The Last Alignment: Cry of the Scorpions (12 page)

“
Where is Zander,” Natalye
asked. Androse noticed her tone and could tell that she was glad
for the disruption. Quite truthfully, so was he.

“
We don’t know,” said
Hudson. “He’s with his parents. They went outside
somewhere.”

“
Well, if we’re all going
to talk about this, shouldn’t he be here? It’s only right. He is
one of us,” Natalye said wiping her nose.

“
We can talk to him
later,” said Awbrey. “His parents seemed pretty upset when they
told him they needed to speak to him. Besides, it’s not like he’s
going to take this seriously anyway, so I don’t particularly care
whether he’s here or not.”

“
Did you see him during
the meeting,” Natalye asked. “He was freaking out the same way that
we all were.”

“
No, I didn’t,” Awbrey
answered. “To be frank, since I’ve met Zander I’ve been trying to
avoid looking in his general direction if I can help
it.”

“
Wait,” Natalye said
turning to bring her legs up onto the bed. “I noticed something
when we were sitting at the table eating earlier.”
Uh oh
, Androse thought.
“What’s the deal with you guys and Zander? Do you all not like him
or something?” Androse bit his lip. Awbrey and Hudson both looked
directly at him and following their gazes, Natalye was now looking
at him too. “Did something happen between the two of you, Androse?”
He didn’t want to answer. Now that Androse thought about the
situation, it was embarrassing and made him feel like a weakling.
However, what bothered him the most was the impression that he was
making on everyone. Did they all really think that he was afraid
and incapable of standing up for himself?

“
Long story short, Zander
has been a complete and total ass to Androse since they met which
was like four hours ago,” Awbrey spilled. Androse closed his eyes,
unable to stop his cheeks from going red.
Thank you
,
Awbrey
, he thought
crossly.

“
Really?” Natalye’s
question was aimed at Androse, but before he could answer Awbrey
spoke again.

“
Androse hadn’t done or
said anything to him. Zander just walked into the situation and
took it upon himself to start problems right off the bat before
getting to know anyone. I have absolutely zero tolerance for people
like that.”

“
I definitely agree with
you, but it just seems weird that Zander came in and automatically
attacked Androse for no reason.” Natalye sounded as if she were
having a hard time accepting what Awbrey had said. Androse stuck
his hands inside of his pockets wishing that they would just drop
it and not give Zander any more attention than he did. Awbrey
licked her lips and then smiled, and Androse knew that she was
going to press the issue.

“
Okay,” she sighed.
“Natalye, I don’t know you, I don’t know where you’re from, and I
don’t know anything else about you for that matter. But in
my
experiences in the
world that
I
live
in, people don’t need a reason to treat others like crap and they
don’t need a reason to be unkind. They do it because they feel like
they can and Zander is one of those people. He’s a prick,” Awbrey
said simply. “Nothing more, nothing less.”

“
Wait a minute,” Natalye
said placing her feet back on the floor. “What do you mean ‘the
world that you live in?’”
You have got to
be kidding me
, Androse thought wishing
that Awbrey would’ve kept her mouth closed. “Last I checked, we
were all living in the same one, and you are exactly right.
You
don
’
t
know me
and you
don
’
t
know
where I’m from, so please don’t sit there and talk to me like I’m
some ditsy, airheaded dumbass with no life experience. All I’m
trying to say to you guys is that even though Zander may not have
given the best first impression, you shouldn’t be so quick to judge
him and write him off.”

“
And, why the hell not,”
Awbrey asked. Androse and Hudson looked at each other, both feeling
like they didn’t know what was going on or what to do.

“
Because we don’t know
him! Awbrey, are you sure that you were there when our families
were talking to us,” Natalye questioned. “All five of us are in
this together. If we have to do what they say we have to do, then
we have to be a unit. There isn’t any room for pettiness. It’s not
like Zander is some random guy on the street that you can just
ignore because you won’t have to see him ever again in life. We
need him, and he needs us just the same.”

