"Thank you again for saving my butt with the whole Deep Blue situation. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"Yeah, you can do me a favor," Sardon said. "Stop doing me favors! Tarb and I are getting sick of it."
"Okay. I'm just eternally grateful for not spilling the beans about…"
"We get it, you idiot!" Tarb yelled.
"Okay. I'll stop, I'll stop, I'll stop. But I really mean it. If Deep Blue found out about Zoey, I'd be dead."
"We understand," Sardon said, in his I'm-trying-to-stay-calm-but-it's-really-hard-because-you're-being-such-a-big-fat-idiot voice. "Now stop thanking us, or I'll get the tranquilizer gun."
"I'll just stop now." I backed up about five feet, and bumped into our portal-maker. That gave me an idea. "I'm gonna go… see what those pesky Mew Mews are up to. Be back in about an hour or so. And don't tell Deep Blue where I went, will you?"
"As long as you get out of here and don't come back anytime soon, we'll keep all your little secrets secret."
"Thanks a lot. Be back soon!" I hopped into the Earth-bound portal quickly, but not quickly enough to not hear Sardon say, "Not too soon," under his breath.
I would have yelled, "I heard that, and you are so dead," but the portal had already taken me halfway to Earth.
"Well, that's the last of your chores, Zoey. You can go home now."
"Thank goodness. It's nine-thirty. My parents are gonna kill me." I changed out of the regulation Café Mew Mew short red dress and frilly white apron and back into my school uniform – a short gray dress with a red bow at the neck and a white blouse underneath.
"It's your fault," Elliot said.
"No it's not. I can't help it if I talk out loud."
"Yes you can. Now go home. And think about why I kept you so late. Hopefully it won't happen again." And with that, Elliot practically shoved me out the door. Not one for nice good-byes or manners was he.
As soon as I started to walk home, the clouds moved in, the sky got dark, the wind grew cold, and rain started to pour down on me in buckets. My cat instincts told it was time to run – a now or never thing. So I took shelter under the nearest thing with a roof – a rickety flower stand with a red-and-white-striped awning that said CHRISTIE'S FLOWERS.
The rain just kept pouring as time past. My cell phone had unfortunately never been replaced after Dren had stabbed it with one of his sais on City Tower, and there was no phone at Christie's Flowers, so I had no way of contacting my parents or even Elliot and Wesley back at the Café. Just then, I felt someone tap me on my shoulder and say, "Hey kitty cat."
"Dren! What are you doing back on Earth?"
"Apparently, watching you freeze to death with no way home. I can take you back to your house if you want."
"And what to I have to do in exchange. kiss you?" Oddly enough, I was actually willing to kiss him, which made me blush.
"Nothing. I was going for a stroll – well, more like a fly – and I saw you run under this little shop. After looking at the time and putting two and two together, I decided it would be nice to help you home."
"Well, okay, I guess," I said. This was uncharacteristically nice, even for Dren, who had always been the nicest of the Cyniclons. What was up? Was he spelled or under the influence of some kind of potion? Were Tarb and Sardon pulling the strings somewhere and this was all just a trick to embarrass me?
As if he could read my mind, he said, "Nothing like you might think, kitty cat. I'm just being nice. Now, do you want a ride home or not?"
"Okay." He whipped his hands in the air in some complicated motion I didn't understand, and all of a sudden we were surrounded in some kind of silvery shimmering bubble. The coolest thing about it was that all the raindrops that hit it just kind of slid off, so we were completely dry. I slipped my hand into his, assuming we were ready to go, but he shook his head.
"You gotta hold on tighter, kitty cat. Otherwise, you might fall. This bubble may keep off the rain, but it won't keep you in if you fall."
I felt my cheeks flush a little, but since I wanted that ride home, I wrapped my arms around his waist.
He shook his head again. "Better, but not tight enough yet. Tighter, kitty."
This time my whole face went bright red. But then I looked at my watch. It was ten, exactly my curfew. If I didn't get home soon, I'd be in serious trouble. So I just closed my eyes, thought about my parents, and wrapped my arms around his neck. I practically fainted when he said, "Still not tight enough."
Apparently, he was getting just as annoyed that I couldn't figure out how to hold on tightly as I was, because he just picked me up and said, "This should do." My whole body went bright red, and my ears and tail popped up, but I was happy, because he was finally going to take me home. So what if I had to spend the next few minutes or so having him hold me? It was worth it, I kept telling myself. And the fluttery feeling in your stomach is just nervousness, not a crush. You do not have a crush on Dren. Because that would just be crazy, right? Right?