February 17 | Monday #16
“Again?” Oscar laughed.
“Yes. I’m making you think about the past. I shouldn’t have.”
“If anything, I’m the one who shouldn’t be mentioning my ex while I’m in bed with you. So I’m sorry.”
“Holy shit…” Will chuckled. “Listen to us.”
“I know,” Oscar confirmed, amused.
“And I don’t mind you mentioning him. I just don’t want you to be sad.”
The corner of Oscar’s mouth lifted into a small smile, and then he said, “He was a lot like you, you know.”
Will looked at him as if he had gone crazy.
“No, he wasn’t,” he protested firmly. “I’ve seen pictures. You know,” he explained, seeing Oscar’s surprised look. “I did some digging after what you told me. Anyway, I look nothing like him.”
“I don’t mean in terms of looks.”
“So, personality?”
Oscar thought for a moment, studying Will with a piercing gaze.
“Not that either,” he finally decided.
“Then what?” Will snorted.
“Actually… I don’t know,” Oscar admitted, a bit helplessly. “There’s just something similar about you two.”
“That’s not very specific.”
“I guess I just feel as safe with you as I did with him,” Oscar finally said.
“I remember our first time.” He glanced at Will as if to make sure he was comfortable with the topic.
Will offered an encouraging smile. “We were at his place, late at night. His mom was at work, but I had this feeling she was going to come back any second and catch us. She didn’t know yet,” he added, seeing Will’s surprise.
“Nobody knew. And just as we were about to get to it, all the lights went out. There was some kind of power issue. For some reason, I took it as a sign. That we shouldn’t be doing it.
And that thought got so stuck in my head that I literally wanted to run away.
He stopped me at the front door. He said if I didn’t want to, that was fine, but that I shouldn’t leave.
The thing is, I did want to. I was just scared.
But he made my fear go away, so… We did it.
And after I got home, I finally told my mom.
And it turned out I really had nothing to worry about. ”
Will smiled tenderly. He’d missed out on talks with his parents, for obvious reasons, and his grandparents… They had probably known forever, but the topic was never discussed too openly.
“I’m going to get something to drink,” Oscar said, then brushed his lips against Will’s and stood up. “You want something too?”
“Water, thanks,” Will replied.
Oscar headed to the kitchen, and Will watched him with great interest. Oscar stopped at the window, however.
“There’s a girl standing in front of your house,” he noted, surprised, and Will froze.
“What?” he whispered weakly.
“I think it’s Christine Ellis. What’s she doing here?”
Now Will was certain. He hadn’t been mistaken, not in the woods, not the last time. That demon really had been hanging around all this time. But why?
“I have no idea,” he answered, his voice distant.
“Is she in love with you or something? Does she not know you’re a lost cause for the female population yet?” Oscar joked.
Will didn’t react.
“Will?”
“Hm? Sorry. It’s nothing.”
Oscar gave him a searching look, then smiled hesitantly and walked into the kitchen.
Will shot up from the couch and ran to the window. Oscar was right, of course. Christine was standing in the exact same spot as before.
She was smiling unsettlingly.
February 15 | Saturday
Since then, Will had seen the demon several more times—sometimes near his house, sometimes on his way to or from school.
Each time, the creature vanished before anyone could react.
Will had consulted Norma, and Norma had brushed off the subject, which pissed him off.
How was he supposed to focus on his life when that thing was clearly following him around?
Finally, Norma invited him over for the evening. Will thought they would resolve the matter. He expected to find only Norma, maybe Abby and the rest of the team, but when he arrived, he found himself in the middle of a full-blown party. It threw him completely off balance.
He found Norma dancing with her new boyfriend, John.
“Norma,” he said gruffly.
The girl looked over at him, surprised, then smiled broadly.
“Hey, Will. Have fun!” she called out, then wrapped her arms more tightly around John.
“Can you tear yourself away from him for one fucking second?” Will grumbled.
“Hey, dude, what’s your problem?” John snapped, indignant.
“Okay, quick break,” Norma decided, then dragged Will into the kitchen. “What is it?”
“I thought we were going to talk,” Will said, his voice full of disappointment.
“We are talking.”
“I meant about the demon.”
Norma let out an impatient sigh.
“I’ve already told you everything I know, Will. Demons can be… obsessive. This one has apparently developed an obsession with you. I have no idea why, so don’t ask, but it’s a good thing.”
“A good thing? What’s so good about it?”