“
Are you serious right
now,” Awbrey asked widening her eyes.

“
Uh, yeah. Kind of,”
Natalye replied. “Now, don’t get me wrong. I absolutely believe you
when you say that Zander is an ass, especially since he was kind of
creepin’ me out earlier, but we need to move passed that. If there
is a problem, then it needs to stay between Androse and Zander and
the two of them need to work it out by themselves. No one else
should be involved because that’ll just create more drama.” Awbrey
closed her mouth and looked as if it took all that she had to keep
it shut. However, Androse agreed with Natalye and his fondness of
her grew even more.

Androse was an extremely private person who
didn’t really care to have his problems be discussed so openly and
boldly. He was the type to handle things on his own the way that he
saw fit, so when Awbrey and Hudson took him aside earlier and
started preaching to him about what he should do about Zander, he
held back his urge to tell them to stay out of it. Normally Androse
wouldn’t hesitate to state how he felt, but he had never gotten
along with anyone as quickly as he did with Hudson and Awbrey, so
he just stood there and took their barrage of unwanted advice.

“
Okay,” Hudson said
seizing the floor while the girls were quiet. “Let’s not start off
on the wrong foot here. Let’s just-”

“
I see what Natalye’s
saying.”

All eyes shifted to Androse after he spoke.
Hudson looked as if he were warning him not to elaborate, Awbrey
looked like she wanted to punch him in a not-so-friendly place, and
Natalye purely smiled. Part of Androse felt like he should heed
Hudson’s obvious warning, but another part of him felt that he had
to be truthful. “Actually, scratch that. I agree with Natalye,” he
continued. “Whatever it is that’s between Zander and me should stay
that way. We do need to be a unit. Just because he’s acting like a
jackass toward me doesn’t mean that you guys can’t at least be
civil with him regardless of how you personally feel.”

“
Okay. I get it. So, you
want us to sit by and let him treat you like shit?” Awbrey’s voice
was cold and unyielding. “That’s perfectly alright with
you?”

Androse froze up a little, but he shook it
off. “Awbrey, that’s not what I’m saying. I-”

“
While we’re at it, should
we chime in and make fun of you too? Laugh at his cracks at you?”
Androse’s heart started to beat quicker. “You realize that if we
all just sit around and let him say whatever he wants to you, then
he won’t stop. But, if he sees that we as a group won’t accept his
behavior then it’ll force him to stop which would eliminate the
only big problem that we have as a group right now,” Awbrey said
eyeing Natalye.

Androse gathered his
resolve. “Awbrey, you are missing what Natalye and I are saying,”
he said slowly. “The issue is between Zander and me, correct?” She
nodded. “Then, that’s where it needs to stay. If all of you start
being mean to him on my account, then that is just going to make
more unnecessary problems and we don’t need that.”
And I don
’
t need this shit right now
either
, he thought.

“
I’m sorry. I don’t agree
with you,” Awbrey stated as she stubbornly shook her head. “I’m not
backing down on this.”

“
Awbrey,” Natalye started,
“you-”

“
I’m not done,” Awbrey
interrupted her. “Natalye, you sat there and said yourself that we
need to be a unit, and I’m with you on that. The way that we can
start is by being a
unit
,” she stressed, “and showing
Zander that we aren’t going to put up with any of his bullshit and
that he needs to get his act together if he expects to be a part of
this group.”

“
What are you even saying
right now? Are you going to kick him out,” Natalye asked. “I’m
pretty sure it doesn’t work like that.”

“
I have no intentions of
kicking him out,” she said, “but he will be treated like an
outsider until he can get to a place where he can respect everyone
the way that they should be respected.” Awbrey stared at Androse
the entire time that she spoke her last bit, and he lowered his
gaze to the floor feeling somewhat abashed.
She thinks I
’
m a complete wuss
, he thought, and
before he could feel any worse about the way that he made himself
look in front of Awbrey, there was a knock at the bedroom door. A
few seconds later it opened, and there stood Zander.

