“Ethan, there is no chance you’re going to get ‘flabbergasted’ on that board,” Rebecca said, trying to let me down gently.
“Hey, it could happen,” I protested.
“Okay, it could happen.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “It won’t, so let’s go for a better word, yeah? Maybe? Just for me?”
Despite my girlfriend’s insistence that I wouldn’t be able to get my desired word on the board, the game was going well. No one was being overly competitive about it. Lori mostly ignored it when Val did anything, occasionally commenting on Alex and Rebecca’s play, calling them clever for what they came up with. Rebecca was doing the heavy lifting on our team and Alex was her boyfriend, so her praise was hardly surprising.
“Pizza’s here!” Lizzy exclaimed right before the guy knocked on the door. “I’ll get it, you guys keep playing.”
I just settled for putting down ‘gas’ on the board. It was a paltry point total for our team, which sucked since we were in a tight race with Alex and Lori’s team. Val was sticking to exclusively to short words and her turns were taking a bit, which had given Lori and I a little bit of time to catch up. She was right about her concussion and broken orbital bone. I was glad to hear they’d both been healed up nicely. They were off to Nebraska before we were. Apparently, they were told not to text or call us. Something about the possibility of devices being tracked. I didn’t get it. I was pretty sure our phones being on could have been enough to do that.
“Hm, ‘up’, there.” Val put down her final tile and wrote down the score. She didn’t have a point booster space, so she got four points from it. Her small point total didn’t do anything to make Val seem less content. She looked like she was enjoying the game. No chairs had gone flying, and no tables had been broken, so things were going well to that point.
“Why do you keep doing that?” Lori asked. I felt a pit form in my stomach, even though she hadn’t really said anything. Just a bad, miserable feeling in my gut.
“Doing what?” Val asked. She sounded like she was trying to be friendly and nice, which might have been something working against her more than for her. “Does ‘up’ not count? I can take it down.”
“No, you keep using short words. Nothing has more than three letters.” Lori pointed at every word Val put down on the board. “Look at this. ‘Cat’, ‘dog’, ‘air’, and now ‘up’. Can you not read or something?”
Val had been shifting to get a look at her words when the question hit her. Her knee hit the table in a jolt, sending tiles everywhere. Lizzy was coming back with six boxes of pizza, poking her head around to see what the commotion was. I hopelessly tried to get all the words back in their original places. I’d completely forgotten where all of them went.
“Wait, you actually can’t, can you?” Lori asked. I looked toward Val, her head angled slightly down toward the Scrabble board. Her eyes were wide, and I could see a flush creep up her neck, spread over her cheeks, and end on her ears. Her pale skin made the intense blush pop. “No way, you can’t read. You helped destroy a city and you honest to God cannot read.”
“Lori, be quiet,” I said, already feeling myself get angry. Rebecca, Alex, and Lizzy all stopped and didn’t look like they knew what to do. Lizzy didn’t even try setting the boxes of pizza down. “You’re allowed to play the game only with short words.”
“No, no, really.” Lori snickered and leaned forward. “I want her to tell me if she can read or not.”
Val’s bottom lip quivered. She tried to chew on it to hide it. Game night had officially been ruined. “It’s okay, Ethan. She’s right. I can’t really.”
“I’m so sorry, Val. Scrabble was my idea. This is my fault.” I wanted to reach out to her to do something. Her posture was screaming that she didn’t want anyone to touch her.
Lori’s snickering turned into full laughter that echoed throughout the living room and kitchen. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she started to do that wheezing when your laugh lasts too long or starts to hurt. She grabbed her stomach and coughed. But she never stopped laughing at Val.
About as gracefully as she could, she stood up and took off up the stairs. Her eyes were wet when she left, and I felt terrible. Scrabble had been my idea. I didn’t even think to ask Val what she thought about it. She was our host. The entire night was supposed to be for her to try and gel with our team. Instead, it collapsed, and she was on the verge of breaking down in tears. Given how calm she seemed every time we’d interacted before, I couldn’t believe it.
“Lori, are you serious?” I asked, which finally made her laughing die down. “Please tell me I just hallucinated that. Please tell me you didn’t really just do that.”
“Do what? Point out that she can’t read?” Lori’s eyes narrowed at me. She still had wet lines on her face, not in a hurry to wipe them off her face.
