ago, without Andrew yet again. I had gotten changed and was about to check on Noah and Liberty.
I walked towards Liberty's room door across the hall. Muffled voices stopped me from entering . I could hear Noah and Liberty quietly speaking on the other side. 
I knocked and entered interrupting their conversation. They were sitting on her bed facing each other. Noah's back was towards me. He briefly turned around greeting me with a nod.
I glanced over at Libby, raising my eyebrow while smirking. She quickly hid her smile, while widening her eyes at me. 
"Hey Maddison." She said cutting off our exchanging of glances. 
"Hey guys" I answered in a suggestive tone, as I wiggled my eyebrows at her. 
She rolled her eyes. She picked up a pillow from the bed and threw it at me. I caught it as we both burst into laughter.
I gently tossed it back on the bed as I began to sit down. 
"What do you guys think is going on with Andrew" Liberty said, in a sudden serious tone.
"I don't know, maybe someone should talk to him about it." Noah replied after a pause of thought.
"You're closest with him, maybe you should" I suggested to Liberty.
Andrew and Liberty had an unspoken bond. They had gotten pretty close, in the last few weeks. 
I glanced over at Noah, his jaw slightly clenched. I smirked to myself; knowing that him and Liberty are a pair of blind star-crossed lovers keeps me going. 
They were made for each other, and I know they both 'secretly' like each other, even though it's severely obvious to everyone else. 
"I don't think he's in the mood to talk to anyone" Liberty stated while her eyebrows drew together. "I'll try tomorrow after training" she said with a half smile resting on her face.
After about 20 minutes, I made up an excuse to leave the room, giving Liberty a little wink on my way out. She threw me a frown, as I giggled to myself.
I headed to the kitchen to get some water. The low lights in the hallway created a calm aura. I grabbed a glass from the low cabinet, I turned to fill it with water when a figure caught me off guard. 
I gasped. I felt the glass slip from my hands. It shattered onto the floor beneath me. I looked up, recognising the figure to be Andrew. 
"gosh, you scared me" I said, looking back down at the broken glass. I bent down and started to pick up the pieces.
I felt his hand gently brush against mine as he started to do the same. 
"Sorry" he murmured, his voice cracking slightly. 
I looked up, our eyes locking, for the first time in what felt like forever. His eyes bore into the back of my skull, sending a shiver down my spine. 
"Are-"
"Yeah, I'm fine." he cut me off, reading my mind.
I pressed my lips together not wanting to dive deeper, or make him upset. We stood up and walked over to the "highly modified trash disposer" as Albert often called it. 
It looked like a big sink disposer on a counter to me, just with a few buttons on the side. Albert said that it was designed to recycle, decompose or destroy any form of trash. I began placing the pieces into the disposer.
"fuck" I heard Andrew groan from next to me. I looked over, blood dripping from his hand onto the counter. 
I dropped the glass into the disposer and rushed over to get some kitchen roll. I wiped the small pool of blood off the counter, throwing the tissue away. 
I gently grabbed his hand. I wrapped some tissue around it, then lead him to the sink. I placed his hand under the mild water, after removing the tissue. I let the water run, while I made my was over to the medical cabinet.
I grabbed a bandage and a few bandaids. I turned around, his eyes were trained on me. I looked down as I made my way to him.
I turned off the water and assessed his injury.
He turned around, leaning his back on the counter. I put two big bandaids on the cut then wrapped a bandage around it so no blood would spread if he slept.
I could feel his eye eating at my skull. I looked up, our eyes meeting again. I pulled together the courage to ask what's been going on lately.  For Noah and Liberty. Although I was curious.
"What's been up with you recently." I said, breaking the silence.
"none of your fucking business." He stated bluntly.
"jeez, ok" I said backing away while holding my arms up in surrender. 
I turned to leave, "sorry about the glass by the way." I said with my back turned to him. I began making my way back to my room.
"It wasn't your fault" I barely heard his whisper.
I decided to keep walking, as it felt like I wasn't meant to hear that part.