Death Weeps Part 7

"What's so funny, kids?"

"Ramifications!" I yelled into the summer air and all the guys lost it, even Terran and Archer. We grabbed our aching ribs and Jonesy fell off the bench while Gramps looked on, perplexed.

Finally he smiled, looking at the nonplussed girls, "What's with the guys?"

Mia summed it up perfectly, "They're apes, Mac."

"Oink-oink," Jade added, looking at me with tears streaming out of my eyes.

"Turnips," Sophie said, picking the s.h.i.ttiest vegetable on the planet, making us guys wail louder.

"Nah... I vote for pigs," Tiff said in a bored voice, looking at us like ants scurrying on a hill.

Gramps gave the girls a considering look, stabbing me with the end of his broom like a one hundred ninety pound dust mote and I barked out another laugh. His eyes finally settled on Tiff.

"Looks like you girls have a small problem with an animal fetish," Gramps said, coming swiftly to our side, a grin riding his face to bursting.

Yeah, that.

I wiped my eyes, just another day at Gramps'.

CHAPTER 5.

I sat on Gale's easy chair with my hands dangling awkwardly between my knees.

Nothing was easy right now. I watched the couple across from me and saw what was on Clyde's face.

Love and devotion.

Him diggin' on Gale shouldn't have worked for me but it did. It made sense, she was AFTD, so was I. As long as a person didn't dwell on the specifics of the whole thing, it'd roll just fine.

But, there was the small detail of them dating... and everything that meant.

Clyde sat back casually, his suit unb.u.t.toned, his hand clasped loosely in Gale's, his fingers brushing against her knuckles casually.

Intimately.

I swallowed. Then took the plunge, "Here's the thing."

They gave me their full attention. "I need you guys to be on the down low until my probation's up."

Bobbi sighed. "I'm sorry Caleb. I'm on thin ice myself. I don't know if I'll be reinstated, and with the way things are between me and Raul..." she trailed off and Clyde stiffened at the mention of Garcia's name, squeezing her hand and she winced.

"I apologize," Clyde said, pressing his lips to her temple and she turned into his gesture like a cat searching for cream.

Wow.

His gaze locked with mine. "I am learning to control my strength, understand it."

Right.

"Anyway, if you guys wouldn't like... incite riots and stuff, that'd really help me out."

Bobbi shrugged a little helplessly, when I knew full well she was not helpless and responded, "We've got to be able to have a life. Move forward."

Clyde said, "Roberta knows my intentions toward her are honorable."

I met his eyes, the deep green impenetrable. "I know Clyde. But, others don't understand."

Clyde gave a smile-turned-smirk. "I have gathered that."

"What can we do?" Gale said, giving me steady eyes.

s.h.i.t, I was only almost seventeen, what did I know? I plowed forward anyway. "Ah, I don't think you can legally... ah get married or anything. I mean, technically, Clyde's dead. There's like proof and everything." I c.o.c.ked an eyebrow and Clyde nodded while Bobbi lifted her pulse-reader and thumbed it.

She handed it over to me and I looked where she'd marked it.

It had Clyde's birth and death certificates linked. The luminescent green characters underscored what I'd just said. In glaring detail.

I looked up from the reader and met her eyes.

Gale, such a bada.s.s cop just a few months ago had been brought low by her own emotions.

Mainly love.

Her eyes filled with tears and she whispered, "I love him, Caleb."

Clyde looked at her with such tenderness I was embarra.s.sed to observe them together. But I was somehow responsible for it all, I had to help.

"I know," I said simply, because it was true. They seemed so right together.

I stood and they did as well. "I can't help if you keep acting like you guys are normal."

"We are!" Bobbi protested.

Clyde's eyes narrowed at my words.

I put my palms up in supplication. "Ya are to me, but I'm AFTD, death is normal for me... in all its guises."

Clyde's eyebrows rose. "Don't say it," I said to Clyde but Bobbi laughed. "Sounds like somebody is getting philosophical." She smiled and I frowned.

Clyde reached a hand out, our eyeb.a.l.l.s level to each other, and squeezed my shoulder, a flash of death energy surged and he smiled, the connection flexing between us. "You are becoming the man you were meant to be. I am glad to be here to see it... Caleb," Clyde said somewhat awkwardly.

I nodded, it was great to be done with the Master moniker.

"Thanks." I met both their eyes, shifting my gaze equally between the two. "Just cool it until my probation is over. Don't run around and shove it in their faces. Besides, my parents will be okay with you coming over. And Gramps."

Especially Gramps. He was all over putting it to people that didn't like those that were different.

I think Gale and Clyde qualified.

Zombie couple.

Geez.

