Words didn’t come any easier than breathing did. “People get hurt in fights, Gabe,” Alex croaked. “And then they can’t do things like play college sports. And then they have to explain why they got hurt.”
He forced himself to his feet. “People tried to kill me this week, douche. None of this parking lot after school bullshit. You wanna beat my ass, fine, whatever makes you feel better. I can’t beat you. But I’ll take you off the roster for this season before I go down. Is it worth that to you?”
As if to punctuate his statement, Gabriel’s tall, blond teammate fell to the ground between them like a sack of potatoes, rolling a bit to one side with a groan. Wade stepped over to Alex’s side, breathing heavily but still standing straight. “Ah’m not much f’r fightin’ fair, either,” he frowned. A moment later, Jason stood beside them.
Back behind them, someone yelled, “Uncle!” and it plainly wasn’t Drew.
Someone asked, “Wade, could you move, please?”
Wade blinked and stepped aside. Taylor rushed through to plant an enraged fist up into Gabriel’s gut. The tall youth’s eyes bulged in shock as all the air left him.
“You stalked me here, you stupid fucking asshole!?” Taylor roared. “What part of ‘I don’t want to see you again’ do you not understand!?” Gabriel tried to grunt something in response, but Taylor just slapped him. “Do I need to get a restraining order on you? Should I just go talk to the coaching staff?”
“Nnnoo,” Gabriel managed to groan.
“I thought about calling the cops, actually,” called out another voice. Sherri stood on the porch next to Lorelei with her cell phone in her hand. “Just three little numbers. Nine. One. One,” she narrated as she tapped the keys. “And then all I have to do is press ‘Send’ in ten… nine… eight…”
The intruders got to their feet and shuffled off. The crowd of observers turned back inside.
“Hi, Taylor,” Alex ventured.
She turned to him, but then looked to Wade. “Hey,” she said, “I haven’t seen you since you got back. Thanks.”
“F’r whut?” Wade blinked.
Taylor gave him a hug. “For coming home alive.”
“Heh,” Wade grinned. When she let him go, he turned to head back inside. He was stopped in his tracks by Lorelei…who, oddly, paused to toss a tied-up garbage bag full of something or other down to the driveway. Her hair was wet, too, as if she’d just gotten out of the shower.
“I can’t leave you alone without you getting into trouble, can I?” she smiled at Alex.
“Hey, I think this is just what happens when I go out with you,” he huffed. “I can’t take you anywhere.”
“Ah. All my fault, surely.” Lorelei turned her attention to his friends. “Since the four of you gentlemen are all together now,” she said, “I would very much like to have a private chat.” The young men exchanged curious glances and shrugs as Lorelei sauntered back into the house.
Alex felt a tug on his sleeve. He turned to find Taylor staring at him with a somewhat accusatory smirk on her face. “Hi?” he tried again.
“Jocelyn? Really, Alex?”
“Oh my God!” Alex blurted guiltily. He was still stooped over, clutching his side. “I was-we-wait, you’re fucking with me right now, aren’t you?” he said, seeing her face split into a laugh. “You’re not mad at all!”
“Maybe a little,” she shrugged. “Now I’m gonna have to hear all about it from her. Thanks for that, by the way. Real pal. Always looking out for me,” she rambled dryly.
“What, that thing with Gabriel?”
“What? God, no. I’m still talking about Jocelyn. This fight thing was totally unnecessary. If you had gotten me, I’d have just punched him just like I did and it would’ve been over. But no, you dumb boys have to have your stupid fight.”
“You’re still fucking with me.”
“Yeah,” Taylor smiled. “Y’know, she said you don’t know how to let go and have a good time, but she didn’t tell me you’re spectacular about it.”
“You’ve been talking to her?”
“Yes. She’s cool. Now go see what she wants.”
Jason joined Alex as he turned to do just that. His stun gun buzzed. “This was totally worth sixty bucks,” Jason grinned.
* * *
Rachel’s smile was utterly smug and utterly merciless.
“You can’t seriously think you won that bet,” Timothy objected. “Your boy admitted he couldn’t win! My guy was all over him!”
“Who’s going home crying, Timothy? Who’s still at the party?”
“He could’ve stuck it out long enough to put Alex in the dirt,” Martina grumbled at Timothy, “but he didn’t. The whole thing was dumb to begin with, but he could’ve seen it through.”
Rachel nodded, folding her arms across her chest. “Wear it like a hat, bitches.”
Timothy glared at her sullenly. It was all just teasing. No harm was done. “Fine,” Timothy frowned. “What do you want?”
“You,” she said, pointing at the blond basketball player’s guardian, “On your knees, buddy. Holy of Holies. You,” she said, pointing at another, “call the corners. I wanna hear the full deal. You? Maha Mantra. Sing it. Sing it ‘til the rest of ‘em are done.” She looked to Martina. “Gimme something Buddhist. Something long. And you,” she grinned at Timothy. He scowled, waiting for it. She reached behind her back, produced something, and tossed it to him.
Timothy caught the rosary with ease. He looked at it, then made a face at Rachel.
“The whole thing,” Rachel taunted. “Best get prayin’.”
Rachel giggled as the guardian angels surrounding her gave voice to a cacophony of very different prayers. Having no real economy, angels rarely had anything else to offer in wagers amongst themselves.
Her only regret was that it wasn’t the right time for the Salaat. Otherwise, she’d have had them all kneeling toward Mecca.
* * *
Lorelei brought them to Sherri’s bedroom, where she winked knowingly at Alex but said nothing to tease him. No one else had a clue. He and Jocelyn had thrown a clean comforter over the one that had been on the bed, which seemed to be more than enough of a cover-up.
“What you did this past Thursday night was no small thing,” Lorelei explained. She held a manila envelope that none of them, even Alex, saw her bring into the house. “Gorge did not rank highly in the hierarchy of his kind, but even so, it is not at all ordinary for any of our ilk to be destroyed by mortals.
“You were all very brave to have stood together against a demon of the Pit,” Lorelei said, looking at each of them intently. “I am personally grateful, as I have said, that you were there for Alex, and for me.” She pulled out several sheets of paper from the envelope.
“The Pit operates largely on the Right of Might. There is little real law beyond naked oppression. Still, there are a few things that all agree upon to prevent complete chaos. One of these is that to the victors go the spoils.”
She handed each of them a few pages of business papers. “Each of you is now one-quarter owner of one of the most stable, successful pool halls in the Seattle area.”
“Daaamn,” Drew breathed. Alex and Wade both choked. Jason’s jaw dropped as he looked at the papers in disbelief.
“There will be some complications in claiming outright ownership, of course,” Lorelei went on, “as Gorge didn’t live long enough to paper everything over. But the original owner of the establishment fully concedes the sale, and yesterday I took care of most of the necessary steps to secure your rights. As none of you are old enough to legally operate an establishment that serves alcohol, I took it upon myself to hire on Ahmed as the regular manager. The previous staff is unanimously interested in staying on. All you need to do is occasionally look over the books, give your approval to expenses, sign a few papers now and again…and sit back and collect approximately eighteen thousand dollars apiece annual profits, if the last few years are an accurate measure. That’s not enough to live well on by itself, but I imagine it will still be a boost to your incomes.”