Nick hardly made it a few steps into his house when Walt was there, red faced. “Where are they?”

Exhaustion washed over Nick. He didn’t want to fight, but Walt was already having one with whatever version of Nick he concocted in his head. “Where are who?”

“Not who. What. Don’t be smart with me. Where are my car keys?”

“I… don’t know. Why would I know where they are?” Nick asked.

“Because they’re gone.”

Nick took a minute to untangle his father’s logic. “So…” He shifted his weight. “I’ve been gone all day. Your keys go missing. And… you’re blaming me?”

“I know it was you. Who else could it be? Your mother’s still at work, and Evelyn’s on a road trip with her friends.”

Nick took the time to wonder what Evelyn said to Walt. Did she mention which friends she was going with? Nick was half asleep when Evelyn asked Walt. Somehow, he doubted his father would have let Evelyn go with three boys, one being a college student, and one being the guy who tried to assault her once before.

Once he thought of it that way, he had to seriously consider why he thought this was a good idea himself.

Nick focused again on the present. On the now. On Walt, about to burst a vein in his neck from holding back his rage. “I was at work all day, too. It wasn’t me.”

Which was apparently the wrong thing to say. “I know it was you.”

“Then how? How could I possibly steal your keys?” Nick said.

“I have errands to run, and I’m already late. You have three seconds to return my keys.” Walt ignored everything Nick said and held out a hand.

“It wasn’t me!” Nick said, raising his voice. “It—” Floating keys appearing from out the hall cut him off. He stared, wide eyed.

“Give them back!” Walt said.

He tried to focus on his dad, but dangling keys had his attention. The keys floated toward them, and Grizzizzik appeared by the hall, his hand a dark green color.

“I need them. Now. Give them to me.” Walt waved his open palm in front of Nick’s eyes.

Nick said nothing. He wasn’t sure how. Grizzizzik moved his fingers, and the keys floated toward them.

“I don’t have them,” Nick said again.

Grizzizzik magically moved the keys in front of Walt’s face, shaking them, but Walt didn’t see them. Nick glared at his character, trying to get him to stop. To do anything but this. Grizzizzik was pushing buttons he shouldn’t.

“Where are they!” Walt demanded.

With a flick of the wrist, the keys dropped to the ground. Walt and Nick both glanced at them before his dad shot him a glare. The anger disappeared from Walt’s voice, which always made Nick nervous. “What did you do?”

“Nothing.” It was pointless. Walt would always compare Nick to the troublemaker he created in his own head. Nick would always lose. Nick thought about Mr. Morgan’s suggestion, but he knew why Walt got mad at him this time. He couldn’t go running to Mr. Morgan, he needed to talk to Grizzizzik.

Walt scooped up the keys, not even looking at him. “We’ll talk about this when I get back from running errands. The bank better not be closed when I get there.”

Nick remained rooted at the spot. He folded his arms, glaring at Grizzizzik, trying to give his character the benefit of the doubt. The cool way he dropped the keys irked him. He didn’t dare talk until he heard the garage door close, with Walt pulling out of the driveway. “What the hell, man? What were you thinking?”

Grizzizzik folded his arms as well, leaning against the wall. “I’d rather practice my magic away from the princess.”

“And so you chose to irritate my dad?” Nick asked.

“I killed two birds with one stone.” Grizzizzik moved his wrist around again, and an invisible mage hand pulled the keys out of Nick’s pocket. “I figured out how much Walt notices our magic. It’ll also helps to make your old man know he’s not in charge.”

“Leave my dad alone. I don’t want him knowing about any of this,” Nick said. Grizzizzik had the audacity to look amused. Nick tried to get his keys, but the mage hand jerked them out of reach. “I’m serious. He can’t know anything about this. If he found out, if he sees all of you, he’ll…”

Grizzizzik raised an eyebrow. “Want to get involved? Shove you to the side? Demand he knows a better way to do it?” Nick glared at Grizzizzik. “Or breathe down your neck while you’re doing these things and fight with you on every little thing. Or keep you from it all together? It kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it? What would Walt’s reaction be.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Nick tried to reach for the keys again, but Grizzizzik was being obnoxious and lifted them to the ceiling. Nick glared at him. “We don’t want to know, so we’re not going to push it.”

Grizzizzik shrugged. “How’s your sister and the others doing?”

It was a weird topic switch, but Nick allowed it because he didn’t want to remain on Walt. “Fine, as far as I can tell. They’re at the town where they think the tigers are. They just need to find them.” Grizzizzik nodded, glancing out the window. There were all of two seconds of silence before Nick realized what Grizzizzik wanted. “You want to see the other characters?”

Grizzizzik said nothing. Nick didn’t expect an answer. Instead, he held out his hand. It didn’t take long for the keys to drop there. Nick placed them in the key bowl. “I’m already in trouble with my father.”

Grizzizzik watched, frowning, as Nick walked past him toward his room. “Really? That’s your reply?”

“I appreciate that in a roundabout way, you are warming up to the people you refuse to call your friends, but I cannot risk it.”

Grizzizzik gave him a look. “What’s Walt going to do? Ground you?”

Nick’s mind went through the multiple things Walt could do. “For one, he could take away my ability to play CCNC all together.”

“Impossible. You’ve been rolling the dice the entire time. Nothing’s changed,” Grizzizzik said. “Besides. It’s an excuse to see Alejandra without Rafael being there.”