“
You guys have to come
back to the living room,” he said nonchalantly. “There’s something
else that they have to tell us.”

Chapter
10

Zander

He closed the bedroom door and started
making his way back downstairs alone, not caring to wait for any of
them. When he first went upstairs to tell them to come down, Zander
overheard Awbrey say something through the door about treating
someone like an outsider until they could learn respect and it
didn’t take him long to figure out that she had been talking about
him before he went ahead and knocked, pretending as if he hadn’t
heard anything. Zander thought about walking in and saying
something just to piss them all off, but decided against it in the
end; he was already on thin ice with his parents and didn’t need
any more heat on him. So for now, he would keep his mouth shut and
pretend to play nice while they had their “I hate Zander” meetings
behind his back.

And I was going to
apologize to them
, he thought.
Never mind now
, but
then, Zander paused on a step feeling a familiar sense of
frustration sneak up on him. He had dealt with this same issue many
times before. When most people first encountered him it wasn’t long
before they declared him a “dick” or an “asshole,” but Zander never
felt like he went out of his way to offend anyone or even try to
for that matter; he was just being himself, and yet it never
failed. Zander took after his family, all of whom were very direct,
open, and loud-mouthed individuals, yet he was the only one who
ever caught any flak when he exhibited those traits. On the other
hand, it was those very same people that originally didn’t like him
who after a while always said, “You know what Zander, you’re really
not that bad of a guy once people get to know you,” and he often
wondered why people couldn’t pick that up initially. At that last
thought, he looked back at the bedroom door, deliberating. These
weren’t people that he could just shrug his shoulders at and forget
about which would have been his usual response. Zander knew that he
had no choice but to try with them, but he didn’t know how to
approach the situation. All four of them basically hated him; how
was he supposed to change their minds about him when they clearly
had their minds already made up?
Maybe I
should go apologize
, he thought.
Maybe people don
’
t know that I
’
m an alright guy because I
don
’
t really show
it
…

“
Are they
coming?”

Zander whipped his head
around and looked at the foot of the stairs to see Sylvia glaring
up at him.
How long have you been
there
, he thought. “Oh…yeah,” he spoke up,
remembering that his mother was upset with him. “We’ll all be in
there in a second.” Sylvia put a hand on her hip and looked Zander
dead in the eyes as if she didn’t believe him.
What
, he thought angrily.
I didn
’
t just stand here on the steps! I
did what the fuck you asked me to, so why are you staring at me
like that
?! Sylvia narrowed her eyes
menacingly and Zander thought fearfully for a moment that he may
have spoken out loud. He hadn’t gotten a chance to tell his mother
how awesome he thought her display of her power was earlier and
didn’t doubt for a second that if he had ever cursed at her, she
would not hesitate to zap him.

“
You kids get back in here
when you’re all ready,” Sylvia said turning toward the living room.
Zander nodded and his mother eyed him threateningly before she
moved out of sight.

“
You kids get back in here
when you
’
re all
ready
,” he mocked her silently. Zander
supposed that he shouldn’t act the way that he was acting,
especially after learning the true origin of the scar on his
mother’s back, but he couldn’t help it. He was fuming with Sylvia
and Marcel. While they understood his feelings, his parents weren’t
too pleased with the fact that he had cursed at Emma during his
outburst at the meeting which he thought was entirely unfair.
Zander didn’t curse at Emma as much as he had just simply cursed,
but to his parents there was no difference. And if that wasn’t bad
enough, Marcel told Sylvia what Zander said earlier about Androse
being weird and she became absolutely livid with him. He only ever
saw her that angry once, but that time it had been his older sister
Sylene who was the primary target. After his mother was done
yelling, Zander found that he was angrier at Marcel than Sylvia
because he wouldn’t have had to stand there and deal with her if
his dad hadn’t betrayed him and told her what he said.
I just want to get hell out of
here
, Zander thought as he descended the
few remaining steps.
Everything was good
before I came here. It hasn
’
t even been a full day and it feels
like it
’
s been a
damn week.