Chapter 192 B4. 5.1 – Annoying Start of the Road Trip

“It’s those annoying guys again…” I groaned, lowering myself further in my seat as if it’d help deaden the noise.

The column of cars to our left moved, and the music got louder. If this could even be considered music. Whoever was rapping mumbled unintelligible words that wouldn’t be out of place in a demon-summoning ritual. The bass was so fucking strong that it shook my heart inside my ribcage. Deen probably didn’t hear what I had said, but her deep sigh of exasperation showed that she shared my sentiments.

An expensive-looking muscle pickup truck—a good indication of the minuscule genitals possessed by the guys riding it—stopped right beside our car. Four rowdy assholes sat in the back of the truck, drinking beer.

Frat boys, seeing the Greek letters on their matching shirts. The Eloyce sports jacket that one guy wore over his shirt and the Eloyce sticker on the side of the truck meant they were technically our schoolmates.

Gross.

They waved and hooted like animals in a zoo to get our attention. To be fair, animals were better behaved than them. And they probably wanted Deen’s attention, not mine.

We met this tribe of assholes half an hour earlier. ‘Met’ probably wasn’t the correct term. Deen had her window lowered while talking to a roving cop. The frat boys saw her and started their howler monkey impressions. Applying Deen’s policy, a very good one, we just ignored them.

I thought they got stuck way back in the line because they got into an argument with a couple of cops. Too bad they weren't arrested. 

“Wooo!” howled one of them. The sun was setting, but there was enough light to see his primitive mug through our tinted window. Not enough tint, if you ask me. “We caught up to you, girls!” he shouted over the loud music. “Woohoo!”

Rule #4: I could bother someone only if they bothered me. I think these morons had bothered me enough.  I took note of their faces, even though I sucked at remembering them—that was how pissed I was.

Someday, I’d bother them back.

Deen, on the other hand, kept facing forward, pretending that assholes weren’t outside the window. But I could see the frothing infuriation in her eyes. She tightly pressed her lips together until they were pale—paler, because she wasn't wearing any lipstick.

“Hey, ladies!” A ratty idiot sporting a pathetic goatee pushed away his friend and leaned over the side of the truck. “Want something to drink? Come over here!” He chucked an open can of beer at the side of our car. 

The clank made Deen grip the steering wheel tighter. I tapped her arm. She sighed, opening her hands before she could bend the steering wheel. 

“Yow, blondie!” yelled a moron with a bad haircut. “Blondie, how about you look over here?”

“Show us your pretty face!”

“Where are you girls going?”

Their voices jumbled with the blasting rap.

A sudden loud banging made the frat boys jump. The police officer who had checked our car a couple of minutes ago was back, thumping his fist on the end of the pickup truck.

“Quiet down!” he barked at them. Surprisingly, the frat boys lowered their music, which was leaning toward noise. “And don’t litter.”

He picked up the beer can on the street and threw it into the bed of the truck, splashing the four jerks sitting there. They all yelled to complain, trying to be louder than each other.

“The fuck, man? We were just having a good time!”

“What’s your name? I can get my dad to remove you!”

“Don’t you know who we are?”

The cop wasn’t having any of their nonsense. “I don’t care even if you’re the Queen of England!”

He went to the passenger’s seat window, knocked, and signed to lower it. At the same time, our lane started moving. Cars in the frat boys’ lanes honked their horns in frustration at the delay. But the cop didn’t let the pickup truck move on.

Eventually, there was silence.

Either the cop prevailed over the idiot frat boys and made them turn off their speakers, or we left them far behind enough that their tasteless noise couldn’t reach us. Deen continued to seethe for a minute, somehow wafting her emotions toward me. I could cook an egg on her head with the heat of her anger.

Was this due to the connection of our Cores? Could I opt out of this annoying feature?

“Just ignore them, Deen,” I said, wanting the car’s atmosphere to turn neutral before trying to sleep again. Actual peace was what I sought. “That’s your policy in these situations, right?”

“If I give them any attention, they’ll take that as a sign to continue. Even a clear rejection would shoot in one ear and out the other. They’ll assume that because I talked to them, they can change my mind if they’re persistent. It’s best to pretend they didn’t exist.”

