I'm back! (Finally!) haha, and again, I'm really sorry about taking so freaking long! Yall have been so nice and patient that it's kinda creepy :D But yeah, my school year ended last Friday, so I have tonsss of time to write now! I love summer! Oh, and thanks to those who have reviewed, and to Jamie Kay Huntt for suggesting a steamy Chlerek scene getting interrupted by Chloe's dad :O Lol, I'll do my best. And again, I'm up for any other suggestions or ideas!
Disclaimer: Life is like a box of chocolates because I don't own Darkest Powers, but I love chocolate :)
The three of us all sat on one of the couches in the living room. Simon caught Derek up on what he had told me, and we talked a bit more. It still seemed like a dream to me. There I was, sitting in between Simon and Derek, just like old times. It was weird though because they looked so different. They weren't just scared, genetically altered teenage boys anymore. They were genetically altered men who knew how to work their strong powers. Well, Derek's powers were strong. Simon on the other hand still had some trouble with the spell-casting stuff.
Derek told me that he had finally completed his Change long ago, and his wolf senses were stronger now that he had fully completed it. He said that he still couldn't control when he Changed, but he was working on Changing when he wanted to, instead of when his body did.
"I can't believe that I wasn't there for your complete Change. I wish I had," I told Derek.
"Well, you shouldn't. It wasn't very pretty," he grimaced. "And besides, you didn't miss all that much. I turned into a wolf, big whoop." Anyone else would have thought that it didn't matter to him that I wasn't there, just like he said. However, I wasn't just anyone else. I knew him, and I knew when he tried to make light of something so that no one would worry over him. His words said one thing when his eyes said another. Those green eyes said it all: that he had been scared and in tons of pain. He had wanted me there with him.
"And," he continued, "God only knows what would have happened to you if you were there..."
"You wouldn't have hurt me," I replied with no waver in my voice, because I knew it was true.
Derek held my gaze with a look in his eyes that was so... indescribable. The fluttering feeling in my stomach that I hadn't felt in years returned to me, and so did that emotion that I could never put a name to. Only this time, I knew what that emotion was.
Derek and I broke our gaze as Simon exclaimed, "Well, look who's here!"
Leave it to Simon to ruin our moment.
I turned my head towards the living room where a man, woman, and young girl stood.
"Chloe, these are the owners of this lovely house who let us stay with them for a while. Sam Quincy, his wife Violet Quincy, and their daughter Becky. Sam, Laura, and Becky, this is Chloe Saunders," Simon introduced.
I stood up to shake the man's hand as he said, "Hello Chloe. It's nice to meet you," and the woman said, "We've heard so much about you."
"Oh really?" I asked as I pointedly looked at Simon and Derek.
Violet, the woman, laughed. "Only good things, don't worry."
"Okay, well in that case, it's nice to meet you too."
Violet laughed again. They seemed like a nice family. Sam was a short, balding man with a dark beard. Violet was a plump blonde woman that was about the same height as her husband. Their daughter Becky looked about ten years old with her long, dirty blonde hair in pigtails, and her tall and bony frame.
"Does Chloe know about what's going on?" Sam asked Simon and Derek.
"Yeah, we told her about the Edison Group coming back and stuff. She knows to be careful," Simon replied.
Sam raised an eyebrow. "This situation shouldn't be taken lightly. I suggest that Chloe is looked after by you two. As well as the Enright girl, of course."
My thoughts suddenly took a different path. Tori. As selfish as it sounded, I had barely thought of her at all since I got there. Nevertheless, natural instinct kicked in and I corrected Tori's name for her.
"Her last name's Dane now. Tori Dane."
"I thought something was up when we tried to look her up and we couldn't find her," Simon said while slowly nodding. "Why did she change her name?"
I heard Derek scoff, as if the answer was obvious.
Same old Derek.
"I'll tell you in the car," I said while gathering up the few things that I brought in with me.
"Wait, where are we going?" Derek questioned.
I sighed and turned to face the brothers. I held my head up high and feet firmly planted on the ground, knowing that they weren't going to be thrilled with my plans.
"It's time that you tell Tori, too."
"Damn, that must have really sucked," Simon commented after I told him and Derek about how Tori became a Dane.
"Yeah, but it all worked out in the long run. Tori really does belong with the Danes. She's happy. I guess that when one door closes, another one really does open," I replied. "Oh, take a left at the traffic light."
Derek sat behind the wheel of his car - a gray little Ford Escort, which was like a completely different species compared to Simon's 'spy car' - with me in the passenger seat, being the navigator to Tori's house. Simon sat in the back, but might as well have been seated between Derek and I with all of the jumping around and leaning-forward-without-his-seatbelt that he was doing.
