Try To Change Me

Chapter 31

Finn jolted as the van came to a stop. headbutting the window with a grunt. Slapping a palm to his forehead, he scowled up to the front seat where Mr Irving was pulling the handbrake. He turned in his seat, offering the teenager a sheepish smile.

"We're here," he said, removing the key from the ignition. He placed a hand on Ms Smith's upper arm, giving her a gently nudge as Finn threw open the door and scrambeld out. She grunted and her eyes flickered open, vision swimming for a moment before focussing on him. She let out a quick breath and he smiled.

"We're here."

She nodded slightly, placing her hand over his and squeezing. "Thanks Anthony. How long was I asleep?"

Unable to remove his hand, Mr Irving shrugged, still watching her half-opened eyes. "Not long. Maybe ten minutes? We just arrived."

"Ok." She shuffled in her seat, away from his hand, and he grudgingly lowered the arm.

From the back of the van, Hazmat coughed. "Is now a bad time..."

"Yes." Mr Irving snapped, letting out a heavy breath and unbuckling his seatbelt. Clambering out of the car, he circled the vehicle and held out his hand for the other man, gritting his teeth when the idiot hobbled over to the door. He was grinning through the pain, but Anthony just wanted to punch his teeth in.

The younger man wrapped a strong hand around the other's and launched himself out of the van landing with a grunt on the ground. Mr Irving felt a swell of sympathy through his chest as the man bent over, releasing his grip on him and clutching at the vehicle. He watched him suck in a few deep breaths, straighten and swivel on his good leg.

"You checking me out, Grandpa?"

The sympathy faded quickly.

Inside, Finn trotted up to the counter, eyes greedily taking in the menu. He dug his wallet out of his back pocket as he scanned the food, nodding distractedly at the server that walked towards him. Placing his order and stepping to the side, Finn let his gaze flick over the booths, freezing when he realised what he was doing: looking for suits. 7 hours earlier a guy in a suit wouldn't have even caught his attention, but now they were his priority.

Ms Smith tapped Finn on the shoulder, flinching back when he spun around, and pointed wordlessly at the bench where an annoyed boy was trying to give him his order. They were all a bit edgy tonight, she decided as she moved toward a booth in the corner.Something brushed her upper arm and it was her turn to jump as Hazmat caught her shirt and tugged her in a different direction.

"Let's sit over here," he murmured, "It's a better view of the carpark."

Mutely, Ella nodded and slipped into the bench. She contemplated getting food, but her stomach protested. At that point, a frozen drink was lowered to the table in front of her and she glanced up in surprise.

"You need the sugar," Anthony said, sinking to slide in next to her. "We all do." He grudgingly pushed a second drink towards hazmat, scooping up the last and taking a long sip.

Suddenly, Ella's stomach felt more squeamish.

"Thank you."

At this time of night, there were two things Ebony hated to be: Awake or talking to people.

"...And then he volleyed it in behind the keeper and..."

Phitz's constant soccer chatter confirmed the second, but she was still holding out hope that this was all a nightmare. Unable to resist, she pinched her forearm.

"Not that lucky," she murmured under her breath.

The boy stopped in front of her, looking back over his shoulder. "What was that?"

"I said 'that was lucky.'"

He glared at her. "Mm hm."

"I did!" Ebony elbowed her way around him, striding out along the footpath. Unfortunately, that was barely a stroll for Phitz and he kept pace easily.

"Don't lie to me, Ebony," he said, waggling a finger at her. His backpack slipped off his shoulder and he readjusted the strap.

"I'm not!"

"You are!"

"You don't know that!" She froze. After a few steps, he plonked to a stop too, raising a brow at her. "You don't know that," she repeated in a murmur, her expression a desperate kind of defeated, "Do you?"

"No?" Phitz didn't mean for it to come out as a question, but regardless of his inflection, the word sent a wave of nausea through his stomach. It was the kind of digestive-juice-hiccup that rolled through him when his parent's claimed they were proud of his C in maths, or when his sister had tried to convince him that she was dating a boy, or when his ex-girlfriend had told him there wasn't anybody else. It was what he had always put down to indigestion, but suddenly felt like so much more.

A cold feeling swept through him, sickly like a cold breeze on sweat, and he clenched his jaw. "No," he said far more decisively, ignoring the protest in his stomach.

Ebony didn't seem to believe him. She nodded, he nodded, and then they both started walking again. They followed the path to the left, pausing briefly to waiting for a green man before crossing the highway, and then kept their heads down as they wandered in to town. Both were crossing their fingers that every other teenager in the state had decided that this town, tonight, would be restless-wandering-central. For the first time that day, luck seemed to be on their sides. So many groups were clogging the footpath that Ebony took her bag off her back and hugged it to her chest. Moving like an acrobat, she tried to keep from touching any one and manoeuvred her way through the crowd. Phitz on the other hand just squared his shoulder and issued the silent threat that people occupying concrete that he was likely to step on ran the risk of being crushed.

After less than a minute, he reached out and latched on to Ebony's shoulder, dragging her to his side. She lowered her chin, feeling self-concious as a young couple leapt to the side to avoid being trampled. They shot quizzical looks at her big companion, before glaring at her and trouncing off. Her cheeks redened.

Phitz happend to glance down, and he shook his head. "What happened to that backbone of yours?"

Stepping in close to him to duck around an angry business man, Ebony shrugged against his side. "I devolved - I'm now an invertebrate."

She didn't need to look up to see his confused expression, just like Phitz didn't have to look inside to know that wasn't the truth.

"You know what I think?" He asked, releasing her shoulder quickly as they stopped at another crossing.

Ebony didn't reply, but he took her silence as a curious query.

"I think that your backbone makes an appearance around certain people, including a certain athletic marvel we both know."

As one, their pack began to move across the road and they let themselves get caught in the flow for a moment. Safely on the other side, Phitz turned to Ebony, waiting for her reply with his arms folded across her chest and his right foot tapping.

"Well, you know what I think?" She asked, the colour fading from her cheeks as she returned to her normal paleness. "I think the Macca's is 100 metres that-a-way." She pointed over his shoulder.

Sure enough, a neon sign glinted over the hedges, and Phitz nodded. He opened his mouth, but the voice that spoke was decidely female.

"Do you want to know what I think?"

Decidedly female and nasty.

NOT PROOFREAD. VERY TIRED. SORRY ABOUT UPDATES. MORE TO COME. MAYBE.

SwimmingUpstream XX