The Bad Boys' Soft Boys' Lonely Hearts Club - The Full Package

The Sleepover From Hell - Tercera Parte

"fuck this shit, i'm outies," says Brayden, grabbing all the snacks in the vent and walking towards the door. 

I step in front of him, but since walking and talking at the same time is too much for his brain to handle, he bounces off me ever so slightly without stopping. 

"Hey, what gives? It's just Hayden pulling a prank," I say. 

Brayden, still bouncing against my pecs, shakes his head from side to side, which I believe takes enough mental effort to make him forget how to breathe, thus making him breathe manually. Which now you are also doing. You're welcome. 

"hayden? he don't have a funny bone in him. last year, he gave me a red velvet cupcake for april's fools. i take a bite, and he starts laughing. here i was thinking he spit on it, or used salt, or a laxative, or some shit. nope. the big joke? he used an orange dye instead of a red dye. bitch be laughing to this day. naw, this is some evil shit, and daddy don't do evil shit."

"You're quite right, small one," said a voice that didn't belong to either of us, followed by three sharp taps of a window, which is the last thing you want to hear in an empty classroom in the middle of the night. That, and children laughing. To be fair, hearing children laugh at any point in time and place is a bad omen. Is that why The Omen is about some weird kid laughing? 

Am I just stalling because I don't want to dramatically move my head towards the window and see something scary? Yes, yes I am. Maybe if I ignore it, it will go away. 

So, how was your day? Being feeling fine? You drank some H2O? Gotta keep those organs wet. 

"Excuse me," says the voice again, with renewed taps on the glass. "Can you hear me?"

"I can't," I say, not staring at the window, instead focusing on the ever-bouncing Brayden. 

"Oh, okay. Sorry to bother you," says the voice. After a few seconds, it chimes in again. "Hey, you can hear me!" 

Okay, I can't ignore this one, can't I? 

I slowly turn towards the window, grabbing the top of Brayden's head and twisting it gently towards it either. There's no way in hell I'm gonna do this alone. 

What lies behind the window is something I never expected to be. 

It's a girl. A plain-looking girl, with longish short hair, and eyes that are good for seeing, and definitely a mouth. There is nothing that stands out about her in any shape or form. And yet, there is something in the back of my mind that tells me that something ain't right. 

"Hi, hello," says the girl, tapping on the window yet again. "I'm Leigh-Leigh, nice to meet you!" 

"Uh, hi? I'm Ayden?" 

"and i'm leaving," says Brayden. "i can deal with hayden being sucked out like a boba bubble through a metal straw, but i ain't dealing with some window weirdo. toodles."

Brayden walks towards the door, but the girl taps the window once again, and thus introducing a new element he has to pay attention to. Since he can't pay attention to two things at once, he stops dead in his tracks. 

"Ah, I wouldn't do that if I were you," says the girl. "You wouldn't want to end up like your friend there, don't you? The big one with the varsity jacket."

"Hayden?" I ask. "You're talking about Hayden?" 

"Yeah, sure. Him," she says, unblinking. "It seems he has inadvertently been the victim of a vicious monster. I think you humans call him...Okayden?"

"A what-now?" I say. "Okayden? A monster? The guy who only speaks in haikus? Surely, he's just a bit weird, if a little awkward. And pale. And super hairy. And has a ten-pack. And...hu..."