I never would have believed it if someone had come up to me a week ago and told me that I would be sitting in my living room with a bunch of random kids from high school, one who I had dated and the other who might have been a fish in his spare time.
"How the hell did you end up in my bathtub?" I ask Luke from where I sit across from him on my mother's worn green-bean colored sofa, sandwiched between Creed Foster and Emilio.
Of course, I knew exactly how Luke had gotten in my tub since I had brought him home myself. But how he had ended up turning into a giant carp was beyond me.
"I don't know, Carter," Luke replies frustratedly, holding his head in his hands.
"Well, what were you doing before you forgot what you were doing?" I keep pressing him, hoping to elicit as much information as possible.
"I told you already! I don't know! " Luke shouts, and then he stands abruptly and starts pacing back and forth in front of us, his hands in his gorgeous mane of blonde hair. "I drove home to change clothes because I was supposed to meet Creed at the arcade. Then, all I remember is getting in my car and everything just going black after that. I don't know if I parked or if I crashed into a tree or anything. "
Whoa.
"This is insane! Carter and I went straight upstairs after he brought his dumb goldfish home! " Emilio exclaims. "There's no way we missed you hiding up there! "
I elbow him to get him to shut up and glare over at him. We didn't need Luke freaking out any more than he already was. This was serious, and there was always a chance that we could push him over the edge of no return.
"Wow," Creed Foster finally speaks up, a bowl of popcorn in his lap that he's picking through while we all argue. "Now I know why I don't hang around you bozos," he snorts, "You guys suck!"
"You would know about sucking, wouldn't you?" Emilio snarls at him, then tosses his hair.
"Why you little--!" Creed lunges across this sofa, but I shove him back before he can grab Emilio around the throat.
"Stop it!" I shout at both of them, "Fighting isn't going to solve anything! It's just going to make things worse! Something happened to Luke that we can't explain, and Fish is still missing. So we need to figure out what's going on before something bad happens."
"Sorry, Carter," Luke says, pulling on one of my spare windbreakers over an old striped T-shirt I'd let him borrow. "This is way too much for me right now. I still need to find my car, and both my dads are expecting me home for dinner any minute. Whatever this was, it's over, okay? Let's not mention it again. "
"Luke, wait a minute---!" I watch him head for the doorway, my mouth snapping shut when he steps outside, the door slamming shut behind him.
A second later, it starts to pour down rain in heavy sheets, battering the windows like bullets.
"Anybody want to take my van?" Creed offers up, and then he holds up a pair of battered keys.
"Actually," Emilio speaks up, and he grabs his bubble gum pink purse and stands up, "I really should be heading home, too. Euphoria's on tonight, and there's no way I'm missing my baby girl Zendaya again. Yas, queen! "
"What the hell is he talking about?" Creed leans over to whisper at me.
"Okay, Emilio." I say "If you want to abandon your best friend, go ahead." Even though I wanted to grab him and shake him, I scowl as I get up to walk him to the door. How could he just up and walk away from me like this? Creed Foster was going to murder me as soon as we were alone.
"Oh, you'll be fine!" Emilio titters, "Besides, it's Creed Foster!"
I shove him out the door before he can bat his eyelashes and pucker his lips at me. Then, it's just me and Creed sitting in my living room like complete and total strangers.
Awkward.
Very, extremely awkward.
"Come on," Creed says, standing up, his keys jingling. "Let's go find Luke's car, then we can look for your little boyfriend."
"I don't need your help, Creed."
It's out before I can stop myself, as usual. Sometimes my mouth moved faster than my brain, but I couldn't help it. This was weird as hell. Creed wasn't the type to want to help out, but I guess since it concerned Luke, then it concerned him, too.
Creed turns to look at me, this gleeful look on his face, as if I had both amused and annoyed him. "Who says I'm helping you?" He replies. "I want to find out why Luke Asher was in your bathroom and how he got here before I did. So let's go, okay? Time's wasting, asshole! "
I think about arguing, but curiosity wins out instead.
Plus, I still needed to figure out where Fish had run off to, and if he'd made it home. So, without another word, I let Creed lead me out to his beat up black van with an ugly skull with a green mohawk spray-painted on the side. It was pretty much the epitome of a kidnapper's getaway van, used for nefarious reasons.
"Let's start at the school and work our way from there, huh?" Creed grunts over at me. "I have a feeling this is going to take a while."
"Yeah," I climb into the van and buckle up, the rain soaking my clothes and hair. "Let's find Fish before it gets too dark to see anymore," I say, "I'm really worried about him right now."
"Aw," Creed smirks over at me, "Tennyson! Do you got a crush on the new boy?"
"N-No!" I sputter, my face turning bright red. "Why the hell would I be crushing on him?"
"I don't know," Creed shrugs and leans forward, starting up his old van with a roar, "You tell me, pretty boy."
"Just drive, Creed."
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