Paste!

He wasn’t supposed to stick out that night. None of us ever were supposed to draw much attention to the humans. But then, there he was. Shining black shoes with a black tux, and a large red hat to top it off.
“Jason,” I smoothed out the wrinkles in my simple black dress. “You’re very fancy tonight,” I hissed, just a little bit of my tongue slithering out and back in again.
Jason chuckled heartily. “not too bad yourself, little egg.” His eyes flashed red tauntingly as he used my old nickname. When a couple came closer to us, I pulled Jason in to my side, and smiled widely. Once they had left eyesight, I pulled away and scowled.
“Remember why you’re here, idiot. We aren’t supposed to make a scene. Get in, grab the stone, get out.” Jason picked a strawberry off the dessert table.
“You always get way too stressed on missions, little egg,” he popped the strawberry into his mouth.
“Come on, the landlord is right over there,” I pointed to a taller man with a pointed green-brown beard, “and stop calling me that.” With that, I took his hand and led him off.
The landowner and a woman holding his hand turned when we were across the ballroom. Jason cleared his throat, and took the lady’s free hand. Bending deeply, he kissed it. Looking up at the landowner and the woman, he gave a half-smile. “May I?”
The landowner cleared his own throat and smiled. “’Of course.” Jason then led the now blushing woman across the floor. He gave me a quick glance, and I looked back at the landowner. Just as Jason had done, he bent down and kissed my hand. An even slower song played, and he smiled slowly. “May I?” All I could do was smile and nod, and hope he didn’t think anything was – off.
Slowly, we began dancing, one of his hand on my mine, and one on my hip. I groaned inwardly. This man had to be at least forty. I made a mental note to ask HQ for more “age-appropriate” missions.
“I am terribly sorry,” he licked his lips. “My name is Phillip Batelomue. But you may call me Phillip.”
“I’m April Jennings. You have a very beautiful home,” I commented, looking deep into his eyes. For a minute, his pupils dilated to nothing, only to reappear. I caught a shimmer from his chest pocket. The stone!
“Thank you,” his voice was oddly rusted with age. “I, work hard.” He winked at me. Really, he was just using the stone to get humans to do what he wanted. I peered over his shoulder quickly, looking at Jason. He grinned from behind a clump of the woman’s hair.
“He’s a really nice young man,” Phillip caught me off guard.
“Oh, him? Yes, he’s very – nice.” I stuttered over my words. Phillip’s smile grew.
“It would be a shame for something to, happen to him.” His tongue flicked in and out, shiny with saliva.
“What do you mean,” I asked as he twirled me around. His pupils disappeared completely again and he smirked.
“Oh, I think you know, April,” he hissed, gripping onto my shoulders. I could feel his talons sinking slowly into my skin as we both transformed. I yelped out in pain as he pierced through. The ballroom suddenly erupted in to terrified screams as humans tried to head for the nearest exit. How had I given myself away…?
“The stone, is mine!” His hiss turned into a growl as he flew upward, me still flapping weakly in his grip. Streams of crimson fell down my amethyst scales. Phillip held on to his button up shirt which still held the stone.
“Let go!” I squirmed out of his grip, flapping my wings furiously. Just as I was about to charge at Phillip, a flash of black barreled into him. Jason!
I gained ground, and snatched his jacket away. Phillip’s eyes widened, and he kicked Jason back to the ground. He landed with a thump, and didn’t move. Before I could reach him, Phillip grabbed onto the shirt. We spun through the air, surprisingly, still dancing. But it was for a different reason this time…
Phillip was a big dragon, but very clumsy and not as fast. I easily dodged his blows, and finally landed one of my own that sent him hurtling towards the ground. Wasting no time, I clutched the shirt tighter, and dove to him.
Striking out with a long talon, he caught me in the side of my face. For a minute, my vision was blurred by blood. I shook it away, just in time to see the shirt, and the stone, just feet from my grasp. I must have dropped it on the way down…
Before Phillip could reach it, a scaly black paw snatched it up. I looked up into the satisfied face of Jason. “You have to be quicker, little egg,” he joked as Phillip got up shakily. He glared at Jason.
“You’ve made a big mistake,” he growled, and then lunged for my throat. I fell backwards, avoiding his snapping jaws. Jason tipped Phillip over, and I landed on top of him, one paw on his throat, and one in the air. From the anger in his face, I could tell he knew he was beaten.
“Any last words, Phillip?” I spat in his face, thinking I would find fear in his eyes. Instead, I just saw willful pride.
“It was a nice dance,” he hissed before I plunged my talon into his chest, piercing his cold heart.

The air smelled of alcohol and hotels but Oliver supposed that was what cruises smelled like…

He had gotten there at the earliest boarding time and had gotten his room before everyone else, and now he was left to wander bored while his parents drank themselves drunk. He had amused himself by staring at the strangers he would be forced to share a small space with but that slowly got boring too. So Oliver was left to just walk around and ‘explore’ the ship and all its contents. He had been to every deck, every public room and in ever elevator. Oliver had even already decided where he was going to eat lunch for the next couple of days and how he was going to spend his time. He even took time to check out the club room that was on every cruise. It was a dark room filled with lava lamps and red sofas. There was a big screen TV and a shelf of board games. It looked the same as any other cruise club room. Each cruise had clubs for the minors. It was pretty much a place for the minors to go to when their parents were drunk or doing something you had to be eighteen or twenty-one and older to attend.

