The Conch Shell of Doom (32 page)

“Do you mean, like, talk dirty?”

“Yeah, he’s fine.” With Bailey slowly returning to the land of the living, Franklin took stock of the situation. How many times could killing Mr. Lovell blow up at the moment of truth? Would Franklin ever get another chance? If so, when? Before the Awakening is completed?
After?
The only thing he knew for sure was they needed a ride as soon as humanly possible.

“How long would it take for a cab to pick us up and take us to Mooresville?”

“Too long.” Remy seemed to fall into a weird calm. “But I know someone who owes me a favor.”

Bailey didn’t know how long he’d been on the floor. The last thing he remembered was Julie’s car crashing through the store and then feeling bubbly and euphoric. Bailey got to his feet, ready to take on the world. The movement was a little too fast, and the room rocked back and forth as he tried to regain his balance. Eyes fluttering, he pried them open with his fingers until they could stay open on their own. The group looked at him with a mixture of shock and worry.

“What? Do I have a zit on my face?” Bailey ran his hands over his face and then noticed the purple potion for the first time. “Cool. Wait. Is this blood?”

“Nope,” Franklin said. “You just got some potion on you.”

Marshall laughed. “How are things in La-La Land?”

“Is that where I am?” Bailey used a piece of collapsed ceiling to wipe the potion off his hand. “And what’s this about a truth potion?”

Remy leaned against the counter next to Bailey. “So, don’t freak out, but you’re going to be a bit more honest than usual for a while. The purple stuff that got on you during the ruckus is truth potion.”

“Really?” Bailey patted himself down. “I don’t feel any more honest. I just feel great. Wait. Am I on LSD? Because the FBI used to use that to make people tell the truth.”
 

“It’s similar, but not toxic like LSD,” Remy said. “Do your best to stay calm and ride it out. You’ll be fine.”

Bailey wanted to speak his mind. Or maybe the truth potion willed him to. Truth be told, the two felt like one and the same. Since Remy said be cool and ride it out, Bailey decided to do exactly that. “That’s not weird in any way, shape, or form. And by that I mean it’s very weird. Strangely, I’m okay with that. Especially since this isn’t technically hard drugs.”

“So we can ask Bailey anything, and he has to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” Marshall looked primed to have a little too much fun with the situation.
 

“I wouldn’t take advantage of him like that,” Remy said. “He may be completely honest, but remember sometimes the truth hurts. He doesn’t have to be asked a question to state something he believes to be true.”

Marshall had a giddy look on his face that made him look like a chipmunk. “How many times a day do you jack it?”

“
That’s
what you want to know?” Franklin threw his hands up. “The rest of us don’t want to know.”

Tim shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind knowing.”

Bailey didn’t have to think very hard for the answer. It was as if the truth potion knew exactly where to pull the information from in his brain. “Depends how bored I get, but anywhere from zero to seven.”

“Seven?” Tim blurted out. “How big is it?”

Alexis smacked her brother in the arm. She was not amused. “I’m sorry. This is what it’s like every day with them.”

“No need to apologize,” Julie said. “They won’t be any better ten years from now.”

“So I’ve heard,” Alexis said, resigned to her fate of a life amongst boys.

“Bigger than yours,” Bailey said.

Marshall
oohed
, pointing
at Tim. “Snap!”

Bailey turned to Marshall. “Yours too.”

“Told you,” Remy said.
 

Franklin shook his head, muttering some curse words to himself as he stepped around the car and through the hole in the front of the store. Bailey couldn’t tell what they were.

Marshall picked up a side view mirror that broke off the Camaro, watching Franklin with it. “Did we break him?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time we broke someone,” Tim said.

Bailey felt genuinely terrible about what happened to the Camaro. “I’m sorry about your car. Hopefully, insurance will cover it. Not that that helps with any emotional despair you may be experiencing.”

“No, it doesn’t.” Julie took the mirror from Marshall. She tossed it on the floor and sighed, shoulders hunched over.

“The store too.” Bailey glanced at Remy. “You’re not out of business, are you?”

“I’ve been through worse.”

“Really?” Bailey’s eyes lit up. “Like what?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Remy picked some debris out of his black hair. “Lucky for me, I’m not the one on truth potion.”

