Mako's P.O.V.

I peeked my head out of my bedroom door, listening with my superhearing. Once I had determined that Izzy was asleep thanks to the heavy breathing coming from her room, I darted out of my room. I scrambled, quietly, to put on my sandals before I snuck out of the house.

I creeped through the dimly lit research facility, most of the staff having gone home for the day. I finally made it to the exit and began to book it to my secret alcove. The sand crunched under my sandals and the cool night air felt good on my face. I jumped over a couple of rocks before I landed on the sand again.

To my surprise, a curled up figure laid next to one of the rocks, backpack as a pillow and skateboard close to his chest. Kimbell hadn’t left. I nervously looked around before I quickly snatched up my clothes, putting them into my backpack before I slung it over my shoulder. I glanced again at Kimbell and made to leave him before I paused. 

‘I can’t just leave him there,’ I scolded myself and I turned around and shook Kimbell’s shoulder. Kimbell groaned and when he didn’t fully wake up, I weighed what I should do.

I glanced at my watch and sighed. It was nearly midnight and with Kimbell sound asleep, I didn’t want to make wake him up since we had school tomorrow. So I picked up his backpack and then scooped him up into my arms, princess style. It was a little awkward since he was pretty tall, but I managed to walk us back to the research facility.

Though I struggled, I somehow accomplished getting Kimbell into the house, having paranoidly listened for Izzy again. I fumbled to fully press my hand onto the handprint scanner, and when that click finally happened, I swiftly opened my door. I hurried to set Kimbell down on my bed before I snuck out of my room again to toss my dirty school uniform in the laundry basket.

When I returned, Kimbell had rolled over on his side, his skateboard behind him as he slept soundly. I never knew what heavy sleepers humans could be. I set his skateboard down on the ground and got him under the blankets. I worried about whether his parents knew where he was and I didn’t have to look long to find his phone in his pocket.

It was an older model of a phone so I carefully pressed his thumb to the fingerprint scanner and the phone opened.

I quickly opened up his messages and saw that the last person he had texted was his mom.

I wavered between texting his mom or not but that sense of guilt overtook me again and I started typing.

I sent the text, and was startled when I got a reply right away, nearly dropping the phone.

I flushed a little when she said her thanks, not used to hearing that from people outside of my family. I turned off Kimbell’s phone, thankfully it was from the same company as mine was so I had no problem finding it a charger as I plugged in both of our phones.

I then made sure to undo Kimbell’s tie and pull off his shoes so he wouldn’t be too uncomfortable. After I had gotten everything in order, I laid down on my bed next to Kimbell.

I had never expected this to happen. Kimbell was in my bed. What was Izzy going to think? Then I froze up.

Izzy. She’d know. She’d find out, there was no doubt about it. She always drove me to school in the mornings. Although, if I got up earlier than her, like six, and got Kimbell out of the house before her usual wake up time at seven, I could avoid the entire confrontation.

‘Yeah, let’s do that,’ I reassured myself as I set my alarm for six instead of seven. And although it normally took me an hour to fall asleep, I somehow managed to close my eyes and drift away in a matter of minutes.