CHAPTER FIFTEEN: SAME OLD CHORDS
The next day I went back to my normal routine. I made some joke to Char in Computer Science about my slayer statistics: died once, demonic once. She did her little thing that she does when she should laugh but she doesn't. It's this sort of half smile, which is pretty much all you can get out of Char unless you're Wayne Brady or Homer Simpson.
I went to the store after school alone, because Char had an orthodontist appointment or whatever, even though both her braces and retainer are out. It's a stupid orthodontist trick to get more cash. Her mom makes her do it anyway. Also, since they're loaded it doesn't much matter.
I walked in the front door, to find the store pretty full of people. There was a long line, where Dex was ringing everyone up, and all these people were in there. It was like, a zoo almost. Man, Dex really had his hands full. Should I help him? Nah, he's got it covered.
I went into the back room, put down my skateboard and backpack, and pulled off my jacket. I pulled my hair up into a ponytail, and started with the punching bag. After a little while I grew tired of it, and there was still no sign of Dex. Then I saw the weapons trunk. I went over to it, and opened it up. I looked at all those awesome weapons, and took some small knives out. I threw them at the target, and hit it in the center area consistently. Then I started to do my homework. Two hours later, I'd finished it all except an English paper, which I had to write on a computer at home. I put my stuff in my bag, and left it by the door. What I did, every day, was leave my backpack with all my school stuff, in the store, as well as my board, and then in the morning, on my way to Rockford, I'd grab my stuff as Dex was opening up the store. If there was homework I had todo at home, I'd just bring it with me to the store each morning. That was what I planned to do with the English paper. I looked out the only window. The sun was starting to set. Might as well eat.
I went to the fridge and took out a Sprite. There really wasn't much in there. I went to the front room, where Dex was still dealing with customers.
"Yo Dex!" I shouted. "Can I order a pizza?"
"Don't expect me to pay for it!" He called back. "Oh, that one isn't for sale, sorry." He told a customer. We really needed to put up a sign about the yellow dot thing. I went into the back room, and ordered a pizza. It came half an hour later, and I polished off all but two slices, which I stuck in the fridge for tomorrow. Then I took out a stake and a knife from the weapons trunk and went back into the front room.
"So, where to tonight?" I asked him. He was dealing with the last cutomer of the day.
"Just one moment, Ari." He gave the customer her bag, told her to have a nice day, and then switched the sign in the front window from 'Open' to 'closed'. He took off his glasses and sat down at the back table. I sat on the back table. He motioned for me to get off the table. I did.
"So?" I asked.
"Thank you so much for helping me deal with the customers, Ari."
"Hey, it didn't say I had to in the job description."
"Ari, just... patrol in the graveyard. See if there's any vampire activity."
"Sure thing. See you tomorrow. Get some rest, man. You look worked." Heh heh heh.
~*~
I was sitting on a tombstone, waiting for something to show up. I'd been at the fucking graveyard for two hours and nothing had come. Usually vamps jump at the chance for a fight. Where the hell were they? I heard something behind me.
"Hi Angel." I said. It was so him. He's not one for making his presence known.
"Feeling better?" He asked.
"Much. No more migraines."
"Not much activity tonight?" He inquired.
"None. Where the hell did they all go?"
"I don't know."
"I guess I'll just call it a night. I have an English paper, anyway."
"I thought you did your homework at the store."
"I do. Except for stuff I need to do on the computer. That I do at home. Luckily this one isn't supposed to be over two pages long, double spaced, so it shouldn't be too brutal. Then maybe I'll get to get in a few more hours of sleep." I hopped off the tombstone.
"You got a lot of sleep the past few nights."
"Well, sleep's kinda like a drug. When you have a lot of it, you tend to want more, because you develop a tolerance." He didn't say anything. "But I do kinda need a fight. I haven't slayed in like, two days."
"Then do you want to stay out a few more hours?"
"What the hell. Why not."
Two hours later, walking around the entire perimiter of the graveyard, still nothing.
"Still nothing. I'm going home." I announced.
"See you tomorrow?"
"Sure."
"All right. Be careful getting home." He kissed me lightly, and then we went our separate ways.
