3 – Fractured Thoughts

 

          I nearly choked on my grape punch. “Oh, shit.” It’s her.

 

          “What?” Lij, who was sitting in front of me, turned around to look for what caught my attention. “What was that?”

 

          “It’s – It’s uh – ” I didn’t know how to put it without damning myself for eternity. No way was I going to say, “Oh shit, Lij, looky! It’s that lassie that branded me with her fist!” But Lij seemed to have caught on anyway.

 

          “Oh, shit!” His eyes widened with obvious excitement. “He’s here, isn’t he? The guy that leveled you night before last!” His face suddenly turned dark and serious. “Where is he?” I could only point in her general direction. She was actually seated right behind Elijah, facing me. She was with friends, three boys, and had her hair up in a ponytail now, but I knew it was her. It was her eerie, inimical expression that gave her identity away immediately. She looked like something that would have made you cross the street just to avoid meeting in the sidewalk. Although she was smiling tonight. “I told you she was a frikking idiot for a Chinese, but noooo! You really just had to find out how many percent Chinese she was – and how many percent idiot.” Her face took on an entirely different and very amusing expression as she said the words sourly. Her friends guffawed, one even started slapping the table, while I tried to suppress my own laughter. Lij saw me smirking and he promptly twisted to look at the kids chatting loudly behind him.

 

          I tried to grab him over the table to keep him, and consequently me, from being noticed, but he’d already taken a look. A better look, apparently, for when he turned back to me, he had this excited flash in his eyes. “He’s there, isn’t he? But which one is it, man?” I could only shake my head. Lij didn’t quite understand me, “What? What do you mean by that?”

 

          “I don’t really think there’s a need to…”

 

          “Aw, you big puss!” He gave me an incredulous look. “You’re not saying that you’re just going to let him go, are you? Come on, man! We could beat this guy up together.” He slapped his left hand, curled into a fist, into his open right hand. I didn’t know Lij liked to beat people up. And in groups, too.

 

          I gave him a look of disdain. “I didn’t’ know you were a fratboy, Lij,” I said, “And it’s kind of weird, don’t you think, that for more than a year that we’ve been working together, I’ve never really saw this side of you that screams ‘brotherhood.’” I was teasing him, doing the best thing I could think of that would take his mind off my case.

 

          And for a moment, I thought it worked, too, because he said to me in reply, “Naw, not a ‘brotherhood,’ really. More like a ‘family.’” He said the last word while drawing quotation marks in the air.

 

          And then I thought I’d led him on by asking, “A family? Intriguing.”

 

          “No, not a family family, stupid. A mafia kind of family.” He gave me a wide, creepy smile. I really thought I’d gotten away with it already, but then he continued, “So, which one is it, now, cousin Orli?”

 

          “Aw, Lij, come on. Just drop it, will you?” I waved him off with my left hand. “I don’t see why you should be so concerned while even I am not anymore.” Well, yeah right, but what the hey. Better not getting back at all than actually getting back and letting everyone know that I got dunted by a girl. Kid. A girl/kid. “Oh god,” I couldn’t stop myself from taking a big breath as the gravity of the situation dawned on me.

 

          “See? See?” Lij held out both his hands at me. “You’re still affected! So, okay, if you won’t tell me, I’m going to find him anyway, and then we’ll beat the crap out of him, okay?” I didn’t answer. “Alright?” I nodded. “Okay,” Lij rubbed his palms together like a man with a plan. “It easy, anyway. You’re wearing his ring on your face, so I’ll know.”

 

          Oh, hell. The ring. I had completely forgotten about it. How, I didn’t know either, but I had. And now, I was toast. Oh, bloody –