Demonic Designs (To Absolve the Fallen) (44 page)

“After four years, you’d better.”
 
Dylan laughed.
 
“What are we going to do with my car?”

Jeremiah turned and looked at it.
 
He pulled out another cigarette and lit it.
 
“I don’t care,” he replied as he took the initial drag.
 
“Leave the keys in it, and leave the doors unlocked.
 
It’ll make someone a nice gift.”

Dylan shrugged and walked with Jeremiah toward the other car.
 
“You’re a weird fuck.
 
You know that, right?”

“We’ve talked about your use of that word,” Jeremiah chided.
 
“I really don’t like it.”

“But it’s so versatile.”
 
Dylan thought for a moment.
 
“I remember the first time I met you.
 
You had actually tallied the number of times I said it that day.”

“Yeah,” Jeremiah agreed.
 
“That’s a habit of mine.”

***

“It looked like I surprised the hell out of him when I started talking about Descartes’s Evil Genius Argument, didn’t it?” Matt asked, chuckling as he and Alex walked out of the Philosophy building and made their way toward the Psychology Department.

“Yeah, I guess,” Alex responded.
 
His head was still swimming.
 
His fear that he might not be able to handle it all had been confirmed when the Philosophy teacher explained some of the projects they would be completing throughout the semester.

Matt clapped Alex on the back.
 
“What’s wrong?
 
You aren’t getting overwhelmed, are you?”

“Kinda.”

“Well, don’t,” Matt said.
 
“That course is going to be a piece of cake.
 
I doubt you’ll hear anything in that class that you haven’t already thought about.
 
You’re a smart kid.
 
He acts all pompous, thinking that he’ll run off the weak ones and have less papers to grade, but you just hang in there.”
 
Matt chuckled.
 
“You can ask Abbie about some of the things he talks about.
 
She’s been around long enough to remember when some of those philosophies came into being.”

“I’m kind of scared to talk to her,” Alex admitted.

“You’d be an idiot if you weren’t.
 
She takes a little while to warm up to, but she’s the greatest ally you could wish to have, and she’s a fantastic teacher.
 
Don’t worry about it.”

Alex’s head turned as he noticed the girl he’d seen the previous day.
 
She was walking the other way, and, as she passed them, she made eye contact—if only for a moment—with Alex.
 
He felt his heart almost stop beating.
 
She was so beautiful.
 
Alex stopped walking and followed her with his eyes.
 
Matt also stopped walking.

A scowl appeared on his face.
 
“It won’t do for you to ogle her if you plan to hook up with Liz.”

“What?” Alex asked, almost dazed.

Matt shook Alex by the shoulder.
 
“Wake up.
 
We were doing something.”

Alex looked back to him, confused, and nodded.

“Jesus,” Matt exclaimed, disgustedly.
 
“I thought you were going to start humping her leg.”

Alex could feel his ears getting red.
 
“There’s just something...”

“Yeah,” Matt replied.
 
“I
know
what it is.
 
Look, are you going to be able to stand next to some pretty girl without creaming your jeans?
 
It’s called finesse, man.”

Embarrassment gave way to a defensive anger.
 
“I don’t need relationship advice from
you
,” Alex could hear himself saying.

Matt looked positively stunned.
 
“What?”

Alex couldn’t believe he’d said it.
 
He felt it, but his mouth had just made a move he hadn’t been counting on.
 
He mentally attributed it to the stress.
 
“Nothing,” was his reply.

“Oh, no,” Matt insisted.
 
“If you have something to say, by all means...”

“I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Yes,” Matt corrected, “you did.
 
I suppose that, because I’m gay, I can’t understand things the way you do?”

Alex’s eyes went wide.
 
“I didn’t say that.”

“Well, what
were
you saying?”

Alex felt like he was being cornered.
 
He started looking around him.
 
In his experience, loud arguments were often the best ways to draw attention.
 
“Let’s not talk about this,” he said, lowering his voice.

Matt hadn’t missed Alex looking around.
 
“What?” he shouted.
 
“Am I embarrassing you?”

“You’re making a scene,” Alex responded, resuming the walk toward the Psychology building.
 
It didn’t take him long to realize he was walking alone.
 
He turned and Matt wasn’t even looking at him.

“C’mon, Matt,” Alex pleaded.
 
“I didn’t mean to offend you.”

Matt shook his head.
 
“Dr. Martin’s expecting you, Tom.
 
You’d better go talk to her.
 
I’ll meet you back at the apartment later tonight.”
 
And he walked away in the opposite direction.

