Reapers - Master of Souls (Reapers Chronicles Book III)

World Warp II (A Reapers Year-End Special)

∞XIII∞

We were in the bleachers-Carter, Lindsay and I-sprawled like sloths for the whole afternoon. It was a lot warmer there. Plus, I was told ditching two or more periods couldn't hurt my grades. If I cared.

For some reason, we were all in black. If that meant anything, I didn't dwell.

"Look," Carter said, cocking his head to the basketball court.

Vincent just got the ball and was about to shoot. I thought he glanced at me for a millisecond before the ball went into the basket. Some of the girls watching from the other side of the gym cheered and screamed so loud it hurt my ears.

"Why are we even here?" I muttered through the corner of my mouth. "Let's just go."

Lindsay rolled her eyes-it looked like she put a whole year's supply of eyeliner on them-and scoffed. "Come on, A. You've been crushing on him since when? The third grade?"

Carter snickered, biting on his lip ring by force of habit. "Try kindergarten."

"Hello?" I said, inserting all the mockery I could muster. "I just transferred here a year ago."

"Right, A," Carter said. "And I'm a nerd. Plus, Lindsay's a medium."

They exchanged high fives and laughed some more as though they were in some kind of acid trip. When, finally, the laughter died out, Lindsay pulled her thighs up her chest and hugged them. I watched her blue eyes shift to and fro as the ball get passed from one player to another.

"Seriously though, A," she murmured to her knees. "Why don't you just walk up to him and say it upfront?"

That caught me off guard. "Say what?"

Carter leaned back, resting his elbows on the step behind us. "That you like him, what else?"

"I don't like him."

Lindsay blinked once as if that was some cryptic code I should be able to decipher. "Maybe you love him."

"Let me get this straight: I don't like him, but I love him?" I said, trying to sound analytical. "That's contradictory. Negative plus positive equals zero."

Carter burst out laughing again. "Nice one, nerd."

"Not zero," Lindsay said, seemingly in deep thought. "It's not zero if you love him more than you don't-like-him. It could happen. Like me and Carter."

Carter pressed his lips, trying not to smile. "Yeah? You don't like me?"

"Sure I don't," she answered without batting an eyelid. But before Carter could cry in a corner, get another piercing or worse, write poetry, she added, "I hate that you get tattoos that don't mean anything and you want to me to act like they look cool. I hate it that ring of yours. It's cold whenever you kiss me. But-"

He rubbed his hands together. "Here's the good part."

I pretended to dry-heave.

Lindsay turned to me. "It's not what he does for me or how he behaves that I love about him. It's just... him. Just. Him. All I did was accept everything else that comes with the package."

Right then and there, Carter pulled Lindsay toward him. They kissed while I grunted and cleared my throat and rolled my eyeballs. But I might as well be invisible.

"I don't get it," I groaned.

Lindsay smiled at me when finally, they let each other go. "You don't have to. You'll know when you do."