(A/N: Sorry if it's not the most interesting chapter...)

5. Ice-Cream

The ice-cream shop wasn't far from the Rivercreek house, so the wait wasn't long. After they had ordered, both boys sat down at a booth. Alex Meyer broke the silence.

"Who's going first?"

"Let's flip a coin," Alex suggested, handing him one that happened to be from Bangladesh. "I pick tails."

"Then I get to flip it."

Alex liked the fact that Alex Meyer wasn't going to just let anyone walk on him. Maybe they really were more alike than he thought. They both had tans (although Alex Meyer's seemed to be lighter) and had learned to get their way through compromise. He put the coin in the other boy's hand. Alex Meyer flipped it.

"Heads," he complained, then gave Alex his coin back. "I can't promise that all of this information is valid, but it's pretty close, and it's all over anyway, so it's not much to worry about."

"You're never too young to die." Alex Meyer's dark eyes looked confused when Alex said this. "I learned that when I was fourteen on my first mission. I'm guessing that it was the same way for Vivie."

"Well, I only know what Vivie told me, but you know that guy that we saw at the store the other day?"

"You were saying something about some guy named Aaron."

"Right, Angela's half-brother… you haven't met her yet, have you?"

"No."

"Oh… she's Farrior's girlfriend."

"Are they engaged?"

"Engaged? You must have seen Farrior's ring."

"I can't believe that he's our age. He acts like a third grader."

"Oh, I know." Alex Meyer rolled his eyes. "Angela's actually pretty down-to-Earth. She's nothing like Farrior. You'll probably meet her while you're around. Anyway, Angela aside, Austin Yzcheck, Angela's father, was a sperm donor. Angela's biological mother died from the first curse- the earthquake- and he married Vivie's mom. Well, Vivie's mom died last fall when the tornado came through, and then Austin and Nessa ended up together."

"Isn't Nessa twenty-six?"

"Yeah- that's the creepy part. Austin's around fifty now."

"What happened to Vivie's dad?"

"Aaron killed him intentionally in a car crash, trying to get to Vivie. Angela and Aaron used to have an older sister, but Austin and Angela's mom thought that she couldn't have children and adopted Aaron. Well, Austin didn't know that he had fathered Aaron until he turned out to be Austin's spitting image and he did some DNA testing…"

"They always told me that I was my father's spitting image," Alex remarked.

"Speaking of your parents…"

"I lived with my uncle. It's a long story."

"Would that technically make you an orphan?"

"I'm technically an adult."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I'm an orphan."

"Same here."

So they really were more alike than they had first thought. The similarities were uncanny. Alex was admittedly surprised.

Anyway, Aaron's mom's grandfather- not Austin's- had some grudge against Vivie's great-grandfather and made the curse so that it would afflict Fillmore in the new millennium, when his great-grandson could take over the world. Obviously, Vivie managed to prevent that, or we wouldn't be here right now."

"It's nice to know that I haven't been single-handedly saving the world."

"You'll have to explain that later. I still haven't explained the curse."

"Go ahead, Harry Potter."

Alex Meyer ignored the sarcasm in Alex's voice. "Basically, Vivie was supposed to get a premonition before the curse hit and try to save as many people as possible while Aaron tried to kill as many people as possible. There were eight different weather disasters, and after the last one, Aaron kidnapped Crisee and left a note telling us that he had her.

"Fillmore High was blown away to pieces, and Aaron hid Crisee in what was left of the school. He gave us an hour- needless to say, we did find her- and he nearly shot Vivie, but Nessa shot him in the leg instead. He killed himself instead of Vivie, and we thought that was the end. I guess that it's not."

"Was Aaron the one that shot Luke?"

"Yeah. Angela, Farrior, and I were trying to get him caught by the police after the seventh curse. Well, he did get captured- but he broke out after the tornado. Well, we nearly lost him… but he's obviously back and as obnoxious and annoying as ever."

"You sound like a father when you say that."

"Hmph. Farrior's my best friend, don't get me wrong, but you could not pay me to be related to him."

"What about your past, Alex?" It was weird to be calling someone else by his name, but he might as well get used to it- if Blunt succeeded in somehow controlling Alex, he'd be here for a while.

Alex Meyer winced. "Right. Well, my parents were fairly young when they married- I'd say about our age. I don't think that they were planning on having a kid, but some old lady next door volunteered to take care of me, so they didn't abort me. But she died after a few years, which meant that my parents were stuck with me.

"I learned to play the violin starting at age for. Music has always been my passion, and it was all that kept me sane as a child. My father abused me- and occasionally did the same to my mother. He was also an alcoholic. Well, they started cheating on each other openly with another couple. They went to jail for child abuse, and that was when I met my future stepsister.

"Vivie's dad put me in the Brownes' house- he was a police officer. Jane- my stepsister- got me into drugs and alcohol, and I was hooked. I wouldn't have stopped if a friend hadn't gotten the better of me. Her gang beat him and me up, and Vivie's dad got there before they killed me.

"Well, when I got back, my parents were out of jail, and my mom had moved in with Jane's dad. Jane lied and said that I had hit her, and I got sent to live out on the streets as punishment. I made friends to only be hurt by them countless times. I turned into a cocky, self-centered jerk. I saw an adult friend killed in a car crash. But the turning point was last summer.

"Jane was angry. She killed all of our parents and made it look like I had murdered them, so I grabbed my violin and came over here. I was living in Littlebrook then, so the curse didn't affect me. Aaron and Jane had actually been in a relationship, and when they broke up, he kidnapped me to take her place. I basically became his slave.

"I couldn't escape him since he threatened to take my violin away if I didn't follow his orders and spy on Vivie. Well, I didn't think through that, and so I was trapped that way for a good long time. After the fourth curse, he sent me to kill her. I actually held the knife to her throat and everything. But then I decided to not kill her. Nessa caught me, and Aaron took my violin. I finally got it back the day Luke was shot." Alex Meyer sighed. "Even that doesn't cover all of it. That's just some of the facts."

Alex heard the bell chime as the door opened and he looked up. Alex Meyer did too, and they both saw the same figure from the day before, one hand in his pocket. Alex Meyer nudged him, and Alex shoved him right back- gently, of course. When the man saw them, he took off.

"Not again," Alex Meyer groaned.

"What are you waiting for? Go!"

Alex didn't know why he was doing this. Maybe it was because Alex Meyer had just poured his entire heart out to him. Maybe it was because he had finally met his match. Whatever it was kept Alex from abandoning the other boy, even though he hated doing this. He couldn't just stand back and watch.

So much for a little break…