Nick explained the story to Derek while he drove his car closer to Alejandra’s and hooked up jumper cables to the two cars. She seriously hoped that would work. She didn’t want to call anyone to have them work on it. It was barely holding together as it was, and they simply couldn’t afford it right now. She didn’t want to go home to Mariana with a long list of all the things wrong with their old car with the price tags for how to fix it. She hardly saw her mom as it was. Mariana had a part time night shift and a cleaning job during the day.

Once Nick finished the story, Derek was fascinated with the possibility of teleporting the characters. He tried it with Milo. After the fourth try, the mana fusor appeared. Alejandra was watching to see how it happened, like if there was some portal that opened up, but it was more like a fast materialization. Almost like in Star Trek, except not nearly as glittery, and with no noise to accompany it.

Milo glanced around long enough to notice the hell hound before a light of excitement hit his eye. “I could mine some red and black mana out of this thing!” Grizzizzik was almost finished as Milo joined him on the ground, pulling out vials and placing them around the cooled lava. As cool as it could be on a hot August day in Arizona.

Alejandra was behind the wheel of her car, hoping this would work. She put the key in, the sputtering of the engine like music to her ears as it roared to life. Nick smiled, and about said something when his phone went off. He took it out, and Alejandra watched his face steel over as he got back in his car to take the call. It seemed like his boss. When he talked to Walt, a glare always accompanied his face, and he had no such glare. Alejandra distracted herself by looking at Hraktar’s new stats.

Hraktar, being at level two, got the new skill of action surge. He could hit something again on his turn, but he could only use it once. He would need a short or long rest to restore the ability. She didn’t have the option to choose; it was just given to her. Also, she rolled some dice and watched his hit points rise to twenty-four, which felt amazing. With Hraktar’s half-orc race, he already got some bonus hit points, which saved his life in this fight. He was just finishing his hour-long rest in the shade, and with two dice now, he was looking far better with nineteen hit points back. She was excited for the full twenty-four to come back.

The call wasn’t long, and Nick was already out unhooking the jumper cables.

“Is everything okay?” Alejandra asked.

“Yeah. I’ll just finish up here and then get back to my work and talk to my boss,” Nick said.

He was trying not to sound nervous, but Alejandra picked up on it. “I’m really—”

“Don’t apologize, Alejandra. I don’t regret it. You were in trouble.” Nick said it to her, but he was keeping his eye on Grizzizzik. “Is there a reverse portal? Or do I have to take him with me to work?”

Alejandra watched as Grizzizzik was already setting up some sort of contraption to dry out the skin of the hell hound. She wasn’t sure what was involved in making daggers, but it certainly looked disgusting. “Well, on the bright side, at least he can’t touch anything.”

Nick chuckled as he checked the clock on his phone. The clock, calling, and messaging were about all it could do. “Drive around town for about twenty minutes to get a good charge on that battery. And call if you see anything else.” Nick slipped his old phone back in his pocket.

“Well, hopefully with Derek being aware, I won’t have to bother you at work,” Alejandra said.

Nick gave her one of his half smiles. “Nah, you can always bother me at work.”

Alejandra let a smile creep across her face. “Well, thank you. And… I hope you don’t get into too much trouble because of me.”

“You had car problems. That’s the story we’re going with,” Nick said, glancing at Derek, who nodded. “Alright, well, see you later.”

Alejandra didn’t feel like that was a good enough parting, considering how much Nick risked for her. She walked over, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Thank you.”

Nick hugged her back. “Yeah.”

She tried to make the hug short, trying really hard to make the hug more friendly than anything else. Nick liked her more than a friend, and she didn’t want to lead him on. She was just scared. She turned him down because she was just discovering her Mexican side that her dictator-like father denied her. More than that, she didn’t know what it would look like for her to date Nick. Rafael didn’t approve. And if it was just Rafael, she would have ignored him, but Mariana didn’t, either. Mariana was afraid of his bad boy persona. She didn’t have to listen to Mariana, but she couldn’t help it. She was her mom.

Which meant she had to stop hugging Nick. She broke away, not looking at him. “Let me know what your boss says. You can text me.”

“Yeah. Um… I’ll call you instead. After work,” Nick said.

Alejandra was confused, then remembered Nick hated texting because Walt read them all. “Right.”

The hint of the glare returned to his face as his mind obviously went to Walt. He slammed the trunk of his car harder than usual. “I get off work about eight. I’ll call you later if that’s okay.”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Yeah. That’s fine,” Alejandra said.

Nick still had the hint of a glare on his face he was trying to stifle. “Great. I’ll talk to you later, then. Grizzizzik! You’re coming with me.”

The rogue glanced up from checking the skin. “I can’t just move this.”

“I can’t keep you here, either. Come on, bring it all in the car and you can keep doing this while I’m at work.”

Grizzizzik’s eyes narrowed, the snakelike nostrils flaring as he gathered his things. Alejandra was nervous for Nick, but Nick had his own growing glare. Once they were in the car, Nick drove off, waving at Derek, who had brought his own car around. Milo didn’t even notice, as he took a small knife and started scraping off some of the lava from the corpse. Alejandra didn’t dare turn off her car, but she wanted to talk with Derek for a bit.

“Are you going to be okay here?” Alejandra asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Milo is in the zone, and if he’s right and he can create black and red mana, then that’s a good bump in his experience points.”