~*~
The next couple of nights were pretty dull; not much demonic activity was going on. I staked a vamp here and there, but nothing big. On Saturday, Charlie decided for me that I should stop wasting my time with the slayage, since obviously nothing was coming, and go out with her to this club. I didn't really feel up for it, because of my traumatic headache-a-thon recently, I was in no mood to be near a lotta big speakers and loud rock. She convinced me, however, when she told me that this really awesome local band would be playing, and that she knew them, so we could get in for free. So, Saturday afternoon, I went in for a training session with Dex.
"Hey." I greeted when I walked in. The store was more or less empty.
"Hello Ari. Ready to train?" He asked me, coming out from behind the counter.
"For what? Another no-demons night?"
"What?"
"I've been noticing that the recent demonic activity is... well... there isn't any."
"No vampires, demons, at all on your patrols?"
"Two vampires in one night, but after, zilch."
"That is curious indeed. Perhaps you aren't looking in the right places."
"I'm the Slayer! Why don't they just... come to me?"
"Usually they do. This is very odd."
"No shit."
"Language."
"Whatever. Anyway, tonight I'm going out with Charlie. Until you can find me some demons to fight, I'm not going back out for a while."
"Ari, you may take tonight and tomorrow night off. You will go back to your ordinary schedule on Monday, demons or no demons, is that clear?"
"Yeah, whatever."
"Ari." He gave me his serious-Brit-look.
"Okay, you got me Monday."
"Grammar."
"You're pushing the envelope, buddy."
"Why don't you take the whole weekend off, Ari. Unless something urgent comes up, of course."
"Yeah, sure. Sounds good."
"See you on Monday."
"Sure thing."
~*~
That night Charlie and I went to the club. It was called Club 9, and the band that was playing was called Anaconda Revolt. The scene was pretty cool; loud, as all clubs are, with a bar, lots of boozing and smoking. It was okay, though, I didn't really care. The band was already playing away when we got there, and Charlie was right: they were good. The lead singer nodded towards her when he saw us at our table, and Charlie waved back.
"So, how do you know these guys?" I asked Charlie.
"Uh, well, my cousin used to go out with the lead singer's brother."
"Huh." The band finished their song, and they took a break. The singer and bassist all came over to our table. The singer was good looking, kinda short, maybe a year older than us, and he had blonde, spiked hair, a couple of earrings and a tattoo or two on his arm. The bassist was tall, strong looking, with messy brown hair. He was really cute, with one small silver skull stud in his left ear, a Thrice shirt and a cool tattoo on his left hand that looked like blood was spilling down it from cuts on his knuckles.
"Char!" The singer said, opening his arms wide. They hugged, as Charlie said,
"Hey Max." They let go, and then she greeted the others. "Hey Trey, hey Drew."
"Who's your friend, Char?" The bassist asked, and winked at me. I couldn't help but smile at him.
"I'm Ari." I introduced myself.
"Ari. I like that." The singer said, putting his arm around me. "You are now welcome with us."
"Wow. Way to welcome me."
"I'm Max," said the singer. "And this is our bassist, Trey."
"Hey." I said.
"So, what made you become friends with this bitch?" Max asked, pulling up a chair and sitting down.
"Well, now I know why you're the singer. You talk too much to just shut up and play an instrument." I said coolly. Trey smiled. "Nice." "Thank you."
"Ari goes to Rockford with me." Charlie said.
"Oh, the JAP-jock school. Please tell me it was not by choice," Trey said.
"Nope. Social service crap."
"Social services? You a foster child or something?" Drew asked.
"Yeah."
"How long?" Asked Max.
"Fifteen sixteenths of my life."
"That sucks." Trey said.
"Yeah. I've been stuck in all these crappy, model families, and these eccentric ones too. The one I'm in now is by far the coolest."
"Laura's awesome," Charlie agreed. "She's a wicca." She said cheerfully.
"Coolness. You, too Ari?" Trey asked.
"Uh, no. I... do other stuff."
"Like what?" Asked Max. FUCK! What should I say??
"Fight demons." I said. Why did I say that?
"Really? Cool." Trey commented.
"You believe in demons?" I asked.
