Slender Man Chronicles (Matched Collectors)

Chapter 9

The tests came back that Beth had managed to get Ipecac on my lips, and that I was overly sensitive to it. She kept insisting that she didn't have anything on her lips, but Lauren came forward and said that Beth had an eating disorder, and had for years. Seems that Lauren thought Beth had gone too far in her pursuit of me, and thought she should give it up. Charles also got me a restraining order, but worked it so Beth wasn't going to be kicked out of TJP, she just had to keep away from me. And they transferred her out of all of our shared classes.

It was kind of alarming how fast this worked really. Our hike to get the last three powers was going to be the next day. When the lab tech said she'd put a rush on things, she meant it. I kept asking Sean if Charles had pulled tons of strings and called in every favor he had to get the restraining order, but he said no, that between my dad's name and Charles' things got moved fast without strings. Sean and Emily both told me that with vampire money behind the venture, anything could be accomplished, and that they wouldn't even notice Dad had done this. Or, figured it was important.

As Friday was ending, and Emily and Maddy were walking up to me and Brody, Lauren made her way over. I tensed up for all of us really. I'd had more than enough drama to last me the rest of my life.

"Could I talk to you a second?" she asked Brody.

"I'm not going anywhere," Brody stood his ground. "Anything you have to say, you can say right here."

Lauren sighed. "Look, I know I screwed things up by expecting you to talk to Nate, and I just wanted to apologize for that. I had no idea she'd take things as far as she did."

I could tell that Maddy was uncomfortable, and Emily put a hand on her arm.

"It's ok, Lauren, I understand," Brody shifted just a little closer to Maddy. "You were just trying to be a good friend."

"I'm sorry, Nate," Lauren looked at me. "I see you and Emily and you're so good together. I should have told Beth to give it up instead of talking to Brody."

"You had no idea she'd go all psycho," Emily spoke up. I knew she'd read it all over Lauren. "I doubt anyone did. I think it's just best if we all moved past it now."

"Thanks for being so understanding," Lauren gave a small smile, and walked away.

"That could have been awkward," Maddy said.

I looked from her to Brody. Sometimes I wondered if Brody was just going out with her to make it a bit more convenient to be around me and Emily. She was a cute girl, I could at least say that without getting sick, but there was no attraction for me at all.

"You guys want to do something with us tomorrow night?" Brody turned and looked at me. "I mean, that is if you want to do something with me," he looked back at Maddy.

"I'd love to," she barely whispered. I hated seeing how Brody, Sean, or I affected girls. I loved how I affected Emily, but with other girls it was embarrassing.

"Then I guess that's settled," I put an arm around Emily. "You girls think of something good we can do."

Emily and I would be with Brody all day. It was then that I was glad our Keeper was Brody and not someone else. For me, it could have been Sean and I'd have been fine. But, if it had to be one of my other friends, I preferred Brody. His best friend, Ryan, could be a bit of an ass, and well, after what Ben said that got Emily declared off limits, I wasn't the happiest with him. There was also the fact that he and his girlfriend had given my old phone number to Beth, so I didn't count him as a friend any more really. I won't even think about if our Keeper had been someone like Beth. Yeah, so glad it was Brody.