Gale hugged me and Clyde gave a nod, sliding his palm into the front pocket of slacks that hung from a body that was twenty-nine but eyes that were ancient, the knowledge of then and now colliding in a harmony only he could hear, feel.

I left. Their a.s.surance of inconspicuous behavior tied with my promise of a.s.sistance.

When I could give it.

I was in the eye of the storm, waiting to get out and be free, free of appraisal.

Free of scrutiny.

Just free.

Jade and I walked hand in hand down the hall, the wall of my friends behind me, some hooked up in pairs, the others dangling behind us. The noise of the cafeteria greeted us as we got in line and I slapped a couple of trays on the stainless steel rails that rode in front of the disgusting offerings in front of us.

Jade started to a.s.semble The Salad as I loaded my tray with the requisite pizza, sherbert, two milks... I skipped the soggy fries. They never got those right.

Sorta like my zombie mouths.

Nice.

I smiled and Jonesy saw it and said, "Share it, Hart."

"Nah... we're getting ready to plow through the grub, I'll let my internal musings ride for now."

Jonesy scowled. "You're not gettin' all Archer on us, are ya?"

Lewis frowned. "And what if he were, Mark? Is there something wrong with expressing oneself in a manner which is unique as compared to your peer group?" Archer smiled, his gray eyes lighting up in his face, the perfectly sculpted ashen blond eyebrows hiked in question.

"Argh!" Jonesy groaned, clutching his chest. "You're effing killing me!"

Archer smiled wider when the lunch lady said, her spatula raised like a weapon. "Watch your language, Mark Jones!" She waggled the spatula toward him, the spaghetti sauce sticking like glue.

Archer spread his hands wide. "See Jones, I'm not the only person on earth that calls you Mark."

Instead of answering, Jonesy threw his tray on the metal rails, lurching it along, loading it with every kind of bread he could find that didn't have color, muttering words that sounded a lot like clown and a.s.s.

I smiled as the group trudged through the line.

We walked over to the long, brown table with the fake plastic on top that some bonehead made to look like wood.

John put his tray down and took a chance, sitting next to Tiff, her glaring hoodie, an intense neon purple, blinding the group.

"So, when are we checking out the dome world?" she asked casually and John spit out a little milk.

"What?" she asked innocently, slurping her milk through the straw, not a stick of gum in sight. Even Tiff had to eat sometime.

"Haven't you learned anything?" Sophie asked. "I mean... Graysheet-much," she said in a whisper.

Tiff glared at her. "I could be talking about anything, Sophie," she said like duh.

Jade put up a hand, the nail tips little spots of shimmering pink on the ends of her elegantly small hands. "Let's not fight about it. I'm up for the adventure if we have some safeties in place."

I parked my chin in my hand, my elbow braced against the side of my lunch tray. I couldn't wait to hear what Jade thought would be safe. Girls thought of so much safety s.h.i.t that the whole thing wasn't fun in the end.

Jade arched a perfect black brow at me. "What? You don't think we need some contingency here?"

"Sure," I drawled out, distracted by her pinkness, then continued, "but it's not much of an adventure if there's so much safety we can't appreciate the random aspects."

Tiff snorted. "He's got a point!" she said and Jonesy nodded, saying, "Uh-huh, that's what I'm talking about."

Jade sighed and I put a hand on her swinging leg underneath the lunch table, she gasped a little at the contact. Even through her clothes now, she could feel me, the timbre of my emotional signature.

A fine pink washed her cheeks with color, the others checking out her reaction.

"Now that's interesting," Alex said, his perv-radar coming on line just as Randi walked up.

"Hey," she said and Alex swung his attention to her, smiling. She studied him for a second then looked at Jade and I.

"What?" she asked and Alex said, "Come here!" He grabbed her and she squealed as he plopped her down on his lap.

She thwacked him with her pulse reader, it bounced off harmlessly and he laughed. "You're going to have to do more than that... minx!"

Archer smiled through his sparkling water (I was pretty sure it set him back twenty bucks a bottle) and said, "Nice vocab..."

"Yeah, muscle head, you're just impressing the h.e.l.l out of me," Jonesy said, his lunch devoured, his mood sour.

"What's your problem, Jonesy?" Sophie asked, then she brightened, an expression like an epiphany crossed her face and she snapped her fingers. "I got it! There hasn't been a natural," she looked at me for a pensive moment, "or unnatural event in what, a couple of weeks?"

I frowned. Unnatural? Huh.

Jonesy scowled and Terran laughed. "She has you there, Jones. We all know how grumpy you get when you don't have Sufficient Chaos."

"Yeah! And we have a perfect scenario for ourselves and you can't think of a plan to get on it?" he asked.