My Soul to Steal
Page 6
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What are you gonna say? Emma asked. Im not sure I want you back, but Im sure I dont want your ex-con ex-girlfriend to have you, either? Yeah. Thatll start this little triangle off on the right foot.
This is not a triangle. This is a disaster nothing. Exes turn into friends all the time, right? Emma and Tod exchanged a glance. Right? I demanded, when neither of them answered.
I dont know, Kay. Emma crumpled her empty popcorn bag and tossed it into the trash can from across the counter. But on the bright side, according to Mrs. Garner, the triangle is the most stable geometric shape. That has to count for something, right?
This is not a triangle, I repeated, turning my back on them both to check the number of nacho cheese containers lined up beneath the heat lamp. I couldnt afford to let my decision about me and Nash be influenced by Sabines arrival. Or her criminal record. Or her prior claim on my boyfriend.
When I turned back around, Em was still watching me. Maybe you shouldnt start grilling Nash about his ex until hes back on his feet for sure.
Yeah. Except by then she could have swept him off of them. Or knocked them out from under him. Either way, Nash off his feet would be bad.
Marshall, your breaks over! the new assistant manager called from across the lobby, fleshy hands propped on his considerable gut. Back in the ticket booth! His name was Becker, but when she made fun of him after work, Em replaced the capital B with a P. Shed called him Pecker to his face once, by accident, and hed been yelling at her ever since.
Emma rolled her eyes, pushed the remainder of her soda toward Tod, and headed backward across the lobby. See you after work. Wed ridden together, as we usually did when we had the same shift. But now, more often than not, we had a third carpooler.
As if hed read my mindnot a reaper ability, as far as I knewTod glanced around the snack bar as a group of junior high kids came through the front door, wearing matching aftercare shirts. Wheres Alec?
Tod, Nash, and Harmony were the only onesother than my dadwho knew the truth about Alec, that hed spent a quarter of a century enslaved by a hellion in the Netherworld. Until wed rescued him in exchange for his help saving my dad and Nash from that same hellion.
I glanced at the clock. Hes on his break, but he should be back any minute. Id given him my keys so he could eat a bag of Doritos in the car, by himself. Alec had grown comfortable with me and my dad, but the same could not be said for the rest of the general populace.
For the most part, Alec had adjusted well to being back in the human world. He was fascinated withthe internet, DVDs, and laptops, none of which had been around in the eighties, when hed become Avaris Netherworld proxya weird combination of a personal assistant and snack food. I hadnt even seen my iPod in days.
But he was still sometimes overwhelmed by crowds, not because of the numbershed regularly faced large groups of terrifying monsters in the Netherworldbut because of the culture shock. He was getting to know the twenty-first century at his own speed through TV, newspapersevidently people still read them in his dayand all the movies he saw for free at the Cinemark. But he got nervous when he had to actually interact with groups of people who didnt understand his cultural handicap. So far, Medium or large? and Would you like butter on your popcorn? were the most wed gotten out of him at work.
Want me to find him? Tod asked, as the gaggle of kids descended on Emma in the ticket booth. But before I could answer, Alec rounded a corner into the lobby, tucking his uniform shirt into his pants.
Sorry. Fell asleep, he said, then ducked into a small hall leading to the break room and service entrance. When he stepped into the snack bar a second later, scruffing one brown hand over short-cropped, tight curls, I couldnt help noticing that he still looked only half-awake.
Just in time. Were about to get hit hard. I pointed to the swarm of tweens, and his dark eyes widened. Dont worry, kids usually get Slurpees, candy, and some popcorn. Nothing complicated.
Alec just stared at me as I dumped a bag of popcorn seeds into the popper, careful not to burn myself. Hey, you missed the inside scoop on Sabine. Em and I had told him about her on the ride to work, but his confused frown said he obviously hadnt been paying attention. Not that I could blame him. After twenty-six years spent serving a hellion in the Netherworld, high school drama probably felt trite and irrelevant.
But Sabine was anything but irrelevant to me.
It turns out shes an ex-con. Or something like that. Tod doesnt know what she did, but I turned around to look for the reaper and wasnt surprised to realize hed disappeared. I think the temptation to put a couple of the prepubescent punks out of their misery was a little too strong.
Anyway, she definitely wants Nash back, and But before I could finish that thought, the kids descended on the snack bar, and my pity party was swallowed whole by the universal clamor for sugar and caffeine.
I pointed to the other register. You take that one, and Ill cover this one.