“The fact that it will allow us to catch it.”
“You haven’t managed to do that so far.”
Norma let out a snort of disbelief and, planting her hands on her hips, announced, “Well, neither have you. You’re the only one who’s seen it, so you could have reacted somehow.”
“How?” Will snarled. “You know perfectly well I can’t control my powers! And what’s that supposed to mean, huh? You think I’m making it up?”
“No, I think that instead of having fun at my awesome party, you’re throwing a tantrum,” she replied, irritated.
Will stared at her, outraged. He hadn’t expected to be treated like this.
“It’s just a demon that’s doing nothing but staring at you, so what’s with all the drama?
We’ll get it sooner or later, and besides, knowing demons, it’ll get bored soon.
If it was going to attack you, it probably would have done so by now, don’t you think? ”
Will was furious. He had no desire to talk to her any longer, so he left the kitchen and headed for the exit, grabbing a can of beer on his way.
Leaving the house, Will stood by the gate, opened the beer, and took a few solid gulps.
He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to control his emotions, then pulled out his phone and dialed Oscar’s number.
“Hey. What’s up?”
“I’m at Norma’s.”
“I know.”
“And so is half the school, so…” He trailed off, taking a deep breath. If he’d known it would be like this, he would have made plans with Oscar. He still hoped to. “Maybe you want to hang out?”
“I’d love to, but my mom’s out, so I have to take care of my brother.”
“Oh. Maybe I could come over then? I’ll keep you company.”
“Thanks, but you don’t have to. We’re just gonna watch cartoons for a bit longer, then go to bed. You’d just be bored.”
“Right. In that case, see you tomorrow.”
“See you. Have fun.”
Will wasn’t going to. To be honest, he was so mad at Norma that he swore to himself he would never set foot in her house again. He knew he’d probably get over it by tomorrow, but for now, he was truly fed up with everyone and everything.
He took another gulp of beer.
“You shouldn’t be drinking here.”
He looked up and saw Liam walking toward him, smiling slightly at the memory of a similar conversation. Will had nothing better to do anyway.
“As it happens, I’m legal now,” he announced smoothly.
“You had a birthday?” Liam asked, surprised.
“Yep. January twenty-eighth.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“God, I hate that question. What was I supposed to do? Walk up and say, Hey, you know what, it’s my birthday today. Where are my presents? Come on.”
Liam chuckled.
“I wish you’d said something like that to Blake.”
“Because he would have gotten pissed?”
“Yeah. And he’d have given you a long lecture about how birthdays should be a day for expressing gratitude to your parents because they’re the ones who brought you into the world. And that you should be giving them presents. It’s actually pretty funny.”
Yes, the image was funny. Funny enough that Will chuckled, forgetting for a moment that he was having a totally shitty evening.
“Where’s Mr. Surfer?”
Will shrugged.
“He didn’t come.”
“Are we heading inside?”
“You go, I’m out of here,” Will muttered, starting to walk away, but Liam wrapped an arm around him, pulling him back.
“No way! We have to drink to your birthday.”
“My birthday was two weeks ago,” Will reminded him indulgently.
“Then we have some catching up to do.”
A faint smile appeared on Will’s lips for a moment, but it quickly vanished.
“Not today,” he said firmly, and seeing Liam’s questioning look, he admitted, “I had a fight with Norma. I don’t want to go back in there.”
He expected Liam to ask what it was about, but instead, he said, “Then let’s go somewhere else.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere. You can drink anywhere.”
Will agreed. He had nothing better to do anyway, and few things could lift his spirits like Liam’s presence, so he couldn’t have asked for better company. They took a bus into town. They wandered around for a bit, eventually ending up in a low-key bar. They each ordered a drink.
“It’s weird that Norma didn’t know about your birthday,” Liam said suddenly. Will raised an eyebrow. “She’s always the most informed person. She has an account on all those sites.”
“Well, I don’t. I mean, I used to, but I deleted it.”
“Why?”
“The embarrassingly low number of online friends?”
Liam snorted with laughter.
“Seriously?” he said in disbelief.
“Laugh all you want,” Will replied, taking a few sips of his drink. “I bet half the school added you.”
“Not a chance, I don’t have that crap. Honestly, I don’t know much about that stuff.
I can barely use this.” Liam pulled a phone from his jacket pocket and waved it in front of Will’s face.
“This is enough for me. But I don’t believe that about the small number of friends.
You’ve got a lot of guys saved in your phone. ”