Alejandra smiled at Derek’s enthusiasm. To her, this was a game, but to Derek and Tyler, it was life. Though it had now become her life. And perhaps she didn’t know how she felt about it. Derek got out of the car to hand Milo a water bottle. Alejandra stayed in the shade of the trees near Hraktar as Derek joined her. He folded his arms, watching Milo prodding the corpse with his magical wrench.

“Hey, Derek, the hell hound figured out how to stop my engine. I don’t know how, but I’d feel a lot better if I did,” Alejandra said.

Derek nodded, concern on his face. “Yeah. Me too. They shouldn’t be able to touch our world. I’ll try to do… research.”

Alejandra understood the hesitancy. How were they supposed to research something like this?

“I know this is absolutely none of my business, but Nick is going to turn eighteen in April.”

Alejandra was confused. “I… don’t see how you find it awkward that you know Nick’s birthday.”

“I’m just saying you two have been dancing around each other since our fourth session of CCNC. I figured he’d asked you out by now.”

“Oh.” Alejandra’s cheeks reddened. “No, it’s… um.” Her face screwed up in thought. “Didn’t he… already tell you…” Derek waited, his eyebrow slowly raising the longer the silence lasted between them. “He’s already asked. I’m just… figuring some things out.”

“Oh. No, he didn’t mention it. When was this? Last week?” Derek asked.

“Um… last year.” Why was she saying this to Derek?

Derek snorted, then tried to hide it. He mumbled something to himself that she thought was in Spanish, but then she thought she heard the word “simp” in there.

“What?” Alejandra asked.

Derek cleared his throat. “Nothing. I’ll just say again, April is coming.”

Alejandra sighed. “I know. It’s just…” she trailed off. “Come on, Hraktar. Let’s go for a drive around town.”

The fighter nodded and stood, getting into the back of the car. Alejandra waved to Derek, who was heading into his car. He waved back.

Hraktar struggled again with the seatbelt, not looking at her when he finally clicked the seatbelt in. “Forgive me. I’m still getting used to it.”

Alejandra let herself smile as she pulled out of the parking lot. “We both seem to apologize a lot, don’t we?”

They pulled out of the parking lot, waving a final time to Derek and Milo as they drove away.

***

Nick walked into the back of the bookstore. Grizzizzik had set up his pelt again to make sure it was drying before walking in. The rogue looked around, suppressing a smile at all the things in the back.

“I’d like to remind you that you literally cannot touch anything,” Nick said.

Grizzizzik shrugged. “For now, I’m sure.”

Nick didn’t like the way Grizzizzik said that. “I’m serious. Don’t touch anything.”

Grizzizzik said nothing.

“Nick,” his boss called from upstairs.

He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck before walking up the stairs to his boss’ office. “Hey, Mr. Morgan.”

“Come sit, please,” Mr. Morgan said.

Nick sat down in the chair across from an absolutely chaotic desk. Though it was a bookstore, Nick knew his boss got most of his money from selling random things online. When Walt set this job up for Nick, it wasn’t for customer service; it was for manual labor of moving around shipping boxes and registering things onto the computer. He had been trained on the basics of how to ring someone up in case of emergencies, but he was happy to stay in the back.

“Tell me what happened again. From the beginning,” Mr. Morgan said.

Nick did, though he left out the hell hound. He didn’t notice Grizzizzik followed him until the rogue was there, leaning against the wall, pulling out a small knife to work on sharpening one of the hell hound’s teeth. Nick did his best not to watch him, because he knew Grizzizzik was there to gain information. His rogue did not make friends. He gathered information about people to understand their weakness and use it like bargaining chips. The fact that he was invisible to Mr. Morgan made his rogue abilities far more powerful than they should be.

Once the story of Alejandra’s car troubles was done, Mr. Morgan leaned back in his chair. “Thank you for telling me.”

Nick nodded. “I will understand if you doc my pay for the hour I was gone, sir. I’m really sorry, but she said no one else was picking up her call.”

Mr. Morgan nodded. “It is dangerous having car troubles in August.”

“Thank you for understanding,” Nick couldn’t help but say.

Mr. Morgan studied him some more. Nick tried to look relaxed, but he wasn’t. Mr. Morgan and Walt were excellent friends, and this would get back to him. “Look, Nick, when I hired you two years ago, I was waiting for something like this to happen. I waited for the delinquent Walt described to me. Skipping work. Flippant attitude. Untrustworthy. I took an enormous risk hiring you, but you’ve been an incredibly hard worker these past two years. The one time you have skipped work was to help a friend in need, and… and I find that commendable. I’m not punishing you. I won’t tell your father. If something like this ever happens again, you’ll at least let your head manager know.”

Some of the tenseness ease from Nick’s chest. Turns out two years of keeping his head down and working hard would at least help him gain the trust of his boss, but he was scared. He doubted this would be a onetime thing. His rogue watching Mr. Morgan while sharpening the tooth of a hell hound was obviously one of the bigger clues that things were getting more chaotic.

“I will, sir. Um, thank you for your trust. But I’m certain my father will find out anyway,” Nick said.

“Well, you did the right thing. I doubt Walt will punish you,” Mr. Morgan said.

Then you don’t really know him.

He was already expecting the conversation. Ready to see Walt’s face as he noticed the missed call from Alejandra, and the call he made to her during work hours. He was not ready for Walt to distrust him so deeply.

“Well, I’ll get back to work, sir. Thank you again.” Nick got up, and Grizzizzik followed, still sharpening the tooth with a smile on his face.