Paranoia // Third Book To The Lucky Series

Chapter 30

"Babe can we please just talk," Jug begs beside me as I paint. I was trying to block him out as he attempts to get my attention. Honestly I didn't want to talk about me threatening to leave. I just want to paint my way through these emotions and go home. "Listen to me!" He shouts. I flinch widely and his whole demeanor softens. "I'm sorry- I'm sorry."

"I'm listening," I say looking over at him. A hint of my bitterness in my words. I wouldn't tell him but the idea of actually breaking up was growing and growing in my mind.

"Are you really planning on leaving?" He asks me clearly, "you are legacy. You were raised in the serpents."

"I wasn't raised in the serpents," I tell him, "I was raised around them sure but my mother made a point to leave me out of all of it."

"So what? You think that you'd make her mad?" Jug asks me not understating.

"No Jug," I say to him, "like i said I'm not being held hostage by the gargoyles! It's not fair to me or any other serpent. And it's all because you are letting your mom stomp right in here and take over."

"Is that what this is about?" He asks me, "my mom? Are you made because she called you a junkie?"

"No Jug!" I exclaim, "I'm mad because clearly you can't think for yourself. Or at least you can't take any action for yourself. You want to be king Jones? Then act like it. Get the gang to work together or I'm leaving it. Okay?"

"Fine!" He exclaims looking away from me, "lets talk to my dad. Both of us. Maybe he can help."

"Besides we should at least inform him that it was the gargoyles," I say to Jug. He nods and takes my hand carefully. I lead him out to my truck and we head off to the police station.

"Is there something we need to talk about?" He asks me, "you just seem so different this last couple of days."

"Do you still love me?" I ask him carefully. He seems taken back at the question.

"Of course I do," He tells me, "everything about you."

"Like?" I ask. He hesitates like he needs to think for a moment.

"You're beautiful," He says at once, "and you have a great personality." I keep my eyes firmly on the road. He used to never hesitate and he would listen so many reasons. My fighting spirit. The way I care so much for everyone. He used to have paragraphs for me every time I doubted myself. Now he's struggling to find two reasons. "You know I love you right?"

"I know," I say to him, "and I love you too." I could tell he was slightly tense. Of course how I have been acting he might think I was about to throw myself off of a bridge. We pull into the station and he leads me into the building. I can feel my heart start to race. These places still make me so nervous.

"What are you two kids doing here?" FP asks us once we reach his office.

"The insomnia twins needed to prove a point," I say as I sit down, "your son is becoming a coward."

"Now that's not nice," FP says, "But why?"

"He's letting the gargoyles run us into the ground," I tell FP, "our once great gang now garbage."

"You know that B&E at Riverdale High?" Jug asks his dad as he sits down.

"Yeah, Weatherbee called me," FP says, "What about it?"

"It was the Gargoyles," I tell him, "big surprise there. Kurtz and his gang on drugged up teens."

"I figured as much," FP sighs pushing up his glasses.

"They're starting fights," Jug says looking to me, "at least participating."

"Cheryl and I always argue," I say in a matter of fact tone, "she and I almost never physically fight. And we only started arguing when Kurtz called us bitches. He threw the first punch."