Guardians: The Girl Part 35

"Schools, hospitals, libraries..." Marcus answers.

"The twins can research police records around the time your mom was attacked," Jay says.

"How?"

"We know a few sites we can hack into," they say together as they disappear down the hallway and into Miku's room.

"They know how to do that?"

"They were able to do that before they were angels. Now they're even better at it," Jay says.

"You guys won't find him. I looked for him once."

"Why?" Jay asks.

"I wanted to get back at him for what he did to my mom. I didn't even have a plan. It didn't matter because I couldn't find him, and neither will the twins."

"They won't look into his life; they'll look into your mom's life. Sometimes to find evil, you have to focus on its victims," Marcus adds.

"I don't want to see him."

"You don't have to. This can be just us. One of us will stay with you," Ameana says.

"He hurt my mom and I don't see why he gets to walk around scot-free. I hate him."

"Jay said you were going with him to the mission. Go ahead. We'll get started on your father's background in the meantime," Marcus offers.

"Yeah, let me get my jacket. Be right back." He Glides off and goes into his room.

"Thank you for sharing that with us. We know it was hard, but it really did help. Now we have a lead. And we may have a lead on Julian," Marcus volunteers.

"We were going to check it out ourselves but then the Akons took you. So, as soon as we get a lead on your father, we'll split up, find Julian and get your father," Marcus says.

"Can you stop calling him that?"

"What do you want me to call him?"

"I don't care. Just stop calling him that."

"When we find X, and Julian, we should know everything," Ameana adds.

"I'm gonna check on Jay," I say heading down the hall toward his room. How long did it take to get a jacket? This guy could go around the world in eight seconds. What could be taking him so long walk a few feet?

"Hey, Jay, what's the hold-"

I find him in Reese's room. The room is filled with fis.h.i.+ng magazines and books of poems. There's a drawing of a family by his bed. It's two grown-ups and two girls. I close the door and walk over to the frame where Jay is standing. I look on with him.

"Was this his family?" I ask.

"Yeah, we don't get to take photos with us, so we get someone to draw them the way we remember them. It's as close to them as we can get. He loved this picture. He could look at it for hours. I knew he'd be daydreaming about the last fis.h.i.+ng trip they took. That was Reese's favorite collector."

"I remember. He kept disappearing that night I came to dinner. I was having mini heart attacks." I start laughing as I recall how odd it was the first time I saw them eat collectors.

"Why were you worried?"

"I kept thinking you guys were going to disappear and never come back. But I was so relieved because no matter how long he was gone, he always came back."

"Not this time," he says sadly.

"You know what you need, a party."

Normally I would never even suggest such a thing. But I think it would go a long way in cheering Jay up.

"What are we celebrating?"

"This Sat.u.r.day is February first. I'll be sixteen."

"You only get one of those. Trust me," he says.

"So we're gonna throw a party. It can be a happy birthday kind of thing but also a good bye to Reese. Not that the funeral wasn't nice, but you know Reese would rather be surrounded by girls. "

A broad smile spreads across his face. Miku learns of our plans a few minutes later. She goes to work planning it along with Jay. By the time I leave the house, the small party has become a huge bash. I was afraid of that.

There are kids at this party that I have never even seen before. But to Jay and Miku's credit, they managed to get in a few kids that I could talk to. Much to my surprise, I'm having a pretty okay time.

That is, until I hear some girls talking about what a great couple Marcus and Ameana make. Why does hearing that make me so profoundly sad? Why can't I turn off these feelings?

I go into Jay's room to get my coat and take a walk. Once inside I see the piles of coats spread out on the bed. Sticking out of a dark thick leather jacket is small bottle of unopened vodka. Jay knew that someone would bring alcohol, and Marcus made him convince everyone that they would not drink at all tonight. So whoever it is that brought this won't even try to drink it or even offer it to anyone.

I take a deep breath and turn to leave when I make the mistake of looking out the window again. d.a.m.n it. I slump down on the bed. The great feeling I had is gone. I turn over on my side, and facing me like a beacon of temptation is the bottle of vodka that Jay had forgotten to throw out. I take it and hold it up to the light. I crack open the seal. The smell is awful and overpowering. I'm drinking to forget. I can't imagine how people drink this c.r.a.p for pleasure. Well, enough thinking. Let's hope this works.

After a few gulps, things start looking kind of funny. Like nothing is really balanced. I walk back into the party. "Hey, guess what?" I shout at the top of my lungs.

"What?" The crowd shouts.

"It's my birthday!" I dance and spin around with no sense of control. The kids start cheering and laughing. I shout at them to be quiet and I make another announcement.

"I am gonna save you all." They look at me with confusion. I start pointing to individual students and telling them that I am going to save them. When someone in the crowd asks me what I was saving them from, I said a guy named Art. He wanted to cook them with fire. But I would stop that from happening. They all play along with my bizarre proclamation.

