CHAPTER THREE
Angela’s Chevy Cordoba was ancient. That really couldn’t be denied. It was also tobacco brown and with plenty of unsightly dents. It had been keyed once down the left side by an ungrateful hoodlum in Memphis--another out-of-town job. Yet, it was hers and the interior was clean enough--which was why seeing Jae eating fast food in the passenger seat, a black suitcase in the back and a beat up computer bag by his muddy sneakers in the foot well was making her twitchy. She had rules. Not that she could bring any of them up. Jae was halfway to shaking like a leaf and she didn’t particularly want him to bolt. If it was a werewolf, or werewolves, she’d need him along. Some things just required more than one monster exterminator.
She finished off the slice of pizza she’d been eating and then tossed the greasy triangle packaging into the nearby dumpster. She rolled her shoulders and relaxed for an instant--taking in the cool shade from the green-leafed trees that leaned over the chain link fence of the property to the right of her apartment complex. Of course, the sickly sweet smell of garbage and harsh smell of chlorine were attacking her nose, but, well, the summer smell covered it somewhat. It was pretty nice here--even if she had found a dead bat in the pool once. Clumps of hair and bugs were pretty common, but a dead bat.
She hadn’t swum in there again.
“Hey, Jae? You mind eating out here?”
Jae looked up at her, green eyes igniting, his glazed look disappearing. “Sure?” He popped open the door and walked around, moving carefully on the broken sidewalk and avoiding the low stone wall and purple-flowering monkey grass. “What’s up?” he asked, as he finished up one half of the bun. Eating in a car was bad enough--a very bad thing according to her father, not that they’d ever had much of a car growing up living in New York; he was the only person who seemed to care about clean taxis--but ripping the food to pieces?
“Nothing,” she said, quick-like. She moved her hair over her shoulder. “So! What’s up? You look caffeinated. Well, either that or like a junke that needs his fix--stat.”
“You just used a druggie term with a hospital term. That isn’t right, Ang.” He looked completely serious. She imagined it was dead-pan. It had to be. Of course, no one managed to look like their best friend dog had just gotten hit by your car as well as Jae. It was plain creepy.
“Seriously, what’s up with you?”
Jae shrugged, before finishing off the shaved roast beef left in his lunch container.
She frowned but shrugged as Jae started to walk back around the car. She hoped he’d toss his trash in the dumpster. Otherwise, she also realized it wasn’t like she was one for sharing and caring. Sure, she’d mentioned her family, but if anyone got too nosy around her she was likely to punch them.
She couldn’t hold him at a different standard.
Then she heard Jae yell, a random exclamation followed by, “Snake!”
Her head whipped around and she saw Jae dancing back from the friendly neighborhood Corn Snake whom had decided to come out to play--come to slither across the concrete out from his home in the stone wall’s cracks.
“Oh, calm down. It’s not poisonous.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I’ve met him before. Somebody dumped him here in a broken aquarium,” she pointed at the dumpster, “and I let him free. He keeps the mice away.” Jae gawked at her, which somehow prompted her to say, “His name is Herbert.”
Sure, she had named him. He was a rather obvious member of the apartment complex’s animal community--along with Mrs. Hunt’s evil toy poodle and Martha’s two normally-window-sitting calicoes--but most people just didn’t do that. You know, name snakes.
Jae just gave her a curious look, an oddity for him. “How do you know it’s male?” he asked.
“Dunno. I figure it works fine either way, though.”
“Herbert is a male name.”
“So? It could be a trans snake.”
Jae blinked. “There’s something wrong with your brain, Angelica.”
***
No matter if Jae did think something was wrong with her brain, they’d ended up driving together rather peacefully for the next eight hours. Sure, the conversation had been more or less nonexistent. She’d said, “Hey, so I think it’s a werewolf.” To which caused Jae to ask, “You think?” She’d gone and responded, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure.” He’d given her this look and with a sharp tone asked, “Why?” Then she’d done her usual sort-of-dumb routine and asked, like she was some idiot girl who didn’t know her own convictions, “They steal hearts, right?” Then Jae had ended it all with an uncertain humming sound that just made her feel like she was about ready to climb the nearest wall and/or run her nails down the nearest chalkboard. Honestly, she was confused about the case enough as it were. She didn’t know nearly enough and hadn’t been able to find out any more because she was so far away.
However, he’d brought along some pretty decent music--odd, electronic girly music and some seriously depressing songs that made you feel like weight was pressing down on you with guys that sounded like they were talking as they sung. She could remember one of the band’s names--The National. They’d fallen into the latter category. However, she wasn’t too sure about how Jae had rigged up his iPod to play out of her car’s sound system. It seemed to work and be harmless, but she was a bit of a technophobe. She really wasn’t sure what he’d done and what lasting consequences would be.
Otherwise, he’d taken to picking off black nail polish off his fingernails. Sure, it had been peeling off anyway, but there was no need to get it all over her seats. She couldn’t see it, of course, but she had to wonder if that made it worse.
Now they were cooped up in some motel room, which she ended up paying for (okay, he’d coughed up ten bucks). The counter lady had also given them the weirdest look when they asked for two queens.
What was even with people? Jae was obviously not her type. She didn’t go for guys who looked like druggies. Or anyone, really.
Dating was sort of off the table.
