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I grimaced. Whoops. Maybe I was going to get out of this tonight after all. “Sorry. I didn’t know,” I said. “I was out and came over when you called.”
“Out where? In a hobo’s ass? Who let you out wearing that?” Future asked.
“She’s fine,” Marc said, smirking.
“No,” Future said, and pointed a finger at him, a bright pink fingernail sparkled with glitter. “Fuck you for letting her out of the house in that. Not that you’re dressed any better.”
Marc raised his hands, looking down at his clothes. “What’s wrong with jeans?”
“Boys never know how to dress,” Future said. “You can barely see your butt in those jeans.”
“Isn’t that the point of wearing clothes?” he asked.
“Uh,” I said, “Future...can we just--”
“Oh no, honey-buns,” she said. She put her arms back up and posed again. “This isn’t Future anymore. No, this striking new girl in front of you? Say hello to Fancy.” With that, she tossed her hair and wiggled her butt to sway the frilly skirt and then froze.
Silence lingered, the only sound coming from the still running car behind her. I exchanged glances with Marc and Raven. I thought perhaps we were supposed to clap or something, but I didn’t want to assume and be rude.
“Fancy?” Marc asked.
She lowered her arms again, pouting. “What? You don’t like it?”
“I don’t even know what it is,” he said.
“It’s my new name,” she said. “Fancy.”
“What was wrong with your old name?”
She sliced her hand through the air. Her bracelets clanked with the movement. “Please. That old thing? Keeping the same name all the time is so cliché.”
“It’s cliché to have just one name?” Marc asked, the smirk building on the side of his mouth.
“Of course it is,” she said. “It’s like hanging on to the same look all the time. Sometimes you just have to reinvent yourself.”
“You were Future a month ago,” Marc said.
“Yeah,” she said. “Held on to that too long. Fancy’s so much better.”
“What was before Future?” His smirk lifted high, and I could tell he was just playing with her.
I stepped forward, wanting to stop this line of crazy questions and answers before we went as loopy as Fancy. “Okay,” I said. “Well, we’re here. You were talking about a favor? Something about a boat?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Fancy said. She waved to the yellow car. “Hop in. We’ll show you.”
“Who’s with you?” Marc asked.
“Avery,” she said.
I bent forward, looking through the open door, spotting Avery at the wheel of the car. Marc and Raven did the same, peering in at him.
Avery wore a shiny blue button up shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His brown hair was trimmed, brushed back away from his eyes. A touch of the tattoo across his chest was peeking out. He spotted us looking in on him and did a short wave. “Hi,” he said.
Avery? How? I tried to make a connection. Did Future...Fancy come to Charleston, get a cab, run into Avery and then start talking about me? It seemed like a stretch, but it was the only explanation I could come up with. It still didn’t explain the car. Had Fancy brought it up from Florida?
At the sight of Avery, Marc and Raven seemed to relax. I wondered if they, too, had suspected Blake was behind this. “Nice car, Avery,” Marc said. “Kind of an upgrade from what you had.”
Avery smiled, his thin lips parting to reveal teeth. “A little,” he said. “It’s not mine, though.”
Where’d you get it from?”
“Long story,” Avery said. “Tell you on the way?”
The secrecy was odd, but from Avery’s expression and Fancy’s grin, I suspected it was more surprise than dangerous.
Marc looked at me, seeming amused but then there was a hesitation, too. Silently, he was asking me if I was ready for this. Did I really want to know what was going on? If not, we’d head back to the apartment.
The red or blue pill, Kayli?
I hesitated, unsure. If I said I was still feeling sick, what would happen? I’d go home, be bored and restless for longer. Fancy wanted a favor. Avery was here, so it couldn’t be that bad of a thing.
My curiosity was getting the better of me, too. I shrugged. “We don’t have anything better to do.”
“We’re all not going to fit in there,” Marc said. “Raven’s butt is too big.”
Raven grunted. I grinned. Marc was enjoying this little get-together way too much. Maybe he’d been antsy to get out of the house, too.
Fancy moved forward between Marc and Raven, threading her arms through theirs. “Here’s what we can do,” she said. “Avery can drive with Kayli. I’ll go with you guys and point you in the right direction.”
“I’ll fit my butt in,” Raven said, starting to head toward the yellow car.
The car only had two seats. If I let him in, we’d be crushed together. That was too pretty of a car to try to squeeze us both into the seat, even with me sitting in his lap, when he had a perfectly good SUV to sit in. I also didn’t really want to sit in the SUV with Fancy.
“I’ll see you there!” I raced for the car, jumped in and closed the door. If they had a problem, they had time to stop me, but they didn’t. Avery was a safer driver than Raven. I waved to them at the window.
Marc rolled his eyes, and said something to Raven. Raven looked disappointed but retreated toward the SUV. Fancy followed, talking and sparkling under the lights.
“Let’s go, Avery,” I said, “before Raven changes his mind and tries to squeeze in here.” In that instant, I wondered if this was part of Fancy’s plan. I went with it, maybe too curious for my own good. Was there a reason to separate us?
Maybe I shouldn’t have been so eager to get going.
THE BEST SHIP MONEY CAN BUY
Avery stepped on the accelerator. The car rolled forward, smooth, getting faster every second. It was like a boat on the water. The seats were leather, smooth. There was a screen on the dash, with a blinking red light showing our location on the island, and then switched to show the weather: partly cloudy and a twenty percent chance of rain. There were soft blue glowing buttons and dials all over the place. My fingers itched to touch all of them, just to see if the car had an ejection button or would spit fireballs.
I was impressed, and I normally didn’t have any particular feelings toward cars. “Wow,” I said.
“Yeah,” Avery said. He smoothed his hand over the steering wheel and then turned down the fan. “She’s real pretty.”
This wasn’t just a car for tonight. He’d been driving it for a little while. “Where did you get her from?” I asked. “And whose boat are we going to?”
“More like a cruise liner.” He talked with a hand waving at me as he turned the car through streets, going deeper into the island. “Five or six stories high, and has its own crew that’s there near constantly. I think it’s bigger than my old elementary school. It’s got an indoor and outdoor pool, a few spas, a main dining room and several restaurants. Lots of other things, too. I still don’t think I’ve seen everything. And I’ve been all over that ship.”
“Okay,” I said, unable to stop from smiling at his enthusiasm. Last time I’d talked to Avery, he’d been deeply involved in helping me free Brandon and the others from being kidnapped. Something had changed in him since then. He was aware, not the same pothead taxi driver I’d met initially. “I get it’s a big boat. But who does it belong to?”
“Ethan,” he said slowly. “Didn’t forget who he was, did you?”
My mouth popped open. I stared at the windshield. “And this car belongs to him?”