Alex watched him walk away, trying to figure out what had just happened.
 
Matt was far too sensitive.
 
Alex knew that he hadn’t meant to be offensive, but Matt didn’t want to hear it.
 
He supposed that there was nothing more he could do.
 
He turned and walked to Abbie’s office.

***

“Come in,” Abbie said after the knock on her door.

The door opened, and Alex was standing there.
 
She smiled warmly at him, but she could sense that there was something wrong.
 
Then, she noticed that Matt was not with him.
 
She motioned for Alex to sit in a chair by the table.

“How was your first day of school?”

“Fine,” he replied shortly.

“I doubt that,” she returned.
 
“I would appreciate if you do not lie to me in the future, Alex, even if it seems inconsequential.
 
I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s wrong.”

Alex was surprised.
 
He was accustomed to always answering ‘fine’ when someone asked him how he was doing.
 
“Sorry.”

Abbie laughed.
 
“No, don’t be sorry.
 
I’m not scolding you; I just want to make sure that you feel like you can come to me with your problems.
 
If everything is always ‘fine,’ as I’m sure it isn’t, then I won’t feel like I have very much to do.
 
Where’s Matt?”

“He got mad at me,” Alex replied sheepishly.
 
“I don’t know where he went, but I think he needed time away from me.”

“Oh?” Abbie prompted.
 
“What happened?”

Alex related the story to her.
 
He felt bad after he had finished.
 
It seemed like he
had
been really insensitive.
 
But, as he explained to Abbie, it was completely unintentional.
 
He hadn’t realized it until he was done, but telling that story really made him feel like he could open up to the Elder Prophet.
 
She listened intently, nodding her head and making short comments at all of the appropriate places.
 
And, when he was done, she smiled.
 
It was a warm smile that made Alex feel like everything was going to be all right.

“Don’t blame yourself,” Abbie said, tapping his knee.
 
Alex reminded himself that she was, in fact, a mind reader.
 
“Even though we expect you to be a very exceptional leader, you can’t be all things to all people.
 
Matt has to realize that he can’t have everything he wants.
 
He also needs to remember that you are very young, and you are being brought into a situation for which you were not prepared.
 
We can’t expect you to avoid eye contact with girls.
 
And he can’t expect you to be something that you aren’t.
 

“But you should be patient with him,” Abbie continued after some thought.
 
“He lives in a world that refuses to accept him—a world that, not very long ago, would have killed him for his sexual preference.
 
He gets defensive from time to time, and his emotions get the better of him, as they tend to do with all of us.
 
His pain has scarred him, and his past still haunts him.
 
You’re not responsible for his pain, but you might be able to ease it a little.
 
Just be his friend.”

“I want to.”

“I know you do,” Abbie verified.
 
“And he knows that too.
 
Don’t feel guilty that you can’t be what he wants because it isn’t what he needs.
 
I’ll talk to him.”

“No,” Alex said.
 
“Please don’t tell him what I told you.”

“No?
 
You would rather handle this on your own?”

Alex nodded.

“Okay.
 
Then, I think we’re done here.”

“You didn’t need to talk to me about anything else?” Alex asked.

“No.
 
I think you are doing very well so far.
 
Keep me informed as to any changes.”

Alex didn’t know what to say.
 
“Sure,” was the only thing he could think of.

She winked at him.
 
“Have a pleasant evening, Thomas, and I hope tomorrow is a little better.”

“Me, too,” he agreed as he walked to the door.

***

Eva was happy.
 
She had already caused strife between the two prophets.
 
It was her specialty.
 
Her very presence could cause dissension between the best of friends.
 
The way they started bickering immediately after she passed made her confident that she could make the best of this situation.
 
Alex was already succumbing to her wiles, and Matt was getting jealous—as it should be.

She thought it was cute that the two of them had dyed their hair different colors and were going by false identities.
 
She wondered if they would have still made all of those changes had they realized what little good it would do.

Tomorrow, she would be in one of Alex’s classes, and she would move in for the coup de grace.
 
If he didn’t fall madly in love with her by the end of the day, then everyone had greatly overestimated the power she had.
 
Not that, realistically, she thought Alex would be much of a challenge.
 
He was weak, anyway.
 
All he needed was an excuse.
 
She had no qualms being that excuse.
 
After all, it had been a very long time since she fell a prophet.
 
Patheus and Metatron seemed to be having so much fun, it was only fair that she should have a little too.

***

Alex was still awake at midnight, when he heard the door unlock.
 
He got up off the couch to see Matt walk, unsteadily, in the door.