Waiting for Mercy (Cambions) (46 page)

Getting up, he walked over to a small panel on his wall I hadn’t really paid much attention to before.  He appeared to be looking at a screen but from my vantage point, I couldn’t see what he saw.

Pressing a button, he spoke into the panel. “What do you want Flynn?” he asked dryly.  I had a moment to mourn the passing of their friendship.

A voice that was slightly crackly sounded through the silent room with Madden on pause.  “Maggie was looking for Mercy.  She begged me to drive her over here,” Flynn said.

Maggie.  I got up from the couch and looked for my jeans.  My phone.  I didn’t have it.  That’s right, I’d left it charging in Flynn’s car.  Funny, I hadn’t thought about SAT words in a while.

“You have a key.  Why didn’t you just come in?” Luke asked matter-of-factly.

Turning to look at him, I wished things were still good between them still.  “I wasn’t sure what I might be walking in on, so I thought I’d ring the bell first.”

“Come up,” Luke said, pushing a button and then walked away. 

Standing, I looked at my half dressed boyfriend. “Maybe you should put a shirt on,” I said with a grin.

Smiling at me he walked over to his bureau. He pulled out a shirt and a sweatshirt.  After closing the door, he tossed me the sweatshirt.  Amazingly I caught it.  “What’s this for?” I asked.

“As much as I like the view of you in that tank top, I’d rather not have to poke Flynn’s eyes out for checking you out,” he said.  I chuckled but he didn’t.  Crap, he was serious.

I pulled the sweatshirt over my tank not wanting the two friends to fight, least of which over me.  A knock at the door preceded Flynn and Maggie’s entrance. I was pulling my hair out of the Georgetown hoodie Luke had given me when Flynn busted in not bothering to wait for us to answer.  Maggie was on his heels.

Dramatically, Maggie ran over to me and gave me the biggest hug.  Stumbling a little, I hugged her back.  I’d missed her. “I’ve been calling you.  You had me worried.”

Breaking from the hug, I said, “I left my phone in Flynn’s car.”  I peeked over at him.  He pulled something from his pocket and tossed it to me.  After a fumbling grab, I actually caught it.  Two for two.  “Thanks,” I said to him.  He nodded.

Maggie walked over to the couch and sat making herself at home.  I went over and sat next to her.  “So, like no one is at school,” she began.  And I already knew not to interrupt her. “Jay and Kathy aren’t there, Paul isn’t either, Sebastian is MIA, you and Luke -” she said and looked at both of us in turn conspiratorially. 

“What about Brent?” I asked hoping the topic of what Luke and I could have been up to wouldn’t come up. 

Rolling her eyes, she muttered, “He’s there?”

“What’s up between you two?” Luke asked.  I was surprised by his question.

She focused a cold stare on him.  “Like that wouldn’t be obvious, angel boy.  And what’s up with that.  I was wondering why I always felt the need to confess my sins to you,” she said.  Luke looked up and sighed heavily. Maggie continued.  “I always thought it was because your dad was a preacher.  That’s weird isn’t it?  Your dad, the angel, a preacher.  Is that what they do here on earth?”  I wanted to stop Maggie for being so nosy, but frankly I was curious too.

Luke half rolled his eyes and his lips thinned.   Sighing again like he got asked these very questions all the time, he said. “My dad’s a Fallen angel,” heavy emphasis on Fallen.  “And no, angels don’t come to earth to be priests, preachers or any of the like.”

“Then why is your dad?” she asked, with no remorse about making him answer a personal question.  He shifted uncomfortably in the seat he’d taken beside me, leaving Flynn alone in the chair.

“Probably trying to get back in good graces,” Luke muttered.

Flynn cut in.  “Hey Red, why don’t you tell us why you
had
to come see your friend?”

“Best Friend, duh, I haven’t seen or talk to her in a while.  I needed to see for myself she was okay,” Maggie blurted out. “And why Red, that’s so predictable?  She get’s Webster?” she said, angling a thumb at me.  “Why can’t I be Cinderella?” she whined.

Luke pulled my back against his chest, tucked my hair away from my face and kissed me on the cheek. “Mercy’s Cinderella?”

Flynn cut in and we all returned our attention to him. “No, I think you’re little red riding hood.”

Maggie matched his banter and said, “Can you be a little more original?”

“Why, it’s little red who met the big bad wolf?” Flynn announced.

Luke started laughing and I couldn’t help but to laugh with him.  It was funny.  She picked up a controller and flung it at Flynn who ducked but didn’t quite move far enough as the object bounced off his shoulder.  He was laughing hard.

“Well, Mr. Hunchback of Notre Dame,” Maggie said, hurling the insult at Flynn.

Sitting up in his seat, he held his chest, “Maggie, I’m so hurt.”

“It’s fitting though, your name is infamous like his and people
constantly
stare at you,” she said venomously.

Luke’s chuckles rumbled in his chest against my back.  I tried to suppress my laughter so that I wouldn’t be the focus of their jabs.  But Flynn decided Maggie was not the weakest link and turned on me. “Look Snow White, both of you know I’m Prince Charming,” he said.

I wasn’t going to think about what he implied about that Snow White comment.  He couldn’t mean I was the fairest of them all.  So instead, I shot back. “That would imply you had a Sleeping Beauty, but we both know that your kiss doesn’t wake the Princess.”  Immediately, I regretted what I said as the room got quiet.  But instead of stopping, I continued. “You’re more like the Beast of Belle.”

Flynn trying to recover, said, “My ego is suffering with the two of you suggesting that I’m not hot.”

