Page 8 of Bullet
“Oh, man, I’m sorry,” Mario replied. “I… God, that was stupid.”
“It’s okay. We were very close. I’m also very close with my foster father. He’s still alive, so that’s safe territory.” Mario stared back at me nervously and I chuckled. “Sorry. I have a dark sense of humor. It’s true though, I’m close with him, too.”
“Cool. Does he ride bikes?” Mario asked.
“No, he’s a four-walls, both-feet-on-the-ground kind of guy. He doesn’t even like to fly.”
Mario chuckled. “My dad is a high-risk, high-reward type, so if adrenaline is involved, he’s into it. I inherited it from him for sure.”
“So, you would say you aren’t afraid of a little danger then?” I asked.
He shrugged. “We’re all dying, it’s what we do with the time we have that counts.”
“True indeed.”
The only thing worse than starting a conversation with a stranger, was ending it. Both Mario and I stood in silence for much longer than I would have liked before I finally just decided I didn’t care to be awkward and just walked away. I kept my eyes out for those the other members were talking to and tried to pick out those it didn’t seem they’d crossed, but it seemed like they were covering the bases. Thanks to that, my attention kept getting siphoned by the other distraction present for me that evening.
Celia.
Fortunately, she wasn’t there to pledge, but she was floating around, flirting with all of the different prospects like it was her job. Her long, curly black hair was like a magnificent mane flowing down her back and she somehow kept finding a place to stand that cast a perfect spotlight over her pristine, honey-colored skin. Her hazel eyes flashed every time she laughed at what someone was saying, and every now and again, she would flick out a hand and run it along the arms or chest of whoever she was talking to. It was taking me an active effort not to stand there staring at her like an idiot. She hadn’t so much as looked in my direction since she arrived, yet she was always right in my eyeline when I looked up.
Was she doing it on purpose, or was my brain just betraying me?
That ship had sailed regardless. I’d spent a minuscule amount of time thinking that maybe, just maybe, she was going to be the one who pulled me out of my cage.
Damn, I hated being wrong.
To drag myself away from her, I scanned the room for Avery, planning to join him in whatever conversation he was locked in. I found him, along with Bucky and Vil, talking to one ridiculously tall man, with slicked-back black hair and a thick, bushy horseshoe mustache. They were all so captivated by him, that I had to walk over and see what all the fuss was about. Sifting through the crowd, I eventually came to stand at Avery’s side just as he was finishing speaking.
“The second cow says, “Wow. Good thing I’m a helicopter!” Everyone listening to the guy speak erupted with laughter, except for me, because I missed the joke. The guy in question noticed my lack of response and jutted out his hand immediately. “Oh! Sorry, I didn’t see you sneak up on us. I’m Joey.”
I took Joey’s hand and shook it just as Avery put his hand on my shoulder. “Oh, this is the guy I was telling you about, Bullet.” He looked at me. “Joey’s a huge Age of Logic fan!”
My eyes widened. Age of Logic was a lesser-known, Arizona-bred band who played at MiD every year. “No kidding?”
“Aw, yeah, man! I first saw ’em with a bunch of my friends back in high school and I’ve loved them ever since. I went on a huge, cross-country trip last year following them to all their concerts, and it ended with the Steel Knights desert concert. I saw you guys, the fellowship, and how much fun you guys were having, and I said, ‘Shit, I gotta get with them somehow.’ I just moved to Hoppa a couple weeks ago and saw the call for prospects yesterday.”
“Wow. So, you’ve wanted to join long before today?” I asked.
“For like a fucking year!” He smiled. “I’m gonna do whatever it takes to prove I belong here.”
Bucky let out a husky chortle. “Isn’t this guy great, Bullet?”
“Seems pretty great,” I said. “Do you think…”
Behind Joey, Celia walked back into my field of view. When I first looked up, it almost seemed like she was looking over at me, but when I focused on her, she was talking to someone else, not looking in my direction in the least.
“Uh...” Joey chuckled. “Did he run out of juice or something?”
Avery looked in the direction I was staring in and then rammed his shoulder into mine. I cleared my throat and shook my head. “Sorry. I lost my train of thought there.”
“Yeah, booze’ll do that to ya,” Joey said. “Don’t touch the stuff.”
“Really?” Avery asked.
“Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong, no judgment or anything, I’ve just seen a lot of stupid people do a lot of stupid shit. I do enough stupid shitwithoutthe influence of liquor, so I try not to tip the odds any more than my mama did when she pushed me out.”
Everyone laughed, and even I broke into a chuckle, but I was distracted by Celia in the background once again. “Excuse me for a second.”
