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September 11 - September 12, 2020
“What did you do, Zeke?” Miles asked, his voice growing colder. He smirked. “Mild glaring,” he admitted to them before turning to me. “If that scared him away, you're better off. Because any guy that comes around, we’re going to be asking him questions.” “What are your intentions?” Asher offered. “Where are you going?” Ethan added. “When will you be back?” Isaac supplied.
“I’m never going to date again,” I groaned. The guys thought it was hilarious. I looked up and pointed at them. “I am warning all of you. If you scare off every guy that wants to ask me out, one of you are going to have to go to homecoming with me, and winter formal. And prom. And anything else I want to go to.” They didn’t stop laughing until after the bell for 6th period rang.
She asked me what it was like to have so many guy friends. I told her it was a hoot, in a deadpan voice.
“Get off me, Baby,” he growled; his whole body was tense under me. His hands went to my arms as if to pry me off. I grabbed his wrists and squeezed tighter with my legs. “It was probably Jessica; we have gym the same period. You can’t beat up a girl,” I explained desperately.
Miles, Isaac, and Ethan had run up the steps and were trying to stop him. “But the guy running the damn screen isn’t. And he hasn’t taken the fucking thing down,” Zeke snarled, still climbing.
“Zeke, if you calm down we can call Rory,” I offered calmly. At my words, Zeke looked at me over his shoulder. I continued, “I just turned 17 in August, and someone just put a photo of me in my underwear on display.” “Technically, that is child pornography. It’s a felony,” Miles chimed in, seeing where I was going with this. “And I am the niece of a very overprotective cop,” I reminded him. Personally, it only irritated me, but if I had to call Rory to get Zeke to calm down, I’d call Rory.
“It’ll be okay, Zeke. I’m a big girl. I can sock a guy in the jaw just as easily as you can.” That made the corner of his mouth twitch. He looked away from me, his eyes finding my empty paper cup. “I owe you a hot chocolate.” He heaved himself to his feet and headed toward the center aisle. “No killing, Zeke,” I called after him. “No killing,” he grumbled back. “Or maiming!” He turned to me with that smirk finally on his face. “No maiming,” he assured me before heading up the stairs.
“When I said to stop him, I didn’t mean for you to jump on him, Lexie,” Ethan managed through his laughing. “It just kind of happened,” I explained. “Besides, Zeke wouldn’t go into a fight with me on his back. And I was clinging like a monkey.”
“Cookie Monster?” I asked in a sweet voice. He looked up at me, smiling. He wasn’t drunk yet. “Yeah, Red?” I used my best pout on him. “Will you come dance with me?” I asked, almost pleading. His eyebrows rose in surprise. “You’re one of the few guys around here I trust not to get handsy.” His eyebrows dropped as he understood; no one wanted a repeat of the bar.
“Guys, this is Lexie.” Zeke gestured at me with the hand that held his beer bottle. I waved to the guys. They all seemed big and scary. A lot like Zeke, actually. “If you see someone messing with her, you kick their ass.” I elbowed him in the side and glared up at him. He grunted then looked down at me. Then back to the group. “Okay, fine, if you see someone messing with her, watch for a minute to see if she kicks his ass. If she’s trying and can’t, then you kick their ass.” Everyone burst out laughing.
“My girl always forgets her hair ties.” He pulled out a tie and reached across the group to hand it to me. “I’m always carrying extras for her.” He shrugged. The other guys laughed at him. His cheeks turned pink. “You, sir, are the world's best boyfriend,” I exclaimed, putting my hair into a ponytail.
“Wait, you’d rather have your car fixed than shoes?” The guy, Ian, asked, not quite believing it. I nodded. He looked at Zeke as if he was in pain. “What the fuck, man? Where have you been hiding her all my life?” “As far from you as possible,” Zeke shot back, completely serious.
“You managed to keep Isaac sober?” I nodded. “Mostly, for about 90 minutes, yeah.” He blinked at me. “You’re a miracle worker; you have no idea how much that means to us,” he told me plainly. I rolled my eyes. “Ethan said he’s buying me jewelry, Zeke is fixing my truck. I think I’m getting the idea.” Miles smiled at me. “I’ll be your IT guy any time,” he told me simply.
“Cookie Monster, can you drink some water for me?” He leaned back and eyed me suspiciously. “You don’t have to stop drinking; I just want you to drink this too,” I kept my voice sweet. He pursed his lips together and opened the bottle. “Thank you, sweetie.” I pushed some of his hair back from his face before I walked around the table. I hopped back on the counter next to Asher. “How do you do that?” Asher asked. “Do what?” I asked keeping my eyes on Isaac. “How do you get him to listen to you?” He was genuinely curious. “Boobs,” I told him plainly. I took my eyes off Isaac and looked at Asher.
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I didn’t know where the guys were so I did the first thing I could think of. I strode over to Isaac, grabbed his ear and twisted hard. He stopped hitting the guy as he bent toward me. “Ow, ow, ow. Fuck, Red!” I kept a tight hold on his ear. “Get up,” I told him calmly, my voice hard, though inside I was kind of shaking. Watching Isaac pummel that guy into the floor really hit home that he was a trained fighter. Isaac got to his feet, leaning his head down so as not to yank on his ear more. “We are going outside for you to cool off.”
“Lexie, I love that you can kick a guy in the balls, yank a guy out of a fight by the ear, and still sound cute on the phone.” I smiled a big smile as my heart melted. Okay, I might be in trouble here.
“You’re a pain in the ass, Red,” he whispered into my hair. I snickered. “Especially when I’m right.”
Mary Summers had been a person, a soul. And I had wiped her from existence as if she were nothing.
“In the Veil,” I continued, “the sky is how you move on to the next part, the pit is below. The sky was wrong, it was filled with boiling clouds, green smoke, and lightning. The trees around the pit were burnt down to charcoal. It was all wrong.”
“The Veil walls have been shut. The dead can’t get there now,” I told them, still feeling cold. I took another drink before looking at each of them. “The dead can’t move on, not until it’s open again. And the energy is just going to keep building.”
“What the hell are we supposed to do about the Veil?” Ethan grumbled. Everyone was silent for a while. “We help her any way we can,” I told them honestly. “We’re there for her when she needs us.”
“Isaac said she stopped whimpering when he touched her.” He looked up and around the room. “Maybe that’s the answer.”
“She fits,” Zeke admitted. “I noticed it the first night studying at Rory’s.” “Me too.” Isaac nodded. “It’s like she’s been with us for years.” “Like puzzle pieces and we didn’t know we were missing one,” Ethan added. “She already feels like family,” Asher agreed. “Like she’s always been here.”
