Page 84 of Distortion
I don’t say anything more. I let her have the last slice of pizza and I crack open the beers. She looks at it dubiously as I hand it to her, sniffing it.
‘It’s just beer. I’m not trying to drug you. Jesus. You watched me open it.’
She looks up at me, surprised, and I realize that’s not what her reaction was about. She’s probably never had beer before either.
She takes a few gulps and her eyes widen as she swallows and then coughs. ‘It’s fizzy!’ Then she makes a face. ‘And bitter.’
‘Do you want something else?’
She shakes her head and takes another drink. She finishes the bottle and puts it down on the side.
‘I don’t think I like beer,’ she announces.
She gets up with the towel still around her and I think she’s going to leave. I’ve already decided I won’t stop her if she wants to go, even if I never get another chance like this.
But she doesn’t leave. She walks around my room and looks at my things; the award I got for first place at the high school science fair, the models of elements and compounds that I 3D printed at the lab because I thought they looked cool. The many hated wrestling trophies I only leave out because girls are impressed by them. She skims over those though. Instead she slides her fingers down the faux velvetdrapes, and then does it again. She feels the polished wood of my desk and touches the blanket I have draped over my chair.
‘There’s a buzzing in here,’ she murmurs, looking in the direction of my desk.
I listen. ‘I don’t hear anything.’
‘It’s really faint. But it’s there.’ She shakes her head a little, looking at my desk as if she’s annoyed at it.
‘Come here,’ I say.
The change in her is immediate. She forgets the noise she hears and her whole body stiffens. I grimace, though I don’t blame her for her reaction to me. It’s insane that she’s even in here after all the nasty shit I’ve said and done. She shouldn’t trust me anyway.
‘Please,’ I say as an afterthought, but she’s already making her way slowly over like she’s walking to her own grave.
When she gets to me, I hold out my hand, and I wait. A few seconds later, she takes it and I stroke her palm gently, giving her what I hope is a relaxed smile. She blinks at me and gives me a small one back.
‘Sit with me?’
She moves to plant herself next to me on the bed, but I shuffle back and pull her gently into my lap.
Like in the car yesterday, she’s tense and tries to sit up as straight as possible, keeping her body away from mine. I sigh and pull her into my chest, wrapping my arms around her.
‘Relax,’ I murmur into her damp hair. ‘I’m not going to do anything you don’t want.’
She melts into me a tiny bit and I congratulate myself for the small win even though I don’t know why I’m doing this. There’s no point in getting her used to being so close to me. She’ll be gone soon and I’m not going to force her into anything tonight, despite the deal I made with her in the lab.
I’m not the Devil, though there are plenty who would disagree.
‘You said there was a price.’
‘A price?’ I ask, too busy feeling her against me to think properly.
‘For the Pop Tart.’
I snort. ‘Oh, that.’ Now that I’m not trudging barefoot down the gravel path outside after evacuating, I don’t much care about what she did this morning. It’s actually kinda funny. The pledges cleaned everything up anyway once the fire department was gone. But I already spoke to the others and Shade in particular wanted to punish her after we saw the footage of what she did. I’m not sure exactly what he’s planning but, knowing that she’s leaving anyway and what my friend is into, I have a pretty good guess. I knowwhy, too, although I know he’ll deny it.
‘Later. But it’s going to sting,’ I murmur lightly, giving her an inkling.
Her body locks up at the words, and I glance at her face in the mirror across the room. Her eyes are closed tight.
‘A shock?’ she whispers.
‘A shock? Like an electric shock?’
