Misfits Like Us (Like Us #11)(22)
You better believe when I get the okay, I’m doing it. They fly home tomorrow, so I get my boss back soon along with the paparazzi mayhem Akara, Sulli, and Banks bring.
I’m ready for it.
“Any good today?” I ask Xander.
“No. Nothing.”
“Jeet?”
He smiles at something.
“What?”
“The way you say that, man. I always like it. Jeet,” he mimics my accent and then enunciates. “Did you eat?”
I smirk, driving out of the parking lot. “Well, did you?”
“Yeah. Bacon cheddar breakfast biscuit for lunch.” His smile is softer. “Kinney gave me her yellow M&Ms—it was like the nicest thing she’s done all week.” He flips through Frankenstein with little interest. “What about you?”
“I ate a couple pudding cups.” I mime a chef’s kiss.
Xander laughs. “Really, I meant if there was anything good that happened to you today?”
I think about Illyana_Dallas222, but I don’t typically talk fandoms with Xander, outside of the ones he likes. “Pudding is always good.” I nod to him. “And our car chitchats.”
Xander smiles more. “Yeah, for me too.”
While he sifts through the junk contents inside the middle console, I ask him, “You going to the football game tonight?”
“Uh, hell no. Easton can’t go, and I don’t care how much the girl squad pesters me to go. I’m not going.”
Thank you, Jesus.
Xander grabs my pack of cigarettes, opening them.
I take it back.
“Can I have one?” he asks me, already slipping one out like I’ll say yes.
It’s just a cigarette.
He’s seventeen.
It’s just a cigarette.
I’d give one to a friend.
He’s not your friend.
I answer fast. “Nah, those are old. You don’t want them.” I collect them from his hand.
“Cigarettes can get old?”
“Sure.” I roll down my window. Ben Cobalt, my Cobalt brethren, I’m sorry. I throw this shit out the window. Littering. So long, cigarettes. You lived a short life. “They aren’t good for you anyway.”
His face twitches. “Then why do you smoke?”
I like it. It’s better than what I used to do. “I do things that aren’t always good for me.”
“So do I.” He shrugs like we’re one in the same.
His dad might as well be in the backseat. Glaring at me. Telling me, “He’s impressionable, you bastard.” His grip might as well be on my shoulder. His sharp voice in my ear. “If you lead him down a dark road, I’ll end you.”
I think of Luna.
Why does the end of me always make me think of her?
FANATICON
Direct Messages
Friday, Sept 14th
* * *
3:31 p.m.
StaleBread89: thx
Illyana_Dallas222: no problem
* * *
4:24 p.m.
* * *
StaleBread89: is Bass your fav show or you like others? Need some recs while we wait for episode 5 to drop
* * *
Illyana_Dallas222: Bass is my current fav. Also love Raised by Wolves, Battlestar Galactica, Roswell, The Expanse, and The 100. Have you seen The OA? It’s amazing but only got 2 seasons #gonetoosoon
StaleBread89: The Expanse is god level. Need to check out the others. The OA any good?
Illyana_Dallas222: definitely worth seeing. I might be able to steer you in a good sci-fi direction based on whether you like it or you think it’s too weird
StaleBread89: if it’s weird it’s def for me
Illyana_Dallas222: sending you a link! Also fyi, if you don’t like some romance elements, you might not love Roswell and The 100 as much
* * *
5:55 p.m.
StaleBread89: I’m good with some romance. Everyone needs some love in their life ?? Even our girl Callie.
Illyana_Dallas222: Callie stans unite ??
StaleBread89: ??
7
LUNA HALE
I stare dazedly at the fist bump emoji we just sent one another. Smiling stupidly at his words about Callie and everyone needing some love in their life.
“Where’d she go—is she still there?” Tom asks over speakerphone.
“Looooona,” Eliot calls out over the three-way call. “Looooona!”
“We’ve lost her, dude.”
“We knew she’d be beamed up sooner or later,” Eliot sighs. “Which aliens should we go fight, brother?”
“Every single one. Leave none alive.”
I smile bigger at my phone. “I’m here. Just…checking my DMs for a sec. Sorry.” I swivel in a full circle on my vanity stool. The townhouse is no more—it has been lost to flames for over a year now. Where I lived isn’t as important as where I live now, unearthly reader. The penthouse is a big step-up in square footage.