Lonely

Chapter 39, Hanger

“Oh, she was crazy with a capitol K.” Boomer said Liam, Nicco and Dodger all listened to his stories about all the girl friends he had. I looked up. “Boomer, I hate to break it to you, but crazy starts with a c.” he frowned at me. “When did they change that?’ he muttered. They all started laughing hysterically. Suddenly Nicco turned to me, resting his elbows on his knees like a little kid. Liam did the same as they all turned to face me.

“Come on now, Hanger, you can’t tell me that you don’t have a special lady in your life. Nílaon sean stocan ach bhfaig heann sean bhróg.” He said. I raised my eyebrows, not understanding a word of the foreign language. Liam rolled his eyes. “Now, don’t go using Gaelic on the poor boy. What he said is, there is no old stocking that doesn’t fit an old boot.” Dodger snorted. “Now you’re speaking English and I still can’t understand a damn word you just said.” Liam ignored him and both Nicco and Liam looked expectantly at me. They wanted to know if I had a girlfriend. “Yep.” I said. They all looked so shocked I thought they were going to pass out. Dodger and Boomer both came over to listen. “Well, you don’t have to look so shocked. It’s insulting.” Nicco shook his head.

“I just never imagined you with women before.” He said. A huge smile spread across Dodgers face. “Hanger, you scoundrel you. What’s her name?’ he asked, and they all leaned forward. “Sadie.” I answered simply. I could tell it was annoying them. “Dude, I know you’re a man of many words, but can you please keep the description to a minimum. We don’t have all night.” Boomer said sarcastically. They all looked at me, waiting. I tried to think of how I would describe Sadie, but A, what did come into my head was not appropriate, and b, it wasn’t enough to describe her. I smiled mischievously at them.

“You’ll meet her soon.” I said. They all groaned and Boomer punched me in the arm, then they went back to talking about girls. Now that I had Sadie right out in the front of my mind again, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Her taste, her smell, the way she felt underneath my hands. I felt like sighing. I missed her so much. Two more boys, I told myself. I thought of the list. I was pretty sure the next person I had to go get was Levy Morris. The sun was getting higher in the sky. All of the guys had woken up early, but refused to move until the sky was higher in the sky. Bored, I listened to what they were saying.

“How can you even hear us under those huge head phones, boyo?” Liam asked Dodger. I didn’t even have to look up to know it was one of the twins. Only they had accents like that. Dodger grinned and pulled them off, cringing. “Holy shit. I haven’t done this in a long time.” He muttered and quickly put the head phones back on. “For that precise reason. Even with these things on, I can hear things for miles around, people talking, cars, anything at all. It can get rather disturbing at times. Especially in the city.” He said, adjusting them under his hoodie. “And the sun glasses?” Boomer asked. Dodger shrugged.

“Sort of the same as the head phones. I can see way too far for my own good, but these at least dim it a little.” He said. Nicco nudged his shoulder. “How’d you get in jail, anyways?” he asked. Dodger grinned. “Oh, that. The cops said that I was ‘disturbing the peace’ because I overheard someone talking about a murder, and when I tried to do something, he freaked out, and I may have, accidentally, of course, run through some poor woman’s bathroom. Then innocently refused to be taken into the police station. Have you any idea what cops talk about when they aren’t on duty? It’s gross.” He said, shivering.

I stood up and threw the bag over my shoulder. “C’mon. We’d better get going if we want to reach the next town in good time. And if you guys ever want to see Sadie in less than a month.” I said, walking away to leave the guys debate over what she looked like. I’ll just say that the images ranged from hookers to fat hoboes, and everywhere in between.

Dodger stopped moving suddenly. We all turned to look at him. He adjusted his red head phones pulled off his hood for the first time to reveal brown hair, and stood perfectly still. He cocked his head and turned to the left, pulling his glasses down to the tip of his nose. His eyes widened. ‘Um, either there is gonna be a fashion model photo shoot in the middle of nowhere or we have trouble coming.” He said, glancing at us. We all went closer to him and tried to see what he was. I saw nothing but trees and rocks and leaves, and didn’t hear anything except animals moving around and birds chirping. Dodger gulped.

“What’s the plan then, fearless leader?” Liam asked. They all turned to me. I thought back to the castle. I had never seen any girls in there. Unless….oh, no. that would be bad with a group of teen age guys. At least I had some restraint. The rest of them would melt like putty in front of those creatures. “Dodger, look carefully. Are they acting weird?” I asked. He stared off into the distance, even though I knew he was probably watching them. Suddenly, he nodded quickly. “Oh, yeah. They’re twitchy and they move like lightening.” He said. “But they’re totally hot.” He finished, flashing a grin. Boomer groaned. “So unfair. I wanna see.” He complained.

“Okay, I’ve dealt with them before. Would you rather deal with them now, or wait until they catch up to us tonight?” I asked. Either way it wasn’t going to be easy. “If we wait here, we’ll have the element of surprise.” Nicco pointed out. “Yeah, but if we wait here, then we’ll get like, I dunno, flirted to death or something.” He said thoughtfully. Nicco made a face. “You moron, they aren’t coming out here to flirt with us.” Before they could really get into it, I decided for them.

“Okay, we’re waiting here.” I said. This was greeted with varying amounts of enthusiasm. “Rule number one with these girls, they aren’t actually girls. Don’t be afraid to hit them. They try to seduce you.”A few of the guys chuckled. “That’ll be Boomers first time with a girl who hits on him.” I ignored Nicco’s remark and continued. “Not as much fun as you might think. Once they get you to listen to them, they’ll basically rip your guts out. Even scarier, they usually go right for the number one thing none of us wants to lose. Agreed?” They all nodded quickly. I climbed a tree, followed by Dodger, and the rest of the boys each got in their own. At least we could attack from above.

Sure enough, about half an hour later, five girls came into our view. I thought dodger was going to pass out, and I could only imagine what the others were thinking. They were pretty, and this is going to sound cheesy, but personally, I thought Sadie was way better. The one leading them threw out her hip and put one hand on it. They all were wearing short shorts, skimpy tops, and they all had long, blonde hair. They each looked exactly alike, actually. Their pretty, pixie like faces all had the same expression. Boredom. Suddenly, the first one smiled brightly, and all the others copied her, removing their hands from their hips and spreading out.

“Come out; come out where ever you are, boys. I know you’re here. We can smell you, cantwe girls?’ they all smiled widely and nodded. I shook my branch, the signal to begin and immediately dropped out of the tree at the same time as the others. The girls all smiled at us. “What a handsome bunch.” She purred. Suddenly, we each had a bubble gum smelling girl in our faces. “Come now, I just know you’ve been out here for a long time. Don’t you want some fun?” the girls in front of me, the leader, I assumed, said. She stroked my chest with one French finger nail, all of them talking to us, trying to persuade us. I looked over the girls head, and was glad to see that none of the boys were being swayed, although they did look rather pained. “Mmm, no thanks.” Liam said, and the battle began. The girl in front of me flew into the air, crashed into a tree, and landed on the balls of her feet, snarling at me. The battle was rather quick, and I was glad Arianna had wanted talented guys. Within moments, they were all down on the ground, and thanks to my magic back pack and Boomers strength, tied to a tree with steel cables.