Whimper (4 page)

I shot my foot out, catching him in the shin. “That’s his
sister
, you douche!”

Zack laughed and grinned. “So? You’re my sister and I don’t have a problem with him making a move on you. I’d be freaking ecstatic actually. Are you making a move on my sister, Elliott?”

Elliott fidgeted, pulled an odd little inhaler out of his pocket, and sucked in a deep breath. “Maybe,” he admitted, looking at me, “I was hoping to, but I’m not much of a gambler. I was testing the waters first.”

Zack looked at me, an evil smirk on his face. “Don’t. Just don’t!” I ordered, rising from my seat to jab him in the chest. “I’ll bring you another drink, Elliott. Please, I’m begging you to ignore my brother completely.”

The crowd was thinning a bit, but business was still steady. The longer Zack lurked around Elliott, the more I felt like I could use a drink myself. I mixed up my favorite rum punch, checking to make sure that the other girls didn’t need any help as I did so. I was missing out on tips by not circulating more, but that was okay.

I risked a glance back towards Elliott, disappointed to see that Zack had stolen my empty chair and Brianna had joined them. I made another Long Island for her, mostly to stall.
Did
I want Elliott to make a move? The fluttery feeling in my stomach could either be from excitement, or from the fact that I hadn’t eaten any supper. Still uncertain, I delivered both drinks, pointedly ignoring my brother.

“Where’s my beer?” he protested.

“Get it yourself. You know how to pour one,” I snapped back. Brianna looked a little startled by my response. Maybe I needed to tone down my bitchiness a bit. “I brought you another Long Island, Brianna, on the house. Unless I can get you something different?”

“Actually, could I have an ice water, too? Oh, and one for Elliott as well. Lots of ice, please.”

Elliott looked a bit irritated by his sister’s request, but he didn’t say anything. He obviously had more tact when dealing with his sibling then I did.

I smiled and left to fetch the water. Behind me I heard Zack yell, “Hey, Sara Beth, bring me a beer, would ya, Hon?”

“Get it yourself, Zack!” she yelled back. At least I’d trained my staff well.

Shouts from outside the bar caught my attention, and I saw Denny, the retired cop I paid to check IDs and act as bouncer, jump up and run out front.

“Seth, can you see what’s going on?” I craned my neck, grabbed the cordless phone from its cradle in case I needed to call 911.

He stood up on a stool, looking over the crowd. “No, all I can see is people moving.”

I sat the waters down, but brought the phone with me as I moved towards the door. There had been riots at a lot of other campuses recently, students protesting the new economic and educational reform bills. Could there be one here? I hadn’t seen anything online or heard any rumbling in the bar. Most likely it was only a fight in the street, but I couldn’t see Denny anymore and I needed to make sure he was okay.

I’d almost made it to the front door, fighting the tide of people moving in to get away from the disturbance outside, when a strong arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me back. “Wait. Let me go,” Elliott said in my ear. “I’ll check it out. You stay in here.”

“Yeah right. I own a bar, I’m not afraid of some brawling drunks.” I moved to step away from him, but his grip was solid.

“I’ll go first, regardless.” He spun me behind him without releasing his hold on my waist, only letting me go when I was safely out of his way. I marched up behind him, looping my fingers in his waistband.

“Lead the way, then. I want to know what’s going on, and I’m not about to stay behind.” It was easier for him to shoulder people out of the way, and we made it out onto the sidewalk without much resistance. Once we got out there, I kind of wished I had stayed inside. Two campus police officers were fighting with one of the football players. I recognized him immediately, but he certainly wasn’t acting like the guy I knew. Off the field, he was usually calm and easygoing, but right now he was a biting, shrieking, wrecking ball of rage. I could hear the clicking of the officer’s Taser gun, but it didn’t seem to have any effect on the lineman. He roared, dove right at the officer and knocked him off his feet. There were still people loitering around, watching. Too many people. The officers kept screaming for everyone to get out of the way. If they had to shoot this guy, there was a good chance someone else would get hit. I was trying to remember the football player’s name, Freddy something…maybe. His face was so distorted with rage that his name wouldn’t come to me. The striped polo shirt he’d been wearing lay on the pavement in ragged chunks. He would stop attacking the officers long enough to tear off another article of his own clothing then resume screaming and be back in attack mode.

