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Chapter 8

Jane almost burnt the pancakes she was cooking. "You mean you, I mean, all of you? I mean, you mean," the young fairy sputtered.
Uma and Mal exchanged a knowing glance before bursting into laughter.
Dizzy suddenly thought of something she had forgotten in the other room. She was beet red as she rushed out.
Audrey was proud of the way she remained composed as she asked, "Do you mean what Jane thinks you mean?"
Evie holds herself a little straighter. Taking the time to think through her answer. Of course she meant what Jane thought, but she also meant so much more. She just had to find the words.
"Yes." Uma grew tired of waiting for Evie to answer so she supplied the words the blue haired girl seemed to have forgotten. "I assume you are asking if we have sex on the isle, and the answer is yes."
"That's not all that I meant though!" Evie protests. "We really do bond. We have allies who become partners who become something in the realm of friends." She cannot seem to stop rambling.
Mal puts a hand on her friends shoulder to silence her. "We grew up in a land filled with the worst of the worst. There was very little comfort, if any, that we could find with our parents. Kids found it easier to band together into groups, gangs. If you can find someone to have your back and you have theirs..."
"It can be very special." Uma jumped in.
Evie picked up where she had been trying to go. "Sometimes our very special partnerships become a pseudo relationship. We don't date on the isle. We are brought up to believe feelings are weakness. Being marked is a work around for that."
"Most of the time being marked involves red and purple bruises on your neck." Mal laughs a little fondly.
"Have any of you ever been marked before?" Jane manages to stammer out. It is a thinly veiled request about Carlos and all the girls are aware.
"Jane, you need to ask Carlos. It isn't our place to say."
"We are all marked." Mal states before adding an offhand, "Been wearing E's designs for years."
The room erupts in laughter again.
Jane and Audrey both realizing that the question had gone unanswered.
"Food is ready."

Jay had initiated his the sparring match to help Harry find his calm. After several minutes, however, their battle was only intensifying. All the feelings of worry and rage that the street rat had been feeling since last night were coming out with each swing of his blade.
"Someone had some steam to blow off, eh?" Harry chided as he attempted to strike Jay's knee.'
"You don't know the half of it. But, we both know this battle is about you calming the hell down, Harry."
"Never gonna happen." Harry stated each word punctuated by the sounds of the fight.
Doug and Ben looked on from the table. They had abandoned their seats when the fray began there just did not seem to be a good place to interject themselves to stop their friends from killing each other. Ben was sure that that was what was going to happen. Jay and Harry were going to fight until one of them died.
He noticed both boys had completely feral looks in their eyes. The madness seemed to be spreading as Carlos was pacing a circle around whatever was happening. The younger boy spewing profanity that Ben did not think he had ever heard before.
Doug was shaking with nervous energy. He strongly felt they should call the girls. The girls would have some magical words to settle everyone back down.
"I think I'm going to call Evie to get the girls over here," Doug started.
"Like hell." One of the boys shouted at him from the fight. Doug was like 60% sure that the shout had come from Jay.
As he was pulling his phone from his pocket. Carlos left his patrol around the sword fight. Like a flash he was next to Doug shaking his head.
"Don't," Gil finally spoke from his spot at the table. Up to this point he was the only one who had still been eating. "Harry needs to finish or he'll never be done."