“Nothing,” I mutter.
“Riigghhtt, you look like you’re about to murder a puppy, and Cole’s been brooding in the house.”
“When does Cole not brood?” I snark.
A moment of silence passes before she laughs and says, “Good point.”
I giggle, I can’t help it, and she joins until pretty soon we’re snorting and laughing and crying all at once.
“What the hell is going on here?” Jase asks with a smile.
Jase is a typical surfer boy dude with nice muscles and pretty blond hair. He’s the antithesis of Cole, the anti-Cole when it comes to personality, always laughing and smiling and ready to be the life of the party. He’s perfect for Michele, and I’m happy that she found someone that doesn’t treat her like crap.
For once, her “shit boyfriend” radar is broken, and I revel in seeing her treated like the amazing woman she is.
“Nothing,” Michele snorts before sitting up and wiping her eyes. “Seriously, though. What’s going on, Lo? I know it’s been hard the past few days, with Manny and all,” she says, pausing with a grimace. “But you’re not acting like yourself, and we’re worried. Cole said something about some theory you have?”
I tighten my jaw in annoyance. Fucking Cole. Couldn’t he just listen and take me seriously for once? It’s not that far-fetched. We live in a world of the walking dead, for fuck’s sake. Even if Sofia isn’t a zombie-droid robot that infects the people around her with fire exploding tits, something is off.
Since I can’t exactly explain my theories, I huff instead. “What a dick.”
She just stares at me and lifts a brow, to which I cave and mutter, “Fine! It’s just . . . Manny didn’t have any bites or scratches on him.”
When she nods, I continue, warming up to my rant while Jase stands behind her with his head cocked to the side. “So, it doesn’t make sense. And I have this feeling it has something to do with Sofia.”
There I said it. Now I sit back and wait for them to ream me a new one and make me out to be some kind of paranoid freak.
“Okkaayy,” she draws out, her brows lowered in confusion. “Why Sofia?”
When she doesn’t immediately shoot me down, I lean forward and say eagerly, “Because everything was fine until they showed up, and then bam! All of a sudden, Manny turns insta-zombie without a fucking bite. It doesn’t make sense.”
“But couldn’t it just be the biochemical crap mutating or something?” she says.
I wave my hands in the air and ask scornfully, “Do you really believe that?”
“Well, yeah,” she says slowly, “I mean, do you have any reason to believe that it’s Sofia? Like, did you see something?”
“No,” I reply with a pout.
“Look,” she says carefully. “I know you’re sad. We’re all sad. That was a horrible fucking thing, and it’s scary because it means none of us are safe. But, without some evidence, it seems kinda shady to be blaming the new, beautiful, sex goddess chick that just moved to town.”
I stare at her, my mind racing with words I want to say, but then my shoulders slump because there isn’t anything I can say. Yes, Sofia gives me the creeps. There is something off about her, but she hasn’t done anything to lead anyone to be suspicious of her, and me roaming around ranting like a crazy lady isn’t helping the situation.
Plus, I have to concede that her boobs are too perky to have lasers shooting out of them, but I know something is off, and I’m gonna keep an eye on that bitch and her gorgeous sidekick. Something will come out with the wash soon, and it’s bound to because nothing around here is ever dull. So, for now, I have to concede defeat and own up to allowing anger and dislike of her to cloud my ability to see reason.
Maybe she isn’t responsible. Maybe she is. I don’t fucking know, but people will kick me out if I don’t stop losing my mind and alienating everyone. Fuck. Why is being an adult so fucking hard?
Words that my less-than-stellar mother used to say to me rise in my head as I stare thoughtfully out at the grass. Stop with the dramatics. Nobody put you on the cross, sweet cheeks.
So yeah, there’s that. I have to let this go. I may never know what happened to Manny, but I loved him like a brother, and now he’s gone. Maybe we are all just ticking time bombs about to die from something lurking in the corners of our bodies. Shudder.
“Okay, all right, I’ll let it go, but I don’t trust the bimbo,” I mutter.
This earns me a snort from Jase and a laugh from Michele as she slaps me on the arm and says, “That’s the spirit.”