When I re-entered the club, Ben and Tilly were waiting for me. Ben was complaining loudly about something and from Tilly's expression, I guessed that she'd heard it a thousand times.
"He's just so righteous, you know? His whole act is just so high and mighty."
Ben's diatribe hardly seemed bothered by my sudden appearance. My best friend was definitely tipsy and it only helped fuel his rant. Tilly gave me an apologetic and curious look. I simply shook my head and she let the subject go. She didn't push things and I was grateful for it.
"You should hear the way Tucker talks about him! It's all 'Jacob understands the traditions' 'Jacob respects the traditions' 'Jacob wipes my asshole with spiritual leaves' blah blah blah," Ben continued, slurping down another orange drink.
I took the glass from his hand and shot Tilly a look. She could only shrug.
"That sounds terrible, Ben. How about we get you home and you can tell me all about it?"
"Nuh no, dollface. I'm going to stay right here because Jacob might come back and if he does I've got to punch him in his perfectly traditional face!"
At that, I couldn't help but laugh. Ben punching anyone in the face was comical, especially as I watched his barely glittered fist pretend to fly through the air. Tilly rolled her eyes.
"We can punch him tomorrow, Ben, c'mon," I assured him and pushed him toward the door.
I turned toward Tilly and she tossed her keys to me. "I'll get a ride home with Mickey. We'll clean this place up tomorrow."
I nodded and caught the keys. Dragging a drunk Ben behind me was rather entertaining. He kept stopping to throw his hands up in the air and dance with strangers on the dance floor. As we found our way to the door, I realized my head was still spinning.
There was no way I was going to be driving. I didn't have to be a psychic to know that that would end poorly. Luckily, I found our answer waiting in the parking lot smoking a cigarette.
"Malik!" I called in relief. "How sober are you on a scale of 1 to my friend Ben here?"
Malik peered around me to glance amused at my best friend who was doing pirouettes in the gravel. He took a drag from his cigarette.
"Probably a negative 7."
I breathed a sigh of relief. "Could you give us a ride home?"
He looked hesitantly at the drunk boy behind me and I knew it was not a tempting offer.
"You know that whole Daemon helping supernatural creatures and finding the balance thing? Well, I'm trying to do my job here, but I could use a teensy bit of help," I begged and pouted a little for good measure.
Malik tossed the cigarette on the ground and gave me a small smile.
"Anything for an angel," he chuckled, "we can take my car."
Silently I thanked Mickey for my slutty outfit. Slutty outfits, ladies and gentlemen, controlling men since the dawn of time. Simple creatures.
I tossed Tilly's keys into her glovebox then texted her that I'd left them there before climbing into Malik's passenger seat. The ride back to my house was silent apart from Ben loudly singing Benny and the Jets in the backseat.
"If he pukes in my car, I'll make sure our next self-defense lesson is a lot less fun," Malik warned.
I shot him a look. "As long as I get to slap Gray in the groin, I'm ready for it."
He laughed a little and pulled onto our street. I directed him toward my house, making the executive decision that the younger Joys did not need to see their older brother performing 70s music. I thanked Malik as he dropped us off in front of the mansion.
Ignoring the impressed look on the other Daemon's face, I waved goodbye. Ben had already skipped to the front door and let himself in.
The house was silent, of course. Mom and Harry had long since gone to bed and Ben was the only source of noise in an otherwise deserted mansion. Ushering him up the stairs, and holding his arm when he tripped I finally managed to secure him in my bedroom.
Getting him ready for bed was a whole ordeal, but finally, he settled in next to me. Before he drifted off into a tumultuous sleep, he rolled over to face me.
"Did Tuck yell at you?" He asked, yawning.
I almost wished that he had. If he'd yelled at me I could rationalize that. But the coldness...well, I didn't know what to make of that.
I shook my head.
"That's good," Ben murmured, his eyes already closing. "You know what?"
"What?"
"Jacob has nice skin, though."
With that, he fell asleep.
***
This time Ben stood in front of me- his eyes black and blood dripping from his mouth. Under him were mangled corpses stacked high. He stood on top of them as if he were ruling over them.
When he turned to smile at me, all of his teeth were sharpened to razor points and dripping with blood.
Another figure stood off into the distance. Tilly stood on a hill- green and overgrown with poppies. The moon shone behind her. When she smiled at me, I felt something running down my chin. My finger came away from my face slick with blood.
Words came from both of their mouths like the beating of a drum.
Balance. Balance. Balance.
"Oh fuck!"
I jolted awake to the sound of a foreign voice in my bed. Slowly coming to, I realized Ben had been the one to call out in alarm. My hand reached out to shove him away from me. Instead, I'd found that he'd already jumped out of the bed.
"Where are you going?" I grumbled, wiping the sleep away from my eyes.
It was still dark outside. I checked the clock- 6:30 am. Where could he possibly have to be at this time? At least, it distracted me from the strange dream.
"Tucker's going to kill me," he groaned, sliding a shoe on and ignoring my question.
I yawned and sat up. "Why exactly will he kill you?"
Ben pulled the other shoe on. "I'm supposed to help the boys get ready for Sunday school. Tucker's got alpha stuff to do now so I've been helping them get ready for school and picking them up from school and soccer practice and- fuck, I forgot. Noah has a soccer game today!"
