The Elements Trilogy: The Secondaries

Chapter 21: Lightning

Hello. You have reached the voice-mail box of Evie Parker. Please leave a message at the tone.

I angrily hit the end call button on my phone, and wondered why my girlfriend was ignoring me. My mood worsened when I saw Harry headed towards me.

"Masen! We need to talk!"

"Not now, Harry." I hit the redial button on my phone.

"It's about Jamie."

I instantly hung up. "What's up?"

"I, uh..I met his clone. Some guy by the name of Stacy Shaw."

I frowned. "Kinda short, blonde hair, pale blue eyes, nasty scar on his right eye?"

He nodded. "That's the one. You've met him?"

"I've the unfortunate time of slamming him into a wall not to long ago."

Harry smirked. "Me too."

"Should we tell Skylar?"

"No. No, that's a horrible idea."

"You're just saying that cause you love her," I countered.

"Well then why don't we get everyone else's opinion?" He asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, okay. Derek and Mexico are in the arcade." I walked on by him.

"Mexico?" Harry fell into step beside me.

"It's what I call Tony when he pisses me off. He pissed me off last night."

Harry chuckled. "Skylar just calls him Antonio."

"Yeah, well, I'm not Skylar."

"Thank god for that," he muttered.

I smothered a laugh, and pushed open the door to the arcade. I froze in my tracks, and Harry smashed into me.

The place was a wreck. Old pinball machines were trashed, hunks of metal were stuck in the wall, Diamond's arms were bloodied, and everyone was crouching in a huge mess.

Tony was breathing hard, and Evie's face was bright red. Derek was struggling not to laugh, and Diamond looked murderous. Skylar and Evalynn just looked shell-shocked. "What's going on?" I asked.

Evie's face snapped up to mine. she jumped up, and immediately gave me a huge kiss. "I love you, you know that right?" she said when she pulled away.

"Yeah, of course, I love you too," I frowned and leaned in to smell her. "Why do you smell like Mexico?"

She rolled her eyes at the nickname. "It's a story for later," she assured me.

"Okay, well listen, Harry and I need to talk to the guys, okay?"

"Okay, just take it easy with Tony."she lowered her voice. "I think Evalynn just broke him and Diamond up." She gave me another kiss, and she left the room, steering Evalynn out of Diamond's oncoming wrath.

I walked over to Tony. "Tony...you okay?"

"What happened?" Harry asked in awe, looking around the destroyed room.

"Um," Tony licked his lips. "Skylar said something about battle mode."

"Oh, I heard about that." I said sympathetically. "Heard its a real ass-kicker."

"Yeah, well apparently ours wasn't as strong, or else..." He shuddered.

"What brought you back?"

He glanced at me. "A kiss."

"Diamond?" Harry asked.

"Um," Tony licked his lips again. "Yeah. Diamond." He glanced toward the doorway just in time to see her and Skylar leave.

"What happened between you two?"

"Evalynn brought some things to light. Some things I don't want to talk about. Bottom line, probably single." Tony stood. "Why are you guys here?"

"We met Jamie's clone." Harry rumbled. "Should we tell Skylar?"

"Hell no," Derek and Tony said at once. Harry looked pleased.

"Why not?" I asked stupidly.

"Diamond said Skylar went psycho when Jamie died. She doesn't need another one of him that may or may not feel the same way, and may or may not have the same fate." Tony explained.

"Besides, Masen, remember what Dr. Lake said? Clones may not feel the same way, and with out the original, don't clones die within a few years?" Harry pointed out.

"That was never proved, its just a theory," I argued.

"David. We can't tell her," Der insisted. "It'll break her if the clone dies."

"Yeah, okay."

"What's the clones name?"

"Stacy Shaw," I answered.

Derek's eyes bugged out of his skull. "Oh my god, Tony we're such assholes!"

"What?" Harry asked, confused.

I grinned. "So you guys WERE the two jerks who was asking about him. Stacy complained about you two,"

"So basically," Harry cut in. "Tell the other girls, and keep Skylar and Stacy apart."

"Also, stay away from Calvin and Bryner."

"And attend your units daily."

"Ugh, my unit is with Diamond." Tony buried his face in his hands.

"Dude. I'm sure she loves you." I said.

"And you guys aren't broken up for sure," Harry added.

Derek was silent, and Tony looked up. "I can't remember the last time she said 'I love you' first."

I couldn't help it. I winced. Tony saw my reaction, and I felt horrible. I liked Diamond, and Tony was cool. But they were polar opposites. He was popular, she, not so much. He swore like a sailor and she was very Catholic. He liked video games and comic books, and she liked big books. He was loud, and she was shy. In my opinion, this was where their relationship had been heading since day one.