The Paladin: Lazarus

Chapter 7

Monday

February 7th

Whispers permeated the halls as I walked to my locker. People from every grade gave me sideways glances. What the hell is this all about? I tried my best to ignore them and just go about my day but it started to piss me off. I grumpily twisted my locker combination in and yanked open the bent locker door, causing it to slam against the locker next to it.

"Bad day?" I heard asked, from beside approaching me. Try bad couple of years. I turned to see Max leaning against the locker next to me, giving me a once over. I'd rarely ever seen him without Tyler or Theo at his side, so seeing him by himself kind of caught me off guard.

"Yeah, something like that. What do you want? You guys taking shifts being assholes to me or something?" I replied churlishly.

"I wanted to say thanks," he answered bluntly. I chuckled, then after a moment I realized he wasn't joking, or at least he didn't seem to be.

"Quit fucking with me," I scoffed.

"I'm serious, you saved my family last night. I'm not gonna let that slip," he assured.

"Please do."

"Look man, I just wanted to say I don't care what the blogs are sayin and shit, I owe you one," he made clear. I closed my locker giving him a curious look.

"What do you mean the blogs?" I questioned.

"You haven't seen them? Damn, I thought you would've by now," he sighed, pulling out his phone. It didn't take long for him to find the post in question. Booker Kelly: Tar City's Teenage Black Widow? Written and edited by Moriah Morin.

"That goddamn..." I groaned, skimming through the article.

"I also wanted to say, if you try and get with my sister again, I'll break both your legs," he added, as I got to a picture of Courtney and I kissing outside the police precinct. What did Moriah wait outside in the bushes during the entire hostage situation?

"That's fair enough, I guess?" I confirmed, handing back his phone.

"Hey listen, if you want me to talk to Tyler, maybe tell him to lay off you for a while. I can do that, I owe you that much at least."

"I appreciate it Max, but I'll be fine," I assured. He gave me a slight nod of approval.

"Alright then," he agreed, heading off to his next class.

(Meanwhile at Midtown high)

Samantha scanned around the cafeteria and after a few moments of searching, spotted Diego. He was sitting next to a short chubby Freshman girl that Samantha had seen around the lunchroom a couple of times, and two seemed to be sharing a laugh. Samantha placed down her tray of synthetic school food and took the seat across from Diego, giving him a smile.

"There you are Sam. Thought you might not have been here today. I want you to meet my sister Mari," he introduced. Mari looked at Samantha dumbfounded, not realizing Samantha had offered a handshake.

"It's nice to meet you Mari," Samantha greeted. Diego nudged his sister, knocking her out of her trance. Mari shook her head, doing a double take.

"Huh, sorry. You're just, like, really really pretty and I didn't expect that," Mari explained.

"Mari!" Diego objected, causing both Samantha and Diego to blush.

"That's really nice of you to say," Samantha replied bashfully.

"Oh I'm not saying it to be nice. Is he like blackmailing you or something? Have some sort of embarrassing or incriminating information?" Mari questioned.