“No, Lori. You completely humiliated her.” I stood up and ran a hand through my hair. I made my other one open and close into a fist, trying to calm myself down and not throw a punch at someone. “There’s nothing even wrong with playing the game just using short words. I thought you were just a troubled person before, and with good reason, but you’re genuinely cruel sometimes. Before you say anything, can you imagine being an adult and only being able to spell out words like that? Take Rory out of it for a second. Think about how humiliating that is.”
Lori pursed her lips, remaining silent. Instead, Alex took over. He stood up and grabbed a collar of my shirt with a glowing hand. In response, I created a Shimmer-Spear over each shoulder, pointing both directly at him.
“You’re not going to talk to her that way,” Alex said, his voice barely above a growl.
“And you’re going to get your hand off him,” Rebecca said. In an instant, her hand was over his wrist. His hand was still glowing, so she hadn’t removed his power. Who knew how close she was to doing it. “Get your hand. Off. Ethan. Now.”
“I don’t need a power to take either of you.” He glared at Rebecca, but his grip did loosen, if only slightly.
“You want to test that, meathead? Let’s see if you got a brain in that head of yours.” Rebecca’s eyes were shining. It worried me that she looked so eager to fight Alex. Even without his power, I was sure he was capable. But then again, so was she.
“Enough! All three of you, sit the fuck down.” Lizzy placed the boxes down and her barely contained rage was back. “Sit down now! I am done playing games with you fuckers.”
Her yelling was enough to snap most of us out of it. Alex slowly let go of my shirt, Rebecca released her grip, and I broke down my spears. Lori, the only one without an active power, was still sitting down. We all returned to our spots and Rebecca grabbed my hand. She was shaking. I couldn’t tell if it was from fear, excitement, anger, or a mix of all three. Her standing up to Alex to defend me warmed my heart.
“I’m so fed up with you, Lori,” Lizzy said. “Your childish attitude had a bit of a charm to it when you were a scared girl who was getting her first assignment. What the hell happened to you? I have never seen you act like this before. Ethan’s right, you’re a cruel person.”
“My best friend died! Died because of her. She fucking killed him!” She gestured toward the stairs. “And I was made leader a few days after. I couldn’t even grieve for my friend before I was sent right back out into the world.” Lori’s chest heaved and her eyes were red. “Then I had a man beg me to shoot him in the head, and I did. I killed a man who’d done nothing to wrong me. The only wrongs he’d committed to the world were against his will. A man who was manipulated for over a century to do someone’s bidding.”
“And this is how you handle it!? You laugh at someone who has never learned to read. You told me that you would try tonight. The only thing you tried to do was be a massive fucking bitch, and it worked, so good job.” I was worried that Lizzy was about to start beating on Lori again. With all the tension in the room, it was poised to turn into a full brawl.
“Lori, I’m going to give you a choice right now.” I tried to keep my voice even. I needed my delivery to be right so it didn’t seem like I was just saying it in a fit of rage. “You’re going to go up those stairs, apologize, and talk to Val. If you don’t, I will never do anything under your leadership again. Lizzy’s right, I don’t trust you to be a captain anymore. Even if I did, I can’t work with someone who’s acting like you have been. I’m sorry it’s come to an ultimatum, I really am. I don’t know what else to do.”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“With that I did? How many people has she killed?” Lori scoffed, like we didn’t all know about Val’s past. “Do I have to keep reminding you people about that? We had to take in an orphaned little girl because of something she helped with.”
“She’s at least trying, Lori!” I understood her hatred of the woman, I really did. If I was asked to work with the guy who killed my parents, I wouldn’t do it. That was the difference between us though. I would separate myself from the situation. “She helped Rebecca keep me safe when my arm got hurt, she offered her life to you when McLeod is taken care of, and it was because of her that we had any warning about McLeod coming at all. She is trying to be better. She is trying to be nicer. I can’t keep doing this with you.”
Lori clenched her fists and looked down. If she didn’t get it with all of us telling her, I didn’t know if she ever would. I had never been around Rory, so I would be the first to admit I couldn’t understand their connection and relationship, but I kept comparing her situation to my own when my parents were killed. If I held on to nothing but rage about that moment, I would be miserable all the time. It was hard enough to deal with without adding that kind of hatred to the mix.
“I don’t know what’s going on with me,” Lori finally said. She kept her gaze on the floor. “I know that you guys are right. I don’t know why I can’t admit it and why I’m so angry all the time, but I know that I can’t keep doing this.”
