“Yeah, thanks for the help, Dad.” I rolled my eyes and squirted a pool of syrup on my plate.
“I’ll make it up to ya. I’ll clean up,” he said around a bite of waffles.
I let my shoulders sag. “Thank you.” I sighed. “I have a ton of homework.”
“May I have more syrup?” Ben asked and pointed at the bottle with sticky fingers. “Please?”
“That was a very nice way to ask, Ben.” My mom smiled at him. “But no.”
“What? Why? Milayna has a lot!” He pointed at my plate and glared at me like I’d stolen the world’s last syrup stash.
“Milayna doesn’t get it in her hair.”
“Yeah, frog freckle.” I smiled and stuck my tongue out at him.
“Mom! Milayna stuck out her tongue!” Ben pointed at me with his fork. A piece of waffle plopped on the floor.
“Ben, let’s try to keep the food on the table.” My mom sighed. “Milayna, keep your tongue in your mouth.”
My dad spotted something on the television in the other room and laughed out loud. Jogging into the living room, he turned the sound up.
I looked up when I heard the broadcaster mention something about vandals at the high school, giggling at what I saw. It was a photograph of the high school’s football field.
“The newscaster said the authorities think it was students from the other team in retaliation of our win.” My dad laughed.
I smiled and looked over at my mom. My breath hitched in my throat. She had a strange expression on her face that I couldn’t read. “What’s wrong, Mom?”
“I can’t believe you two were in that mess. It’s a little… frightening.” My mom twisted the collar of her shirt around her finger. Her voice came out in barely a whisper and sounded small.
I looked back at the television and tried to view the picture from my mom’s perspective. There were large ripples in the earth. Patches of sod had been burned away, leaving black trails in the otherwise green field. The scoreboard lights had been shattered and glass covered the ground. I hadn’t noticed how bad it was the night before. I was so relieved to get away from it that I didn’t pay attention to the damage Azazel’s team had done.
“It looks worse than it was,” my dad told my mom, patting her hand before taking it in his.
She jerked her hand away. “Don’t patronize me. It looks bad. I’m sure it looked worse last night with demons crawling all over it. Look at you! Your face looks like it went through a meat grinder,” she yelled, making my little brother cry. She stood so quickly that the table rocked and her chair fell over backward.
“But we’re all okay, Mom.” I ran my fingers through Ben’s hair and squirted half the bottle of syrup on his plate to calm him.
“Yeah, this time.” She stalked from the room. I watched her leave and wondered what things looked like through her eyes.
***
That afternoon, I sat on my bed, reading my chemistry book and hating every second of it. My cell phone was lying next to me. Every few minutes, I’d glare at it, waiting for it to deliver a text from Muriel. She hadn’t texted me back after I’d texted her earlier in the day. Friday at the football game was the last time I’d seen her. I didn’t see her after the fight. In fact, I didn’t remember seeing her during the fight, either. She got home okay because her car was parked in her driveway when my dad and I got home. Besides, if she hadn’t, my Uncle Rory would have called looking for her.
My cell vibrated. “Finally, Muriel, geez,” I grumbled.
I grabbed my phone and clicked to read the text, but it wasn’t from Muriel. When I saw who it was from, I just stared.
Chay: Wanna get out of the house for a while?
Me: Maybe. Where?
Chay: I dunno. We’ll figure something out.
Tapping my fingers on my bottom lip, I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face. I tried to warn myself that it probably had something to do with the group, a meeting or something, but part of me hoped it was more than that. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves.
I typed quickly before I lost my nerve. The thought of spending time alone with Chay was both exciting and unnerving at the same time.
Me: Kay. When?
Chay: I’ll be there in five.
Me: Make it ten.
Chay: Fine.
I jumped off the bed and ran to the top of the stairs.
“Mom? Is it okay if I go out with a friend?” I yelled.
“Who?”
Geez, I was hoping you wouldn’t ask that. “Chay,” I said as normal as I could. Smooth. No big deal.
She didn’t answer. Seconds later, she materialized at the bottom of the stairs. “Is there something you want to tell me?” She smiled and quirked an eyebrow.
And the third degree begins.
“We’re just friends.” I could feel my cheeks heat.
“Okay. Where are you going?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t say. Can I go?”
“Have fun,” she said and walked away. I tried to hold in a squeal as I turned with a jump and ran to my bedroom to change.