Hex

Chapter 22

     "This is an awful idea," Finn said.

     "It's gonna be great!" I argued.

     "He's gonna be pissed, which makes it great," Bishop said.

     "Oh shit, here he comes," Zane whispered urgently.

     The four of us were sitting in a little Italian restaurant, in disguise. That morning, Danny had stopped by, and I inconspicuously gathered some intel about him having a date tonight. It went something like this:

     "Hey, Vienna?" Danny said, knocking on my half-open bedroom door.

     "Hey, what's up?" I asked, looking up from my computer. I was laying on my stomach on my bed.

     "Can I ask your opinion about something?"

     "Of course!" I said, pushing myself up to a seat.

     He came into my room, closing the door behind him, and produced a black bag from behind his back. "Now, don't freak out," he started.

     "I won't," I said, drawling it out.

     "And definitely don't squeal," he warned.

     "I won't squeal! When have I ever squealed before?" I squeaked.

     "You're pretty damn close to it right now!"

     "I will not squeal," I promised.

     "I'm going to choose to believe you, against my better judgement. But, I'm going on a date tonight, and-"

     I didn't let him get much farther than that, before I squealed in excitement, bringing my hands up to my cheeks and jumping off my bed. Moments later, my door swung open to reveal Zane and Bishop holding a lacrosse stick and the small trash bin from Bishop's room. They looked ready for battle.

     Bishop looked at my excited face and dropped the trash bin. "Dude, told you that was the 'oh my god I'm so happy' squeal and not the 'holy shit, there's a rat in my closet' squeal."

     "Yeah, I guess you're right," Zane conceded, relaxing the lacrosse stick briefly, before raising it back up again. "Unless, she's happy to see the rat in her closet, because she named it and got attached to it, and now it came back!"

     Bishop laughed and came into the room, taking a seat on my bed. "That's a good working theory, dude."

     I nonchalantly sat back down, hoping they would forget to investigate the reasoning behind my outburst. Bishop lightly trailed his fingers up my arm. "So, what are you so happy about?" He asked.

     My eyes flicked to Danny, before resting on Bishop again. "Just happy to see you, baby," I said, as sweetly as I could.

     "I live with you," he retorted, narrowing his eyes. He glanced at his brother. "What's in the bag?" He asked suspiciously.

   "Nothing," Danny said, his eyes widening.

     Bishop stood up. Zane took a couple steps closer. Danny looked between the two of them and slowly started to back away. "Now, let's not do anything stupid here," he said, clutching the bag close to him and holding his other hand up to try to stop them.

     As if someone blew a whistle, both Bishop and Zane leapt into action. They attacked him from all sides in a scramble of a struggle. Before I could even react, Bishop was holding the bag over his head, and Zane had Danny's arms behind his back. Bishop glanced at his brother, before unzipping the bag and pulling out two shirts on hangers, two pairs of pants, and two pairs of shoes.