“Lori, you don’t ever have to forgive Val for what she did,” I said, moving over and crouching down next to her. “I swear to you, no one here is going to blame you or think any less of you if you don’t. But if you don’t talk to her about everything that happened, you’re never going to feel better. When my parents were killed, I had an outlet with Shelly. Don’t let that anger be the only thing you allow yourself to feel.”
Lori sighed and shook her head. “I’ll go apologize to her.”
“Come on, I’ll go with you.” I held out my hand and helped her to her feet. She gave me a funny look. “I’m just making sure everything goes over smoothly.”
With the tension in the room settled somewhat, the smell from the six pizza boxes wafted over to me. I wouldn’t admit it out loud, but I was close to shoving Lori out the window and just digging in. I still hadn’t eaten anything and it was just my luck that I had to try and support two people who didn’t like each other. Stupid team building game night nonsense, keeping me from greasy food that could kill me. Couldn’t the needs of two teams wait for a few minutes so I could scarf down some pizza?
The upstairs of Val’s home was a lot like my house’s, except instead of a bedroom, she had a loft-like area. Since she was living alone, it was sparsely decorated, with just another display sword and a cream-colored carpet on the ground. The entire space felt so lonely. God, as terrible as McLeod was, at least Val wasn’t living in complete isolation with him. Not wanting to stay in the depressing area, I kept going on ahead.
There was an open door and the sound of soft sniffling. Unless Val was housing someone who was undergoing an allergy attack, the list of people it could have been was a very short one. The opened door led to a small balcony outside, something I was pretty sure my place didn’t have. It offered a great view of the full moon overhead and was exposed to the soft breeze. If I needed a place to go and cry, I would have chosen that balcony too.
“Val, I’m really sorry I didn’t talk to you about the game beforehand.” I said it before I saw her, correctly assuming she’d be there when I walked out. “Tonight was supposed to be about you and bonding with the team. My idea ruined it.”
“It still ended up being about me, right?” Val offered a weak, sad chuckle. It wasn’t funny at all. It was just sad. Even Lori frowned at it. “I didn’t mean to make a scene down there. You should go back and play.”
“Actually, we’re here because of me.” Lori didn’t look smug or proud, something I had a nagging fear about. “I wanted to apologize about how I acted down there.”
“You wanted to apologize to me?” Val’s eyes danced between us, like she wasn’t sure if she was about to be the victim of a prank. “Why?”
“Because I was wrong.” Lori winced saying it. “I’ve been trying to bully you this whole time because I don’t like you. I have good reason not to like you. I need this team to be a cohesive unit, and what I did was too far. I’m sorry for what I said and I’m not going to act like that anymore.”
“Lori, I am so, so sorry for killing your friend. I’m sorry for what I did for ten years.” Val turned to face us and wiped her nose. A stronger breeze rolled through and blew her hair in front of her face. “If I could go back and change all of it, I would. Every time I try to sleep, I see their faces and I hear their screams.”
“Val, I’m never going to forgive you.” Lori delivered it flatly, not too soft and not too mean. Val’s face fell when she heard it. “I’m never going to forgive you for what you took from me and what you did to all those people, but I can tell that you’re genuine in your feelings. You’re going to live with what you’ve done, and you may still be punished legally. I’m not getting anything by trying to torment you now. It’ll be a detriment to the team. If it’s a detriment to the team, it’ll put my team in danger. I can’t have that. Even though I won’t forgive you for what you’ve done, maybe we can build something new.”
I knew that was the most even Lori was going to be about it, and Val caught on too. “I swear to you, I’m going to do everything I can to help you stop McLeod.”
“We’re counting on it.” Lori gave a weak smile and leaned against the balcony’s guardrail. “Why don’t you go back down there and play how you want? Or just eat some food. One of those is an order from your leader.”
Val nodded and took off, leaving Lori and I alone. The breeze was starting to pick up again, and like a fool, I didn’t have a jacket. How I grew up in the cold and snow of Oregon and still didn’t carry one around with me was beyond me. Shelly always told me to bring one, so I had no idea why I just dropped that habit like an idiot.
“You know, I’m proud of you,” I said, battling off the chill. “I know it took a lot for you to say that. That’s what a leader needs to do.”
“I thought you didn’t trust me to be a leader?” Lori folded her hands on the rail and rested her chin on them.