"They do, actually. That's why I really wanted you to meet these two." Char said with a grin. "I feel special." Max replied. "So, what are you then?"
"I'm the Slayer." I said softly, lowering my voice.
"I heard of that. Into each generation a slayer is born, right?" Trey said.
"How do you know about that?" I asked him.
"Trey's mom was a watcher. From like, England or something." Max said.
"Huh. Hey, maybe she knows mine," I said.
"I'll hafta ask her. Name?" Trey asked.
"Dexter."
"I'll ask." Trey smiled at me.
"So, does our lil Char help fight the big bad vampires?" Drew asked, ruffling Charlie's hair.
"Quit it..." She mumbled, elbowing him in the ribs.
"Eh, no. She hangs with me when I train and all, but I go out alone."
"What 'bout tonight?" Max asked.
"I have a few nights off."
"Cool. We have a gig here Friday, too. Wanna come?" Drew asked.
"Unless something demony comes up." I said.
"Excellent. Aw, shit. C'mon man," Max said. He and Trey stood up. "I'll introduce you to the rest of the band later, Ari."
"Sounds good." I said. It did. Now I had a bunch of... well, friends, I guess, who knew about demons, and thought it was cool for me to fight them. The kinds of people you can meet in New York. Wow.
"Aren't they cool?" Charlie asked, as the guys went up on stage.
"Yeah. Very friendly. They seem to get along with you, too."
"Yeah. They all go to Burbanque, in the Bronx? Trey, Greg, he's the lead guitarrist, and Max all are juniors. Max might wind up staying back a grade, though. He's flunking three subjects. And then Drew's a senior, and he's going to Stanford next year, so they're gonna get a new drummer, and then the backup guitarrist, Garret, he's a sophomore."
"Cool."
"Yeah, aren't they good?" Char commented.
"Mmm hmm." They were, too. I started to get thirsty. "Hey, I'm gonna get something to drink, ya want anything?"
"Um, no thanks. I'll keep the table." Char said, not moving her eyes from the stage. I got up, and took up my purse, too.
I moved through the crowd to the bar. It was a little more smokier there than over where we had been sitting. I got the bartender's attention after a minute or so.
"A coke." I told the bartender.
"Spiked?" They asked with a wink. Why not?
"What the hell. Sure." If they were willing to give me alcohol, who was I to protest? They'd be the ones who'd go to jail. They slid the coke down the bar to me, and I picked it up. I drank some. It just tasted like normal coke, only with a little bit of a rum in it. It was interesting. I wouldn't get any more alcohol after this, though. I didn't want to come home drunk and get Laura pissed off. I made my way back to the table, and sat down.
"What'd you get?" Char asked.
"Uh, some rum-spiked coke. I think it's rum anyway."
"Cool. Gimme a sip." She took it from me and drank some.
"Sure. Go ahead. Drink my drink. You're welcome."
"Thanks."
"Oh, Laura said she had some spells you can try out."
"I'm coming over tomorrow then. When's your curfew?"
"Don't have one when you're the Slayer. I can lie and say there were demons or whatever. But I guess I'll go when you do. When's yours?"
"One thirty."
"That's very cool of your parents."
"Totally. Only the band's only playing for another hour, and I don't want to stay much longer."
"Maybe we can all go out and see a movie, or get some coffee or whatever," I suggested.
"Brill. Oh my god, Ari. Guess what I got on my midterm?" We had just gotten out of school on Friday.
"What class?"
"Computer science."
"I didn't even study for that,"
"Oh, well, neither did I, but I got an eighty nine."
"Nice." We slapped hands, and then just listened to the band play for the rest of the time. Sometimes silence is nice. The band finished, and went backstage. Drew motioned for us to go with, and we did. The band was putting their instruments in their cases, except Drew, who put his drumsticks in his backpack. He waved for me to go over there.
"Hey Ari. Like the gig?"
"Yeah. You guys were killer."
"Thanks." He looked at his watch. "Guys, it's only ten." He announced.
"So? We'll go somewhere. Grab some food." Trey called back.
"You guys up for it?" Max asked Charlie.
"Sure. Ari?" She said, turning to me.
"Yeah, whatever."
