STATIC; JR [2]

2.4

Felix grumbled as his feet planted into the ground, digging deeper with each determined step. He continuously knocked his arm against my own, and although he apologised for it, he kept doing it. "Alice totally couldn't take her eyes off the talisman." He scowled, gaining no response from the other two teens who walked in front of us. Looking for verbal agreeance, Felix ducked his head toward me and whispered solemnly. "Something's not right." The anger was evident on his face, but when he registered the slightly baffled expression on my own, it was less intense. "I know you think so, too." I didn't bother replying. Something told me he wasn't finished. "You would have spoken up, but you stayed quiet because you know she's lying."

"I stayed quiet because I wouldn't have been able to get a word in with you guys practically yelling at her." I interjected, barely turning my head as I grimaced at the sound of his assumptions. He wasn't entirely wrong, I just felt strangely defensive.

"You're exaggerating." He said, a dead tone to his voice.

I almost sighed, but decided that holding my breath would possibly ease my growing annoyance. "Even if she was lying." The utter irritation that lurked on Felix's face literally made me pause, and I returned the glare without really thinking about it. I rolled my eyes as I looked away from him and continued on with my sentence. "If she was lying, do you really think it would be a good idea to acknowledge it?" Felix made no attempt to reply, and that's how I knew I had won this insignificant argument.

"Face it, Felix." Jake began, trudging over the wet ground with ease. "The Alice in this universe isn't a demon."

"I just don't know if we should trust her." The Goth said in a voice that sounded tragically sadder than before.

Sam ignored his tone, and threw his arms up into the air while letting out an exasperated sigh. "Yeah, because we have so many other options."

"What about this... this conjuring an element stuff?" This question came from Jake, as he appeared to be the most hopeful out of the bunch. He looked to Felix, shooting him a curious gaze. "How does that even work?"

It took a few seconds for Felix to answer, because it looked like his mind was elsewhere. "We have to go back to the pond where Andy disappeared." This realisation had caused Felix to stop completely, and this in turn had forced us to pause, also. Sam and Jake both shared the same expression, and it wasn't hard to know that they thought Felix was ridiculous.

I understood quicker than they did, and tried to help them catch up. "It's littered with Andy's magic." I stated, a continuous nod following my words. Then it clicked with the other two, although they didn't really seem that into the conversation.

Jake's face had kind of dropped, and he looked suddenly deflated. "This is so not how I thought coming home would be." He mumbled, his voice laced with disappointment.

Sam exhaled deeply, turning to meet the eyes of his friend. "Tell me about it." He spoke using the same tone as Jake, and mirrored his expression once again.

Felix moved forward, and we followed him instantly, like a train. Nobody said anything, but I could tell that Sam was itching to go back to the party. It wasn't a possibility, and he knew that. It should have been silent as we trekked through the trees, but there was a small splash of boots as they hit the water. The sound caught every ounce of attention that lingered between the group, and we were all equally stunned to see Ellen walk out from behind a tree. It didn't seem as though she was spying on us, maybe just trying to locate our whereabouts.

She looked a little confused, understandably. "Felix?" She squeaked, peeking up at him through her thick lashes.

"Ellen!" Felix exclaimed, totally flustered.

"Look, I didn't ask you to ask me to the movies." She said, an edgy slice to her voice. "So, if this is your way of backing out of it, then-"

Felix interrupted her and shook his head wildly. "No, no. It's not. Absolutely not."

Ellen's expression was still wary, but she appeared to be pleased to hear her almost-boyfriend say this. She didn't get a chance to reply before Jake spoke up, leaving her with no choice but to stay quiet. "Felix, we need to go." Jake mumbled, reaching out to lightly grasp at the arm of Felix's jumper. Ellen's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, and she didn't have to say anything for us to know what she was thinking.

"We have this thing." Felix mumbled, blurting out the first thing that came to his mind. It wasn't a total lie, we did have a thing. It was a pretty massive thing, and we couldn't stand around in the bush to chat about a date at the movies. Ellen, completely baffled, widened her eyes suspiciously. Felix took in a sharp breath, beginning to push us forward. "It's complicated. Talk later?"

The teenage girl looked to the ground, mumbling her reply as we hurried away from her. "I guess." It was only two words, but they sounded so sad. I turned around to gaze at her, dressed in all black and standing alone. I felt the guilt crawl into my stomach, but there was nothing I could do about it. Ellen wasn't the priority, Andy was.