“Get everyone back inside, Zoe, and lock the front door. But, don’t let anyone inside if they’re bloody or bleeding, okay?” Elliott shook me a little, pulling my attention away from the gory fight taking place in front of my bar, the second one in less than 24 hours.

“Elliott, what the hell is going on?” I whispered, backing up towards the door with his hand gripped in mine. “Why is he taking his clothes off?”

“They call it agitated delirium. His body temperature is spiking and he feels like he’s burning up.” He gently shook me off, pushing me closer to the door. “I’m going to try to help. Tell Brianna to throw out the bag if she can. Get inside, lock the door, and get everyone away from the windows…just in case.”

One of the officers had his gun out and was yelling for assistance into his radio. I couldn’t believe this was really happening. I started herding people back through the door, but then I saw Denny. He was lying in the street, originally blocked from my view by a planter. His leg was bent at a disturbing angle and blood trickled thickly at his temple.

I pushed the heavy glass door closed behind me, sealing my patrons inside while I ran to Denny’s side. “Zoe! No, no! Don’t touch the blood!” Elliott snatched me away from my friend’s body, looking my hands over with extreme agitation. “Don’t touch any blood. We don’t know what could be infected. Please, go inside!”

I suddenly realized that we’d attracted the attention of Freaky Freddy, who was throwing off police officers like they were bean bags. He charged towards us like a Brahma bull, head down, chest heaving. “Elliott!” I screamed in warning, trying to pull him away with me. I was too late. Elliott whirled, hammering his shoulder into Freddy’s bare chest like a battering ram. Elliot’s fists shot out, a thumb digging into the soft flesh around Freddy’s collar bone until the fragile bone there cracked. Freddy dropped to his knees, howling. He tried to turn back towards the officers, but his arms didn’t seem to be working so well. After several flailing attempts, he found his feet and charged back towards the officers. The sharp crack of gunfire exploded around us. I couldn’t tell how many shots, but I knew Elliott and I were right in the line of fire. Bullets tore into Freddy’s chest and head, splattering me with droplets of gore.

“Elliott! I screamed again, relieved to see he was still upright, though bloody. He stumbled unevenly towards me, and I ran to catch him.

“Don’t touch me! Zoe, don’t!” He stopped in front of me, seeing the blood spatter on my shirt and jeans. “Fuck! Zoe, is that his blood?” he gasped, panting.

Brianna ran out, carrying a tan canvas satchel. “Oh, my God! Elliott, are you hurt? Did you get hit?” He waved her away, pointing at me.

“Get it off her, Bri. Get her cleaned up, quickly! Please! Use the hose, whatever. Clean her off!”

Brianna looked me over, grim faced. “It’s only on her clothes, Elliott. None of it is on her face. She doesn’t have any cuts. It’s okay! Let’s get you taken care of first.”

“Brianna, clean her up
now
!” he snarled, dropping down onto a bench as he pulled off his black shirt and used it to wipe blood off his own face.

I went to unlock the hose and pull it out, but the police officers started yelling at me about preserving the crime scene. Whatever. Zack pushed open the bar door and a path instantly cleared between me and the bathrooms. Nobody wanted to accidentally touch dead guy blood. The paramedics rushed in and were hovering over Denny.

“Come on. Let’s get cleaned up,” I said to Elliott, trying to coax him to come with me. “Come on. I’ll help you.”

We walked into the employee locker room together, and my face got hot as I realized that there was no discreet way for me to change without Elliott and Brianna seeing my everything. “It’s like chemistry lab all over again,” I muttered to myself, remembering the time in high school when my lab partner splashed us both with caustic chemicals, causing the teacher to force us both under the emergency showers in front of the entire class. Staring at the floor instead of at either of them, I mustered up my courage and peeled off my shirt.

“Don’t drop it on the floor. Let me get a trash bag,” Brianna ordered. I threw my shirt and jeans into the bag. I was embarrassed, but figured there was a time and a place for modesty and this didn’t seem to be it. Elliott had at least turned away and was leaning heavily on the wall instead of ogling me. My white bra was speckled with tiny dots of red too, so I threw it into the bag along with my panties. Crossing my arms over my chest, I tried not to think about the fact that Elliott was standing there and focused on Brianna instead. I’d been through enough gym classes in my life to not freak out over being naked in front of another girl, but if I thought too hard about being nude in front of
him,
I might hyperventilate. The locker room only has a single shower, so I headed straight for it, trying not to flash any more flesh than absolutely necessary. I washed whatever blood remained on my skin away under the hottest water I could take, my hands trembling the entire time.