Alec nodded, but when the first of the tween mob started shouting orders at him, he stared at his register screen like hed never seen it before.
This is not a triangle. This is a disaster nothing. Exes turn into friends all the time, right? Emma and Tod exchanged a glance. Right? I demanded, when neither of them answered.
I dont know, Kay. Emma crumpled her empty popcorn bag and tossed it into the trash can from across the counter. But on the bright side, according to Mrs. Garner, the triangle is the most stable geometric shape. That has to count for something, right?
This is not a triangle, I repeated, turning my back on them both to check the number of nacho cheese containers lined up beneath the heat lamp. I couldnt afford to let my decision about me and Nash be influenced by Sabines arrival. Or her criminal record. Or her prior claim on my boyfriend.
When I turned back around, Em was still watching me. Maybe you shouldnt start grilling Nash about his ex until hes back on his feet for sure.
Yeah. Except by then she could have swept him off of them. Or knocked them out from under him. Either way, Nash off his feet would be bad.
Marshall, your breaks over! the new assistant manager called from across the lobby, fleshy hands propped on his considerable gut. Back in the ticket booth! His name was Becker, but when she made fun of him after work, Em replaced the capital B with a P. Shed called him Pecker to his face once, by accident, and hed been yelling at her ever since.
Emma rolled her eyes, pushed the remainder of her soda toward Tod, and headed backward across the lobby. See you after work. Wed ridden together, as we usually did when we had the same shift. But now, more often than not, we had a third carpooler.
As if hed read my mindnot a reaper ability, as far as I knewTod glanced around the snack bar as a group of junior high kids came through the front door, wearing matching aftercare shirts. Wheres Alec?
Tod, Nash, and Harmony were the only onesother than my dadwho knew the truth about Alec, that hed spent a quarter of a century enslaved by a hellion in the Netherworld. Until wed rescued him in exchange for his help saving my dad and Nash from that same hellion.
I glanced at the clock. Hes on his break, but he should be back any minute. Id given him my keys so he could eat a bag of Doritos in the car, by himself. Alec had grown comfortable with me and my dad, but the same could not be said for the rest of the general populace.
For the most part, Alec had adjusted well to being back in the human world. He was fascinated withthe internet, DVDs, and laptops, none of which had been around in the eighties, when hed become Avaris Netherworld proxya weird combination of a personal assistant and snack food. I hadnt even seen my iPod in days.
But he was still sometimes overwhelmed by crowds, not because of the numbershed regularly faced large groups of terrifying monsters in the Netherworldbut because of the culture shock. He was getting to know the twenty-first century at his own speed through TV, newspapersevidently people still read them in his dayand all the movies he saw for free at the Cinemark. But he got nervous when he had to actually interact with groups of people who didnt understand his cultural handicap. So far, Medium or large? and Would you like butter on your popcorn? were the most wed gotten out of him at work.
Want me to find him? Tod asked, as the gaggle of kids descended on Emma in the ticket booth. But before I could answer, Alec rounded a corner into the lobby, tucking his uniform shirt into his pants.
Sorry. Fell asleep, he said, then ducked into a small hall leading to the break room and service entrance. When he stepped into the snack bar a second later, scruffing one brown hand over short-cropped, tight curls, I couldnt help noticing that he still looked only half-awake.
Just in time. Were about to get hit hard. I pointed to the swarm of tweens, and his dark eyes widened. Dont worry, kids usually get Slurpees, candy, and some popcorn. Nothing complicated.
Alec just stared at me as I dumped a bag of popcorn seeds into the popper, careful not to burn myself. Hey, you missed the inside scoop on Sabine. Em and I had told him about her on the ride to work, but his confused frown said he obviously hadnt been paying attention. Not that I could blame him. After twenty-six years spent serving a hellion in the Netherworld, high school drama probably felt trite and irrelevant.
But Sabine was anything but irrelevant to me.
It turns out shes an ex-con. Or something like that. Tod doesnt know what she did, but I turned around to look for the reaper and wasnt surprised to realize hed disappeared. I think the temptation to put a couple of the prepubescent punks out of their misery was a little too strong.
Anyway, she definitely wants Nash back, and But before I could finish that thought, the kids descended on the snack bar, and my pity party was swallowed whole by the universal clamor for sugar and caffeine.
I pointed to the other register. You take that one, and Ill cover this one.
Alec nodded, but when the first of the tween mob started shouting orders at him, he stared at his register screen like hed never seen it before.
