Page 57 of Avenged

“Don’t cuss,” she teased.

I shook her gently by the arms as I felt a smile break across my face. “How? When?”

“The radio station was giving them away!” she responded.

Then, I was hugging her, and she was hugging me back, and we started doing her little touchdown dance in unison. More emotions—these ones so much better than the ones of the morning—filled me, drawing me from my self-pity. Drawing me back to my sister I loved. Drawing me from sadness at a kiss I couldn’t keep. Violet and I bumped hips, and when we turned, I found Travis staring at us with the bowl of spaghetti in his hands. He looked bemused, as if he wasn’t sure what was happening.

I stopped moving and smiled at him, a complete smile where I held nothing back. He looked down at my lips, and then to my eyes, and then smiled back with his own sexy, heart-melting smile. My heart had needed this. The tickets. Violet. The smiles. Maybe Dr. Chaos had finally given up for the day and decided to go rain down on someone else for a few hours.

“What is this thing you’ve won tickets to?” he asked.

“You’ve never heard of the Hartford Comic Con?” Violet said like he was an imbecile. “It’s only the biggest fandom, comic book convention on the East Coast!”

I grinned at her. “It isn’t. She’s totally making that up. New York holds several which are significantly larger, but this one is here, in our own state, just an hour away. And Di Felix will be there this year!”

“Who’s Di Felix?” Dawson’s voice rang out from behind me, and I turned to see him walking in, the screen door slamming shut.

“Who’s Di Felix? Who is Di Felix?! Gah, Jers, you tell him!” Violet said, still smiling. She was so bright it eclipsed us all, drew us all. Dawson couldn’t help it. I couldn’t help it. Even Travis had been pulled into the joy escaping her.

“She’s only the most important female comic book writer and illustrator of this decade. She created Glasswing, and WarKid, and Clyde the SnowZombie,” I said, breathless, excitement still filling me.

“You just spoke Greek to me,” Travis said, eyes crinkled in happiness.

I turned on my heel, went to the room, and dug out a copy of Glasswing I’d brought with me from Leena’s. It had an exquisite drawing on the cover of her with her clear butterfly wings reflecting like diamonds, which shimmered into the edges of the structures where they turned from clear to a vivid magenta and then black. It was one of my favorite drawings of Di’s. I flew back to the kitchen on feet that were light and happy. I showed it to Travis. “Glasswing!”

He nodded as if he’d seen this comic book superheroine before, but he probably hadn’t. Di Felix’s work wasn’t mainstream yet. You had to be a true comic lover to know her. You had to have been following the new company, Image Fist. You had to be a complete and utter comic book geek like me.

“Gah!” I turned back to Violet and hugged her again. “You’re the best sister in the entire world!”

The heaviness of the day, the grief, the fear, were slowly disappearing behind a wall as I let the truth settle into me. I was going to get to go to Comic Con! I was going to meet one of my favorite authors and illustrators. I was going to spend a day immersed in all the things that had saved me every single time my world had turned dark, and I was going to get to share it with Violet.

Then, I remembered I needed a battery in the Civic, and I looked over at the clock on the microwave, wondering how much time I had before the auto parts store closed.

“I have to go. I have to get a battery,” I said, picking up my bag and turning to look at Travis, who’d already done so much for me that day, and yet I was going to ask him to do one more thing.

“When is this thing?” Travis asked.

“Tomorrow!” Violet and I said together.

“I’m still off, so I can take you. I’ll just hang out while you go all nerdy over this hero of yours and drive you back. We can get the battery on Sunday.”

“Nah,” Violet said, but she was smirking again. “I don’t think you should go all that way with us without going in.” Travis looked like he was going to object, but Violet jumped in with a laugh before he could say anything. “I got four tickets, brother-in-law. You can come, too!”

I squealed. I couldn’t help it. I was actually going to Comic Con. And while I hated the thought of Travis having to do more for us, I couldn’t not go. I couldn’t. It was Comic Con! It was Di Felix. I looked at him, trying to hold back my smile, trying to be serious when I asked the question.

“Are you sure? This isn’t really your thing.” I watched his face, but it never once lost its smile. He reached out and tucked a stray strand of hair out of my face.

“I think this might just become my thing,” he said gruffly. I heard Dawson snort, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to let this joy that Violet had given me be overshadowed. We all needed this. We needed a moment to escape the bonds the world had strapped around us. Like Icarus flying to the sun. We might eventually get singed, but for a few hours, we’d have the clouds, and the blue sky, and the wind.

I turned from Travis back to Violet. “Did you ask Jada if she wanted to come with us?”

Violet shook her head. “No, she’s flying out to Bora Bora for a week.”

“Must be nice,” Dawson spoke up. He looked at the bowl Travis was still holding. “Are you going to eat all of that, or do you plan on sharing?”

“If you’re nice, I’ll let you come with us,” Violet said to Dawson as she flounced into the kitchen and started pulling plates from the cabinet as if she’d always lived in this tiny cottage. As if it were home as much as the Victorian on the hill had become. It made my heart, which had been sad, and hurt, and angry, and sad again, blossom more. She was happy. I was happy.

I’d had seven good things today. My normal five, the moment with Travis, and now this. Seven whole, beautiful things in one day!

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