"Cool. Oh, Ari. Lemme introduce you to the other guys. Greg, Drew, Garret, this is Ari. She goes to Rockford, unfortunately."
"Nice to meet you," said Greg, a tall, strong looking guy with spiked brown hair that was tipped blonde. He had a really nice smile, and looked cool.
"So, Ari, right?" The other guy approached me. He must've been Garret. He put his arm around my shoulders, and asked me, "You seeing anybody?" I smiled at him, and he smiled cockily back, and I grabbed his hand, whipped his arm off me fast as a bullet, and held it behind his back in a very uncomfortable position. Now he wasn't smiling. Everybody else laughed.
"Yeah, actually I am. And he could probably kick your ass better than I can, which is a lot, if you hit on me again, got it?"
"Yeah, lemme go!" I let his arm go, and he looked at me. "Crazy bitch."
"Capitalist trash." I replied.
"Garret? You okay? Sorry bout that, Ari's a little out of the ordinary." Trey told his friend, who obviously didn't know what I was.
"That's a warning to all of you, you know." I said, letting his arm go. Greg and Trey smiled at each other, while Garret rubbed his shoulder.
"You okay there, Gare?" Trey asked.
"F-fine." He replied, and the two burst into laughter. They clasped hands, and I started to realize how much they looked alike.
"Greg's my cousin." Trey told me when he saw my look.
"Cool." I said. That explained the resemblance in their appearances.
"Not cool!" Greg said. "Means I gotta hang with this loser 24/7." He punched Trey's shoulder and they laughed.
Charlie was talking to Max, Drew was checking out Garret's shoulder, and Trey and Greg were cracking up. I was kind of rolling my eyes at how immature the two could be. Immature, but still both very gorgeous. Not that I was looking elsewhere, I was very very into Angel. Just that I notice that stuff about friends of mine, even if I'm taken. It makes me a bad person, most likely, but as long as I don't act on thought, I should be fine.
"Let's get goin'." Max said, throwing his arms around me and Charlie's shoulders.
AN: Review you poo. I have a really cool Angel chapter coming up. I just wanted to introduce Max and Trey bc they're gonna get pretty important. So leave a review. --emily
The next day I went back to my normal routine. I made some joke to Char in Computer Science about my slayer statistics: died once, demonic once. She did her little thing that she does when she should laugh but she doesn't. It's this sort of half smile, which is pretty much all you can get out of Char unless you're Wayne Brady or Homer Simpson.
I went to the store after school alone, because Char had an orthodontist appointment or whatever, even though both her braces and retainer are out. It's a stupid orthodontist trick to get more cash. Her mom makes her do it anyway. Also, since they're loaded it doesn't much matter.
I walked in the front door, to find the store pretty full of people. There was a long line, where Dex was ringing everyone up, and all these people were in there. It was like, a zoo almost. Man, Dex really had his hands full. Should I help him? Nah, he's got it covered.
I went into the back room, put down my skateboard and backpack, and pulled off my jacket. I pulled my hair up into a ponytail, and started with the punching bag. After a little while I grew tired of it, and there was still no sign of Dex. Then I saw the weapons trunk. I went over to it, and opened it up. I looked at all those awesome weapons, and took some small knives out. I threw them at the target, and hit it in the center area consistently. Then I started to do my homework. Two hours later, I'd finished it all except an English paper, which I had to write on a computer at home. I put my stuff in my bag, and left it by the door. What I did, every day, was leave my backpack with all my school stuff, in the store, as well as my board, and then in the morning, on my way to Rockford, I'd grab my stuff as Dex was opening up the store. If there was homework I had todo at home, I'd just bring it with me to the store each morning. That was what I planned to do with the English paper. I looked out the only window. The sun was starting to set. Might as well eat.
I went to the fridge and took out a Sprite. There really wasn't much in there. I went to the front room, where Dex was still dealing with customers.
"Yo Dex!" I shouted. "Can I order a pizza?"
"Don't expect me to pay for it!" He called back. "Oh, that one isn't for sale, sorry." He told a customer. We really needed to put up a sign about the yellow dot thing. I went into the back room, and ordered a pizza. It came half an hour later, and I polished off all but two slices, which I stuck in the fridge for tomorrow. Then I took out a stake and a knife from the weapons trunk and went back into the front room.
