Love & Geckos (multiple-author collaboration)

Chapter 21: Alyssa

Alyssa's brain stuttered to a halt. It was as though all her neurons had spontaneously forgotten how to fire, leaving her barely able to remember how to breathe.

"I started texting with her after you fell in the fountain, and she says she wants to talk to you." Dakota advanced on her, cell phone outstretched. Alyssa cringed away from it, but he shoved it up to her ear. "Don't make me put this thing on speaker mode."

She was going to kill Dakota. She was going to stick him in a giant lizard tank and pile geckos on top of him until he suffocated under the weight of a thousand geckos. Then she'd pile a thousand more geckos on top of him, to make sure he was actually dead. Didn't he know better than to butt in when his help wasn't needed?

And yet...

Hands shaking, Alyssa took the phone. "H-hello?" she whispered.

"Alyssa?" Sandra's voice sounded very small against the crash of water from the fountain.

"Yeah... it's me." She adjusted the phone and backed away from the fountain, almost flattening a kitten as she sat down on a bench.

"It's really good to hear from you." Sandra sniffled. Then she said, sounding anguished, "Alyssa, I'm really, really sorry for avoiding you!"

"W-what?"

"Last summer, I... I saw you doodling in your notebook, you had drawn hearts around my name, and I guess I just... freaked out. I'd always sorta suspected you liked me, and I was worried that you'd hate me for not liking you back in that way. Then all this crazy stuff happened—my sister vanished for months— and... I knew I should've talked to you about things, but it was easier to just not talk about it. So I kept avoiding your invites to hang out—for awhile I was so busy catching up on schoolwork, there wasn't really time anyway—"

"But you're so brave!" Alyssa said, stunned. "You never avoid things, and you're never afraid to talk about stuff!"

"I'm really not brave," said Sandra, still sniffling. "It's all just an act and... I... I know now, I'm really not brave."

Alyssa frowned. She sensed there was more to this than Sandra was saying. She had never heard Sandra sound quite so upset before. Maybe something had happened. Maybe Esha was right, and what Sandra really needed right now was a friend.

Whatever was going on, it definitely couldn't be solved in one night. Certainly not right now. It was nearly ten o'clock, mall closing time, and a security guard was rounding the corner with a determined gleam in his eye.

Her attention snapped back to the cell phone. "I want to be your friend again," Sandra was saying. "But I understand if you never want to hang out with me again."

"Don't be stupid," said Alyssa. "Of course I still want to hang out with you!"

"Really?"

"Really," said Alyssa firmly.

"So we're cool?" Sandra's voice sounded teary.

Alyssa felt a lump in her throat. "Only if you let me crash your place tomorrow and watch Mean Girls with you, you dummy!"

There was a watery laugh at the other end of the line. "You're on," said Sandra.

By the time Alyssa made it back to the fountain, Dakota and Jordan had abandoned their hunting for geckoes. They were standing next to the fountain holding hands, but they broke apart hurriedly as she approached. She handed the phone back to Dakota with a quiet, "Thanks."

"You got everything sorted out with your friend?" said Esha brightly.

"Yeah. Well, mostly. We agreed to go back to being friends, and we're hanging out tomorrow."

"Good!" Esha hefted the gecko tank. It was now so full it was standing room only. A hundred gecko eyes glared up at them angrily as Esha jostled the tank. "I think we've got almost all of them! We'll leave out food and traps to lure any we missed."

Alyssa helped Esha lug the tank of geckos back over to the pet store, where, to their surprise, a woman in brown khakis greeted them with a businesslike smile. Charlotte and Benny were sitting amidst the wreckage of the shop, a scowling shopkeeper nearby.

"This woman's an animal rescue officer," said Charlotte in an undertone. "We think that many of the animals are here illegally, so she's here to take them to the vet and then relocate them."

"Oh, excellent!" said Esha brightly. "I was worried about what was going to happen to them!"

"And the store is being closed down," said Benny. "If that nasty store owner gives you any further trouble, I want you to call me at once. Here!"

He scribbled a number onto a pad of paper and held it out to Alyssa.

"Thank you," Alyssa mumbled, taking it and folding it into her pocket.

She turned, about to go. But before she made it two paces, Esha grabbed her arm.

"Listen," said Esha. "I owe you an ice cream for all your help today. You didn't need to help, but you stuck around, and that means a lot. I think you're a cool person, and you also have excellent taste in animals, which makes you especially cool."

Alyssa felt a fluttering in her stomach again. It seemed to happen unreasonably often when Esha was nearby.

"I-I'd like that," she said. "Ice cream, I mean."

She reached into her purse, then realized her cell phone had fallen into the fountain along with her clothes.

Esha grinned. "Old fashioned pencil and paper it is, then." She scribbled her number on a post-it and held it aloft. "This Thursday night?"

Alyssa took the post-it with a matching smile.

"You're on."

~~~~~~

CMF_Wright
CMF writes a combination of humorous and dark fantasy peppered with high-stakes situations, smart female leads, and quirky characters. (Also angst. Lots of angst.) Alyssa and Sandra both play minor roles in her Rest is Riddles trilogy, an intricately-crafted epic adventure filled with magic, mystery, and egotistical sorcerers. If you're looking for bantery romance, lighthearted chaos, and animal catastrophes, you might also enjoy CMF's ONC project, Eight Legs Too Many!