His words were barely coherent as he rushed around my room getting dressed.
"Ben, breathe," I instructed and rose from the bed. I pulled a sweater over my head and changed quickly into a pair of jeans.
"What are you doing?" He asked, noticing how I was already fully dressed.
I smiled sleepily at my best friend. "Helping you, obviously."
He grinned at me and we both rushed out of the house. I didn't bother to leave a note. Mom wouldn't notice my absence anyways.
West Acres was still sleeping and I was grateful not to be. Sleep gave me no peace. As Ben and I found our way back into his house, I breathed in the familiar scent of their home. The entire house smelled like crayons and mint.
Ben rushed upstairs to check on the little boys. Elias had watched them last night and all three of them seemed to have fallen asleep, none the wiser that Ben hadn't come home. Tucker, to nobody's surprise, was nowhere to be seen.
I pulled eggs and bacon out of the refrigerator, noticing that it was emptier than was to be desired. The Joys were no longer lacking money, now I think they only lacked time. I pulled three bowls out of the cupboard and the cereal, laying it out on the counter.
By the time, Ben had re-emerged with the three youngest Joys I already had a full breakfast waiting for all four of them. My best friend shot me a grateful look and I smiled back, noticing the exhaustion behind his eyes.
"Okay," Elias started, looking at the meal in front of him, "I know I usually complain about Sunday school but if I woke up to this every morning I probably wouldn't."
Ben rolled his eyes. "I'll keep that in mind, you ungrateful cretin."
Elias shot me a look. "Seriously, Lou. He just gives us a grapefruit and sends us on our way. A grapefruit. You should probably call child services."
Ben glared at him and I laughed. The two boys were similar in their humor and their looks. Noah, the youngest, looked at me with wide eyes over a spoonful of scrambled eggs.
"Not the grapefruit!" He squealed.
I slid Ben a cup of coffee and sipped on my own. "You've really scarred them."
He sighed and continued eating. Lucas looked thoughtful as he munched on some cereal.
"So, Lou, what are you doing here? Did you and Ben have a sleepover? Or did you and Tucker?"
I almost spit out my coffee. Ben choked on his eggs and Elias began laughing. Knowing my face was bright red, I busied myself cleaning up the dishes.
"Nope," I stuttered, "just here to help."
From behind me, I could hear Noah whisper to Lucas, "Do you think she'll come to my soccer game?"
"Lou, will you come to Noah's soccer game? Tucker usually comes but he's busy, I realize that might be less tempting-"
I cut Lucas off before he could continue to make accurate remarks. "Yes! I'm coming."
Noah cheered and Lucas high-fived his brother. That kid was too damn smart for anybody's good.
The rest of the day was filled with chaos. After Ben dropped the boys off at the church, still a surprise I was not expecting, I made sure that he stocked up on groceries for at least the rest of the week.
"You're pretty good at this," he told me as we were leaving the grocery store. "Taking care of the little ones."
I shrugged. "Before we came to West Acres, I pretty much took care of my mom and Harry. Working, grocery shopping, making sure the power stayed on."
Ben narrowed his eyebrows. "That must have been hard."
It wasn't easy, but it was all that I knew. Before West Acres, I had a purpose. I took care of my family. Today, I'd felt some of that same purpose.
"Come on, it's time for peewee soccer."
Ben grinned. "Shit's intense, just wait."
Ben couldn't have been more correct. I knew Ben was competitive but it was nothing compared to little Noah pushing down other 6-year-olds or the parents screaming at the refs on the sideline.
I looked at one particularly red-faced father. "They know they don't even keep score, right?"
Just then, Noah scored (or accidentally dribbled the ball into the correct goal) and Ben erupted into cheers, Lucas held up his homemade sign, and Elias began chanting his little brother's number. I laughed as I regarded the Joy boys. They definitely were keeping score.
After the game, Noah ran up to us smiling proudly and dripping in mud. Had he been rolling in it?
"Great win, bud! You did awesome, of course," Elias beamed with pride at his youngest brother.
As Ben congratulated Noah, I leaned over to Elias. "How do you know they won?"
He held out his hand where he'd marked tallies in sharpie on his palm. The categories above the three groups were: 'lil bro', 'our team', and 'other'. Elias gave me a mischievous smile as he pointed at the column 'lil bro'. There were significantly more tallies than the other two.
"He doesn't pass the ball well," he snickered.
I rolled my eyes. "I expect he learned from his older brother."
Elias shrugged and Ben and I decided to order pizza to take back to their house to celebrate Noah's big win. My heart was warm and full as we pulled into their driveway with the delectable scent of pizza in my hands. Ben stopped me as we got out of the car.
"You should know something," he began, "today couldn't have happened if you hadn't done what you'd done."
"What do you mean?"
He gestured to where the three boys were walking back up to the house laughing.
"Them. If you hadn't saved my brother, this," he pointed at the boys, "would be lost."
Before I could speak, Ben began walking up the steps toward his house and I felt my heart swell with gratitude. Maybe if he said it enough times I would start to believe him.
Maybe.
I caught up to the rest of the boys and all five of us stopped at the doorway when we spotted Tucker waiting in the hallway.
"Oh shit," Lucas muttered.
————
Little Joy boy loving in this chapter bc we all need some more Elias, Lucas, and Noah in our lives right?
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Be kind. Stay safe.