"So, where to tonight?" I asked him. He was dealing with the last cutomer of the day.
"Just one moment, Ari." He gave the customer her bag, told her to have a nice day, and then switched the sign in the front window from 'Open' to 'closed'. He took off his glasses and sat down at the back table. I sat on the back table. He motioned for me to get off the table. I did.
"So?" I asked.
"Thank you so much for helping me deal with the customers, Ari."
"Hey, it didn't say I had to in the job description."
"Ari, just... patrol in the graveyard. See if there's any vampire activity."
"Sure thing. See you tomorrow. Get some rest, man. You look worked." Heh heh heh.
~*~
I was sitting on a tombstone, waiting for something to show up. I'd been at the fucking graveyard for two hours and nothing had come. Usually vamps jump at the chance for a fight. Where the hell were they? I heard something behind me.
"Hi Angel." I said. It was so him. He's not one for making his presence known.
"Feeling better?" He asked.
"Much. No more migraines."
"Not much activity tonight?" He inquired.
"None. Where the hell did they all go?"
"I don't know."
"I guess I'll just call it a night. I have an English paper, anyway."
"I thought you did your homework at the store."
"I do. Except for stuff I need to do on the computer. That I do at home. Luckily this one isn't supposed to be over two pages long, double spaced, so it shouldn't be too brutal. Then maybe I'll get to get in a few more hours of sleep." I hopped off the tombstone.
"You got a lot of sleep the past few nights."
"Well, sleep's kinda like a drug. When you have a lot of it, you tend to want more, because you develop a tolerance." He didn't say anything. "But I do kinda need a fight. I haven't slayed in like, two days."
"Then do you want to stay out a few more hours?"
"What the hell. Why not."
Two hours later, walking around the entire perimiter of the graveyard, still nothing.
"Still nothing. I'm going home." I announced.
"See you tomorrow?"
"Sure."
"All right. Be careful getting home." He kissed me lightly, and then we went our separate ways.
~*~
The next couple of nights were pretty dull; not much demonic activity was going on. I staked a vamp here and there, but nothing big. On Saturday, Charlie decided for me that I should stop wasting my time with the slayage, since obviously nothing was coming, and go out with her to this club. I didn't really feel up for it, because of my traumatic headache-a-thon recently, I was in no mood to be near a lotta big speakers and loud rock. She convinced me, however, when she told me that this really awesome local band would be playing, and that she knew them, so we could get in for free. So, Saturday afternoon, I went in for a training session with Dex.
"Hey." I greeted when I walked in. The store was more or less empty.
"Hello Ari. Ready to train?" He asked me, coming out from behind the counter.
"For what? Another no-demons night?"
"What?"
"I've been noticing that the recent demonic activity is... well... there isn't any."
"No vampires, demons, at all on your patrols?"
"Two vampires in one night, but after, zilch."
"That is curious indeed. Perhaps you aren't looking in the right places."
"I'm the Slayer! Why don't they just... come to me?"
"Usually they do. This is very odd."
"No shit."
"Language."
"Whatever. Anyway, tonight I'm going out with Charlie. Until you can find me some demons to fight, I'm not going back out for a while."
"Ari, you may take tonight and tomorrow night off. You will go back to your ordinary schedule on Monday, demons or no demons, is that clear?"
"Yeah, whatever."
"Ari." He gave me his serious-Brit-look.
"Okay, you got me Monday."
"Grammar."
"You're pushing the envelope, buddy."
"Why don't you take the whole weekend off, Ari. Unless something urgent comes up, of course."
"Yeah, sure. Sounds good."
"See you on Monday."
"Sure thing."
~*~
That night Charlie and I went to the club. It was called Club 9, and the band that was playing was called Anaconda Revolt. The scene was pretty cool; loud, as all clubs are, with a bar, lots of boozing and smoking. It was okay, though, I didn't really care. The band was already playing away when we got there, and Charlie was right: they were good. The lead singer nodded towards her when he saw us at our table, and Charlie waved back.
"So, how do you know these guys?" I asked Charlie.
"Uh, well, my cousin used to go out with the lead singer's brother."