Nick pursed his lips into a line. He didn’t realize Grizzizzik’s hand was a dark green again until the keys were floating toward him. Nick stared at the keys as they got closer before they pressed themselves into his palm. He sighed, circling his fingers over the keys. “You’ll have to walk back here. You realize this, right?”

Grizzizzik shrugged. “Fine.”

Nick headed toward the front door. This was a stupid idea, but mostly because Walt would give him hell if he ever found out.

They drove in silence. It was a ten-minute drive to Alejandra’s house. Nick glanced down every so often to make sure he was driving the speed limit. He could not get pulled over.

“You’re awfully afraid of your dad,” Grizzizzik said.

“You are, too. Of your dad,” Nick shot right back.

Grizzizzik chuckled. “Well, I mean, mine has the capabilities of hunting me down and driving me insane. It seems like you have laws here in this country that would punish your father if he ever tried that.”

Nick sighed. “Yeah, that’s true.”

“Must be nice.”

“Those same laws also keep you from beheading your father and creating your own crime empire here,” Nick said.

Grizzizzik traced something on the window. “Yeah. I guess there is that, too. Unless Akshi gains control of this realm and implements his own laws. So I just have to kill him before he does that.”

Nick shook his head, amused. Once Alejandra’s house came into view, he fell silent again. He couldn’t deny he was nervous. They already had a plan in place for this. Arrive, drop Grizzizzik off, then leave. Nick had no intention of staying.

He pulled into her driveway and turned off the car before unbuckling himself. “Come on. The sooner you get inside, the sooner I can go home.”

Grizzizzik responded by getting out. Nick was out of the car before he wondered if his character ever buckled up. To be fair, Grizzizzik never buckled himself anyway, even in the minivan, since he was always in the back. It would take a lot of convincing for him to follow the basic rules of driving.

Nick walked to the front door, and before he talked himself out of it, he rang the doorbell. He heard some scuffling inside before Alejandra opened it.

“Hey.” There was the faintest hint of a smile on her face, which Nick took as a good sign. A kind of sign he didn’t want to mess up, nor make disappear.

“Hey. Just wanted to drop off Grizzizzik. He was missing his friends and wanted to check in on them.”

A scaled hand gave the side of his head a surprisingly gentle shove. Nick smirked at Grizzizzik’s back as the rogue walked past Alejandra and deeper into the house. As soon as Grizzizzik disappeared, Nick found he couldn’t look Alejandra in the eyes.

“Thanks for bringing him over,” Alejandra said.

“Yeah. If he becomes too much, kick him out. He knows the way home.”

Alejandra let out more breath from her nose, and the faint smile became more of a flicker. “I’m sure he’ll be fine. Hraktar’ll keep him in line.”

“No doubt.”

The silence could have only been a second, but it stretched on for an eternity. Nick glanced back at his car, more than willing to use any excuse he could to get back home.

“So, was it as hilarious as Evelyn made it seem when Princess Clarissa came out in just a shirt?” Alejandra asked.

It was a simple enough question, but Nick’s mind slipped into some sort of basic male survival mode. A girl he liked was asking him about what he thought about another woman wearing nothing but a shirt. His survival brain screamed at him not to answer, because it was a trap.

Nick tried to smile. “Yes.”

Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap.

Alejandra smiled, and Nick panicked. Why was he panicking? Was it because he answered her question? He didn’t need to panic. There was no reason for it.

Nick cleared his throat. “Princess Clarissa and Ezekiel…” he trailed off, trying to smooth things out. “Honestly, they’re… great for each other.” What was he doing?

Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap.

“They are.”

Nick checked his phone. “Hey, I better get back. My dad doesn’t know I’ve left.”

Alejandra’s smile disappeared. “Um, yeah. Yeah, get back. I don’t want you to get in trouble.” Nick did nothing more than nod as he walked back to his car. “Nick?”

He paused, glancing over his shoulder as Alejandra stepped outside the house and took a few steps toward him. He stopped on his way to the car, waiting for her to answer. She wrung her hands; the smile gone from her face.

“Yes?” He was afraid to prompt her. Every time he was around Alejandra, he remembered the betrayal on her face that night. The one he never wanted to put there, but had. It only took a week of dating before he betrayed her. He also, deep down, knew he couldn’t apologize for what he’d done.

Alejandra dropped her hand to her side, shaking her head. “Never mind. You need to get back. I’ll see you later.”

She turned around and headed into her house. Nick watched her go, though he reached into his pocket for the keys. He needed to leave. Who knew how long Walt would be gone?

It wasn’t until he started up the car and was back on the road that he felt the crushing weight of it all. Something was on her mind. Something she wanted to tell him. She practically said as much. She didn’t say anything because she didn’t want to get him in trouble. Not knowing what she wanted to say was almost harder.

Derek was right. Nick was sociably awkward. He didn’t know how to talk to Alejandra.

Nick drove back, going the speed limit. His heart hammered the entire time. He was terrified something would go wrong. Terrified he’d get pulled over. Terrified Walt’s car would be waiting in the garage when he got back. Terrified he’d never play CCNC again.

Nick parked the car in the driveway. He opened the garage door, Walt’s car still missing. He slipped inside the house to the silence he had forced himself to get used to. No one was here. Walt would never know.

In the silence, Nick breathed a sigh of relief.