Chapter 7:

"Darkness cannot run out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot run out hate, only love can do that." –Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Alek was being driven to Dolly's Ice Cream Parlor by his neighbor, seeing that Bay Lohemann's rich father was "simply too busy for this kind of nonsense right now." Alek had been growling in anger. It was Bay's fault he had almost been killed, and her father wasn't paying for his car.

Miss Khemsky, Alek's neighbor, waved good-bye to him, and sped off. Alek shrugged. Miss Khemsky had never really liked him. His piercings had freaked her out, be he didn't really care.

He pulled on his apron, and had to explain to Gary Smith why he had a band-aid on his head and why he hadn't been at work the day before. Gary bawled him out, and Alek's face was spit-covered once again.

In an extremely bad mood, Alek got behind the ice cream counter. He put a scoop of Rainbow Sherbert in a small cup and into the fridge. He had promised Nikki, he'd bring her some ice cream. Then he started helping the line of customers.

The first customer was a girl who tried to flirt with him, but he wasn't in the mood. She didn't get anything but her ice cream. The next customer was a bratty little boy who threw his ice cream scoop on the floor, demanding that he had to put exactly fourteen M&Ms on it. His mom apologized to Alek, but didn't clean it up—so in other words, he had to do it. Looking up at the next customer, he snarled, "What are you doing here?"

It was Bay. Alek didn't have that great of an impression of her. In fact, he sort of hated her.

"I wanted to order some ice cream," she said in that bizarre unfazed way of hers. "May I please have a scoop of Chocolate Chip?"

Alek, in a truly irritable mood, scooped up a pile of ice cream, slammed it into a cup, and handed it to her. Only to find that she didn't have any money.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" he yelled.

"I thought that I could get credit or something, seeing that you almost ran me over," she said calmly.

"No, let's get this straight Bay. YOU ALMOST KILLED ME WITH YOUR MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER! YOUR FATHER REFUSED TO PAY ME FOR MY CAR! MY BOSS YELLED AT ME! AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! NOW HAND OVER THE MONEY, OR GIVE THAT BACK TO ME RIGHT NOW!"

She just stared at him unblinkingly, while a small girl behind her looked up in fear at Alek, and left the shop. Finally, Bay pushed the cup of ice cream across the counter to him. Alek grabbed it up and threw it across the shop where it splattered against a window. Gary Smith came out and started ranting at him, and Alek looked around to accuse Bay. But when he looked, she was gone.

xxx

Jorge looked up sleepily. Oh God, he'd slept in. Glancing at his watch, it read 11:13.

He pulled off his covers, and screamed. It was Julie. Sitting in a chair right across from his bed, she suddenly flinched and ran to the door.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, and left.

Jorge rubbed his eyes, and pushed his hair out of his face. After he took a shower, he felt more like himself. Stumbling down the stairs, he saw Julie sitting on a couch in the family room.

"Hey, are you ok?" he asked. She looked so scared.

"Yeah," she told him. "I'm sorry. I was just waiting for you to get up, because Connor and Mom aren't here."

"Where are they?"

"Planning for the wedding," she spat out with disgust. "Jorge, I know you don't want them to get married any more than I do."

"Oh really?" Jorge said, leaning over the top of the couch.

"Yeah, seeing that you threw up everywhere when Connor told you. I hate your dad, no offense. He's such a dork."

Jorge was about to protect his dad, but then shrugged. Why should he? He hated his dad too.

"Yeah I know. I haven't seen him for five years. He just left us, and then he called back, expecting me to forgive him."

"I guess your mom took this pretty hard," she said, her eyes full of sympathy.

"Not as hard as I did," he said with an indifferent shrug. He was lying to himself, he knew. He did want his dad back, but he just wasn't ready to forgive him.

"We could try to break them up," suggested Julie. Then her face fell. "It won't work though. They're already living together."

Jorge sighed. He'd thought of that too.

Alek,

You must really hate that girl, huh? Don't worry. You'll be fine. She'll probably start having a crush on you. What will you do then? Anyway, I'm sorry about your car. Hope things get better.

I'm sending the jacket with you. It only works if you have it on, though, remember that ok? Brenna Porter dropped a suitcase on my foot.

Anyway, it is good luck. I got the part of the phantom in Phantom of the Opera. That's pretty hot, isn't it? I know what you're thinking. I'll swish my cape and bring all the girls to my lair.

You think Jorge is ok? That's a lot to go through. Poor guy. Anyway, Jason… haven't heard from him, but I want to visit him soon. It won't take too long to get to. He's probably making friends and found a girlfriend. Yeah, you were supposed to laugh. I wonder if the guy's ok.

Anyway, here's the jacket. Good luck. Don't kill the girl, ok? You wouldn't be great in court.

West