“Flynn your ego is too big for either of us to bruise,” I said. “I meant that you hide behind a gruff exterior.”

He just looked at me.  Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut.  I was glad I couldn’t see Luke’s face. 

Ever thankful to Maggie, she spoke breaking the awkward silence. “Again, I say so unfair.  Flynn, so you’re an incubus, a sex god of sorts.”

Flashing her a smile, Flynn said, “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Ewe, no thank you,” Maggie said. “I don’t know where you’ve been.”

Laughter broke out again.

“The better to teach you, Red,” Flynn said playing off his little red riding hood reference to gain some ground.

“Ha, Ha,” Maggie said as we tried to muffle our laughter. “Angel boy and sex demons, why couldn’t I be a fairy like tinker bell?  I so look good in green,” she said.  I’d already heard this argument.

Thinking back to what the elves said, I answered, “From what the elves say, you wouldn’t want to be fae, Maggs.”

“Elves,” Maggie said wide eyed.

Oh, I hadn’t told her about that.  Filling her in, I went into the story about Jay and Kathy and going to find Luke.  I didn’t mention that I’d damned him.  It just wasn’t the time and I didn’t want to cry again.

“Again, I say no fair.  Being an elf or even fae trumps getting all furry once a month,” Maggie said.

“But Maggs,” I said cutting in. “Tom said that you all aren’t tied to the moon.”

She looked at me then said, “Not later, but initially yes.  And really it’s not as if I don’t have other problems once a month.  Why do I need to add to that?”

“Okay, now I’m grossed out,” Flynn said.

“Me too,” Luke concurred.

We all laughed and ended up playing Madden, me and Luke against Flynn and Maggie.  But really Maggie and I weren’t playing except to run our guys in the wrong direction and cause the boys to take the controllers from us.  It was good to see Luke and Flynn playing together.  It gave me hope that their friendship could be repaired.  When the time came for Maggie to go, Luke handed me his keys.

“Go ahead and use my car to drive her dome.  I need to talk to Flynn.” Luke said.

Fear must have shot in my eyes, but Flynn nodded.  “We need to have
boy
talk,” he said mocking us using a feminine type voice.  Rolling my eyes, I shot Luke a look I hoped said, ‘don’t kill him’ before I leaned over and kissed him.  Thinking it would be quick, I tried to pull away.  Luke snaked a hand into my hair and pulled me back.

“Okay you two, get a room.” Maggie said.  I could imagine her facial expression while she stood behind me.

When Luke finally let me go, good and thoroughly kissed, he said   “
This
is my room.”

Chuckling, I started to head out thinking how Flynn and I still had a lot to expiate for.  Maggie said, “You should stay for dinner, Liam has been asking about you non stop.”

Pausing, I looked over at Luke guiltily. But I spoke to Maggie, “Come on, Liam isn’t worried about me.”  I sincerely hope not.

“No silly, he’s not
worried
about you. You’re like his other little sister and he said you looked so sad the other day when you came over.”

Still looking over at Luke, I saw him relax and made my way out the door.  I didn’t want him thinking about other guys being interested in me as I left him alone with Flynn.

Maggie still in the room said, “See ya Luke, b-bye Flynn.”

I added. “See you guys later.”

Maggie wasn’t done though. “And Flynn you really surprised me with your fairytale knowledge.”  Looking back at her, I watched her grin which suggested she might be flirting with him. 

Astonished, I almost missed his response.  His voice was flat and resigned to what he said next. “What I do know is that they don’t come true.” 

At that the door closed behind us.

dilatory
(adj.)
tending to delay, causing delay

Looking at my phone for my word of the day, I realized that I had not missed trying to use some word I may never use again in a sentence.  Maybe I was just being dilatory about my studies.  There I go again.  My brain was conditioned and I couldn’t keep the stupid words from my thoughts.  I nearly uninstalled the application.  The SAT test seemed so unimportant now.  Really, what life was I going to have?  Would I ever be able to control what lived inside me?  Would going to college put others unintentionally at risk as she saw it as a huge feeding ground?  I may not even have my friends nearby to understand and stop the demon from doing something with some random guy.  But deleting the application felt like I was giving up.

“You know we could take one more day,” Luke said.

Sighing, I said, “I’ve already missed too much.”  I’m glad I didn’t see his face, I felt him tense next to me.  Undoubtedly, he was thinking about all that happened while he was gone. “I’ll go get ready.”  Shifting out of his embrace, I slipped out of the bed to get dressed for the day.

On the ride to school, I reflected on more embarrassing moments staying at his house the last two nights.  There had been my forgetfulness to bring a tooth brush, he offered me his.  When I gave him a look like that was just ewe, he laughed and told me, ‘
You swap spit with me all the time and you have a problem sharing my toothbrush?’
  In the end, he found me an unused one, still in the package.  We’d laughed and things were just so good.

Best of all, he made me breakfast each day.  Cooking was my thing, but he insisted.  And today we were very late because of it.  The time was ten minutes into third period when we arrived.  Maggie texted me repeatedly to make sure I was coming. A stern lecture about the virtues of being on time to class and what felt like a week’s load of assignments from two teachers is what I got by coming at all.  Heading into lunch, I was sure Maggie would see my guilt.  I still hadn’t told her about what I’d done to Luke.  Keeping secrets from her wasn’t my goal, not wanting to see her disappointment and disapproval of me was.

Threading her arm through mine the moment I exited the lunch line with my food, Maggie was her jovial self.  “Where have you been?” she asked, enunciating each word as if it was the last.