Chapter 6 #2
We find the black car waiting for us outside the café. The windows are tinted so I can’t see the hen inside. I open the passenger door, and Lori slides in before I can take a look. Wednesday is in a dog seat in the middle, so I’m forced to go around and enter from the other side.
“How’s my precious lady? Did you wait too long? I’m sorry about the leash, but it’s for…everybody else’s protection.” Lori is using his baby voice as he talks to Wednesday. She is such a cutie with those red eyes and all that black-and-white plumage on her head.
I brought a little bag of grains with the intention of asking Oliver to give it to Lori. But it worked out better this way. I take out the plastic Ziplock and pour some on my palm before moving it near her beak.
“Look at her pecking away. That’s why you are her favorite uncle.” Lori lets out a happy little chuckle while the car starts moving.
I brush the feathers on Wednesday’s head; they are incredibly soft.
“By the way, why didn’t you tell me about the tattoo?” He crosses his arms and sends me a slightly miffed look.
“How do you know about it?” It looks completely healed now, and I’m more than satisfied with it.
“Saw it in the café locker room when you were half-naked.” He snaps his fingers. “Of course that cute waiter hit on you. He thought you were giving him hints.”
“What hints? I was changing out of my uniform.” And even felt a little uncomfortable with Randy looking at me.
“A very weird energy is coming off of you lately. What gives?”
“I…” This might be the right time and place. The partition is up, so the driver shouldn’t be able to hear us…I think. “Sometimes I feel like I’m being…watched by someone.”
“You think?”
“I’m not entirely sure. Maybe it’s all in my head, another side effect of my PTSD. But there’s more.”
“More?”
“The idea of being watched…I think, I like it.” I cringe at my confession.
“You like it.”
“I mean, the idea of someone, perhaps in a mask, spying on me is sort of a little scary, but not like ahhhh! Japanese-horror-movie scary, just…exciting scary. I mean…should be creepy, right? But it isn’t. Am I going nuts?” My word vomit comes to an end.
“In a mask?”
“Stop repeating my words,” I raise my voice, exasperated by Lori’s behavior.
“Chill your beans, mate. Now it’s my time to process your dirty kinks.”
Oh my gods! Lori needs to process? Lori? “Am I an absolute weirdo?” I murmur, biting my lip in thought.
“I would hope so, life is so much better when you wear the weirdo glasses. So weird it out, Sully-doo, go all the way!”
I sigh. “But what do you think about the odd sensation of being watched? Stalked? Spied on?”
“I’m pretty sure that if someone was spying on you, Ramiel will know, because Serena will tell him. The super, mega intelligent AI who’s watching over you twenty-four seven. Ohhh, maybe your stalker is Serena!” he jokes.
I ignore it. “So, you think it’s impossible.”
“It most assuredly is.” He nods.
“It must be all in my head then.” Should I feel relieved? Well, I’m not. Quite the opposite, actually. “I thought I was getting better. Maybe it’s time to find another therapist.”
“Why? Because you liked the idea of having a stalker so much you thought you had one?” He huffs.
“I have my own personal snooping kit in my car because I’m always down for a stalking session.
Ramiel is a hacker which is just another word for supreme stalker.
Raph rarely leaves Michael’s side—talk about separation anxiety. ”
“What are you trying to say? That we are all out of our minds?”
“Yes. Everybody is a little insane. It’s not a competition.
If you feel like having professional help is what you need, then we’ll find you the best. Stop with the self-deprecating behavior.
You’ve come so far, Sully. We are all in awe of you.
I’m in awe.” He grabs my hand and squeezes it affectionately.
“Please believe me when I say that…you are not the only one with a hard-on for stalkers or masks. Cuffs are pretty hot too.”
A snort leaves my lips at Lori’s attempt at lightening the mood. His words do comfort me somehow, but not all the way. Am I really imagining him?
“Yeah. Who wouldn’t dig a dude wearing a white mask, right?” I half joke.
“White mask?” A line forms between his eyes.
“Yeah, I’m having sort of hot dreams about him, too,” I tell him.
“I see. Well, you are preaching to the choir. Did I ever tell you about that dream where I was marrying a human-sized banana?”
“No.”
“Six feet of sweet pulp waiting to be peeled off. Yum! Sully, yum!”
“Gag, Lori, gag,” I give back, but the asshole keeps talking.
“Especially when drops of whipped cream started coming down from the sky…what do you think that meant?”
“That you are more certifiable than me?”
I pour more grains on my hand so at least Wednesday can enjoy this ride.
