The Seasons

Chapter 32

Two weeks ago today, Slaine had found out about the person Chaos had first blessed, and because he had his stupid emotions on, he couldn’t shake the feeling of betrayal from within his system. But as he sat in The Season’s after-hours, staring blankly at the ground, he tried to understand why he felt betrayed in the first place. And the one thing his mind kept going to, he didn’t like, so he would shrug it off and try again later, where hopefully his mind would come up with a better answer.

“Why did you want us all here?” Blue asked as they smiled at Autumn, who was standing beside the bar near the front, and he seemed to be lost in thought before Blue called out to him. He looked up and raked a hand through his hair. Slaine stared at the heavy eyebags and frowned. Did he not know what sleep was?

“We were all going to talk about the stuff, but first, I wanted to let everyone know you’re invited to my wedding. I’ll send cards out, but I thought I should let you know I am getting married.”

“Oh, nice. Did Summer finally-” Jem was interrupted by Jasper, who not so subtly elbowed him in the gut.

“Did Summer what?”

Jem looked around, and when he saw no one coming to his rescue, he grumbled something. “You know, give you his blessing?”

“Why would I need Summer’s blessing?”

“Because he’s your best friend?”

“Okay,” Slaine deadpanned. “Good for you getting married, but can we focus on why we’re here? I have to be at school in a couple of hours to grill Michael’s ass about why he f*****g failed. Again.”

They gathered around the booths, and oddly enough, Wing hadn’t left Cairo’s side since he returned a week ago. So, the two were practically glued to the hip, much to the annoyance of Thorne. They spread out all of the papers, the folders, and even the pictures that Cairo had sent had been printed out a few times and scattered around. And all got to work on finding any connections between all the victims.

“I don’t see why the group would be so invested in these people; nothing links any of them. ” Jem groaned after almost an hour of searching through everything; he slumped onto the couch, repeatedly whacking his head on Grey’s shoulder.

“Maybe they were just there?” Wing looked around a little, “You know, we need a vampire; there’s one. Let’s take them.”

Cairo frowned, looking down at him. “I guess that could work; it would also be harder for any members to be linked back to them.”

“Blue,” Neo said, looking at them. Their hair was tied up, leaving a few strands to frame their face; they rubbed their eyes as they looked up at him. “How far along are you with translating?”

“I’m almost finished,” they said, nodding. “There’s just two more pages left. I’ll tell everyone what I found when I have fully translated, which should be soon.” They yawned into their arm before rubbing their eyes on Warren’s shoulder.

Warren frowned at them before he stood up, causing all eyes to be on him. He wore a thin sweater which was a light shade of blue. “We’re leaving. Blue’s tired.”

“No, I’m-”

“Don’t you lie to me,” Warren deadpanned, looking down at them. “You rub your eyes on my shoulder when you struggle to stay awake. You’ve done it for years.”

Blue looked up at them, their mouth slightly open, but sighed. “Sure, we’re going home. You, kids, go home too. It’s late.”

“It’s six am, Nibi,” Jem replied. “It’s early.”

“Don’t get sassy with me; go home and get some sleep. All of you. We can continue all of this later on.”

Slaine didn’t need to be told twice that he could leave, so after Blue and Warren had left, he followed after them. Walking to school, he needed to get his driver's licence; it would make life much easier. He walked onto campus grounds, staring blankly ahead as he made his way to his office on the second floor.

He stared in the mirror beside the door to see Chaos staring at him. What was he even meant to say to them? He gave them a small smile but said nothing as he sat in his chair, logged onto the computer, and began replying to emails. Almost ten minutes later, there was a knock on his door, and Micahel came in and sat on the chair across from him.

He was staring down the 6’ jock in his office, with his varsity jacket over a white plain t-shirt, and he kept shifting in the seat in front of him, refusing to make eye contact. “So,” Slaine said, staring at him blankly as he pointed to the resit paper. “I gave you another chance, Michael. And you failed it again. Explain.”

Michael finally looked up at him, and Slaine could see his brown eyes clearly, or the faint hairs around his chin and mouth. He could also hear his heart pounding away in his chest. The student opened his mouth only to close it again. “I don’t have all day.”

“I’m sorry,” he finally said, looking up at him. “Things at home have been crazy, and I know you don’t normally give resist, sir, and I’m grateful you let me resit this, and I did try to focus on studying. But with the game next week, Coach has been breathing down my neck, and my house is always crazy, so I didn’t have time to study, and I tried to study in the library, but I-”

“I’m just hearing excuses,” he deadpanned, interrupting him.

“You’re being too harsh on him, Slaine,” Chaos said; Slaine ignored them as he had been doing for the past week. He didn’t look at the mirror on his desk or the larger one beside the door, just staring at Michael.

“Michael, you know if you fail my class, you won’t be able to graduate and will have to repeat the year. So, is something going on at home the school should be aware of?” Slaine narrowed his eyes when he heard Micahel’s heart beat faster than it already was. So, there was something wrong at home.

“No-”

“Do not lie to me," Slaine deadpanned, and Micahel sighed, looking at the door.

~*~