“I blame romance movies. They portray a persistent guy as romantic instead of annoying. It becomes harassment at some point. Not that I’ve encountered such a guy before. Seems to be a common occurrence with you.”

“The curse of perfect genetics,” Deen said, grinning at me. “I hope it’s the last we’ll see of them. If they stayed beside us for five minutes, I probably would explode.” 

I chuckled. “Well, it’s a good thing we didn’t see your explosion. I hope those… creeps… get arrested.” I was about to say ‘asshole,’ but I couldn’t recall if I ever used that word in front of Deen. It didn’t fit well with my image. Timid Erind might be coming out of her shell, becoming brave to face life-and-death situations, but I still have to keep watch on my language.

“I won’t bet on that,” Deen replied in monotone. 

“Why not?”

“They weren’t lying that they were important. One of them, at least. The guy with the messy brown hair sitting beside the one who threw the beer can at us—he’s the nephew of the mayor on his wife’s side. Not a Minnow, but a Goodwin. The mayor’s wife is a distant relative of the President.”

“What’s with rich people being connected? It’s like a web! Like, you’re pretty well-connected yourself to know about this stuff.”

“I don’t personally know him, but I remember his face. Adrian pointed him out to me during the ACO ball last semester. Adrian had invited me to be his plus one.” Deen mumbled that last sentence as if she were embarrassed.

“ACO?”

“Alpha Chi Omega.”

“So, that’s what the Greek letters on their shirts stand for. I’m not really familiar with the frats and sororities on campus. I’m surprised that you’re not a member of a sorority. Aren’t the rich and powerful required to join a sorority in college? For connections and stuff?”

I had thought of applying to a sorority before. Girls were insane when it came to drama; it felt like I’d fit right in. But the application process itself was so tedious that I didn’t want to try anymore.

“I wanted a peaceful law school life,” Deen said. “I’m not the socialite my sister is. I’d even go as far as to say that I’m an introvert at heart.”

I snorted. “No, you’re not.”

“It’s why we became best friends. We can understand each other. Plenty of time that I don’t want to attend parties or even go out.”

I didn’t appreciate Deen’s cultural misappropriation of Introvert Culture. She didn’t have to connect everything between us. “Hang on, you attended a frat ball with Adrian? That means he’s in the same frat as those guys back there? Do they know you?”

“I’m not sure if they do. ACO is a university-wide fraternity. Most are undergraduates, but they have members in Cresthorne Law. Adrian is one. The mayor’s nephew we saw is a first-year, so he’s a new member, or in the process of applying." 

“How are things with you and Adrian, by the way?” I nonchalantly asked. 

“There are no ‘things’ between Adrian and me,” Deen said, half-laughing. “I’ve told you that before, haven’t I? He messages me from time to time, checking how I am. Why are you interested? Could it be… you’re jealous?”

“Jealous of what?” I couldn’t admit that I was weighing the chances of Deen betraying me for a guy. I had seen too many movies, across multiple genres, not just romance, where that happened. Boyfriends over best friends.   

“I'm not going to leave you. Don’t worry. You don’t have to be jealous of—”

“Not jealous, okay?”

“Grumpy, grumpy, Erind,” Deen sang, giggling. We can talk about something else.”

 I kind of wanted to sleep, I thought, but didn’t say aloud.

“Did you see on Snippet about the—? Of course, you haven’t,” Deen interrupted herself. “Eloyce Admin announced that bio-scanners will be installed in the main entrances of buildings.”

“I didn’t know about that,” I said. “It’ll be crazy expensive to implement and useless, unless they block all other doors of each building. And that’s just impractical. I bet very important parents, fearing for their precious children, forced the admin to do this.”

“The announcement didn’t sit well with most students,” Deen said. “The Graduate Association and College Council are planning a joint rally to combat the fear-mongering in our—” She stopped her explanation as her phone rang. She held her phone and stared at the screen.

“Who’s calling?” I asked after five rings.

“It’s Everett,” Deen said, still not answering after the sixth ring. “Before you say anything, he asked my number one time, and I gave it. I didn’t have any reason to refuse. He hasn’t messaged or called me since then.”

