The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves (99 page)

“
Come on, dude, stop it,”
interposed Anthony with a contrite shake of his head.

“
I’m not messing around
with you, if that’s what you think. I can tell by the way she looks
at you, dude, she’s into you. With every passing day, I think the
‘like’ is deepening into something more. I mean, I’m no expert, but
she has you on her mind a whole lot.”

Anthony didn’t respond,
but let his gaze wonder back over toward the girl as she poured
ground coffee into a tin coffee pot. Her fingers moved deftly as
she went about the various morning tasks.

“
She’s just scared that’s
all,” said the other boy after a time, reaching back to adjust the
elastic band holding his hair in a loose ponytail at the back of
his head. “She says I make her feel safe. Apparently, I make her
calm when she wants to freak out over something. That’s all, dude,
she used those exact words when I asked her.” He finished with his
hair and clasped his hands over his knees, leaning forward slightly
as he did so. His fingers tapped restlessly.

“
We’re all scared,
Anthony. On varying levels, but we’re all scared. This place has a
way of making us feel unsettled, because we don’t belong here. That
in itself is nerve wracking, but I’m not talking about that crap.”
He pointed at Sophie. “She likes you. There is no denying it,
especially when you see the way she looks at you.

“
Yeah, she’s scared and,
yeah, you make her feel comfortable, but there’s more to it than
that. I think those feelings are just as confusing to her as is the
notion of her liking you is just as hard for you to
believe.”

Anthony met his eyes, even
more anxious than before, and he went on.

“
When you were talking and
joking with Andrew just a few minutes ago, I was watching her. I
swear to God it looked like she wanted to throw her arms around you
and mack you down right then and there in front of me and your
friend. It was almost like she didn’t care who was watching. I
think she was about a half-second from doing so when she caught
herself and brought up the whole breakfast thing to throw her mind
off track.”

Anthony eyes bulged. He
giggled nervously. “Yeah right!” he blurted in exasperated
chagrin.

“
You think I’m lying, but
I’m not,” pleaded Jason, putting his palms up and to either side of
him in placation. “If you had turned around real quick and seen the
look on her face, you would’ve known too…” He gestured with his
index finger at the other boy. “…and you have felt hella awkward
too. Shit, I did and her look wasn’t even directed at me. She
looked like a pale she-wolf ready to pounce on her
prey.”

“
Come on, man, stop
playin’. Why would a good looking babe like that want to date a guy
like me?” asked Anthony as if the question itself was the
answer.

“
You got
me on that one, dude. I think only she can answer that question for
you, but make no mistake when I tell you. I will even say it again
if it makes you start to believe –
she
likes you, Anthony.
I mean she really,
really likes you.” Jason mirrored the way the other teen was
sitting, bringing their heads closer together. “You should just
come out straight and ask her, bro, don’t waste any time. Go for
it, hell, I would,” he added assessing the situation with a frank
expression on his face. “She is, Anthony, probably the hottest
chick I have ever laid eyes on.”

Anthony replied almost
immediately, his voice pitched higher than usual. “That’s my point,
Jason, she
is
the
finest girl I have ever seen too. So, why in holy hell would she
want to kick it with someone like me? I mean, why not Joaquin? He’s
the one built like a mountain. Or anyone of you guys for that
matter. I’m just a skinny dude who hangs out with a bunch of
musicians and plays online games all day. What could she possibly
want with a guy like me? What do we have in common that would
attract her to me? My killer looks –
not!
; my chiseled body –
double not!
Or maybe it
is my irresistible charm?

“
You see,” he was almost
pleading now. “What does a guy like me have to offer a total babe
like that? I mean, she could have us all dangling on our tiptoes
like a bunch of puppets if she wanted to, so why would she settle
on me, especially since we’ve only known each other for a few days.
There’s no way, dude. There is no way.” Anthony shook his head,
resigned to the thought.

Jason did the same only
for a different reason. “You are way off, my man. I mean waaaay
off.” He shook his head. “I guess you don’t know me well enough to
trust me at my word on something as delicate as this, but if you
did know me well enough and I told you she likes you as
emphatically as I am telling you now, you’d believe me in a
second.” Jason had never felt as certain about something as he felt
about this – Sophie liked Anthony. There was no doubt about
it.

His eyes strayed over
toward Andrew who had come back from the stack of wood, his arms
loaded with small and medium sized logs for the fire. He
immediately began forming into a tee-pee-like structure in order to
build up the blaze for Sophie to use to make their
breakfast.

From the other side of the
fire pit, Jason noticed Joaquin rise from the bed he’d shared with
him, Andrew and Louis. The hulking teen begin to make his way
toward the privy crack, dragging his feet as he went. Jason turned
his attention back toward Andrew as the other teen sat down on an
adjacent log and began poking at the fire with a long,
Barbeque-sized fork. He was flattening out the red coals so the
heat was evenly distributed throughout the fire pit.

At his side, Anthony
suddenly chuffed in disgust, apparently still mulling over what
Jason had told him, not believing what he’d been told.

“
You know, Anthony, there
is something else about you that’s pretty cool too. Something
absolutely no other dude on earth possesses, something truly
wonderful,” said Jason, egging him on with this new thought the
moment it popped into his head.

