Lonely

Chapter 43, Hanger

this chapter is dedicated to MagicalUnicorn13:) Hope you like it...

 woke up first in the morning and dropped down out of the tree I was sleeping in. the guys were still sleeping, snoring so loudly I was surprised a bear didn’t attack us or something. Levy, who was sleeping with one arm wrapped around a boulder and a foot resting on dodgers head, snorted in his sleep and accidentally kicked Dodgers head phones off. Almost immediately, Dodger jacked knifed into a sitting position.

“Holy hell!” he shrieked. He looked wildly around for the head phones and quickly put them back on. By now, all the others were awake and rubbing their eyes, cursing as the sun shone on them. “who the hell took my head phones off?” Dodger asked, glaring at everyone. I bent down to pick up the bag and motioned to Levy. “He accidentally kicked them off while he was snuggling a boulder.” I said. Nicco and Liam laughed, and Boomer shook his head, disgusted with the fact that he was awake and it was before ten o’clock. Levy looked slightly embarrassed. “Sorry, man. People always told me I kicked in my sleep.” He said. Dodger shook his head and adjusted his head phones, then grabbed his sunglasses off the ground and put them on.

“We’re coming up on a city.”  Dodger said. “How big?” Boomer asked. Dodger lifted one side of his head phones, blinked, and put it back down. “Not real big. We shouldn’t have any problems.” He said. I nodded and started walking towards the sound. “Can’t we eat first?” Liam and Nicco complained. “When we get to town.” I said over my shoulder. This seemed to please them all and they followed. “What were you dreaming about anyways?” Boomer asked Levy. Levy gave a coy smile. “Nothing at all.” He said. Liam snorted. “Snuggling a boulder, were you, boyo? I think we all know what he was dreaming about.” He said, waggling his eye brows. Even I cracked a smile, and they continued on to tell Levy all about the girls that we had fought not too long ago.

I saw something red come flying at my face, and I reacted the way any man would. I used my mind to suspend it in mid air to see what it was. A very surprised Rex was being held ten feet above the ground, looking rather confused. I shook my head and let him drop to the ground. With a grunt, he crawled up my leg and perched on my shoulder, then turned to face the guys. Nicco and Liam had already seen him, and were not really surprised. As for Boomer, Dodger, and Levy, they were pretty shocked. “What in the hell is that?” Levy asked. Rex snarled at him. “Hanger’s pet. He showed up around the same time as we did.” Nicco said, gesturing to himself and his brother. Actually, Rex was around far before them, but they didn’t need to know that.

“You have a pet dragon.” Boomer said. It wasn’t a question. I shook my head. “No, Sadie has a pet dragon. He likes her more than me.” I explained. “Who’s Sadie?” Levy asked. “His lady friend.” Liam said, jerking his head towards me. I ignored their comments. Rex jumped from my shoulder to dodgers, where he sniffed at the head phones and tried to bite his sunglasses. “Where’d you get him?” Boomer asked. “The same place I came from.” They let the subject go, knowing I probably wasn’t going to tell them where, exactly, I came from.

Hours later, we were standing on the edge of a road across from a shopping plaza, which included a restaurant. “We have to get food, otherwise I’m gonna starve to death.”  Boomer said. I couldn’t blame him. All we had eaten was junk I’d been retrieving from my back pack. “Alright, we can go to that place, but we’d better make it quick.” I said. They all cheered and we bolted across the road in a few moments were in a pizza place.

After ordering four pizzas with the wad of cash I had gotten from my back pack, we sat down at a table. Dodger lowered his glasses. “Dude, your dragon looks pissed.” He said. I didn’t bother turning to look. Rex was probably too far away for me to see. I had had to pry Rex off my shoulder and leave the disgruntled little beast in the woods.  Liam and Nicco let out a low whistle in unison. “They just don’t have them the way they do in Ireland.” Liam said. Obviously, we were just entering a conversation they had probably been having for quite some time. “What are you talking about?” Levy asked. They motioned to the waitress going from table to table.

“Irish girls are far prettier.” They said in a matter of fact voice. I raised my eyebrows. “You should see Sadie.” I blurted out. They were all silent for a moment as they stared at me. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think we just got a surprising insight to what Hanger’s mysterious Sadie looks like.” Boomer said. Thankfully, the waitress they had been talking about brought over our stack of food, blushing when Dodger gave her a wolf whistle. We all looked at him. he simply shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a sucker for blue eyes.” He said. They all started cracking up and making jokes about that as they ate.

Not surprisingly, it didn’t take long for us to finish four pizzas, and before long we were back in the woods and heading for out next destination. Rex grumbled at me and then climbed pointedly up Boomer and sat on his shoulder, refusing to look at me. Levy patted his pocket. “Balls. I’ll be right back.” Five seconds later, barely enough time for me to register he had gone, he was standing in front of us, shoving a knife in his pocket. He took in our expressions. “What?” we all shook our heads. “Where’d you get the knife?” Liam asked him. He smiled. “I got it from that gang.”

“What did you do to them, anyways?” Boomer asked. “I caught them in a massive drug sale.” Dodger barked out a laugh. “Welcome to the club.” Nicco jerked his thumb towards Dodger. “He’s been in jail for something along those lines. I can’t really remember what he said.” Dodger took in Levy’s bruised and battered face that had drawn more than enough attention to it in the pizza place. “Looks like I made off better than you.” He said. Levy smiled and touched one his black eyes. “It makes me look tough.”

“About as tough as Boomer in a too-too.” They all started laughing and Nicco and Liam got in an argument. Much the same as every other day.