The Last Corvus (completed)

Ch. 8 Isadora

Chapter 8

Isadora

It only takes twenty minutes with all of us to get the boxes that we can strapped to the roof, in the backseat, and in what meager space there was in the trunk. The whole time Rob's asking about the car.

I don't think either of them breathed more than twice.

"Is it a Dodge Charger?" from Rob.

"Yeah," from Lin.

"What year?"

"1974."

"Oh, that was a good year."

"I agree."

"Original color?"

"Yeah."

"Hm, not the usual color on a vintage."

"My dad had it specially ordered."

"Nice. What's the horse power?"

"No idea. Once made it to 110, though."

"Ni-ice. Where'd you get parts?"

"Nowhere. They're all original."

"No freaking way! I didn't know the battery could last that long."

"Well, I rarely drive it. I usually just take the train, she doesn't see much use."

"Shame. She's a beaut."

I wonder if Rob realizes that he just referred to the car being female, or if Lin realizes how smoothly he lied about his dad buying it.

Apparently not, because after a few more minutes of question, Rob finally asks the question I've been waiting for, "can I look under the hood?"

Lin helps me carry out my jumbo beanbag, straps it to the roof, shrugs and says, "sure, why not?"

Rob walks (with what I can almost call a bounce in his step) over to Peony and pops the blue and black hood. It opens silently and he sighs. "Men."

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. Sorry, I didn't realize I was broadcasting."

After finishing, we proceed to the unfortunate goodbyes. Rob and I embrace and he whispers, "good luck, my little slugger." Coming out of our hug, Rob keeps his arm around my shoulder as he shakes hands with Linden. He hasn't used that nickname in a while, probably because of the painful memories behind it.

It was only a year or so ago when he came home from a friend's party more plastered than norm. He wakes me up, banging on the door at, like, two o'clock in the morning. Opening the door I could smell the alcohol on his breath and told him to go home.

He pushed me into the door behind me and leaned in to kiss me. Seeing him coming, I dodged his mouth and he kissed me on the eye. Eye tearing up from the alcohol, I socked him in the nose. He stumbled backwards and fell down the stairs, landing at the bottom unconscious. I panicked, ran across the street and woke up his mom so she could drive us to the hospital.

After we finally managed to drag him from the backseat I told her what happened and she assured me that he'd be grounded for the next two years once he woke up.

Ha. Mrs. Bedevere is many things- but a strict disciplinarian, she never was.

Once at the hospital, we found out he'd fallen into a coma (literally, though a short-lived one). He stayed in the coma for just over three hours and woke up with a concussion that lasted nearly two days.

My punch had broken his nose and, unexpectedly, my pinky.

Ever since he regained consciousness, I've had 'slugger' for a nickname.

Endearing, isn't it?

Now, whenever I'm mad at him he covers his nose instinctively. It's never quite grown back straight and now kind of reminds me of Owen Wilson. Man, I'm really going to miss him. I wonder if I'll be able to see him anymore. Linden never said I couldn't visit. Then again, he never explicitly said I could either. Whatever; I'll ask later.

Wait, why do I even need permission? I can do what I want.

Slightly put off with myself, I catch back up to the present just as Rob's telling Lin to be good to his little sister. Lin shoots me a confused look and I roll my eyes before clarifying. "First of all, Rob and I aren't actually related. Second of all; I'll actually slightly over a year older than him." Rob always seems to forget that particular tidbit of information.

"I know you're older, but you'll always be shorter," he chuckles. He tightens his arm around my shoulders and I brace myself for the inevitable noogy. He doesn't noogy me hard, he never does, just enough to muss up my already messed up hair even more.

I steal a look at Linden and notice he looks uncomfortably out of place. Squirming out of Rob's clutches, I move next to Lin and try to covertly nudge him towards the car. "We really need to be going, I don't want to unpack in the dark. I'll call when I'm settled, okay?"

We all give another round of farewells and Lin "asks" me if everything is okay. "Yeah. It's just that your contacts are starting to dissolve again." He nods and holds my door open for me, closing it behind me.

What a gentleman.

He walks around and starts the car. "Thanks for the save." He pulls away from the curb and we're home free.

"No problem. Thanks for humoring him back there. He usually drives me batty within a half hour. All he ever talks about anymore is sports and cars. It was so much easier when we could just spend hours on end talking about Pokémon, but then we both grew up."

"No way! You like Pokémon?" I can hear the disbelief in his voice and laugh.

"Hey, you're looking at the neighborhood's undefeated Pokémon Monopoly champion," I answer proudly.

"Ooh, hoo hoo. It seems I finally have a worthy opponent!"

"Oh, you're so on!" I say with a laugh as we start down the street.