I texted Tori to tell her that I was on my way, not even mentioning Simon and Derek. I didn't want her to freak out or run away while she had the chance. I also didn't want to wake her whole family by barging in at two in the morning with two men they had never met before, for that would probably not work out too well, but I figured that we would find a way around that once we got there.
What the fuck do you think you're doing? It's 2 a.m. I don't take booty calls from girls at this time of night. Try again later.
I rolled my eyes at Tori's reply to the text message I had sent her, and tried again.
Tori, I'm serious. This is important.
I again thought about her family waking up to Tori's screams once she sees the two surprises I was bringing her, and decided to add one more sentence to the message before I sent it.
Can you meet me at the Waffle House on Wright Street?
I thought about all of the public places that would be open at this hour, and decided that Waffle House would be our best bet. I didn't want the cops to start questioning us if they saw the four of us at the local park.
It took Tori a bit longer to reply than last time, but I was glad once I got the message.
Fine. I'll meet you there. But whatever you need to tell me better be good if I'm gonna ruin my beauty sleep to drive across town to some cheap, greasy ass food joint for truckers.
I smiled to myself. I could already see Tori stumbling out of bed in her revealing sleepwear towards her makeup bag, mumbling something about being sleep deprived and needing new friends.
I informed Derek of the change of location. "Take a right. Then, go through the next two traffic lights. There should be a Waffle House on your left."
Simon, Derek, and I were seated at a table in the back corner of the restaurant, far away from any other people. There weren't that many people there to begin with - a greasy cook, a waitress with way too much makeup, a few truckers, a tired looking couple, and a middle-aged man who was drunk as can be - but we didn't want to risk being heard.
The waitress walked up to our table, her yellowed teeth smacking away at her gum, and asked what we would like to eat.
"Can I get ya anything, darlin'?" she managed to purr to Derek while practically shoving her huge chest into his face.
"Just some pancakes, please. What would you guys like to eat?" Derek said, directing the waitress' attention to Simon and me. We told her our order, and she wrote it down with a pen that she pulled out from somewhere in her badly dyed red mane that reeked of hairspray. She barely looked at Simon and me, and I kept waiting for her to make some suggestive comments to Derek about 'him trying her pancakes' or something gross like that.
I heard the door to the restaurant open and the night air blow in. I turned to see a tall girl with a slim yet curvy figure and a head of disheveled black hair trudge in, wearing gray sweat pants and a T-shirt that I had bought for her last year.
"Tori! Over here!" I called out to her.
She looked over at me and did a double take. There were very few times where I had ever seen Tori caught off guard or surprised, and at that moment, she looked the most caught off guard and surprised that I had ever seen. I could picture what she was seeing: little ol' me, my eyes begging her not to freak, sitting across from a blond asian guy with stubble and a goofy, lop-sided grin, and a tall, dark-headed man made out of muscle, sarcasm, and a whole lot of temper.
She did her best to gain her composure, looked around to make sure that no one else saw her falter, and strutted her way over to our table. She stood right in front of it with her jaw tense and her eyes blazing. She eyed Simon and Derek, and then looked over at me.
"Chloe, do you mind telling me why you're seated in a Waffle House at 2:30 in the morning with the Asian Harry Potter and a fairly large Fido?" Tori said with sarcasm smothering her words. Her expression looked very calm, but her eyes looked like they were seconds away from shooting out lasers beams.
"Tori, just calm down. Why don't you sit down and eat with us? Simon and Derek will explain everyth-"
"To hell they will! Do you realize that they've been gone for what, four years? Five years? Yeah, and not a single word from them. Not a word! Yeah, that shows that they're cared for us a lot! Hell, they're probably only here because they need something from us! And you agree to whatever the fuck they say and do whatever the fuck they want you to do because you're just that fucking nice! But you know what? I'm not! So that's why I'm gonna take you home right this second. I won't even cuss them out, because I'm not even gonna waste my breath for those sons of bitches!"
There was a moment of silence. I stood up next to her. "Sit down, Tori."
The waitress chose that moment to deliver our food to us. She hesitated for a moment, but then stretched around Tori and I in the tight space to place our food down. She then winked at Derek and walked away.
Once she was gone, Tori took a deep breath, looked at me one more time, and then looked down at the table. "Fine. Just let me go to the bathroom first," she mumbled, and then trudged her way into the girls' room.
Whew! That's my second longest chapter so far! Hope yall liked it! Alright, and in honor of Chloe, I gotta ask this: What's your favorite movie and why? What's your favorite line from a movie? I gotta say that one of my favorite lines is from the Lion King (shut up, I already know I'm a dork) and it's when Nala finds Simba and Timone says: "Let me get this straight. You know her, she knows you, but she wants to eat him. And, everyone's ... okay with this ?" Haha, I just thought that was funny :D
Okay, my pretties. Review, review, review! Or I'll get you and you're little dog too!