Oliver was so bored by around eleven. That was when he finally returned to where he started his exploration. He rested his elbows on the railing and looked down at the crowds. Most of the people had just boarded the ship. They flooded guest services and flooded the bars. He found it absolutely repulsive. All the drinking and other horrible stuff. Every year Oliver’s parents dragged him onto a cruise which was literally a week of his parents being either drunk or on a hangover (which was not so different from when they were at home).

This year was a little different. His parents decided to use a different port instead of Manhattan’s port like they normal used. This year his mother wanted to visit her sister in Louisiana and they decided that it was the perfect time to experience New Orleans’s port. Oliver found using the word ‘experience’ was a little weird since it wasn’t that different. Every port was pretty much the same, some just moved smoother and faster than others.

After staring mindlessly at the crowd below for some time, Oliver noticed a girl who stood separated from the crowd. There was something about her that seemed… different. Not only was she beautiful with her wavy blonde beach curls and her slender body but she seemed to very interesting. Rather curious.

She stood alone and a little far from the crowd and her family, she stood in the shadows. She was looking at the very same crowd Oliver had just been observing. It was odd since Oliver had never expected to meet anyone worth his attention but maybe this cruise would be different from the others. Maybe it would be better than the others.

That is of course if he could get the chance to meet her without it getting screwed up.

“Ollie!” Someone yelled from behind him. Oliver turned around and looked at an excited familiar blonde that had a drink in his head and Hawaiian shirt on (even though they weren’t even going to Hawaii). “You probably weren’t expecting to see me, were you?” He said with a giggle and he walked closer to the unamused Ollie.

“Hunter…” Oliver said unapprovingly, “What are you doing here?”

“The whole fam decided to follow you guys. Since you guys decided to break tradition and all…” Hunter said scratching his head, awkwardly.

“Oh yeah. My mom just wanted to visit my aunt and thought it would be fun to try out this port and you know another ship…” Oliver felt like he had to explain himself for some reason. They hadn’t necessarily broke tradition… they just went on another cruise… without their 'cruise family'.

“Yeah, yeah! We found out by your mom’s Facebook posts and a couple of plane tickets later here we are. We are all here. Me, Mikey, Sammie, Trish, the whole fam! Your mom was so happy to see us all…”

“I bet she was…” Oliver said bitterly imagining his tipsy mother shrieking at the sight of her girlfriends and their children.

“Anyway” Hunter said swatting the air to indicate the change in topic, “What are you doing? Seems a little boring…”

“Just looking around, you know. New ship and all…” Oliver explained himself again.

“Hey!” Hunter took a tip from his fruity drink, “Want me to get you a drink? I got my brother to sneak me one.”

“No, no. I’m good.” Oliver shook his head and took a step back, his back cold against the metal railing.

“Umm…okay.” Hunter said awkwardly and after a couple minutes he spoke again, “Want to go check out the buffet? I haven’t eaten all day.”

“Sure.” Oliver answered quite quickly, glad to finally leave and do something.

They walked to the elevators which were not too far from where they were just standing, walked in and pushed the button with the number ten above it. They stood there silently staring at the doors slide close. Oliver's shoulders were tense and he jumped a little when the elevator jolted a little and started to rise.

The air seemed so still and unbreathable. Oliver hated it. He was so different from his childhood friend. They were once best friends, once so close. They did everything together and told each other everything but as life went on, they both took different turns in life and ended up on different sides. And although they still knew each other they didn’t know each other.

Oliver could tell that Hunter felt the same way. They all did. Oliver, Hunter, Mikey, Sammie and Trish. They all had grown apart the only thing keeping them in touch was the fact that their parents were all best friends and these stupid cruise they had been doing since they were babies.

The doors opened at floor ten and Oliver walked out without thinking. His mind was somewhere else when he tripped over someone. Immediately he gasped and took a step back retreating back to the elevator. Oliver’s eyes widened and stared at the startled girl who stumbled at the impact. She was the girl he saw in the crowd moments before. He felt sick to his stomach as he stared at the girl. Oliver wanted to run but he also wanted to make the situation better and less awkward.

“I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” He flustered. It was the only thing he could manage.

This was not how he expected to meet her. She looked so frightened and embarrassed. To his horror her cheeks grew red and her eyes got glass before she quickly ran away. Oliver felt so horrible and embarrassed. It obviously wasn’t that big of a deal and was an accident but he felt oddly guilty.

“Woah.” Hunter stepped out of the elevator, “What a nut case… It’s not like you did it on purpose…”

Angry boiled inside of Oliver. An odd protective angry. His shoulders tensed and he spoke rather harshly, “Come on.” He commanded and started to walk towards the buffet.

Hunter shrugged as if nothing had just happened and followed the strange Oliver.