"How are you gonna save us?" someone from the crowd yells.

"I'm gonna save you with this." I hold up a long powerful sword like the one from Lord of the Rings. Only what I thought was a powerful sword turns out to be a carrot stick from the veggie platter Miku had ordered. Everyone laughs at me. I keep screaming at them over and over again to shut up.

The angels come for me, but I pull away and get on top of the table in the living room. Among the crowd stands Marcus and his love.

"Everyone make room for the great Marcus and Mimi. They are so in love, they kiss all the time like this." I kiss and make out with the air, then burst out laughing. No one else thinks it is funny.

"Emmy, stop it," Marcus scolds from below.

"Shut up. You can't me tell anything." Wait that wasn't what I wanted to say. There was something wrong with that last sentence. Why are all my words are slurred? And why are things in slow motion?

"Hey, do you guys know what they are? They're Guardians."

"Everyone out. Now." The students all rush for the exit.

"Get down," he orders me.

While I am not looking, Rio comes from behind and pulls me off the table.

"Get off me. It's my birthday.

Everyone has gone home. The twins are on clean-up duty. Jay looks in his room to make sure he didn't miss any other bottles of alcohol. It's just me and the couple. Oh, joy!

I get low to the ground. That's the only way the spinning will stop. Marcus comes down to the floor where I am. He whispers something in my ear softly.

"You don't have to work so hard to let me know that you are hurting. I know, Em. I know."

Tears now fall without hesitation. He holds me steadily and patiently.

"That's it?" Ameana says incredulously.

"Everything is fine now," Rio says.

"Like h.e.l.l," Ameana snaps.

"Mimi, calm down," Miku says gently.

"I don't believe this."

"C'mon, Meana.. The past few days have been really hard on her."

"And Marcus makes it all better, is that it?"

"This isn't about us, Mimi."

"No, it's about what's best for this team. And the best thing is to focus on Julian and find out everything we can about his last cycle with Femi. We don't even need Emmy anymore."

"We don't know that she isn't a part of this anymore. We can't exclude her."

"No, Marcus, you can't exclude her. Every time I turn around you're holding her. And then you make me out to be the jealous girlfriend. I'm getting really sick of it."

"She just found out everything in life she believed to be true has all been a lie. Can you understand that?"

"Yes, I can understand that very well. I used to think that I mattered to you more than anything in the world, but now I have to constantly reevaluate that thought."

"I can't do this tonight. I'm gonna take her home."

"Why does it have to be you?"

"I don't care who it is. I don't have time for this petty c.r.a.p. I just want someone to get her cleaned up and take her home."

"I'll do it."

"Why you?"

"What's the matter, Marcus-you don't trust her with me?"

"I didn't say that."

"Good, because I have to trust her with you all the time; it would be good to get a little of that trust back. Give her to me. I'll take her home."

There is silence. A moment later, I feel myself being picked up and lifted off the ground. I don't need to open my eyes to see who is holding me. I would know Ameana's scent anywhere. It smells like what a perfect sunrise would smell like. It's the scent of wrath, power and impossible beauty. It's alluring and impossible to duplicate. I tried at many perfume stores. Even her scent is one of a kind. Why had they let her take me home? She'll "accidently" drop me into the Hudson River.

I think I pa.s.sed out because everything went black. I'm not sure for how long. At least I didn't throw up. Now that's something to be proud of. I look around and I'm not sure where I am. As the haze begins to clear up, I can make out dark sky and cold metal beneath me. Ameana hovers above me.

"Ameana, where are we?"

"The Golden Gate Bridge."

Panic is not the right word, but it's the only thing that comes to mind. She took me to San Francisco to throw me off the bridge. I'm gonna die. My heart pounds inside my chest. At any moment now it is going to jump out of my body.

"Calm down, I'm not going to push you," she says. I try to take the panic away from my voice.

"Then why are we here?"

"Look down."

"I'm not scared of you Ameana," I lie.

"Yeah, I got that impression. Maybe you should rethink that."

"Screw you. Get me off of here."

"I see you've sobered up."

"Get me down," I yell from somewhere in me that is too p.i.s.sed off now to be scared.

"I brought you here to talk."

"Ever hear of Starbucks?"

"I was actually feeling bad for you. I thought, this girl has some family issues. And let's just say I'm more than a little familiar with family troubles. In fact, I think one of the major requirements to being chosen as a Guardian is that you have a messed up home life. But you can ask Marcus about that. Wait, you can't because he has yet to tell you anything about his Core."

"What's your point?"

"The point is, I felt bad. I could relate and I gave you some slack. But now I see that you and I have nothing in common. For one thing you are the most selfish person I have ever met. And you don't know my mother but she owned the rights to selfish. But you've even outdone her."