She looked from the view of lamp and wall she’d been staring at the past five minutes and glanced over at Jae. He was sitting on the dark-colored floral quilt on the bed, leaned back against the pillows and reading some book. It wasn’t too thick, the book, and the cover looked--dark. She tipped her head, trying to read the title.
“You want something?” he asked dryly.
She snapped to attention. “Ah, no,” she said, dragging her fingers through her greasy hair. Need a shower tomorrow. “Um, would you mind if I visited my family for a few days while we’re on the prowl?”
His lip did this twitch thing and he focused more intently on the pages in front of him. “No. But you’re paying for any extra nights we stay.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure I can get someone to cough up some money in payment--or do something nicely illegal,” she said. She looked closer at his face. “You know, maybe I could rob a church.” No response. “Do you mind if I have the first shower tomorrow morning?” she asked. He tilted his head slightly. A yes? Probably. He tended to shower at night. “You mind being my pseudo-date for my half-sister’s wedding?”
“What?”
She winced. Well, that didn’t work nearly as well as I thought it would.
Angela tried not to fidget nervously as Jae gave her this look. His eyes were harsh, a vein in his head throbbed with his pulse, and he looked almost tired. It made her feel like a misbehaving four-year-old, but she had the feeling that wasn’t what he was going for.
He wet his mouth, tongue flicking out for an instant as those cat-like eyes watched her face. “Is there even an actual case?” he asked.
She stared. That wasn’t the question she was expecting. “W-w-what?” she spluttered, emotions going from mortification to anger and then back again.
“Is there even a case?” he repeated, tilting his head slightly, some of that blond hair falling into his face.
“Of course there’s a case! Seriously, Jae, what sort of a person do you think I am?”
“I wouldn’t know,” he said. “I saw you chop a vamp’s head off once. I wasn’t even aware someone of your stature could do that.”
“Adrenaline and willful thinking does wonders,” she snaps out, unable to keep in the automatic response. She sighs. “Anyway, all you have to do is look pretty and appease my aunts and smile for the camera and stuff. It’s not anything too difficult. I mean, you pretend to be all sorts of people. Why not some black sheep’s date?”
Jae raises an eyebrow, mouth pursed. “You know, if you’d wanted an escort you could have hired one.”
“Ew. I don’t want you to do anything. I mean, dude, I don’t know where you’ve been.”
He looks almost amused. She sorts of wants to strangle him for that, but, again, she needs him.
“Escorts don’t do that either.”
“How would you know?”
He rolled his eyes. “Anyway, I mean, really--there was a movie on this. You should have just cashed out some money and, hey, I could take this job by myself. Spend some time with your family and make flower bouquets or something.”
She decided not to mention she doubts she’d have anything to do with flower bouquets or anything pretty or nice like that. Those two describers don’t bode well with her. She’s a person to ruin, really.
“There’s a movie involving two Ghost Buster wannabes, a half-sister’s wedding, and one of them pretending to be the other’s date? Did it have a bad ending?” she asked.
He gives her another look. One that could be patented as a look of disbelief, a look that said--Are you really that big of an idiot?
“No, about hiring an escort for a wedding.”
“Is it a chick flick?”
“You’re a chick.”
She wrinkled her nose.
He sighed, eyes flickering down to the comforter he sat on. “I should have expected you had a thing for blood and guts. Let me guess--Wes Craven and Stephen King, right?”
“Those two people do not go together.”
He picked at the edge of the comforter. She watched, unsure of what to say.
“I could go alone. It’s, just, my family--”
Jae lets out this funny laugh. “I get it. I really do. Family can be--horrible.” He looked at her, close. She can’t decide what it means. “I’ll go.”
She narrowly avoids pumping her fist. It’s not something people her age really should do. She isn’t certain what keeps her from doing so--she’s certainly childish--but she doesn’t like this look most of all.
It’s sad.
“Thank you,” she said.
Jae blinked. “You’re welcome.” He smirked then, all emotion falling from his face. “I’d have suggested waiting to thank me after this was all over. A lot can go wrong.”
Angela shrugged. She was aware.
“So, I’m going to go take a shower,” Jae said, pushing up off the bed. “You do some research on the little monster that could be haunting the streets and make sure it hasn’t claimed any victims. Look for any cattle deaths, ball lightning, weird religious cult people--”
“This isn’t my first time at the rodeo,” she said, smirking as she watched him unpack a change of sleep clothes.
“Oh, and write a list of things I’m expected to know and how long we’ve been dating and all. I don’t want to look like a moron. My sex already has been lowering the standard forever when it comes to remembering anniversaries and shiz.”
That shocks her into silence for a second. She isn’t sure why. It just--it’s so weird. She can’t even remember the last time she dated anyone.
“Sure,” she croaked finally.
He stripped off his shirt, displaying skin marked with tiny scars and burns, a curve of the spine, and balled up his shower things. “Maybe make some flash cards? We still have a few hours of driving to do tomorrow. You can quiz me then.”
She responded somehow.
She can’t remember now, only a few minutes later.
She blamed it on driving for five of the eight hours, listening to emo music, and how much she’d repressed herself lately.
She stared over at the left behind book, it laying face down and open on Jae’s bed, and took the Bible out of the drawers between the beds and fashioned it into a book mark.
Jae didn’t deserve to be looked at like some sort of object. She hoped keeping his book in better condition helped out with that a little.
