Page 142 of The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down
“So… what’s with the weird?”
Miles sighed. “Sorry. I’m… nervous, but I… we…”
“We want to talk to you both at the same time.”
“Right. Okay. Well, we’re stuck here for another ten minutes, but we can meet you by our car. It’s in the side parking lot.”
“Cool. See you in a few.”
I tugged Miles with me, and he let out an annoyed huff when we walked around the corner. “Why am I such a dork?”
“You’re an amazing dork.”
He chuckled. “Gee, thanks. I feel so much better now.”
I laughed and kissed his temple. “You should. An amazing dork is quite the compliment.”
He snorted, shaking his head, but leaned further into me. I kissed his head again, and we slowly made our way into the parking lot. Luckily, there weren’t a lot of cars, so it was easy to find theirs.
I moved my car over to the spot two spots from theirs so we could lean against it while we waited. The kids took nearly twenty minutes to get to us, and I could tell they were nervous when they walked up.
Apparently, Miles’s nerves were rubbing off on everyone else.
Which meant I was going to have to be the one to keep everyone relaxed.
Hopefully.
I wasn’t relaxed. At all.
But I could pretend, and hopefully that’d be enough to help Miles and the kids.
The twins leaned against their car, mirroring us, and Aeson sent us a nervous smile, saying, “Hey. Is everything okay? Is the dragon alright?”
Miles startled beside me and straightened. “Oh yeah, he’s fine. See?” He leaned forward a little and opened the sling so Ace could see him.
“Good. What about Confetti? Is she okay?”
“Oh, yeah, she’s doing great. She thinks she’s the ruler of the house, and usually Odin, Goliath, and even Sola let her get away with it.”
Aeson blew out a breath and put his hand on his chest over his heart. “Oh, good. You had me worried for a minute there.”
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. Confetti’s fine, and the vet gave this little guy a clean bill of health.” Miles sucked in a huge breath, then let it out slowly. “So… I, um, we… we know you guys are… I know you… ran away from your foster parents.”
Chaos straightened, already looking extremely pissed and ready to bolt. He placed himself a step in front of his brother. “How the hell do you know that?”
Miles winced. “We…Ilooked into you guys.”
Aeson paled. “Wh-what… what are you…”
“Did you tell the police where we are?” Chaos asked, pushing his brother against the car, either to flee faster or because the poor kid looked seconds from passing out.
“No, of course not.” Miles took a step forward, then seemed to rethink his movements and stepped back to me. “Listen, I’m sorry if I scared you, and I’m sorry I… well, I guess I’m not sorry I looked into you guys. I just… I have room at my house. Two rooms, to be exact, and I have a foster license, so you guys can come stay with me… if you want.”
Both teens stopped what they were doing and stared at Miles with slack jaws.
I decided I should step in before Miles had a heart attack from nerves. “We know someone who can help get you placed in Miles’s house officially, but you guys can come back with us right now and stay there. You… you don’t have to live… wherever you’ve been staying.”
Chaos grimaced. “We don’t need your help.”