"Huh." The band finished their song, and they took a break. The singer and bassist all came over to our table. The singer was good looking, kinda short, maybe a year older than us, and he had blonde, spiked hair, a couple of earrings and a tattoo or two on his arm. The bassist was tall, strong looking, with messy brown hair. He was really cute, with one small silver skull stud in his left ear, a Thrice shirt and a cool tattoo on his left hand that looked like blood was spilling down it from cuts on his knuckles.
"Char!" The singer said, opening his arms wide. They hugged, as Charlie said,
"Hey Max." They let go, and then she greeted the others. "Hey Trey, hey Drew."
"Who's your friend, Char?" The bassist asked, and winked at me. I couldn't help but smile at him.
"I'm Ari." I introduced myself.
"Ari. I like that." The singer said, putting his arm around me. "You are now welcome with us."
"Wow. Way to welcome me."
"I'm Max," said the singer. "And this is our bassist, Trey."
"Hey." I said.
"So, what made you become friends with this bitch?" Max asked, pulling up a chair and sitting down.
"Well, now I know why you're the singer. You talk too much to just shut up and play an instrument." I said coolly. Trey smiled. "Nice." "Thank you."
"Ari goes to Rockford with me." Charlie said.
"Oh, the JAP-jock school. Please tell me it was not by choice," Trey said.
"Nope. Social service crap."
"Social services? You a foster child or something?" Drew asked.
"Yeah."
"How long?" Asked Max.
"Fifteen sixteenths of my life."
"That sucks." Trey said.
"Yeah. I've been stuck in all these crappy, model families, and these eccentric ones too. The one I'm in now is by far the coolest."
"Laura's awesome," Charlie agreed. "She's a wicca." She said cheerfully.
"Coolness. You, too Ari?" Trey asked.
"Uh, no. I... do other stuff."
"Like what?" Asked Max. FUCK! What should I say??
"Fight demons." I said. Why did I say that?
"Really? Cool." Trey commented.
"You believe in demons?" I asked.
"They do, actually. That's why I really wanted you to meet these two." Char said with a grin. "I feel special." Max replied. "So, what are you then?"
"I'm the Slayer." I said softly, lowering my voice.
"I heard of that. Into each generation a slayer is born, right?" Trey said.
"How do you know about that?" I asked him.
"Trey's mom was a watcher. From like, England or something." Max said.
"Huh. Hey, maybe she knows mine," I said.
"I'll hafta ask her. Name?" Trey asked.
"Dexter."
"I'll ask." Trey smiled at me.
"So, does our lil Char help fight the big bad vampires?" Drew asked, ruffling Charlie's hair.
"Quit it..." She mumbled, elbowing him in the ribs.
"Eh, no. She hangs with me when I train and all, but I go out alone."
"What 'bout tonight?" Max asked.
"I have a few nights off."
"Cool. We have a gig here Friday, too. Wanna come?" Drew asked.
"Unless something demony comes up." I said.
"Excellent. Aw, shit. C'mon man," Max said. He and Trey stood up. "I'll introduce you to the rest of the band later, Ari."
"Sounds good." I said. It did. Now I had a bunch of... well, friends, I guess, who knew about demons, and thought it was cool for me to fight them. The kinds of people you can meet in New York. Wow.
"Aren't they cool?" Charlie asked, as the guys went up on stage.
"Yeah. Very friendly. They seem to get along with you, too."
"Yeah. They all go to Burbanque, in the Bronx? Trey, Greg, he's the lead guitarrist, and Max all are juniors. Max might wind up staying back a grade, though. He's flunking three subjects. And then Drew's a senior, and he's going to Stanford next year, so they're gonna get a new drummer, and then the backup guitarrist, Garret, he's a sophomore."
"Cool."
"Yeah, aren't they good?" Char commented.
"Mmm hmm." They were, too. I started to get thirsty. "Hey, I'm gonna get something to drink, ya want anything?"
"Um, no thanks. I'll keep the table." Char said, not moving her eyes from the stage. I got up, and took up my purse, too.
I moved through the crowd to the bar. It was a little more smokier there than over where we had been sitting. I got the bartender's attention after a minute or so.