“This was a good start to changing my opinion.” I sighed and stared up at the full moon. “Lori, I’m sorry I said that. It’s not that I don’t trust you as a person. I don’t trust your emotional outbursts. When you get like that, it’s like you’re a completely different person from the one who met me in Oregon.”
“I’ve been just so mad. I had nightmares about shooting Arthur. I would wake up covered in sweat and with a huge headache. Therapy is helping some. All this anger scares me, Ethan.” I could hear her shifting next to me, but I kept my eyes upward. “I took it out on you when I shouldn’t have. I want to be this team captain so bad. I’m so proud of what you, Alex, and I managed to do in the Tomb. I hate being the girl who’s prone to these shitty mood swings. Like we don’t get called emotional enough without powers making it worse.”
“Lori, I’m not going to pretend to understand what you have to deal with when your power is what it is. I want you to know I have your back, okay?” A nervous laugh escaped my mouth. “At least when you’re being cool and not being mean to someone because they have trouble reading.”
“That really is sad. McLeod didn’t teach her to read at all?” When I just shrugged, Lori huffed. “For someone who can’t read, she doesn’t have trouble speaking.”
“I think she knows smaller words. Come to think of it, when I handed her a pamphlet on the houses here, she did look frustrated.” I sighed, rubbing my temples to keep the budding headache at bay. “If Megan’s okay with it, maybe I could have Val sit in on some of her classes. We’re covering a lot of reading with her right now. Or we will be, once we get that set up.”
“You and Rebecca are so cute together,” she said. “You’re like actual parents.”
“She is an actual parent. I’m just trying to help out by winging it with some logic thrown in. Rebecca’s daughter was about Megan’s age when they were separated. I’m glad the three of us have taken to each other so well, though.”
“Same here.” I looked down at her and Lori looked scared, like I was holding up a fist and I was ready to punch her. Hesitantly, she gave me a hug. “I’m happy for you. I missed you when you were gone.”
I was too tired to get upset about the touching. I was managing to get over it in my own time. At least it wasn’t my stupid arm for once. “I’m glad to be back. There have been a couple days where it’s still been hard. I think I’ll have those for the rest of my life. She makes those days a little easier.”
“Hey guys, the pizza’s getting cold.” Speaking of the devil, my girlfriend was standing in the doorway, taking a bite out of a slice covered in pepperoni. “Hurry up before we eat it all. We didn’t have anything this good back in the old days.”
“There were six boxes, how are you-”
“I’m so sorry! It’s not what it looks like.” Lori backed away and hit the guardrail. My heart lurched, thinking her momentum was about to send her spilling over, but she was so short that she barely budged. “I swear, there was nothing weird about it.”
Well, that definitely made her hug sound totally normal and not weird at all.
“I know that.” Rebecca tilted her head, confused. “If I didn’t trust either one of you, I would have followed Ethan up here. If you haven’t noticed, a lot of his friends are women who range from cute to exceptionally gorgeous. Believe me, I trust all of you, and I’m not threatened by anyone in this house anyway. You came here with your boyfriend too.”
“I’m sorry, I’ve been feeling insecure about that.” Her shoulders slumped. “Since Alex is bi, I’ve been so worried about guys and girls trying to get with him. I’ve seen some of the looks he got at work back in New York.”
“Yeah, but he still chose you, right?” I asked. “Instead of thinking about it like there’s twice as many people who can take him away from you, think about it like he chose you over twice as many people. Because that’s what he did.”
Lori’s eyes went wide like we just dropped some grand revelation on her. I was going to feel really bad for her if she went through all the effort to get Alex and was still battling all that insecurity. No one deserved to be worried about that in their love life. The way he was ready to beat me into goop after I had to go off a bit on Lori gave me some confidence in the guy. Rebecca would have still whipped him up and down the street, but I wouldn’t tell either of them that. No need to bruise that man’s ego like that.
Then it was Rebecca’s turn to be hugged. Lori held her tight, the way someone would to their best friend that they hadn’t seen in years. It was another thing that showed me she was slowly returning to the Lori I knew. The one that we desperately needed to stay around if our little team was going to have any cohesion at all. Everything that occurred in the span of about seven minutes there was a good start.
“Come on, we have a game to finish and some pizza to eat.” Lori smiled wide at both of us, and we didn’t need more persuading.