2 Deja Blue (14 page)

“Yeah, yeah.
I’ve
gotta
eat. I am starving. But
yeah, we’re
swamped.
You work today?”

Nodding my head
,
I grumbled, “Three to close. Yuck.” I gave him my blah face and stuck my tongue out in disgust.

Nick smiled and then asked, “Yeah, I’m here
‘til
closing tonight
too
.
Hey, does
yer
kid brother
wanna
make some extra cash today?”

“Leo? Yeah. I guess. I mean, probably. He’s
kinda
lazy, but he doesn’t have a job so he’s pretty broke. Why, what’s up?”

“We are just
get
tin
’ smoked back in the kitchen
,
and two people
already
called in
sick
today.
We could use his help
doin
’ prep
,
bussin
’ tables,
cleanin
’ up…
that
kinda
thing.
He’d save my
ass if he co
uld come in. My dad thinks I’m S
uperman or
somethin
’ and
has me
runnin
’ all over the place.”

“Oh, sure.
Just call him. He probably just got outta bed, knowing him.” I answered
wryly
.

Nick nodded,
“ ‘Kay
. You
wanna
just have subs today? We’ve got some made up already, so I can just go grab us a couple. I’ll call Leo when I go back to the kitchen.”

“Sure, sure.
That’s fine. Thanks!”

“Coke?”
He
asked as he got up from the table to get our food. I nodded and smiled.

Just then, t
wo
obviously drunk guys stumbled through the front door of Martino’s.
Having spent just a few too many hours in the sun out on their boat fishing, drinking and doing
G
od knows what
else,
they must have decided to move their little party to Martino’s.
Their loud, obnoxious behavior instantly drew attention
,
and one of the guys tripped and fell over a table, causing it to crash to the ground and knock into the patrons sitting nearby.
A
ll of a sudden, there w
ere
spilled drinks, splattered food, broken glass and a broken t
able. I jumped back farther into
the corner sanctity of my booth as
all hell seemed to break loose. The
small crowd
of patrons
began
shouting,
shoving and
pushing
as
Nick and his dad came rushing out of the k
itchen to see what was going on. Within a blink of an eye,
Simon, my
Fairy
guard had already jumped into action. Almost too quick
to see, he grabbed the two worst drunk-guy
-
offenders and ha
uled them out of the restaurant in a swirling
,
misty dust of magic. I’m quite sure no one else in the place even saw him do it, or if they did, it would seem like that vague feeling of déjà vu.
Quick, concise and most importantly, silent, Simon managed to remove the greatest threat to the patrons (and to me) before Nick and his dad
even
reached the angry crowd.
With the two idiots gone
, there was
only
a
slightly disgruntled group of people
left to be
calmed down by Nick and his dad as they hurried over to them.

Once
they had
settled down the guest
s
,
Nick’s dad
co
mped
all the meals for everyone and
things seemed to return back to normal. Nick look
flustered
as he ran his hands through his hair, “See? What did I tell
ya
? Things
are just nuts around here to
day
!
Stupid drunk rednecks.
Lemme
go grab our food.
”
He walked away, distracted and stressed but returned quickly with our
lunch
. Just as he set down our plates, I noticed Simon slip back into his chair and calmly continue eating his spaghetti, as if nothing had happened.
Man, those F
airies sure don’t play around. Who needs the mob when all you really need is a little
Fairy
dust?   I snickered at my revelation. Pixie dust sure can make you fly…as in, fly the hell out of the place and get your ass kicked. Well, I certainly felt safe.

Nick scarfed his submarine sa
ndwich down in about 15 minutes
.
He
would have been done sooner if he hadn’t stopped to talk to me every so often. That boy was really hungry! “Sorr
y, I
gotta
eat and run today,” h
e apologized as he stood up, “but they are really swamped in back. I
gotta
get back before my dad
has a coronary
.”

“No problem,” I answered as I got up from the booth. Nick met me in the aisle and leaned in to kiss me. I instantly felt
any remaining
tension
I had about my current
Troll
situation
just melt out of my body. Kissing Nick was the best dessert a girl could ask for.
Who needed a calming spell when one kiss from
Mr. Hotness
would do the same thing?
Just then, I heard a familiar voice.

“Hey Scooby!
Public place!”
My annoying little brother called from the other end of the restaurant as he walked into Martino’s.

I pulled away from Nick with a look of annoyance on
my
face.
It’s not like we were
all hot and heavy or something…
j
ust kind of cutely romantic.
“
Uggccch
!”
I kind of gargled out of my throat. “I swear to God, I am
gonna
kill my brother,” I muttered to Nick. He laughed, “Not if I kill him first.” I smiled at
him
as Leo came bounding up to us.

