All I've Never Wanted(77)

“Nothing, huh?” The security guard narrowed his eyes. “Y’all look awfully suspicious, hiding behind the trash can like that.”

“Oh, erm, we were just playing hide and seek,” Venice offered brightly. She stood up, brushing down the front of her coat. “But, uh, we’re done now. We won!”

“Yeah!” Zack jumped in. “Our brother’s never been able to win!” He let out an evil cackle.

The suspicion morphed into fear on the security guard’s face. He probably thought he was dealing with lunatics. “Is that right?” He took a step back. “Well, uh, have fun.” With that, he scurried away, but not before Zack heard him mutter, “They’re a bit too old to be playing hide and seek. Too old to play dress-up, too.”

“Great. Now everyone thinks we’re crazy,” he sighed, even though he wasn’t all that upset. Crazy people had all the fun. “Come on, let’s go.”

Zack started speed-walking in the direction Maya and James had gone in, hoping they hadn’t lost them, when he realized Venice wasn’t following. He turned and saw her still standing by the trash can.

“What are you still doing there?”

“There’s gum on my shoe!” she wailed. “On both my shoes!”

He groaned. Of all the luck—“That’s ok, I’ll just pull you.” Zack grabbed her arms and tugged. Venice lurched forward a bit, but that must’ve been the Krazy Glue of gum because her feet didn’t budge.

Zack frowned determinedly, giving her another tug. No dice. “Can’t you help me at least a little?”

“What do you want me to do?” she snapped crankily. “I’m the immobile one here! Do you have anything I can use to cut the gum out?”

“If I had a knife I would’ve used it on you already,” Zack mumbled, appalled at the violent turn in his thoughts.

No! That was a mean thing to say. Think of happy things, Zack, happy things. Fluffy bunnies and rainbows with pots of gold and…and leaping unicorns eating cotton candy…

Cotton candy! At the thought of the stupid snack that had gotten Venice so hyped up in the first place, Zack gave another mighty tug without thinking, causing Venice to tumble forward right into him.

“Oof!” Zack fell down on the ground with a loud groan. To his horror, he felt something wet on his lower leg.

“Aaaah!” He jumped up and frantically spun around like a dog chasing its tail, trying to see what he’d fallen in. He prayed it wasn’t…

“There’s ketchup all over you.” Venice looked like she was trying not to laugh as she pointed at the oozing red condiment on his jeans.

“Noooo!” Zack wailed. “These are my favorite jeans!”

She frowned. “Are you gay?”

“No!”

“You sure sound gay.”

“Shut up and come with me to the gift shop to buy some clothes!”

“Hey, don’t you be telling me to shut up, I thought you were supposed to be the nice one---ooh, puppy!”

“Don’t you dare!”

The two continued to bicker as they stormed into the nearest gift shop. Well, Zack stormed, and Venice hobbled, since she still had gum on the bottom of her shoes. Fifteen minutes later, they came out, the redhead in new flip-flops and trying not to laugh while Zack tried to keep his one-size-too-large shorts from falling.


Stupid store. They had to run out of his size.

“Great, now we lost them,” Zack sighed. Adri was going to kill him.

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that, Blondie.” Venice, who’d gotten over her Scion starstruck-ness a long time ago, pointed at a small outdoor restaurant, where Maya and James were eating burgers and laughing.

Zack breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe there was still hope. Then, to his horror, he saw James lift up a hand to brush a strand of hair out of her face. Maya blushed and turned away, but James placed a hand under her chin and tilted it up so she was facing him again.

“Oh, no, they’re going to kiss!” Zack squawked. Crap. “She’s supposed to kiss Roman, not that overgrown hedgehog!”

“Hedgehog?” Venice squinted at the sandy-haired boy. “He doesn’t look like a hedgehog to me. And why is she supposed to kiss Roman?”

Zack barely heard her as he ran towards the café. No, Maya could not kiss James. That would ruin everything! He was a better matchmaker than that!

As he watched, James lowered his face closer…closer…

“FIRE! There’s a fire!” Zack yelled randomly, saying the first thing that came to mind. “Fire! Run for your lives! Forget about your burgers and your kisses, RUN!”

The people sitting at the café looked around, confused, as a low titter ran through the crowd.

“Fire? Where?”

“I don’t see any smoke—Peter, put out your cigarette!”

“To hell with it, I’m finishing this burger. If I’m going to die, I might as well die eating Kobe beef.”

Maya and James looked just as confused as the rest of the people. Maya’s eyes scanned the crowd, and Zack gulped, realizing she was going to see him in just a second if he didn’t do anything.

He looked around frantically just as Venice caught up to him, panting and out-of-breath.