Tarnished by Kate Jarvik Birch

Author:Kate Jarvik Birch [Birch, Kate Jarvik]
Language: ara
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: dystopian, young adult romance, genetic engineering, chemical garden, delirium, hunger games, divergent
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Published: 2015-11-30T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Half an hour later, Penn returned with three bags full of food.

He dumped the contents out in the middle of our bed. “I might have gone overboard, but this is what happens when you ask a guy to go shopping when he’s hungry.”

Missy sat up, throwing the blankets off of her as if the packages spread out on the bed were actually plates full of fine meats and steaming loaves of fresh bread, drawing her to them with their irresistible aroma.

Penn sat down on the edge of the bed. “All right, let’s see what we’ve got. I might not have covered the four main food groups, but I think I at least came close.”

I sat at the head of the bed, tucking my legs up underneath me.

“For our grain group we’ve got two kinds of granola bars, goldfish crackers, and a box of cereal,” he said, plucking the items out of the pile and laying them in front of Missy like an offering.

“For our all-important meat group—at least, I think that’s a group—the meat group. It sounds right.” He laughed uncomfortably. “I learned this in like third grade, so I can’t totally be expected to remember. Anyway, for the meat group, we’ve got a jumbo bag of beef jerky—Teriyaki flavored, of course—and a bunch of these beef stick things, although they look a little sketchy, and a can of sardines, which I realize might be gross, but I don’t know what you guys like.”

Missy and I stared at him, transfixed.

He blinked at us and cleared his throat. “So, um…okay. Fruits and vegetables were kind of tricky, but I got a couple bags of trail mix that has dried fruit in it, and some of these yogurts with fruit on the bottom. That’s gotta count for fruit and dairy, I think.”

He finished organizing his haul and leaned back on his palms, looking at all the packages a little sheepishly.

I reached for his hand. “I think you got enough food to last us for a month.”

“Are you kidding?” Penn snorted. “We’ll be lucky if this lasts until dinner.”

Missy rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. “I didn’t realize we were going to be feeding an elephant when we brought him along. I should have stolen the gold bars, too.”

“Be thankful that you didn’t,” Penn said. “I bet those things are heavy.”

I grabbed one of the cups of yogurt and an individually wrapped plastic spoon and leaned back against the headboard, peeling back the yogurt’s thin silvery wrapper. I’d never tried one before. I’d had plain yogurt with flaxseeds, but this was different. It was the softest shade of pink and when I dug my spoon in, a dark, purple syrup rose to the surface. I licked the sweetness off of the spoon and closed my eyes. Maybe I was just hungry, or maybe now that Penn was with me again, the world had regained its color, and brightness, and beauty, because it was the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted.

Missy grabbed a box of granola bars and switched on the TV before she plopped back down on the bed.

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