I wrapped a towel around myself and stepped out. Brianna had left the room, but Elliott remained standing, bare except for a towel wrapped around his waist, eyes closed.

“Do you need help?” I asked softly, not wanting to startle him.

“Can you turn the shower to cold, please?” he rasped. I turned the temp down so that it was barely lukewarm, but he wanted it full blast cold. I stood outside the shower door while he cleaned off, my back turned to give him some privacy. I had clothes in my locker, but I wasn’t sure if anyone’s stuff would fit Elliott. His shoulders were much broader than Seth’s, and I doubted that anyone here had pants long enough. The water cut off, but Elliott didn’t come out of the shower right away. Finally, I had to look. Privacy was one thing, but if he was passed out in there then I needed to help. His back was to the glass, forehead leaning against the opposite wall.

“Are you okay in there?” I asked, tapping on the door frame. I finished pulling on my shorts, a sports bra, and an old ratty t-shirt.

“I’ve got a clean towel for you. If you don’t answer me, I’m coming in.” It wasn’t an empty threat. I wasn’t afraid to see him naked. Even under the worst of circumstances, I still kind of wanted to see what he looked like naked. That probably made me some kind of pervert, but it was true.

“Don’t. Just give me a minute, please?” came his muffled reply.

Brianna bustled back in the room, carrying the satchel. “El, I’ve got the clothes triple bagged and I was able to pull a sample off of yours. I haven’t tested it yet, but come on. You know it’s going to be positive. Zack’s shutting down the bar and the police are getting everyone’s names. What do you need?”

She rattled everything off to her brother like all of this was an everyday occurrence. Elliott sighed inside the shower. “I need one of the second round shots and an inhaler.”

Brianna dug through her bag, producing one of the odd little inhalers I’d seen him use earlier, and a capped hypodermic needle filled with some sort of cloudy liquid. What the hell?

“Are you diabetic or something? What is going on?” I demanded. My patience wasn’t exactly legendary and it was long gone tonight.

“Elliott is sick,” Brianna answered simply. “He’s freaking out right now because he’s afraid that you could be sick now too. I think he’s overreacting, but then I’m not the biological engineer—he is. So…” She opened the shower door, handing the needle and inhaler to Elliott. “You were going to have to explain everything to her anyway. Don’t give me that look. It’s better if they know.”

“He’s not going to want you to watch the injection. He’s touchy about it,” Brianna explained, stepping away from the shower.

The door clicked open and Elliott stepped out, water droplets still clinging to the sprinkling of dark blond hair on his chest. “It doesn’t matter,” he said, sounding numb. “She can watch if she wants to.” He dropped into the plastic lawn chair by the shower, readjusted his towel, and jammed the needle into his own abdomen. I jumped, wincing in sympathy, my guts clenching as he depressed the syringe. His face contorted, twisting in pain, but he didn’t even whimper.

“We need to get him to bed for a while, so that the meds can work,” Brianna explained quietly.

“We need to get Zoe and Zack home safely first, Bri. I’m fine,” Elliott replied, fatigue evident in his voice.

I’m not sure what was happening to me. I’m not usually the trusting type, but somehow even though I’d only known these two for a few hours, I felt it was safe to bring them home.

“Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone. Zack and I have a big house and it’s close by. We have plenty of bedrooms. You can both stay with us tonight. Okay?” I was reluctant to let either of them out of my sight anyway. I wanted some answers and if they left now, there was a very good chance I’d never see them again.

Brianna looked at Elliott, who could barely keep both eyes open. “Do you have a car? We walked here.”

I’d walked too, but we had a big delivery van we used for keg deliveries and party setups sitting out back. “Sort of. I have something that will get us there anyway. Now, let’s see about finding you some clothes.”

Brianna and Zoe each tugged one of my arms over their shoulders, helping me walk from the back door of the bar to the waiting van. My body temperature was dropping and the chills were starting in, but my biggest problem was the fatigue. I’d fallen asleep several times, but every time I fought my eyes back open, Zoe had been there. She was watching me with those big, sapphire doe eyes, looking worried. No one but Brianna has worried about me for a very long time.