“Touché, sir.”
 

Outside, a car pulled up next to Franklin. Someone got out of the front passenger seat, but with the headlights on, Bailey could only make out a silhouette. The driver followed behind.

“What on earth, Remy?” the person shouted. “Why didn’t you tell us about the extension earlier? You could’ve saved us ten whole minutes. Do you know what I can do in ten minutes?”

It was the guy with blond hair from earlier. Bailey wasn’t at all happy to see him. “He’s mean.”

Alexis agreed. “Yep.”

The guy didn’t hear Bailey’s remark, which was a relief. One look at the demolished shop and the guy burst into hysterical laughter. “Brilliant. Renovations or a disappointed customer?”

“This ass clown named Mr. Lovell did it,” Bailey said.
Dang it! The truth potion is going to be more trouble than it’s worth
, he thought.

“That so?” The guy’s eyes perked up. “I may need to meet this fellow.”

Remy put his hands in his back pockets and leaned on his heels. “Are you finished, Bartholomew?”

“I just bought Sam this SUV for her birthday,” Bartholomew said. “And now you want us to go on a road trip? The owner’s manual explicitly states no long trips in the first ten thousand miles. And with my luck, the blessed thing will somehow get demolished on the trip.”

Sam stepped over some broken glass. She was like a vision to Bailey. Not a vision in the way Alexis was, but still. There was something about her.
 

“Happy birthday,” Bailey said.

She grinned, like the gesture made her ecstatic. “Thank you.”

“You want an extension?” Remy asked, with a hint of venom. “This is the only way you can get it.”

“Wait.” Bartholomew’s eyes narrowed. “This isn’t the favor? You said this
was
the favor on the phone.”

Remy shook his head. “I lied. This is only an extension.”

“You—” Bartholomew stopped himself and looked at Sam. Whatever he wanted to say, he was using all his willpower to keep it to himself. He remained silent for a moment, running his hands through his strawberry-blond hair. “This is a dirty, dirty trick, and if you weren’t pulling it on me, I’d commend you. So where are we going?”

Minutes later, everyone piled into Sam’s SUV, which still had that leathery new car smell. Her short, curly blonde hair bobbed as she got behind the steering wheel. Bailey smiled, excited about sitting next to Alexis, whose brown eyes looked out the window and up at the stars. The urge to speak rolled through his body like a gentle wave.

“There are some things I want to say, but my honesty might make some of you uncomfortable,” he said.

Alexis still looked out the window. “Nobody’s asking you to say anything.”

“That’s not how it works.” Tim interrupted from the back row of seats. “Weren’t you listening?”

“Of course I was. I just wanted to make sure you were too.”

Tim was right. It didn’t matter that nobody asked Bailey a question. He still really,
really
wanted to get a few things off his chest. “I really feel like the truth will set me free.”

“So will a good shove out of this car,” Marshall said.

“I like where your head’s at.” Bartholomew nodded toward Sam, who turned the SUV onto the highway. “Can we do that? Just throw them out, tell Remy we tried?”

“No.”
 

Bartholomew put his palms together. “Please? I’m even asking politely.”

“No.”

Sam’s calm and patience amazed Bailey. What was it about her? She was like the best of everything. Bartholomew, on the other hand, complained for the next twenty minutes about how their save-the-world quest was being delayed, and while he typically didn’t mind if the world wasn’t saved, he did mind being on the losing team. Bailey wasn’t sure what that meant and decided to focus on why Sam made him feel so good. He didn’t find her as attractive as Alexis, but Sam had a certain kind of draw to her. Bailey knew it wasn’t just him that felt that way. The others were being especially kind to her, even Marshall, who hadn’t once tried to flirt with her.

“You seem very nice.” Bailey stopped.
Wait.
That was only a feeling, yet it poured out with the faintest of effort. The honesty potion gave him an amazing buzz, but now he was vocalizing feelings? “Sorry. I think this truth stuff is going to get me in trouble.”

Damn it! Again!

“You’re fine.” Sam smiled. “And thank you. You seem very nice too.”

“Anything else you’d like to add to this conversation?” Bartholomew asked. “Besides your juvenile narration?”

