Life Designed (Life Plan Series Book 1), Eliza Taye [great novels .TXT] 📗

her with plenty of money, so she didn’t have to worry about that, but other than the teachers at academy, she had no one else to guide her in writing her Life Plan. She’d accidentally made one mistake and been too specific in the Plan. After it was rejected, she’d been banished to the Undecided sector.

“Mama?”

Shaking from her reverie, her mother sighed and responded, “When someone is moved from the Decided sector to the Undecided sector after a denial of their Life Plan, they are put into temporary housing. Well, at least it is supposed to be temporary. Unless you are assigned a job that will pay you a wage where you can save up and move out, you’ll be there for some time.”

“Do you know where that place is?” April watched as her mother stood from the dinner table and walked towards the hall closet. “Mama?”

When she returned, she had a set of sheets, a towel, a couple of washcloths, and a hand towel. Placing it in the center of the table, she said, “When I was taken to the temporary housing, there was nothing there. If it is the same as back then, then your friend will need these.”

April gave her mother a worried look. “That is our spare set.”

“They do not allow you to take much from your home in the Decided sector with you. Trust me, your friend will need these more than we do.”

With a solemn nod, April rose to her feet, hugged her mother tightly, and then gathered the sheets and towel set in her arms. Finding a cloth bag, she placed them inside.

Her mother followed her around their small apartment. “I’m not sure where they would be taking people now, but when I first arrived, there was an apartment block on Warren Avenue I was assigned to. You may want to ask around first. Since he was the first one to be sent to our sector in six years, I’m sure he’ll be the talk of the town.”

“Thank you, Mama. I won’t be gone long.”

April left with the bag cradled in her arms. The darker part of night had arrived and the streetlamps continued their ever flicker as she walked down the pathway. Warren Avenue was about two miles from where she lived, which meant it’d be quite a walk. It wasn’t in quite the worst part of town, but it wasn’t good either.

On the way, she asked around and at first, no one knew where the newcomer from the Decided sector was being housed, but the closer she got to Warren Avenue, the more specific the directions became.

“Yeah, word is he’s been assigned apartment 3B in the old Carvington Mansion,” advised an old man with several missing teeth with an aroma of urine emanating from him.

“Thank you,” bid April with a nod, hurrying away from the pungent man.

April found the place with ease and made her way to the third floor. As she raised her fist to knock on the door, she hesitated. What in the world was she doing? She didn’t even know Garrett that well. The library was one thing, but visiting him alone in an apartment complex like this?

Shaking off her negative thoughts, April raised her fist again and knocked on the door.

No one answered.

Knocking again, more soundly this time, she waited and could have sworn she heard footsteps behind the door. Not long after, the door opened a crack.

“April?” Garrett opened the door further. “What are you doing here?”

April’s heart began pounding in her chest as she remembered how shocked, angry, and hurt she was after hearing his Life Plan. All the time they’d spent two moons ago preparing his Life Plan for him to just lay it to waste made her anger rise again.

But then she took in Garrett’s face. The haunted, broken spirit peering through his eyes at her. They glistened as if he were fighting back tears just before her arrival. The permanent hint of a smirk that always seemed to be on his lips had disappeared and replaced with a downturned pout.

“Are you going to let me in?”

Garrett swung open the door to allow her to passage inside.

April looked around. Her mother had been right. They had given him the bare minimum and not even enough of the necessities. No sheets were on the bed and there was no closet that could have housed any towels. The single light above flickered in and out as if it were ready to expire at any moment. “I brought you these,” she held out the cloth bag.

Garrett peered into the bag and then drew out the towels and sheets. “Wow, April, thank you.”

April gave him a small smile. “Don’t worry about it.”

Handing the bag back to April and placing the towels and sheets on the chest, Garrett started making up his bed first.

Not wanting the awkward silence to persist as he made his bed, April said, “So, they really don’t give you much to start with do they?”

Garrett gave her a side-long glance, not pausing for a moment. “No, they don’t.”

“Garrett,” April sunk into the solitary chair in the corner of the room, placing her bag on the table. “Why did you do it?”

Finished with his bed, Garrett sat at the end of it. “I thought I knew, April, but now I don’t.”

“You had everything…everything at your fingertips and you just gave it all away.”

Garrett stared at her for several long seconds. “Fine, if you really want to know, I’ll tell you.”

Chapter 21

 

Opal didn’t stop running even after departing the transporter line. She ran through the streets of the Undecided sector, people glancing her way wondering what her rush was. She didn’t cease running until she saw the front of the shelter. Banging on the door, she waited for Mrs. Shaffer to