"Are you following our brothers?" I ask Ben. Because that's what Claire and I are doing.
"Do you honestly think we have the time or even the slightest interest to follow your stupid brothers?" Ben says.
"Hey!" Claire and I say together. How dare he call our brothers stupid? Only we can do that.
"Wow," Ben says. "Look at you two: Defending your brothers while spying on them."
"We're not spying," Claire says.
"Really? Let me ask them if they know you guys are here then," Ben says, reaching for the door handle.
"No!" Claire and I cry in unison.
"You'll get us killed," I say to him.
He just laughs.
My phone rings. It's from Mike! Bad timing. Scared to take the call, I throw the phone to Claire. She throws it back to me. I throw it to her again. We keep playing catch till Ben catches the phone and slides the call on.
I quickly take my phone back.
"Hello," I say to Mike.
Mike says, "I just got a call from Andy. He says he's having trouble reaching you. I told him your phone has been having a network issue and you'd given it for service. So, why are you avoiding him?"
I slide down in my seat. Claire is suppressing her laugh. The collective hearing power in this car will put even the elephants to shame. I know everyone heard what Mike said.
"Can we talk about this when we're home?" I whisper.
"Why? Where are you now?"
"Erm. I'm kinda busy."
He sighs. He knows when I or Claire says we're busy it means we're up to no good. Mike says, "Fine. I'll be late tonight so don't go to bed early. I'm not letting it go till you tell me what's going on between you and him. But tell me just this: He didn't hurt you or anything like that, right?
"No, no, no. He didn't. It's just me."
"Okay. We'll talk later.'
I slip back my phone into my pocket, dreading the silence looming in the car.
Ben breaks it. "Everything not going well with Andy?"
I sink further down in my seat.
Claire reaches to the back and punches his arm. "What did I say about teasing her?"
He feigns getting hurt. Neither did he got hurt from one punch nor did she punch him hard enough.
"Now, are you going to tell us or not that why you're here?" Claire asks.
"We came to attend the meeting."
"What? How come you guys can attend it but we can't?" Claire asks.
"I don't know. Ask your brothers."
"What's the meeting about?"
"Can't say. Talk to your brothers if you guys want to know."
I ask Ben, "Was it about the rogue attacks?"
"Yes. But that's as far as I'll share."
"When are you going to tell them about what happened to you?"
"We're close to finding where the wolfsbane came from. Once we do that, we'll let everyone know. Till then it's better to keep it a secret."
"And what did you do about our principal and the guy he paid?"
"Nothing," Ben says. "For now we're going to let them think they got away with it. They might lead us to more people conspiring against us."
I nod. That's a good strategy.
"Alright, it's time for us to leave," Ben says. "But before that, Claire, get out for a second. Let's go to a corner and talk."
"You can say whatever you want to tell me here. I tell Rose everything," Claire says.
"Does she also has to watch our quick hookup?" Ben says
Ugh. That's what his invite to talk to Claire in a corner meant? Can't trust anything Ben says.
Claire pretends to think over it for a second. Pretends. Then she gets out.
While I wait for my friend to finish her quickie (how has my life come to this?) I busy myself with the phone to forget the existence of the silent guy behind me.
It doesn't help that since Claire and Ben left, Luke's smell is overpowering in the car.
"Are you close with Mike?" Luke suddenly asks.
"He's like a brother," I say, quietly.
"And he thinks of you as his sister?" Luke asks.
I nod, then I realize Luke might not be able to see my head from behind since I've slid down on my seat. "Yes," I say.
"What are you going to tell him about Andy tonight?"
I bite my lips and don't reply. Luke is making me nervous.
"Tell him you and Andy didn't click. That you don't like him," Luke says.
That's not true. I do like Andy, just not in the same way Andy likes me, thanks to an always-silent-but-suddenly-talkative fella.
"And next time you want to see the carnival let me know," he says.
I dig my fingers into the seat. Is that his way of saying we should date? Or is he volunteering to be my bodyguard? Or is he saying for the time we're mates I can't go out with anyone? Or is he saying I can join him and Katie as a third wheel cuz they don't mind?
Luke's signals are worse than mixed. They are totally scrambled.
Claire returns. Luke gets out of the car to leave with Ben.
#7 Luke's Signals
Start from the beginning
