Shadow Souls

Chapter Forty

When we arrive at Dot's, I am surprised to see Zoey there. She is sitting in a booth facing the front door, and she looks angry. I follow her eye line and that's when I notice Callie is leaning over the table with her hands on the edge, talking to the person sitting on the other side of the table.

Finn.

I start to walk over, and Zoey catches sight of me, her face lighting up. "Alice your here!"

Callie looks over and narrows her eyes in my direction, obviously not as thrilled as Finn's sister is to see me. However, Finn himself looks ecstatic. He stands up, brushing past her to walk over and greet me. He lifts me off the floor spinning me in a full circle before planting my feet back on the ground, and a kiss on my lips.

"Excuse me, but you're blocking my girlfriend's seat," he says to Callie, while pulling us down into the booth.

As I try to squeeze past her, I think I see her reach out to grab me, but instead she just turns to walk away.

Zoey moves over to make a space for Paige, and I scooch even closer to Finn's side, making sure to leave a space for Tyler. As I push myself over, I feel a pain shoot through my arm, and when I look down to inspect it, I discover three skinny red marks.

"What the hell?" I gasp.

"Everything okay?" Finn asks and I hold up my arm to show him

"Oh my god! Did she scratch you?" Paige shrieks. "Oh, hell no! I am going to kick that bitch's ass!" She starts to get up, but I grab her arm stopping her from leaving.

"No Paige! I'm okay really. I don't even know that she did this anyway, so let's just eat."

Which is true. I didn't actually see her grab me and I could have hurt myself at any point today and didn't notice. I wouldn't want Paige to start a fight with Callie over this. Other things maybe, but not this.

She grudgingly sits back down mumbling under her breath and Finn tries to help by distracting her. "Paige, have you ever met my sister, Zoey?" he asks to change the subject. It works and he looks over to shoot me a wink.

"Of course, I have. For as long as I have known you, dork. Which is forever," she says rolling her eyes at him.

"I haven't seen you around much recently, but we had some classes together last year," Paige adds.

"That's right we did!" Zoey agrees, "And I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am that you guys showed up when you did. I really don't know how much more patience Finn was going to have while putting up with that evil witch," she sneers.

"Well, as happy as I am that we stopped a massacre, I feel bad that we interrupted your lunch," I tell her.

"Don't be ridiculous," Finn tells me. "You are always welcome with us."

"What about me?" Paige asks. "Am I always welcome too?"

"Even you Paige," Finn smiles over at her.

"Great! Then you won't mind me asking you about the booty calls you got this weekend?"

"Paige!" I kick her under the table.

"What booty calls?" Zoey and Tyler both ask, though he only hears his sister's voice.

"Yep!" Paige continues, "We ran into Sara and Ashley this morning at the coffee house."

I watch as Finn's expressions morphs into terror. "Look, Alice," he turns towards me and grabs my hands in his, "Nothing happened and I told them to stop calling me. I swear."

"Chill Finn, we already know that, and it's okay," I assure him.

"No, it's not. I'm so sorry, Alice. I should have just told you about it when it happened."

"There's really nothing to even tell. Paige is only trying to mess with you," I shoot her a look, but she just sticks out her tongue at me.

"But I do have something to be sorry about! I used to answer those calls and if I wasn't like that before, then you wouldn't have to be hearing about it now."

He cups my cheek in his hand, then leans down to look into my eyes. "I'm sorry, Alice."

I notice Paige and Zoey both staring at him, like he's some kind of glowing green alien. Which apparently, he notices as well. "What?!" he asks.

"Nothing," Zoey says, "I just don't think I even recognize you right now."

"Yeah, it's like you are a completely different person," Paige agrees, "I wonder what could have possible inspired this change?" she smirks, looking at me.

I try to kick her again, but this time she dodges, knowing it was going to come. "So anyway," I say changing the subject. "What are you guys doing after this?"

Zoey announces that she has plans with some friends, and Paige tells everybody that she needs to work on homework. Although Tyler and I know she really just wants to do more research on the demon we discovered at the library.

"I was hoping to spend some time with my beautiful girlfriend," Finn says, and my stomach does a flip at the use of the word girlfriend. This is the first time he has referred to me that way.

"Did you just use the 'G' word?" Zoey asks in shock, while Paige's mouth actually hangs open.

"Yes, I did and I don't want to get any crap about it," he says narrowing his eyes at her.

"Oh my gosh I can't believe this!" she squeals.

He gets ready to throw one of his fries at her as the waitress comes over to take Paige and my orders, causing him to drop it back to his plate.

"Not too late to take it back," I whisper to him.

"Not a chance in hell," he smiles and leans down to kiss me. "You are mine, Alice Mason."

I certainly like the sound of that.

                                                          Ω             Ω             Ω

We spend the next hour eating our burgers, and laughing like we don't have a care in the world and for a short time it's as if there were no cancer, and no evil shadows. Just normal teenagers spending a normal afternoon together. Almost.

The only thing that kept me from fully embracing the carefree atmosphere was the sight of Tyler next to me. He laughed at our jokes and smiled as we shared stories, but he still wasn't truly a part of the group. Nobody in this restaurant but Paige and I even knew he was here. Nobody but me could hear him speak. He was sitting at our table, but was still on the outside looking in. And no matter how much he disagreed, I knew it was my fault.