“So, Dude,
whaddya
need me to do? And, do I get
paid
cash today, or what?”

Ugh. Leave it to Leo to be totally inappropriate
and rude.
“Uh.
You could say ‘H
i’ first, Leo. Nick’s doing
you
a favor today by
letting
you work here for some cash.” I glanced over at Nick, smiling.

Leo rolled his eyes at me as he flicked his head to the right to flip his Justin
Beiber
-like bangs out of his eyes.
“Oh whatever
,
Scoobs
.
I can tell
they’re
,
like, totally crazy today. I think
I’m
doing
yer
boyfriend
a favor by coming in
,
”
he
snarkily
answered. I’ve got to hand it to the kid. Annoying and obnoxious as he was,
he
was smart and h
e paid attention.
I’d have to remember to be extra careful around him with all this
Fairy
-
Mermaid
-
Troll
intrigue stuff going on. The last
thing
I needed was to have Leo involved in all of this crap.

Nick spoke up,
“Uh, yeah, you’ll get cash today. Just go in back and grab an apron from under the counter. Oh, and wash y
our
hand
s, ‘
kay
? I’ll be there in a sec.
”

“
Sa
hh
-weet
!”
Leo answered as he walked toward the counter, “Oh, and watch out. I don’t know if Scooby’s had her vaccines yet,” he snickered. Nick, thankfully, just shook his head and looked back over to me, “I’ll take my chances,” he smiled and then gave me a quick peck on the lips.

“Feel free to kill him,” I said to Nick after I returned the kiss.
He chuckled at my remark as he headed back to the kitchen, shouting at Leo in the most authoritative voice I’d ever heard him use. Ha! Leo was in for it now. I smiled all the way home…

Chapter 15

It was almost closing time at the Craft and Hobby shop where I worked. I was mindlessly sweeping the front aisles when I heard the jingling bells of the front door. I looked up to see Leo walking towards me.

“What’s up? Nick let you off work already?” I asked.

Leo nodded, strolling over to me
,
and leaned against the front counter. “Yeah,
somethin
’ about child labor laws or
whatev
.
Got paid though.”
Leo reached into the front pocket of his denim cutoffs
,
pulled out a crinkled wad of cash and held it up to show me. I nodded and smiled, “That’s good, but why are you here?”

“Oh, Brennan stopped by the resta
urant earlier and was
lookin
’ fo
r you. I told him you were there earlier
suckin
’ face with little Nicky, but that
you’
d left
and had to work later
.” I rolled my eyes
,
giving my brother an annoyed lo
ok as he continued on, “He wanted me
to
give
somethin
’ to
you as soon as I got off work. Gave me twenty bucks too! He said I had to bring it to you the second I was done
workin
’.
So.
Here I am.
” Just then, Leo saw the new fishing lures we had out on display and
sauntered
over to them to inspect the latest arrivals.

“Well
?” I
impatiently
threw my hands up at Leo.
“What do you have to give me?!”
I swear the kid has Attention Deficit Disorder.

“Oh! Yeah,” Leo
shook his head
as he glanced over to me an
d
reached into his back pocket
. He
pulled out a very crinkled, folde
d envelope and handed it to me.
I looked at it, puzzled. “What is it?” I asked.

Leo shrugged as he started to walk towards the front door, “Don’t know,
don’t
care. I got my twenty bucks.
And with what L
ittle Nicky paid me, I’m
frickin
’ rich.
Call me Mr. Trump.
Later
,
Scoobs
.”

I shook my head as I watched my brother walk out of the store.
I figured the envel
ope must be something important
and probably had to do with whatever ‘items’ Brennan was goin
g to have me keep at the house. My heart started racing and the knots in my stomach slowly started twisting. I flipped the envelope over to open it
,
and then, chewing on my lip and glancing around the store, I got too nervous to look at whatever was inside. What if someone was watching me? Maybe I s
hould open this when I got home,
when I knew
I could be sure that
I had my
Fairy
guardians around me
. For all I knew, there was some invisible
Troll
or dragon watching me. It’s not
as if
I knew about all the special skills of the inhabitants of Fey. I did know that some dragons can cloak themselves and
become
invisible to humans. Brennan and Anya had told me that much.  What if there was one somewhere close?
Although, that would be nearly impossible since dragons were supposedly unable to pass through the po
rtals from Fey unless it
was a Blue M
oon.
Although,
Sirrush
got through.
Ugh.
The thought of that stinky old dragon gave me a funny taste in my mouth. It was his dumb fault that I’m in this stupid mess right now.
As much as I wanted to open the envelope right then and there, I decided to wait until I got home to see what was inside. It was just about time to lock up the store anyway, so I wouldn’t have t
o
wait long.