He Who Calls
Chapter 31
"Sam: How are you?" muttered Odd as he typed. The news about his parents hadn't reached him yet and he was instant messaging Sam. Juanita had a program that let them hear each other's voices if they said what they typed.
"As if you don't know," she said, sounding angry. "First you ask me to take care of your room for you while you were off with your friends. And then I find out then one of them isn't just a friend."
"What?"
"I found your letters to Aelita. So sweet for her. I didn't find any for me."
"I wrote those while you weren't at Kadic!"
"I didn't have a single romantic interest the whole time I was in the states because I thought we were being faithful to each other. I see I was wrong. So, Odd, I am officially dumping you. Our relationship has been too bumpy for too long for me to keep this up. As a last favor to you I will continue to keep your room clean, and I'll hide the letters where I found them. End conversation." The chat screen disappeared.
"What? No!" said Odd. "Why do I always lose in the end?"
"Odd? Are we interrupting something?" asked Jeremy as he walked in with Ulrich, Milo, Aelita, and Yumi.
"No. Did you stop the Man in Grey?"
"Technically, yes," said Jeremy. "But not… Not before he reached your parents."
"Are you saying they're dead?"
"Yeah," said Jeremy. "We're really sorry."
"You're not the only one," Milo said. "I know how it feels."
"Do you know how it feels to be dumped on the same day?" asked Odd. He felt terrible. The worst things that could've happened to him all happened in one day.
"No," said Milo, unfazed. "But this is the second family I've lost."
"But you didn't lose Aelita."
"I know how it feels," said Jeremy. "Emily and I discontinued our relationship right before I left."
"Why didn't you tell us?" demanded Ulrich.
"It didn't matter too much," said Jeremy. "She just wanted to move on. We're still good friends."
"Let's all just sleep on all of this," said Milo. "It's late. The good news is, the Man in Grey was paralyzed over the ocean, so we're pretty sure he's gone for good."
"All right. Let's sleep," said Odd.
An hour later it was midnight. Juanita had gone to bed at ten. Odd was still awake. He was sitting in front of a Mini-Scan, holding a knife. The knife was pointed at his ribs, and he was seriously considering plunging it in.
"Don't do it, Odd," said a voice. Milo was standing in the doorway. "We still need you."
"You need a guy who can't go to Lyoko?"
"We need you as a friend." And with that he ran forward and kicked the knife out of Odd's hand. Everyone else including Juanita ran out of the shadows. Aelita caught the knife, threw it in the fireplace, Ulrich poured gasoline all over it, Jeremy threw a match in, and Juanita sealed the bombproof fireplace as it blew up.
"You guys really had that planned out, didn't you?" asked Odd.
"Yeah," said Milo. "And you're bunking with me tonight so we can make sure you don't try again."
"All right."
"Also, I'm making an announcement tomorrow. So everyone should sleep now. It's big." They all went to sleep.
The next day, Aelita and Jeremy showed up in the living room early for Milo's announcement. Thankfully Odd seemed to have given up on suicide.
"Hey, Aelita," said Jeremy. "Things going smooth with Milo?"
"Yeah," she said, wondering why he would bring that up. "Ulrich and Yumi are doing well too."
"I was just wondering," Jeremy said. "I'm free again. Do you want to, I don't know, pick up where we left off?"
"I can't believe you'd ask that!" He was leaning in. She backed away. She walked back to the wall, and couldn't back up anymore. He leaned in and their lips met. His arms wrapped around her waist. And Milo, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, and Juanita walked in. Jeremy stepped away. "This isn't what it looks like!" Aelita called as Milo ran out of the room.