The Unfortunate Story of Roddy Mayhem, Julie Steimle [i can read book club TXT] 📗

them. “None of us had any choice, you know.”

“Not that cheese girl? Mozzarella?” Dan asked, eyebrows lifting.

I shot him a look, smirking. The guy had a sense of humor. His imps were rolling their eyes.

“She’s twenty,” I said. “And she’s Dervish’s girlfriend. You’re talking about high school, right?”

Eve let go of my arm, nodding. “Yes.”

Feeling the weight of her grip off, I had the immediate impulse to run. But I didn’t. I said to her, “Why didn’t you go there? Is it only for orphans?”

She shook her head, smirking. It looked impish. I wondered about that. “No. Rick offered once for me to go. But…you know, there’s no surfing in New York City.”

 I stared at the surfing demon.

And blast it, she was serious.

 

I can’t say that they trusted me from thereon and we became fast friends. Not in the least. It was more like they had no intention of letting me out of their sight. Eve seemed to think I was still going to run—which on the whole I felt like doing. All. The. Time. And she also made me put back EVERYTHING I stole that morning.

It was so annoying.

“Stealing is a bad habit,” she said like a bossy older sister when I returned the last of the boxed food from that one car. A dangerous bossy older sister who could rip my heart out of my chest if she wanted.

I could not put back the strawberries I ate, though. They made me leave money for those.

Then they dragged me to lunch with them.

Ok, Eve did the dragging. She really treated me a like a naughty little brother. They took me to a café where they set me in the middle of the booth between her and that guy Dan.

Not too long after, his friend James joined us and then so did Rick along with Trouble—Tom Brown. Rick introduced Tom to Eve. Both mutually shook hands, staring at one another as if they had never seen the like of before—though Tom shuddered, realizing exactly how powerful Eve was.

He shot me a side look also.

When we settled down and everyone ordered food, I felt oddly captured. I was captured, I realized. I mean, yes, I agreed to go to that school and all, but I was not on par with any of those folk there. That wolf man Rick seemed to be in charge for some reason, though Tom sat around as if it didn’t matter who was in charge, hardly keeping in his seat. The guy was fidgety. With all the chatter of the imps that were clustered around him like adoring fans, He was entirely unable to focus—but then so was I. Yet the noise around him was deafening.

“KNOCK IT OFF!” Eve finally snapped at the crowd of imps around them, shooing them all away.

Her companions stared, as they could not see the imps like we could—but Tom let out a heaving, grateful breath and said and emphatic, “Thank you.”

I nodded in agreement.

“Don’t mention it,” Eve replied, smiling at us. Then she smiled more. “It’s actually refreshing to not be the only one seeing those guys. It’s maddening, isn’t it? Their chatter?”

Tom nodded. And so did I.

The other three at our table exchanged looks and shrugged.

They went back into their lunch conversation, which I now could follow.

“…to that school. We have to get him prepared for the real world, as I don’t think they have ever been in that kind of situation before.”

“What kind of situation?” Tom asked what I had been thinking.

Eve shot me a look before saying to Tom, “School. I don’t think he’s ever had any.”

Tom shot me a glance then asked, “So, you are going to Gulinger, huh?”

I felt totally and completely intimidated by his stare. The guy looked like he would pull my shirt up and give me a wedgie every single second I sat in arm’s reach of him. I merely nodded.

“It’s a good school,” Tom said, nodding frankly. “Good choice.”

I stared back.

“You’ve never been to school? But you know how to read,” Rick said, looking puzzled at me as if the very idea that a person could learn to read outside a school was impossible. “How did you learn it?”

I turned my eyes on him. I got the feeling that he had been watching me for some time. Then I peeked to Eve, realizing that perhaps she was the one who had been watching me and she had just reported in to him. That idea alone shook me up. Who was this guy? He had weird imps, but he looked comfortable with Tom Brown and this demon woman, Eve. In fact, they seemed like incredibly close friends—which boggled my mind as she was freaky dangerous. And as for Tom Brown, I could tell he even unsettled their pyromaniac friend. That wolf guy seemed to like living on the edge of danger for some insane reason.

As the meal continued, Tom leaned in with an arm over my shoulder and whispered to me, “A word of advice. Don’t waste this chance. I know imp life is freewheeling and easy, but the path you are on isn’t a good one—and you have to consider that you are also part human.”

I stared at him. I never expected this coming from him. Mr. Trouble. The one halfer all the imps praised and adored.

“You have only got one life. Study hard and get a good job—something you don’t mind doing forever,” he said.

It sounded tedious. I mean, I’ll try anything to get me away from Dervish and the Unseelie Gang, but end up in a boring nine-to-five job? He had to be kidding me.

He met my gaze. “I know what you’re thinking. I’ve been there. But you have to know what things to take seriously, and what things to play around with. And your future should be one of those things you take seriously. Because this chance will never come again. I mean, I’ve been from foster home to foster home, and I’ve seen the inside of juvie enough to never want to go there again. Prison isn’t worth it.”