"A coke." I told the bartender.
"Spiked?" They asked with a wink. Why not?
"What the hell. Sure." If they were willing to give me alcohol, who was I to protest? They'd be the ones who'd go to jail. They slid the coke down the bar to me, and I picked it up. I drank some. It just tasted like normal coke, only with a little bit of a rum in it. It was interesting. I wouldn't get any more alcohol after this, though. I didn't want to come home drunk and get Laura pissed off. I made my way back to the table, and sat down.
"What'd you get?" Char asked.
"Uh, some rum-spiked coke. I think it's rum anyway."
"Cool. Gimme a sip." She took it from me and drank some.
"Sure. Go ahead. Drink my drink. You're welcome."
"Thanks."
"Oh, Laura said she had some spells you can try out."
"I'm coming over tomorrow then. When's your curfew?"
"Don't have one when you're the Slayer. I can lie and say there were demons or whatever. But I guess I'll go when you do. When's yours?"
"One thirty."
"That's very cool of your parents."
"Totally. Only the band's only playing for another hour, and I don't want to stay much longer."
"Maybe we can all go out and see a movie, or get some coffee or whatever," I suggested.
"Brill. Oh my god, Ari. Guess what I got on my midterm?" We had just gotten out of school on Friday.
"What class?"
"Computer science."
"I didn't even study for that,"
"Oh, well, neither did I, but I got an eighty nine."
"Nice." We slapped hands, and then just listened to the band play for the rest of the time. Sometimes silence is nice. The band finished, and went backstage. Drew motioned for us to go with, and we did. The band was putting their instruments in their cases, except Drew, who put his drumsticks in his backpack. He waved for me to go over there.
"Hey Ari. Like the gig?"
"Yeah. You guys were killer."
"Thanks." He looked at his watch. "Guys, it's only ten." He announced.
"So? We'll go somewhere. Grab some food." Trey called back.
"You guys up for it?" Max asked Charlie.
"Sure. Ari?" She said, turning to me.
"Yeah, whatever."
"Cool. Oh, Ari. Lemme introduce you to the other guys. Greg, Drew, Garret, this is Ari. She goes to Rockford, unfortunately."
"Nice to meet you," said Greg, a tall, strong looking guy with spiked brown hair that was tipped blonde. He had a really nice smile, and looked cool.
"So, Ari, right?" The other guy approached me. He must've been Garret. He put his arm around my shoulders, and asked me, "You seeing anybody?" I smiled at him, and he smiled cockily back, and I grabbed his hand, whipped his arm off me fast as a bullet, and held it behind his back in a very uncomfortable position. Now he wasn't smiling. Everybody else laughed.
"Yeah, actually I am. And he could probably kick your ass better than I can, which is a lot, if you hit on me again, got it?"
"Yeah, lemme go!" I let his arm go, and he looked at me. "Crazy bitch."
"Capitalist trash." I replied.
"Garret? You okay? Sorry bout that, Ari's a little out of the ordinary." Trey told his friend, who obviously didn't know what I was.
"That's a warning to all of you, you know." I said, letting his arm go. Greg and Trey smiled at each other, while Garret rubbed his shoulder.
"You okay there, Gare?" Trey asked.
"F-fine." He replied, and the two burst into laughter. They clasped hands, and I started to realize how much they looked alike.
"Greg's my cousin." Trey told me when he saw my look.
"Cool." I said. That explained the resemblance in their appearances.
"Not cool!" Greg said. "Means I gotta hang with this loser 24/7." He punched Trey's shoulder and they laughed.
Charlie was talking to Max, Drew was checking out Garret's shoulder, and Trey and Greg were cracking up. I was kind of rolling my eyes at how immature the two could be. Immature, but still both very gorgeous. Not that I was looking elsewhere, I was very very into Angel. Just that I notice that stuff about friends of mine, even if I'm taken. It makes me a bad person, most likely, but as long as I don't act on thought, I should be fine.
"Let's get goin'." Max said, throwing his arms around me and Charlie's shoulders.
AN: Review you poo. I have a really cool Angel chapter coming up. I just wanted to introduce Max and Trey bc they're gonna get pretty important. So leave a review. --emily