An hour and a half later, the car enters the university campus grounds.
“We are already here!” Lori exclaims.
Already? We got stuck in traffic for half an hour. I have only fifteen minutes to run to the library before it closes for the night.
“This is a bloke garden, not a campus, you should just stroll around and pick one…or two.” He winks. “Whooo, that one looks good from behind, nice hair.” Lori is pointing at the back of a blond guy. Wait, is that Ren?
“Wide shoulders.”
“Lori,” I try to stop him.
“Plush ass.”
“Lori!”
“Yeah, I could bend him over and give it a nice spanking.” He chuckles.
“Noooo.” I wince at the mental image.
“Who the fuck are you talking about?” I suddenly hear Bez’s barking voice from the front seat—I can finally distinguish the two alters. The partition rolls down, and yep, he’s sitting right there, near the driver.
“What the fuck?” I raise my arms in the air and let them drop on the seat. This family is a real nest of loons.
“Oh, finally one of my fiancés deems me worthy of some acknowledgement.” Lori’s words are filled with sarcasm.
Wednesday is nervously pacing next to me in her dog seat. I’m trying to calm her down with more grains, but it doesn’t seem to work.
“Do you want me to go on a killing spree? Is that what you want, Little Wasp?”
“Why come with me if you spend the whole trip on your damn phone?”
“I was working.” It’s Gabe now, I know because his voice is monotone.
“How about you marry your job then, while I go look for that blondie out there?”
“Guess you’re out of your mind if you think you can consider someone else besides me without consequences.”
This is getting out of hand. Wednesday is flapping her wings now and shaking her head. If she strikes me with her beak, it’s going to hurt like a bitch.
“It was Ren!” I abruptly scream to put an end to it. “That guy out there with the lush, plush ass, the one you used to make your fiancés jealous, it was Ren.”
“No! Ugh. Krampus, why are you punishing me?” Lori squeezes his eyes, turning his head toward the sky, disgust spreading all over his face.
“Why were you in the front seat? There’s so much space in the back,” I ask Gabe.
“I didn’t want Wednesday to ruin another one of my suits,” he explains. They do look very expensive.
“Did you hear…everything?” Of course he did. Fuck!
“No.”
“Yes.”
Gabe and Bez reply one after the other. Their personalities are polar opposites. Their interactions are usually kind of entertaining, but this time I’m too afraid they’ll tell the others about…my imaginary friend.
“Can you please keep it to yourself…”
Gabe interrupts my pleading words. “Whatever you and Lori talked about is none of my business.”
I let out a relieved sigh, and then I pinch Lori’s cheek hard in retaliation.
“Ouch! What was that for?”
“You could have told me he was sitting there!” I don’t like people knowing about this, especially Rague’s brothers.
“He’s a lawyer,” Lori declares. “He knows how to keep a secret, the old lawyer's confidentiality.”
“I’m not a client,” I point out.
“No. But you are family.” Gabe’s words tug at my heartstrings.
I am part of a family. My eyes start burning, a clear sign of oncoming tears. Before I make an even bigger fool of myself, I tell the driver to stop the car.
“What the…?” Lori is staring at something outside.
“What’s wrong?” Bez questions him.
“I thought I saw it again…never mind, I must have drunk too much cocoa. It got to my head.”
I open the car door when Lori passes me a bag.
“What is it?”
“Just some clothes, lotions, creams, oils, etc…”
“You need to stop buying me stuff.” I huff, hooking my messenger bag over my shoulder and holding Ollie’s and Lori’s bags in one hand.
“Never,” Lori cheekily responds. “Now go grab your books, we’ll wait for you.”
“There’s no need. It’s going to take two more hours to get home for you guys with all the traffic. I’ll be fine. The dorm is close by.”
“You sure?” Gabe asks, but he’s already left the seat in the front to move near Lori, pushing him toward Wednesday.
“Positive.”
“All right. I’ll call you in a couple of days.” With Lori’s parting words still in my ears, I enter the library. Ten minutes later, I’m outside again.
Brad Paisley’s song “There’s No I in Beer” is playing in my EarPods, and even though the bags and the three books I borrowed weigh on my arms, I’m whistling lightheartedly as I make my way to my room.
I’ve always loved music, ever since I was a kid.
It helped me fall asleep and tuned out all the illegal and disgusting stuff that was going on in my father’s house.
Ollie and I used to share my earphones every night.
He likes pop while country music is my favorite.
I like the straightforward storytelling about life, love, and heartbreak, the slow, emotional melodies.