I stiffened.

So the guy had a mother and he still had been in foster homes. And apparently he had also been in prison. Thing was, prison had always seemed inevitable. It even seemed like a decent option. I mean… I knew I could escape from prison if I wanted… though prison would be free housing and food. Not a bad deal for a starving halfer.

“My mom has been in prison most of my life,” Tom said gravely. “And it sucks. Don’t you do the same to yourself. Get some self-respect.”

I stared more.

“And only steal from people who can take a joke,” Tom added, winking at Rick.

Rick heard him and rolled his eyes. Apparently Tom stole from wolf man a lot. It explained why he had just asked back for his tech rather than sic’d the cops on me for it.

“Who is he, anyway?” I asked Tom who I swear was becoming the big brother I wished I had. My body was shaking, just listening to him. The dude actually cared.

Smirking, Tom replied, “Howard Richard Deacon the Third. Werewolf. And a stinking good basketball player.”

My eyes widened on the wolf guy. Was Tom lying or was that Rick man really a werewolf? “No kidding?”

“You could tell,” Tom chuckled, winking at me.

Of course I could tell Rick was wolf in some way. I just didn’t know there were such things as werewolves too. After all, I had seen vampires—and worse. And what was with the whole ‘the Third’ deal? He was a fancy-pants werewolf?

“Rick is a multi-billionaire,” Tom whispered. “His father owns most of the shares of Gulinger High. And he used to be my roommate there.”

I stared at Rick as he was talking with Eve about something personal, something about meeting a guy she was dating. Eve confirmed it with a faintly sad look on her friend, one which I could tell was sympathy and a prelude to rejection. She said to him, “You can meet him at dinner tonight. I’ve known Hanz since I was a kid. He’s a really great guy.”

“And he knows what you are?” Rick asked to make sure.

She nodded. “He freaked a little the first time he found out—but we’re good now.”

He nodded, a little dismayed at that. His imps were shouting at him to go find Daisy—whoever Daisy was. He ignored them. “Wow. So he’s a normal guy, cool with it all.”

“Like my family,” Eve said, smiling with even more sympathy.

Rick nodded. “Yeah…” He then smiled, genuinely happy for her as his imps shouted that he wasn’t good enough for Eve anyway after what he had done. “You are lucky. You really do have a great family. I’m glad for you.”

But Eve had heard his imps also and she frowned. Setting a hand on Rick’s shoulder, she said, “Hey. Rick, I don’t think there is anything you could do that would make me feel less of you.”

Dan and James shared a look. Apparently they knew what Eve was talking about. Tom was making paper cranes with all the napkins from the dispenser, either ignoring the conversation or not caring. I felt like an eavesdropper.

Rick blushed, realizing what she had heard. He looked mortified actually. Almost ducking, he whispered, “But what if what I did was really bad?”

She cast him such a dry stare with those orange-red eyes of hers as she replied, “Apart from murdering someone—which I doubt you would do—I don’t think you are guilty of anything truly bad.”

But the color in Rick’s cheeks deepened, as he clearly disagreed. I wondered what he had done that he thought was so awful. Eve looked surprised by that.

Yet she shook her head and said, “Your imps aren’t fat. They don’t have big horns. You aren’t an evil person. Maybe you made a mistake which you clearly regret, but you have done nothing malicious, which is what matters to me.”

I watched as the weight of apparently a grievous sin seemed to lift a little off his shoulders. Now I really wondered what he had done to make him worry so much.

But the lunch concluded with friends parting ways. Rick the wolf man had some business thing to attend to, and the pyromaniac and his brute friend had to go to some government building to check up on something else—but they did not leave before discussing what was to be done with me, as clearly I was not to be left alone. However, Rick cast me one sidelong look and said to Tom and Eve, “You two can easily manage him, right?”

Eve chuckled, glancing at me as if to say to Rick, “Do you have to ask?”

Tom smirked and rubbed me on the head, his fingers gently unearthing my stubby horns from my tangled hair. He glanced at me, a little surprised I had them. But he didn’t say anything. “No problem.”

“See you this evening then,” Rick said, waving a little forlornly at Eve—a bit like a guy who was grieving a lost relationship. I didn’t get it.

Tom and Eve dragged me to a mall. It felt weird as it was like a was a kid between two parents—though it was more big brother and big sister kind of deal… a very scary big sister kind of deal. They said we had to get stuff for when I move to New York.

“You gotta get a hoodie,” Tom explained. Then he eyed my head, “And maybe a hat for when you go out in public.”

“Wouldn’t the hoodie work?” Eve asked him.

But Tom shook his head. “Are you kidding? You gotta be kidding. Kids like us get profiled by cops, and everyone, all the time. And a hoodie up all the time would be suspicious.”

Which was true. It was why I usually wore my hair long and spiky to mask my stubby horns. It didn’t always work, though. People usually thought I was cos-playing or something.

Tom eyed my horns again then said, “Your dad must have had really big