Wild Wind: A Chaos Novella (Chaos #6.6)(49)

Mal looked up at him.

“You’re gonna get a lecture, a short one, but an important one,” Jag went on.

Mal’s face started screwing up.

Jag was quick about saying what he had to say before the boy said something he’d regret.

“Fabe’s a cool guy. We both know that. What is not cool is you talking trash to him. And I’ll just say that’s to him or about him if he’s not around. He is who he is and how he is and that’s none of your business, outside how he treats you. And I know he’s cool with you. So there’s not one single reason for you not to be cool with him. Are we on the same page with that?”

Mal looked guilty and hid it by turning away and slurping up more ice cream.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Jag said, lifting the glass and taking a sip (and Archie had bona-fide Coca-Cola glasses, with the bulbous top and the narrow base).

Shit.

Fountain cherry Coke made with two syrups and seltzer just couldn’t be beat.

They sat in silence.

They sat in silence longer.

Mal made those slurping noises that meant his shake was gone.

And they sat in silence after that.

Jag had hoped the kid would open up, but it seemed he wasn’t going to.

He still gave him more time before he got off his stool, grabbed both their glasses and headed behind the counter to put them in the bus bin.

He then positioned himself opposite Mal at the counter and leaned into his forearms to get eye-to-eye with the boy.

When they locked gazes, Jag spoke.

“Right, I gotta get back to work, Mal. It’d be groovy you worked on your homework a little. And when Fabe gets back with his smoothie, it’d be cool you said words to make amends. That’s up to you. But from here on in, your day fucks with your head, you need someone to sit with and just be, you tell Arch to call me. I’ll be here.”

He then reached out, rapped his knuckles on the counter in front of Mal for no reason at all, just to punctuate his point, and he started to make his way to wherever Archie was.

“You really came right here when Archie texted?”

Mal’s question made him stop and look back at the kid.

“I’m standing here, aren’t I?” Jag noted. Then joked, “I mean, as much as your joyous company lights my day and gives the promise of a million better tomorrows, I do gotta work to pay my mortgage.”

His joke made Mal crack another smile.

That smile did not have a long life.

“I…” Mal seemed like he was going to say something, but Jag figured what came out of his mouth next was not what Mal intended to say. “I’ll say sorry to Fabe.”

“Awesome,” Jag said.

“And I’ll get on my homework,” Mal continued.

“Great, kid.”

Mal pulled his lips in and nodded.

Then he slid off his stool and crept through the store to the back, where Archie had storage, a break room, the bathroom, and a setup for the kids to watch TV, play videogames, and sit at a table and do homework.

And again with the creeping.

He couldn’t say he knew Mal all that well. That was the longest period of time he’d spent with the kid and they’d done it barely speaking.

But he always seemed full of something, himself, swagger, whatever.

Now he seemed…

Beaten.

Archie was at his side before Mal made it to the door to the back.

Joany was with her.

Joany spoke first.

“What was up his ass?”

“He didn’t share,” Jag told her as Archie slid an arm around his waist simultaneous with him curving an arm around her shoulders.

Joany gave them an up and down and stated, “I hate to be the one to inform you of this, but it’s impossible for you two to physically fuse.”

“You are very wrong about that,” Archie returned. “Do we have to have a convo about the birds and bees?”

Joany made a face. “Don’t gross me out. You’re my girl. You’re asexual.” She jerked her head at Jag. “He’s not, of course. He’s very sexual. But you have Barbie parts.”

Jagger started chuckling.

“Learn early, Jag, don’t encourage her,” Archie advised, not taking her eyes off Joany.

Jag didn’t quit chuckling.

“And again,” Archie said this to Joany, “stop perving on my boyfriend.”

“If you date a hot guy, you give up the right to ask friends and acquaintances not to perv on said hot guy,” Joany shot back.

“That is not true,” Archie retorted.

“Sis, if I was dating a hot guy, I’d so totally let you perv on him. It’d be my civic duty.”

Jag started laughing.

Fabe showed, his lips wrapped around a straw stuck into a smoothie.

He handed another one to Joany, stopped sucking, and asked Jag, “Are they having the perving-on-you discussion again?”

“Again?” Jag asked.

Fabe nodded.

“They used to fight regularly about if Prince should have gone back to Prince after he assumed the symbol, since the symbol, everyone has to agree, was kick-freaking-ass,” Fabe declared. “Now they fight about perving on you. And by the way, I’m on Joany’s side of that argument. You’re seriously perv-worthy and it’s just selfish not to let that happen.”