Wild Wind: A Chaos Novella (Chaos #6.6)(62)

“Mm…” she hummed, before, “I’m taking it our discussion is over?”

“My guess, Mal’s here by now and we gotta talk to him, see how he is and give him the heads up. Then you got a call to make.”

They were in the hall and she was staring at the door they were headed toward like she didn’t want it to get any closer.

He then gave her the same pep talk Dutch gave him.

“It’s good we know what’s going down, babe. Because what’s going down is not good and it needs to stop.”

“Yeah, I just…”

She let out a heavy sigh and he stopped them at the door without going through it.

She looked up at him and finished, “Being an adult sucks sometimes.”

“Yeah,” he agreed.

“All right, honey, let’s get this done.”

“Yeah,” he repeated.

“First though, just to say, you going to the school to check on Mal…” She grinned up at him. “I’ve figured out I like boys like you too.”

On that, he realized he hadn’t given her a hello kiss.

He saw to that.

He then made sure he did a thorough job with it.

When they were done, they turned to the door.

And together, they pushed through it to get things done.





“Okay, that’s sorted. But before I call her, you need to be real with me, Mal. Are you truly okay? I mean, physical-wise, where they kicked you.”

They were at the soda fountain, him, Archie and Mal.

And Archie was finishing things up with Mal before she moved on to having a chat with his mom.

Dutch was somewhere with Joany, and he had a feeling she’d let him select the music, considering Buckcherry was playing.

“I’m okay, Archie,” Mal replied.

“Tell it true, Mal,” she urged.

Jag was sitting next to the kid, Archie on the opposite side from him.

Both Jag and Mal had cherry Cokes, Archie made them then opted out of a refreshment for herself.

“I’m telling it true, honest,” Mal told her.

Jag studied the kid’s profile and he’d have to be a seriously good liar to be pulling that off because he didn’t look like he was bullshitting.

Jag then looked to Archie, catching her nod. She pushed from the back counter, went to Mal, laid her hand flat on the counter in front of him and said, “It’s because I dig you. You mean something to me. Okay?”

“Okay,” Mal replied.

She studied him.

And that was when Jagger saw in her what he felt in himself, but he couldn’t pinpoint what it was until then.

Mal was not their zone anymore.

Like she said, it sucked being an adult, but it was more.

They were powerless to take care of him in certain ways because they were his tribe, but they were not his tribe.

He really needed to get the other kids to Ride.

Her eyes came to him, he gave her a smile he hoped made her feel better, and then she reached out and touched Mal’s forearm before she murmured, “I’m off to call your mom. Be back.”

With that, she took off.

Jagger lifted his Coke and sucked some back.

Dutch showed and took the position Archie had been in at the back counter.

“Belated intro, that’s my brother, Dutch,” Jagger introduced.

“Yo,” Dutch said to Mal.

“Yo,” Mal replied, then bent his head to the striped, paper straw coming out of his glass.

Jag couldn’t get a bead on him.

But just to cover his bases…

“Don’t be pissed at Arch. Like she said, she’s sharing with your mom because she cares about you.”

“You guys think it’s this. It’s not this. Though, Dad’s ticked about this,” Mal mumbled to his drink.

Jag shot a look to Dutch who had his arms crossed on his chest, his boots crossed at the ankles, but he didn’t move after Mal spoke, except to catch Jag’s look.

That was an opening and Jag wanted to jump on it and tear it wide.

But he fought against that urge, and instead proceeded carefully.

“Your dad knows about the twins?” Jag asked.

Mal sucked back more Coke.

“Mal, buddy, please tal—”

Mal let go of the straw, and still slumped over his drink, he turned only his head to Jag.

“He wants me to tell Mom. I don’t want to worry her. I can handle the twins.”

“No offense, bro, but it wasn’t looking that way to me,” Jag replied warily.

“I don’t care about them.”

“You kinda hid that you were racing away from them, but not totally,” Jagger pointed out.

“Not wanting to put up with their shit isn’t the same as caring about them.”

You couldn’t argue that.

“Have they done this before?” Dutch asked.

Mal looked to him and Jag didn’t know whether to give Dutch the sign to shut up, or not. Jag barely knew the kid. Dutch didn’t know him at all. And he was finally talking, they didn’t need for him to clam up.

“The shoving, yeah. The kicking, no. The generally being a pain in the ass, all the time. But they don’t matter,” Mal answered Dutch.