Page 34 of Siren’s Mark (The Siren’s Mark Duology #1)
I flip around to see a man with spiky bleach blonde hair and chiseled features approaching Ava. He has a huge fit frame, probably even an inch or two taller than me. He’s wearing a blue leather jacket, tight jeans, and short leather boots.
“Lucas!” Ava says enthusiastically, opening her arms as they both go in for a hug.
Nope. Nope. Nope.
I walk over to them at a speed slightly faster than one might consider human.
“Whoa, uh… hi?” the blonde says to me.
“Hi,” I reply.
Ava looks at me scoldingly.
“Zane, this is Lucas. Lucas is an old friend,” she says.
“Zane,” I say, reaching out for a firm handshake. “Ava’s boyfriend.”
“Oh hey,” he says. “British, huh?”
“Yep.”
He turns back to Ava.
“Look at you, damn!” he says. “You were hot in high school but you look like a fuckin’ sex kitten.”
That’s it. Let’s see what he thinks without his eyeballs.
I wrap an arm around her waist.
Take a bloody hint, mate.
“Uh thanks,” Ava says with a laugh. “This isn’t exactly my everyday look.”
“Yeah I figured,” he replies with a chuckle.
“So how are you?” she asks him. “Are you back in Port Charlotte?”
“No, just visiting family. Are you?”
“Yeah,” she says.
“That’s crazy! I visit all the time and I never see you around.”
“Well, I’m downtown. I usually don’t hang out in the old neighborhood, but this was the only costume place I knew of.”
I’m trying so hard not to kill this guy that their conversation hardly registers. Apparently Ava used to live in this neighborhood?
“Well this look is certainly a winner,” he says. “I’d do you.”
I find myself between him and Ava before I’ve even thought through the action.
“You have the bloody nerve to say that in front of me?” I say.
I hear Ava’s quiet pleas of “Zane” but I’m seeing red now and can hardly focus. She tugs at the back of my shirt.
“Oh my god,” he says. “So goals! We fucking love a jealous queen!”
I… what?
I think I’m going to have to google at least half of the words in that sentence, but the way he said it has me a bit taken aback.
A giggle escapes Ava’s mouth and both she and her friend begin laughing.
“For the record, I’m super gay,” he says to me.
Gay.
Oh.
This is awkward.
“Oh uh, yeah,” I say. “Sorry, mate. I er… I thought you were just being… inappropriate.”
“Oh yeah, I’m totally inappropriate, but not in that way!” he says with a laugh. “Anyways, I gotta get going but good seeing you Ava and Ava’s sexy British boyfriend.”
He hugs us both goodbye and we walk back to the dressing rooms. When we’re out of earshot, Ava busts up laughing.
“That was amazing,” she says through stifled laughter.
“Not funny,” I say.
Ava settled on the green toga and, after a bit of convincing, I talked her into letting me buy the schoolgirl outfit too. We purchased them and started heading back to the parking structure.
The sun has just set and streetlights are starting to turn on, lighting up the dilapidated buildings that look even more broken-down as night falls.
“So you used to live around here?” I ask.
“Yeah,” she says shortly.
Okay then. I guess that’s a touchy subject.
“So were…” I start to say, but we’re interrupted by a male voice.
“Oh look who it iiiissssss!”
Ava looks concerned but keeps looking forward, walking faster. Her heartbeat quickens as she looks at her feet.
I turn to look and see a scrawny man across the street, covered in tattoos and staggering drunk.
He’s got a scruffy goatee and gauges in his ears, is wearing an oversized black hoodie and a baseball cap, and is taking puffs of a cigarette.
The man is staring right at us. Ava continues to pull me forward by my hand.
“Aaaavvvaaa,” he calls teasingly.
My neck snaps toward him, then back to her.
“Who is this guy?” I ask.
“Nobody,” she says, pulling me faster down the street. “Let’s just go.”
Is this another ex-boyfriend? If he’s anything like Mike, I’m sure he’s just bloody delightful.
“Stuck-up bitch!” he screams. “I’m fucking talking to you!”
My body is shaking with rage and stiffens with his words.
“Ava, I’m about to kill this guy right now. I’m not even joking,” I say, my voice thick with anger.
“Please, let’s go,” she says, pleading with those grey eyes.
Fuck.
Okay, I can do this.
I take another step forward when a bottle whizzes past us. I catch it by the neck before it comes anywhere close to Ava. My muscles tense and the bottle shatters in my fist.
“Zane,” she cautions.
I dust the glass shards off of my palms and I slowly turn toward the man.
“Who the fuck is this?” the guy asks in a slurred voice, gesturing toward me as he stumbles closer.
“The last bloody thing you’re ever going to see, mate,” I spit, rushing toward him and pinning him against a nearby brick wall.
“Fucking around on your boyfriend?” he asks Ava. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Ava, who the bloody fuck is this guy?” I ask, ready to crush his larynx. She looks genuinely frightened and at the moment I can’t tell if it’s of him or me.
“He’s…” she says softly. “He’s my brother.”