The Perks of Being a Freak (Editing)

58. Let There Be Fire

It was the four of us that night at the park. Tony and Emily sat at the base of an oak, and he had his arm around her. Benny and I were in the tree above them. I was hanging by my knees from a low branch, and Benny sat on the other side.

“So Cody knows about you?” Tony asked.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Did you tell him about us?” Benny sounded afraid.

“I… Sort of…” I shook my head, braid swinging beneath me. “I told him that there were others who were similar, but that none of us were the same. Also, I didn’t give him your names.”

“Are you sure we can trust him?” Tony asked, hugging Emily a bit closer.

“He’s my brother,” I replied, a little sharper than I wanted. Emily’s head snapped up towards me.

“He may be blood, but you can’t trust blood,” she whispered. I remembered her father, and felt even more blood rush to my face.

“I know, Em,” I replied, taking hold of the branch and flipping so that I was hanging with my head towards the sky. All the blood drained from my head, and I sighed. “I don’t trust them. I only trust you guys. Why do you think I didn’t tell him who you were, or what you could do?”

“I still don’t think you should have told him anything,” Tony grumbled.

“What else could I do?” I crossed my arms and glared.

So what if Tony was back and he was dating my best friend? That didn’t mean that I had to pretend to like him. He was still a rude, arrogant bastard.

Thinking of Tony coming back made me think of Rajeev, and then I was sad again.

“I dunno,” Tony shook his head. “This shit is complicated as fuck.”

“Tell me about it,” I slumped in the grass. “We have the who, and the what. We’ve got the where down, but none of the why or how.”

“We could ask the scientists,” Benny suggested.

“Or we could storm the place and beat the crap outta them,” Tony grinned.

“Send a letter,” Emily suggested. “Strongly worded. Bad words. Lia words. Tony words.”

“All good suggestions,” I laughed. “But I was thinking more along the lines of using Benny’s invisibility to sneak in and hack into some computers or find files or something.”

“Could we pull that off?” Benny looked incredulous, and I tapped at my chin.

“Only if it was a small team. Maybe me and Emily? Benny, you and Tony could stay behind and take notes. I dunno.”

“How could Benny cloak you guys if he isn’t there?” Tony demanded.

“He does it for me at practice all the time,” I shrugged. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

“No prob, Li,” Benny winked.

“So is this going to be a thing?” Tony asked. “Are we really gonna do this?”

For some reason, all three of them looked at me.

“Why do I get to decide?” I demanded, flushing.

“Because you’re a good leader, Lia,” Benny said.

“Yeah, whatever.” Tony agreed gruffly.

“So I get to make the decisions?” I raised my eyebrows. “That doesn’t seem fair.”

“You make good decisions,” Emily giggled.

“Then… I guess we’ll go for it,” I tried to be confident, but just the idea of going back into that horrible place made my skin crawl.

“What if they catch you?” Tony demanded. “What if you get hurt.”

“I’m not afraid of getting hurt,” I waved off his concern.

“You have a pain fetish,” Tony muttered. I chose to ignore him.

“When?” Benny asked. 

“Next weekend?” I suggested. Tony and Benny nodded, while Emily sat up suddenly and looked across the park.

“Not alone,” she whispered. “The shadows are alive.”

Just then, our three best friends stepped out into the dim light.

In a flash, all four of us were on our feet, and Benny was out of the tree. It was a staredown.

“Lia?” Tony asked. “What’s going on?”

“S’all right,” I said. “We were just leaving.”

“You think that we’d let you get away that easily?” Jaeb sneered.

I didn’t reply.

I had taken maybe one step away when I went flying, and not in the way I was used to. I hit the ground and tumbled, head over heels, until I slid to a stop.

When I looked up, I had to blink to make sure that I wasn’t seeing things.

Because it looked like Tony had Simon in the air, by the throat.

And it also looked like Tony was on fire.