Inevitable Mistakes

| Chapter 6 |

| CHAPTER 6 |

"YOU DON'T HAVE to do this," I told Finn as he hauled me down Alex's front lawn.

Yesterday, after he finally decided to hear me out and promised not to breathe a word to Alex, we agreed it might be a good idea to get to know each other. Finn put it rather gracefully as "needing more information on the psycho living in his best friend's attic," and I was eager to get to know my partner in crime (he firmly told me never to call him that).

We exchanged the basics, and whatever naturally branched off from there. Age—Finn was twenty-one, a year older than me. Courses we were taking—he was a history major. Favorite movie—so we could pick something to watch. Small stuff about where we were from and a bunch of other little things my brain didn't bother committing to memory.

We spent the rest of the day playing games on Alex's PS5. Finn lost seven times in a row and gave before I could win my eighth round. He insisted he was, verbatim, "choosing to lose," which was probably the most loser thing I'd ever heard. I told him exactly that, which prompted him to throw a pillow directly at my face.

Finn wasn't as bad as I had expected him to be. As the star player of our college's football team, and with all the rumors swirling around about him, I had subconsciously assigned him a personality. I expected him to be cocky and self-centered—which he absolutely was—but he could also be nice when he felt like it. And, surprisingly, I enjoyed hanging out with him.

Of course, I would never tell him that; his ego was already the size of Everest.

He stopped suddenly and my face almost collided with his back. "I know," He said. "Do you think I do things I don't want to do?"

"No, but you don't have to take me to school."

This morning, when I finished getting ready, Finn texted to let me know that he was outside. When I asked him why, he said that he was here to take me to school, and when I asked why again, he told me I should learn to stop asking questions and be a leaf—because leaves don't question the wind; they just go with the flow.

Don't ask me what the hell that means.

I was hesitant, mostly because I didn't want to owe him any more than I already did. Not saying anything to Alex was already a huge favor, and I wasn't looking to have more favors from him hanging over my head.

He looked at me like I was stupid. "Why would you take the bus or walk when we're going to the same place and I can take you? Catch!"

Reflex instantly made me outstretch my hands but whatever he threw slipped right through and landed at my feet with a thud. I looked up to see him gawking, looking to the ground as if he'd thrown me his baby and I dropped it.

"Merv!" He yelled, running to pick it up. I glanced down to see him using the sleeve of his jacket to clean a small smudge on Merv—a helmet.

I glanced back up and my mouth immediately fell open. Not because of the weirdo cradling a helmet in his arms and asking if it was okay, but because of the two-wheeled death machine staring right at me almost daringly.

"Wait, we're taking a motorcycle?"

"No, we're teleporting. The bike's just for show."

"I'm not getting on that thing."

Finn rose from the ground, rolling his eyes. "Don't be a pussy. Just get on Stefanie, put on Merv, and let's go." He placed the helmet in my hands.

It took a great amount of restraint to not comment on the names of his helmet and motorcycle. "I'm not being a pussy. I just don't like bikes. Do you know how many bike crashes happen a year?" I looked at him expectantly. "I mean, I don't either, but it's probably a lot. I don't like them. They're dangerous."