The Gossip Guys (ON HIATUS)

Chapter Seven: Liars and Superheroes

  “I’m waking up, to ash and dust, I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust. I’m breathing in the chemicals. I’m breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus. This is it, the apocalypse. I’m waking up; I feel it in my bones, enough to make my systems flow. Welcome to the new age,” the radio sang.

  “Lil Dee!” I heard from the door. I spun around, a bit too quickly, to see a rather frantic Damien in the door way.

  “What’s up?” I asked, turning down the radio.

  “I have to talk to you.”

  “Okay, then, talk,” I said, patting the bed next to me as I sat down. He came over and sat next to me, quickly retrieving my hands in each of his. My eyes widened, and I pulled away quickly.

  “Look, Dee, I don’t think it’s okay for Blake to blatantly disregard the pain this will cause you if he doesn’t tell you, so I just want to… Ugh. Okay. Blake is moving. Tomorrow morning, everything he owns will be in a truck on the highway speeding as far away from here as it can. Florida, Dee. He’s moving to Florida. And he wasn’t going to tell you, and he told all of us not to say anything, though only Nathen and I know. Nathen hardly gets to talk for himself anyways, so… I had to tell you Dee. I’m sorry.”

  I shook my head.

  “You’ve nothing to apologize for. But… I don’t believe it. He’ll tell me. He will.”

  “Only you would be so optimistic… Okay, well I have to run before he sees me here. I’ll see you at school Lil Dee.”

  He pecked my hand with a kiss, and ran out the door.

  My head was spinning. Blake wouldn’t do this, he liked me. He might have even loved me, why would he just… Leave? He was probably going to tell me tonight.

  I poked my head in Becca’s room to tell her I was leaving, and absent-mindedly teased her for rekindling her crush on our long-time friend Koby.

  I walked towards the ringing doorbell, and Rocco ran passed me, barking warningly at the door, and I patted his head to make him calm down. He sat down, causing a tiny yelp from one of our smaller dogs. She wiggled out and yapped at him for a minute before Berta, our housemaid, opened the door to a very well dressed Blake. I waved my goodbye to Berta, and he took my arm as we walked out to the car.

  “You have a maid?” he asked, astonished.

  “My step dad wanted a big house, and my mom and I could hardly keep a two room apartment clean. We need her around.”

  “Makes sense. You look beautiful, by the way.”

  “Thank you,” I said quietly, a blush creeping its way onto my face.

  We drove to the restaurant talking about the most random things, like his cousins getting married to the Maroon 5 song “Moves Like Jagger”.

  The food was good, but the meal wasn’t exactly what I was thinking about during the heavy silence that hung between us as we ate. Damien’s words were spinning through my head and burning me with every last second. I don’t think I could confront him if I wanted, but he was going to tell me, so it didn’t matter.

  Another hour passed by, and as he reached for the check, my hand instinctively shot out, but I pulled it back, remembering he was paying this time. Walking to the car, he took a light breath, and I knew it. This was it. He was going to tell me. What was I so worried about?

   “I had a really nice time, Delilah.”

  “So did I, Blake.”

* There was a silence in the car, and he turned to look at me, and my insides tickled as he brushed his hand on my cheek. He pulled me closer to him, our lips meeting, and before I knew it, he had pulled me over so that my knees were on either side of his thighs, straddling him. The kiss was so deep, so intense, that I almost forgot everything. Almost.