Love Lines

29: Holy Mother of Pearl, Batman!

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"Alright, it seems this place only has a few things OnDemand," Allie chirped from the end of the bed. "And since I have a sneaking suspicion that you two will be making out all night like you're doing right now, I think I'll skip movie night all together and just go back to my room."

She was being a little presumptuous on that one. Everyone had changed out of their party gear and even though I really wanted to throw on some comfy pj's I had somewhere to be at midnight. So Cecil and I had snuggled up at the head of the bed while Allie flipped through the movies on the movie. There was no making out, no groping, just...cuddling.

"We're not making out." I slapped at her arm, grabbing for the remote. "We're not even kissing."

She looked over her shoulder and smiled. "But you want to. You're being good because I'm here."

"That's part of it," I admitted. "But we actually have somewhere to be in ten minutes."

She frowned. "Elite stuff?" I nodded. "Is it something..."

"You can't come," Cecil piped up and his hand stilled in his mission to trace every life line on my arm. "It's bad enough I have to worry about her. I don't want to have to worry about you too."

"Aw, Ce, that's so touching." She put her hand over her heart. "But unrealistic. My brother taught me quite a few tricks. I'm quite capable. What beastie is it this time, though? At least tell me that. Ghoul? Sphinx? OoOo how about one of those stick monsters?"

"Stick..." Cecil sighed and I could tell he was trying not to get angry. "How do you know about the tenius monstrum?"

"The tennis what?" I said.

"Tenius monstrum. It translates to thin monster but we just call them..."

"Stick monsters," Allie said happily. "Because they look an awful lot like sticks but bigger. Like a tree but not. The only way to kill them is to blow them up or set them on fire. If you stab them, they heal. If you cut them in half, they multiply."

I stared at my best friend like this was the first time I'd really looked at her.

"Really?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "It's how they reproduce. They cut off little bits of themselves and..."

"Ohkay." Cecil sat up which just made me sit up since I was resting back against him. "That's enough. She doesn't need to know all of that."

"Sure she does. Eventually she's going to be out there..."

"And I'll always be there to protect her so, no. She doesn't need to know about it."

"And as noble as that sounds, she can protect herself and she needs to learn," Allie snipped. "This isn't the Victorian era after all. She's not going to stand behind you in a big hoop skirt and scream daintily. She's a kick ass woman of the twenty first century. Besides, you'd be surprised what she can do. Have you seen her wield a golf club lately? Girl has a nice swing."

"If you're going to bring up the self defense class you signed us up for so you could oogle the instructor, please wait for me to leave the room first."

"Who said anything about that?" Allie said the same time Cecil said, "You took a self defense class?"

I got up to grab my shoes, letting Allie do the explaining since the whole thing was her fault.

"Yeah, you know the one they offered at the school our sophomore year? I thought it would be nice for us to do some extracurricular activities together..."