Offenders

Offenders (7)

Dex wouldn’t let go of my wrist as he led me down the hall toward the front of the school, Anthony trailing behind us. I nearly tripped. Finally fed up with me being dragged, I stopped and pulled myself from his grasp.

We were the only ones in the hallway, and I was glad. Everyone else had already gone home so we could be as loud as we want without people overhearing what we had to say.

“What is your problem?” I demanded, rubbing my wrist where he had been tightly hanging on. He definitely did have superhuman strength, that was for sure. “You didn’t have to drag me all the way out here! I can walk on my own!”

“Are you sure about that?” Dex questioned, and I didn’t really understand what he meant by that.

Anthony let out a sigh as he pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Smooth comeback, Dex.”

Dex didn’t even look at Anthony as he said, “Shut up.”

I now shook my head. “You sound like a crazy person.”

“I don’t want you around that guy anymore,” Dex ordered, not even listening to what I had said. I gaped at him. “You don’t know anything about him. He could be dangerous.”

I shook my head. “Nick is harmless.”

Dex looked at me as if I was insane. “You just met the guy!”

“He seems fine to me,” Anthony spoke up from beside us now with a shrug. Dex glared at him. “Is it really that big of a deal?”

“Kind of!”

“Really, Dex, your emotions are showing. You should be careful.”

“Shut up.”

“Dex is right, though,” Anthony now said, and Dex seemed relieved at the fact that someone was agreeing with him for once. “Nick could be a Redrum member, but I doubt it. I think Dex is just overreacting like usual.”

“You see? Anthony agrees with—hey!”

“You know what? I’m going home,” I told them now, not in the mood for their banter as I took a step back away from them. “I’ll just walk. Or fly. Or just walk, so I don’t freak out any humans.”

I expected one of them to stop me right away, so when they didn’t, I couldn’t help but feel a little angry. They’d just let me go home on my own? I didn’t even know if I knew the way back to the DAU!

“You know he can’t join the team,” Dex finally called out after me, and even though it wasn’t the response I wanted, it stopped me from going anywhere.

I turned back toward him. “Besides the obvious reason being that he wasn’t recruited, why can’t he?”

“Because our team name would sound ridiculous,” Dex shrugged, and I kind of just gave him a look because I couldn’t tell if he was actually being serious or not. “Just imagine it. Instead of VAKAD, it would be VAKAND. Or VANKAD. Or if you want to mix up the letters a bit, VADANK or VANDAK. I don’t like it.”

Anthony rolled his eyes. “You would rearrange the letters so you’d be closer to Violet.”

Dex ignored him, even though I could tell he really just wanted to tell him to shut up.

I didn’t know how I was supposed to respond to this, because I didn’t know if Dex was actually being serious or not.

I only gave him a look. “Dex.”

Anthony was also giving him a look. “You really suck at explaining when your emotions are all haywire.”

Dex turned toward Anthony, looking like he was going to hit him. “Shut up.”