Page 84 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?!
“You named your dog Goliath,” Lyric said.
“Hey! There’s nothing wrong with his name. It’s amazing.”
Lyric sighed dramatically. “You know I love that dog like he’s my own, but, Win, you are not good at naming things. Do you remember what you named your cat in high school?”
I hung my head in shame. “Stinky.”
“You named your cat Stinky?” Miles chuckled and tried to cover it up with his free hand.
“He was a street cat who smelled awful when we brought him in. I gave him a bath and kept calling him stinky—because hewas—and it just sorta became his name. He didn’t even stink after that, but the name stuck.”
I missed that cat. My parents kept him when I went to prison, and supposedly, he passed away when I was in there. I kinda had the feeling my parents put him down so they didn’t have to deal with him. But when he passed away, my parents didn’t even tell me. Lyric went over there to check on the cat and found out, then came for a visit to tell me about it. Thinking about that sweet cat always made me feel so guilty. He probably thought I’d abandoned him.
And I had. It wasn’t my choice, but he didn’t know that.
“Hey,” Lyric said softly, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought him up.”
“It’s okay.” I smiled over my shoulder at them and patted their hand. “I’m good.” Then because I knew Miles was curious, I said, “Stinky passed away when I was in prison, and I always felt like I abandoned him.”
“Oh, Win, I’m so sorry.” Miles reached over and gave my hand a squeeze before letting go and focusing on the road.
Lyric said, “Okay, moving on to happier things. How did your date go last night?”
When I glanced at Miles, his face was blood-red, taking away some of the grief from sad memories and making me smile a tiny bit. Just seeing him helped my mood.
The rest of the drive was spent talking about lighter things, and by the time we pulled into the mansion’s driveway, I was in a good mood again. How could I not be when Miles was with me?
I was hoping to convince him to hang out with me later, either at one of our homes or possibly tagging along with Lyric to the cookout they were attending at their cousin’s. I’d kinda prefer to spend more time alone with him, but if he wanted to go to the party, I’d definitely go with him.
Chaos and Aeson were already there, waiting for us in their car, so we wasted no time getting out and getting ourselves ready for our next scary-gnome-infested-mansion-adventure.
Miles already had his coveralls on, so I wasn’t surprised when he took Sola over to meet the teens. I watched them, warmth bubbling in my chest at the sight. I didn’t know what it was about those kids, but I really hoped they’d let us help them out after this. If we found out where they lived, we could drop food off or even send over a delivery or something every now and then. I’d even send it anonymously if it’d help.
They both pet the firebird and looked happy and excited that Miles brought her with us.
“Do you think Clucky will be okay with Sola here today?” Miles asked Chaos.
The kid nodded. “Of course. She loves other familiars. Let me get her out of the car.” He opened the back door, and the cockatrice came fluttering out, making chicken noises.
Sola let out one of her trills, and Clucky froze, turned toward her, then started clucking and hopping around all over the place. The sight made me laugh.
Sola jumped off Miles’s shoulder and soared to the ground, landing directly in front of the other familiar. They both froze and stared at one another for a few long beats. Then they were clucking, cooing, trilling, and clacking away, almost like they were having a conversation of their own. After about thirty seconds, Sola stepped closer, and I thought she was going to rub her cheek against Clucky’s cheek.
But nope. We couldn’t be that lucky.
Sola let out an awful scream, right in Clucky’s face, and Clucky made almost the exact same sound back.
Their screams turned into more clucks and clacks, and then Clucky opened her giant wings, trying to intimidate the other familiar. Sola reared back and spread her wings too.
“What the actual hell?” Lyric said, almost in awe.
“Clucky! What the hell, dude?” Chaos asked, running over to her. He didn’t hesitate to pick her up even though she was in a threatening pose.
Miles did the same with Sola, scooping her into his arms.
Chaos and Miles stared at each other with wide eyes.
After a few seconds, Chaos said, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what her problem is. I’m sure they’ll be fine once they get used to each other.”