Anthony gave off a
derisive exhalation of air. “And what might that be, Jason, I’m
just a fairly average guy…”

“
That may be true, my
friend, but still there is something more about you setting you
above all others, even all of us guys here…” Jason paused,
wondering if Anthony could divine what he was getting at, but the
teenage boy just shook he head in confusion. “You are the
Kring-Hël, dumb ass! Don’t you think that might have some bearing
on how the girl might view you? Don’t you think knowing there is an
extremely special Gift within you, just might make you alluring,
even mysterious to her? I mean what chick wouldn’t want to find out
more about the man destined to save the world, let alone three.
You’re like chocolate to her, man, can’t you see?”

Anthony just stared back
at him, not afraid of what Jason was saying, but of the prospect he
might be speaking the truth after all. Jason could see the
questions firing off behind his eyes repeatedly.

What do I do if she likes
me? What do I do if she likes me? What do I do if she likes
me?

He smiled in spite of
himself, knowing his words were finally beginning to sink
in.

“
I don’t think the fact
he’s the Kring-Hël factors all that much into it, Jay. Sophie would
still be crazy for the dude either way, because she has fallen for
him, and fallen for him hard,” uttered Andrew calmly from his
seated position, still stoking the fire, which had already grown
twice its’ former intensity.

Jason was still gazing
into Anthony’s eyes when Andrew spoke and watched the expression on
his face change. It was a new day was dawning across the entire
expanse of his visage. His eyes widened, his lips parting in shock,
his breathing stopped.

“
You
both
think she likes me?” Anthony exploded with impossible hope,
his voice two octaves higher than it should’ve been. His whole body
went rigid with joyous fright.

“
I have no doubt in my
mind,” replied Jason as he glanced over at Andrew who was nodding,
muttering a quiet “yup”, though he didn’t look toward them. He was
concentrating on the fire.

“
But
why?
” said the teen, his voice nearly
cracking.

“
Because she does, Tony,”
began Andrew, tapping at some of the older logs, making them
crumbled into more red-hot coals. “It’s just nature running its
course. She likes you. And, what makes it better, is it’s quite
obvious you like her. Why fight it?” He clucked the rough of his
mouth. “Bro, I know you’re just dying to have her in your arms. I
can tell. I’ve known you for a long time. I’ve never seen you pine
after a girl as you do with her. Just let it happen… chances are,
you’ll enjoy yourself.”

Jason laughed at that,
shaking his head at Andrew’s uncanny ability to make everything
seem crude with the slightest amount of effort. He was a
master.

Then, he looked at Anthony
once more and saw the other boy appeared panicked out of his mind.
For a moment he was taken aback, uncertain of how to react, but the
hilarity of Anthony’s face began to wear his ability to resist. He
could do nothing else but let his smile broaden, more and more,
until he couldn’t contain himself. He began to laugh out
loud.

“
Anthony, you look like
you’ve just laid eyes on the undead,” he comment through barking
guffaws.

Anthony just stared back
at him blankly, oblivious to everything around him.

“
Look at him!” exclaimed
Andrew.

Jason continued
laughing.

“
What the hell did you do
to him? You tell him the Walking Dead was real?” asked the boy,
staring at the two of them, his hand still extended toward the
fire.

“
It wasn’t me, homeboy.
You were the one saying how much he’d enjoy himself,” countered
Jason still unable to stop jiggling with mirth.

“
He’s freakin’
comatose!”

Jason waved his hand
before Anthony’s eyes. “You okay in there?’ he asked through his
ridiculously huge grin.

Anthony seemed to shake
briefly. His eyes focused and appeared to be himself once again.
His brown irises sought Jason’s darker ones. “She
likes
me…?” he mumbled
as if his lips were too heavy for them to move properly.

Jason nodded, raising his
eyebrows. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,
remember?”

Anthony blinked a few
times, gazing back at Jason uncertain, a tinge bit fearful. “What
do I do now…?”

From behind them, Andrew
let out an incensed sigh. “Dude, what the hell do you think? You
ask her out and
jola
! You have a girlfriend.”

Anthony glanced at his
longtime friend and then back to Jason. “Really?”

“
Yeah, my man, that’s
about it,” he answered with a shake of his head.

Anthony swallowed and sat
up straighter. He arched his back and stretched out his arms. He
inhaled and exhaled through his nose obstreperously a few times,
staring into the fire, transfixed with thought.

“
Dude, it’s not like you
haven’t asked a girl out before,” supplied Andrew
indignantly.

“
Yeah, but I’ve never
asked anyone like Sophie before,” he stated as a matter of
fact.

Even Jason had to nod in
agreement.

“
Ask Sophie what?”
interrupted Joaquin, having finished relieving himself and was now
on his way to wash-up, carrying the necessary paraphernalia within
one of his large hands, a hand towel draped over one
shoulder.

Jason peered up at his
large friend. “Out.”

“
Out! Are you freakin’
crazy, there’s a freakin’ blizzard blowing like mad outside!”
admonished the other disdainfully.

“
Not out
there, dipstick, we’re talking ‘out’. ‘
Out’
out, if you get my meaning,”
clarified Jason with a thin smile on his lips.

Joaquin was frowning at
Jason as if he had sprouted a second nose, then the cast of his
face altered abruptly. “Oh, you mean ‘out’ out.” He fell silent, in
thought. “Damn, Sophie Reed… asking her out… oh, man… that’s like…
wow… Jeez…” He trailed off with everyone looking at him askance,
skeptical looks on their faces. He had clearly lost his
mind.

He didn’t seem to notice
and looked down at Anthony directly. “Never hurts to cast out that
line, Anthony. It never hurts.” With that, he walked off to brush
his teeth and wash his face.

“
I sure hope it doesn’t,”
said Anthony after his retreating form.

“
It won’t!”

Jason couldn’t tell if he
or Andrew had said it first.

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