Bailey had a lot to add, but most of it wouldn’t help anything. He wanted to change the subject. It was an honest feeling, so the potion didn’t seem to mind. “Who’s to say our save-the-world situation isn’t as important as yours? You’ve whined about how important your quest is, but what about ours? Speaking as someone with firsthand knowledge, ours is pretty serious.”

“The man speaks the truth,” Tim said.

Marshall clapped. “Amen.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Bartholomew huffed. “None of you do.”

Bailey begged to differ. “I’m pretty sure I do, considering I'm on that truth stuff.”

“He’s got a point,” Sam said. “We don’t know what they’re up against.”

“And we don’t care.” Bartholomew raised his voice. “Because their situation has nothing to do with ours.”

Sam’s gaze narrowed. “Because you’re involved in it, right?”

Bartholomew grinned. “You know me so well.”

Sam didn’t seem angry, at least to Bailey. No, it was more like two people who’d reached such a level of comfort and honesty with each other they could say whatever came to mind without fear of repercussion or rejection. Alexis and Tim’s parents were the only other people Bailey knew like that. He found it beautiful to witness. He turned to Franklin, ready to change the subject again before he could say that out loud.
 

“Is it always like this?”

“Like what?”

“All these different people trying to save the world from eight hundred things at the same time?”

“It can be,” Franklin said.

Julie stopped tracing circles on her knee with her finger. “Interesting.”

Bailey thought it over for a moment. If the world knew what was going on, everyone would probably run around in their underwear all the time, screaming and asking for forgiveness or having all sorts of unprotected sex. “That’s messed up.”

“What’s even more messed up is how often people fail to save the world,” Franklin said.

Bailey’s eyes went wide. The revelation sent a shiver through his body. The world had technically ended? And more than once? It was too much for him, especially on truth potion. “You metaphorically blew my mind.”

“Before you start cleaning up bits of brain from the floorboard—” Bartholomew turned toward Bailey “—know that unfortunately the world is saved more often than not.”

“This is all too much. Stupid potion.”

Everyone fell quiet after Sam yelled at Bartholomew to stop complaining, because it was making it difficult to drive.

Bailey watched Alexis, who still gazed out the car window. The intoxicating feeling of the truth potion overtook him. “The moonlight makes your face look beautiful.”

“Wow.” Alexis glanced over at him. “Who knew you were such a smooth operator?”

Bailey wasn’t sure if she meant that or if she employed the age-old deflection tactic known as sarcasm. “Was it weird to say that? I feel like it was.”

“Yes, it’s weird,” Tim said. “That’s my sister.”

“Why would you even say that?” Marshall gasped, like he’d stumbled onto a hidden treasure. “You like her, don’t you?”
 

Bailey buried his face in his hands. He’d put a lot of effort into keeping his crush on Alexis a secret from Marshall and Tim, for fear of being ridiculed to the point of embarrassment. “This is like a nightmare coming to life. I hate this so mu—”

Alexis smacked Bailey on the chest. “A nightmare? You think I’m a nightmare?”

What in the hell just happened?

“That’s not what I’m saying.” Bailey felt terrible, knowing he’d somehow found himself stuck in a web of the truth potion’s making. It would’ve been nice to try and talk his way out of it, but that required a certain lack of truth. With that potion flowing through his body, Bailey was trapped. “I meant it’s a nightmare that they know.”

“Why is it a nightmare your best friends know? That’s one of the craziest things I’ve ever heard.”

“Not really,” Tim said. “It’s pretty gross, considering we share the same DNA. And by that rationale—”

“You like Tim too!” Marshall burst into a condescending laugh that sounded like a donkey. “This is too much. I’m going to bust my gut; this is so funny.”

Up front, Bartholomew
oohed
like he’d just heard a juicy rumor. “Things are getting interesting now.”

“I don’t like Tim that way. He’s just my friend.” Bailey felt really uncomfortable, sitting between Alexis and Marshall. The anxiety was getting to Bailey. He needed to get away from the situation. Since he was stuck in a SUV, there was only one option. Bailey unbuckled his seat belt and started climbing into the back. “I don’t want to sit next to you two.”

“Oh, come on.” Marshall grabbed his arm. “We’re giving you a hard time.”

Alexis folded her arms. “I’m not. Nobody calls me a nightmare.”