Chapter 27
I woke up long before Matt, or anyone else did. I slowly shook Matt awake. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and lead me to his parent's room. He lightly knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" Mr. Cleric called almost immediately.
"It's me," Matt said. "I need to talk to you."
"Come on in."
"Peyton's coming too."
There was a pause. I heard some whispering before Mrs. Cleric called, "Come on in."
Matt opened the door. His parents were sitting side by side on the edge of the bed. "Have a seat," Mr. Cleric said, gesturing to the couch opposite to them. My heart was thudding in my chest so hard it could fly out at any moment. I sat next to Matt and waited for him to start.
"Mom," he said quietly, "Dad. I don't know how to tell you this but... I'm..." he reached over and grabbed my hand. "I'm gay."
"You owe me twenty bucks!" Mrs. Cleric said to her husband before I instantly busted a gut.
"I'm sorry, Matt," I said between laughs. "But that was freaking hilarious! Your parent bet on your sexuality!" I almost fell over in a fit of laughter. Matt just sat there, smiling wide out of embarrassment and relief.
"We didn't bet on his sexuality," Mrs. Cleric said.
"We bet on when he'd come out," Mr. Cleric finished, chuckling a little himself. "I said he would wait until he got out of high school."
I collected myself enough to say, "So you knew the whole time?"
"Oh yea," Mrs. Cleric said. "It was way too obvious!"
"Mom!" Matt protested which almost made me fall over again.
Mrs. Cleric shrugged. "Well it was!"
"That and we saw you kissing Sam," Mr. Cleric said.
"Oh this is rich!" I said. Matt tried to glare at me but he was smiling too hard. I gave him a small peck on the cheek. "Sorry, but it is."
"So are you two together?" Mr. Cleric asked.
I glanced at Matt. "Yea, we are," Matt answered.
Mr. Cleric regarded me in a way that made me keep my face neutral and sit up straighter. "I'm not sure how I feel about you dating an older boy, Matt."
Mrs. Cleric slapped her husband in the chest. "Oh stop it, Red is harmless."
"And I would never pressure Matt into anything he doesn't want to do," I added. But after what we did last night, I'm happy with doing what he wants to do I thought. Again, we're still just virgins.
Mr. Cleric nodded at me. "I guess it's ok then."
"Of course it's ok, Pat," Mrs. Cleric said, as if she couldn't believe her husband. "Just take it slow, boys. It'll hurt."
I stifled a laugh and hoped Matt wouldn't ask the stupid question.
"What'll hurt?" Matt asked the dumbest question.
In a matter-of-fact tone that a history teacher would use in class, Mrs. Cleric said, "Gay sex, dear."
And with that, I lost all control and laughed so hard, tears came from eyes. I whiped them away as Matt's parents kicked us out of their room. I walked back to Matt's room. I was still dressed in the sweats I wore last night and Matt threw on a pair of jeans and a Giant's T-shirt. As soon as he was dressed, a cold chill ran down my spine.
"We have to go! Now!"
"OK," Matt said, reaching for his keys.
"Not that way," I said grabbing him by the shoulders and shimmering away. We appeared in the middle of a clearing at Fremont Older in a spot no one would ever go to. "Don't freak out!" I instantly commanded.
"How did you do that?" Matt asked.
"Magic," I said. "Look, you have to believe me, I'm a good guy. But something is after you."
Matt looked at me in the eyes. "Ok," he finally said. "I believe you."
I gave him a hug the turned around. I made sure he was behind me before the wolf materilized in front of me. The wolf lunged at me and I flinched, accidently blasting the wolf in the face. The wolf flew backwards. "Eric!" I called. "Time to play shuffle!"
Eric warped out of nowhere next to Matt and said, "The twins, Jenna, and Jackie are all playing too!" He warped away, Matt in tow. I turned to the wolf but he was already dematerializing. I had to wait for my cue. Now that I could shimmer, my friends could call me like I called Eric. or Damien. Damien I thought.
I got a text from Jackie telling me to go to PHS and wait for my turn to start shuffling. With Mine and Eric's abilities to teleport and Jackie and Jenna able to fly, we could ounce Matt around until we figured something to do with Matt.
I shimmered to PHS and to my surprise, Lucas was standing next to me. "Oh hell no," I said.
"I'm sorry!" he instantly said.
"Don't want to hear it," I said. "Damien!" I called.
"Look I just wanted to say-"
"Damien!" I called louder. "Damien you rat bastard, get here now!" I put as much bass and spirit in my voice as I could. Every living thing within the sound my voice stiffened for a second. "I said NOW!" In that instant, a green aura sparked to life ahead of me. As Damien stood before me, Lucas said the worse words I could hear.
"He's the one who put me up to the bet!"
