The Unholy Trinity II

Chapter Eight

Despite all the drama that went down on the first day of school, things were pretty quiet the rest of the week. Ted didn’t eat lunch with them again, but neither did Corina. Even without Corina calling to tell her, Fallon already knew she and Ted were hanging out every day. It was as if Corina had forgotten about him saying Fallon was hot. Either that or he’d managed to convince her that he didn’t mean it or didn’t think it anymore. Whatever the reason, Fallon was glad to be rid of him. She still had to put up with him in first period, but he kept his distance from her. Even the God Squad didn’t bother them. Of course, Fallon didn’t know if that was a good thing, but she wasn’t going to complain about it.    

As soon as Griffin picked her up on Friday morning, Fallon could see there was something on his mind. It was his eyes that gave him away. They were blacker than normal.   

“Are you gonna tell me what’s wrong?”       

“Are you busy tonight?”        

Fallon furrowed her brow. “What?”  

“Can you come over after school and hang out for dinner?”            

“You have to tell me what’s wrong first.”     

“Dinner’s what’s wrong.”      

“You totally lost me.”

“Lara Reese is coming for dinner tonight.”   

“Okay, and?” 

“And Sim said she wants to do a story about kids being back in school and tie that in with Lucian still being missing. He also thinks she’ll want to ask me some questions and play up the angle of it being my first school year without my twin brother.”     

“Oh.”  

“Anyway, I kind of need you there if you’re not busy.”      

“Kind of?” she teased.           

Griffin finally cracked a small smile. “Okay, I really need you there because I’m afraid I’ll start bawling when she starts pushing my buttons.”           

Fallon arched her eyebrows. “Bawling?”      

“All right, I might not be bawling, but I really do need you there. Can you do it?”

“Anything for my big brother,” Fallon said and flashed him a smile.           

After school let out, Griffin seemed more pensive than when he’d picked her up that morning. Fallon wasn’t looking forward to dinner with Lara Reese either, but she wasn’t anywhere near as worried about it as he seemed to be. When they didn’t speak more than a few words on the drive back to his house, Fallon wondered what they’d do when they got there. It was only a few minutes after three and dinner wouldn’t be served until six. The idea of spending three hours locked in silence with him didn’t appeal to her at all.

“Maybe you should just take me home,” Fallon said when he parked in front of his house.            

Griffin killed the engine, but he didn’t get out. Fallon’s eyes widened when he moved to rest his head against the steering wheel.

“Do you know what this week has been like? It was bad enough not having Loosh there, but everybody kept reminding me about it. Now I have to sit and listen to some reporter do the same thing when I just want to forget about it.”

Fallon unbuckled her seatbelt and reached to rest her hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to do this, Griff. We can just take off.”

Griffin leaned back and slumped in his seat. “Yeah, I do. Sim thinks this will help find Loosh, and he’ll be pissed if I bail. You wanna know the hardest part about this whole thing?”