“I was going to say that you should answer it. This should be related to Dario or something.”

“Hello, Everett?” Deen placed her phone on the dashboard and turned on the loudspeaker. “Why are you calling? I’m driving right now.” Our lane had completely stopped again.

“Uh, Deen,” came Everett’s hesitant voice. “Sorry for calling. I hope I’m not disturbing you. What are you doing? I-I mean, you just said you were driving.”

Deen shot me a weirded-out glance. “Yes. I am driving…”

“Ah, yeah, yeah. Where are you right now? Dario’s calling for a meeting.”

“I’m heading to Erind’s place,” Deen casually said. “We have a law school assignment due on Monday, which we totally forgot because of… you know what. Shouldn’t Myra call me about meetings?”

“We can’t contact her right now,” Everett replied. “We’re worried that there might be some problem with her sister. Anyway, can you come to a meeting? Bring Erind, too.”

“Right now?” Deen asked. “I’m not so sure… Shouldn’t we keep a low profile after… yesterday’s events?”

“That’s what I told Dario. I don’t want to go out with Adumbrae attacks everywhere. I hope the BID deals with them soon. I’ve also heard that the Corebrings are in the city. Isn’t that cool? We can talk about it later, if you get my drift.”

Deen and I nodded at each other. The meeting was about wrapping up the field test. Everett hadn’t realized yet the negative consequences it could mean for us. I tilted my head towards the phone, telling Deen to continue her conversation.

“We’re going to talk about how… cool… Corebrings are?” Deen asked. “Or will it be about Myra’s sister? I’m confused.”

“Both, yeah,” said Everett. “I mentioned Myra because she’s not answering. Not just her. Reo, as well. We got to talk this morning, and he told me about cops looking for him. Remember his problem with that, uh, minor offense last month? I thought that was all good. Turns out it isn’t. I’m worried about him, too.”

“I don’t think we can attend,” said Deen. “Erind’s mom is here. I think I’ve mentioned that, have I? She doesn’t want Erind to leave, given the danger.”

I gave Deen a thumbs-up for her explanation. Mental note that she was also good at making up stories. The time might come when Deen would lie to me, despite our bestest of friendships.

“I promised Erind’s mom I’ll join them for dinner,” Deen continued. “Is this really an emergency? Maybe Myra and Reo are just busy?”

Everett cleared his throat before he answered, “I, uh, you’re right. They could be busy. But we should also worry if there’s anything weird going on. I-I’ll tell Dario you can’t make it.”

“Tell us about your meeting tomorrow,” Deen said. “Thanks, Everett! You’re very reliable.” She pressed the button to end the call before Everett could reply.

I smirked. “Did you really need to add that last line? Using your feminine wiles, are you?”

“Feminine wiles, indeed. It’ll make Everett feel better about himself and defend our absence to Dario. I bought us another day before Dario thinks anything is wrong. More because he’ll be focused on Myra and Reo. We’ll make Dario guess if we’re actually betraying him or not.”

“I kind of feel bad about Reo,” I said. It was a lie, of course. I actually found the situation funny. “He’s afraid of Pino and other Adumbrae knowing where he lives. In his view, our group betrayed Pino. He doesn’t want Adumbrae visiting him again.”

“He’ll manage, wherever he chooses to go,” Deen said dismissively, surprising me with her response. I thought she’d care a tiny bit about the trauma that I had inflicted on Reo. “We have our own problems to…” She touched her ear.

“What?” I sharply asked. “Is your Guardian Angel telling you something?” I looked around for danger.

“Erind, we have a problem. I’m not sure what it is, but you should choke me.”

“E-excuse me? If this is some disguised kink you’re—”

“I’m being serious here!” Deen grabbed my arm and pulled. “Knock me out by choking me.”

“Knock you—Ah!” A light bulb lit up inside my head. “Someone’s going to detect your Core! Either a BID agent or a Corebring coming near. You should’ve led with that.”

“Choke me. If you punch me, you’ll launch me through the window. Let’s switch seats, so you’ll drive. Then knock me out to turn off Gabe!”