Fracted (Book #2)

Chapter 19: Little Things

I stand on my toes and hugged Zach, I said my little goodbye. He said, "No worries, Ghoul. We'll see each other again. Stay alive, okay?". It's been a long time since I've heard someone call me "Ghoul". He headed outside and I saw Jackson standing right beside the open door, leaning on his back and waiting. No eye contact between us. But he did frown at me for a second when Zach closed the door as they left.
"Hold on, Zach, what happened to you last night?"
"Huh?"
"Your leg, looked real bad. What happened to you?"
"Well you see, I got injured trying to finish off the clones. Got slashed, bled, but Alice nursed me back to health. Good girl."
"Oh, well... goodbye, again."
"'Kay bye!"
"So that's it?" I whispered.
"Yeah." said Robert.
"Bursted like a bubble." Ace said.
A knock came to our door and Robert opened it. Mom.
"Hi, Mrs. Mck--" She stopped him for a sec and asked, "What's happening? Why did I just see Jackson enter someone else's room? Since when did Zach and Alice get here? Tell me what happened." She sounded eager. This day cannot get any more unappetizing.
"I'm going... out." I stood and announced. I was unsure what to do, but I distinctly remembered that Eiffel needs new clothes.
"Okay, be careful." she said.
"Yeah, yeah." I said in a lousy tone.

"Where are we going?" Eiffel asked me as we took the elevator down to the ground floor.
"The store," I said, "You... need new clothes to wear."
"Really?" Joy filled her eyes. "Thanks. But where'd you get the money from?"
"Let's just say one of us managed to save my jar of savings that contained five thousand dollars."
"Five thousand? How'd you earn that much money?"
"Sometimes I help around cleaning the school cafeteria back at Cali. The principal, he pays me a hundred dollars per week 'cause of the janitors' lack of integrity."
"You're really hard-working are you?" "My teachers said I have a charm that makes everybody love me. But that was a myth."
"More like non-fiction." The doors slide open and we headed out the hotel.
"Can you please not be ridiculous right now, please?" I said.
"I'm not being ridiculous," she said, "Look, you're willing to spend your money on a girl you just met, and that makes me like you. And... and you've got friends that love you, who would never give up on you. And I'm not gonna sympathize your opinions about yourself."
"Why?"
"Because..." She struggled to find good words to say. I think I know where she's going with this. "Because I..."
Oh come on, Eiffel! Just say I'm important to you! What was I saying?
I felt my hand tense up and grab her hand, as if it moved by itself.
For a long pause she finally said, "Okay fine, I'm not gonna force myself to say your importance in my life."
"Dude, you just said it."
"Oh, dang it."
"Dang it? That's like one of the highlights of this "vacation"."
"You're right, you're right. Let's... start over."
"Oooh, I've tried that before. Didn't go as planned."
"When I start over, I mean, really start over. C'mon, Jess, I'm tired of sob stories."
"I do like your idea of starting over and over again. I'm satisfied."
For not a second that I let go of her hand. Things were bad at some point, but I realized that big things come from smaller things. And our thing was microscopic.
One day, we'll grow.