Page 97 of Wandering in Darkness
“Is that a good ‘hmm’?”
“I’m not making you uproot your life.”
“You act like I have some strong ties to where I live. I have no family there. My friends have turned out to be horrible people… right now, Traveler is my only companion and he’s happiest when he’s with you, and so am I.”
“Don’t get all sappy,” I say as I try not to let my face heat up. I’m not sure what’s so great about me, but when he says things like that, it makes me feel like I really am something special.
The door to Felix and Lane’s room bursts open and I find myself not even wanting to turn around. The expression on Grayson’s face tells me I’ve made a good choice, but I’m a curious man, and sometimes I can’t appease this curiosity by avoiding things.
So I turn around and look at Felix and Lane, both dressed all in black. Felix has some weird faux leather pants thing going on, along with a black shirt and vest that looks like it’s out of a bad Halloween costume pack. He jerks his chin up as he looks right at us while twirling a baseball bat which he immediately loses when it flies off and crashes into a plant stand. Somehow it withstands the assault.
“Whoops.”
“How did you already lose the bat?” Lane asks.
“Skills, Lane, skills!”
“Are we joining a biker gang?” I ask,extremelyconfused and positive that what they’re wearing is offensive to biker gangs all over the world.
“No, we’re fucking menacing, obviously,” Felix says.
I turn to Grayson. “Obviously, Grayson. He said obviously.”
Grayson slowly nods,obviouslysuspicious about this declaration. But because he’s a sucker who wants to get along with my friends, he nods like he understands.
Felix is glowering at us for some reason, as ifweare the problem his outfit doesn’t work, not the outfit itself.
“I think the issue is that your shirt is buttoned,” Felix says as he unbuttons Lane’s shirt. “Eh? Are you guys shaking in your panties now or what?”
My attention returns to Grayson. “What do you think about just going without them?”
“Yeah. I mean, we can still take the pig. He’s less suspicious than those two.”
“Suspicious, my ass!” Felix says. “Come, my unsuspicious lover.”
“How can you get more suspicious?” I ask as I hear a horn beep and turn to Grayson. “Are we driving separately or are you coming back here?”
“What do you want me to do?” he asks.
“I mean… I guess we should probably go together, right? Just to keep these guys in line,” I say, refusing to admit that it means he’ll have to come back here with me. Not that Ineedhim to come back here… but if he comes back here then I won’t have to be alone.
“Yeah, sure,” he agrees as he gets into the SUV. The moment I get in and see Antonio lower his sunglasses, I realize that I regret everything.
“Why the fuck does Antonio look so cool?” Felix asks.
“I’m sure he doesn’t look as cool as us,” Lane assures him.
“You two look like you’re posing as what someone who’s never seen a biker thinks a biker looks like,” Antonio says before taking off.
Half of us are still in motion and we go flailing in the vehicle. The only one who has no trouble with this at all is the pig who is apparently quite steady on his feet as he scouts the floor in case someone’s dropped some food he can vacuum up into his mouth.
I get a real close view of Felix’s outfit as I basically cuddle him from where he’d fallen into me.
“You smell… horrible. I feel like you might get radiation poisoning from whatever you’re wearing.”
“Don’t make fun of my latex vest,” he scolds. “I smell like a hero.”
“I… see,” I say, clearly not seeing.
