Allie's War Episodes 1-4(9)

After the second time someone tried to grab her, Allie’s parents gave her a whistle to wear around her neck. Her father had her carrying pepper spray by the third grade...and once, when he didn’t have anything else to give her, he put a knife in her school lunchbox. He taught all three of them—Jon, Cass and Allie—how to fire a gun before any of them got to high school.
Even then, Cass suspected Allie’s “issues” were at least part of the reason.
Allie’s mother, Mia, tried to get her to keep the GPS implant when she turned eighteen for the same reason, but Al wouldn’t hear of it. She got the tattoo along with all of her friends, and got the implant removed.
Anyway, stalkers came with the territory in being Allie’s friend. Cass barely batted an eye anymore when a new one showed up.
This guy felt different somehow, though.
Cass still hadn’t decided if that was a good or a bad thing.
When she saw her friend, she forgot all this.
“Allie?” she said. “Hey. Are you okay?”
“Fine,” Allie said, with no pause.
Her green eyes looked lighter than usual. They appeared almost transparent, like glass, as they stared out the window, as if following the man somewhere in her mind still.
“Okay, robot girl,” Jon joked. “Jesus. Do you need a new boyfriend that badly, Al, that you’re looking at your stalkers like that?” He sounded exasperated, but not really angry. “No wonder the guy’s following you around. He probably thinks you have a thing for him.”
“Maybe she does,” Cass murmured, still watching her friend.
Allie didn’t answer. Her eyes seemed to exude a kind of static.
Cass touched her friend’s arm. “Hey. Seriously. Are you okay?”
“Fine,” Allie said. “I’m fine.” She smiled, but it seemed faraway still. “I’m good. Just really tired.”
“Well. Go make yourself a cappuccino or something.”
“Okay.”
She wandered off, and Jon and Cass exchanged looks.
“What’s up with zombie girl?” Jon said.
“She’s tired,” Cass said. “Leave her alone, okay? You don’t have to give her shit all the time, you know. Be the big brother about everything.”
Jon shrugged, but Cass saw his eyes follow Allie as she wandered back over to the espresso machine. Cass found herself doing the same, hoping the worry didn’t show on her face.
Whether the deal with this guy, Allie had been acting decidedly weird lately.
That whole thing in the bar with Jaden and that girl was beyond bizarre. Allie had always been the rational, pacifist, talk-it-over type. In fact, sometimes Cass had wished Allie would be a bit more aggressive, especially when it came to Jaden, who'd been dicking her around for months now while Al defended him. For Allie to go all gangland violence like that, though, out of nowhere, was just...weird.
In fact, if Cass had to take bets before all that, she definitely would have plunked money down on Cass herself doing something like that. Not Allie.
The whole thing was weird.
Of course, Allie hadn't done anything like that since. Still, she hadn't exactly been normal either. If Cass didn’t know better, she would think her friend had developed a drug problem. But Allie never touched anything in that area, not even to experiment.
Cass knew Jon had noticed the weirdness, too.
Whatever was up with Allie, it was definitely getting worse.






 
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3
EXIT


“Excuse me? Ma’am?”
Someone near me cleared his throat.
My eyes clicked back into focus.
I found myself looking at a man in a dark blue suit. A red, silk tie contrasted the darker color, setting off the auburn highlights in his long hair. His light brown eyes met mine, crinkling at the edges in a smile.
When he cleared his throat again, politely, my gaze drifted down to his hand, where he held out several twenty dollar bills.
“Can I use paper currency here?” the man said.
He spoke like someone who’d already asked the same question several times. I blinked, then looked down at his hand. Christ. He was a customer. I’d probably waited on him; that’s why he looked familiar.
Where had my head been?
I glanced down the bar counter at Jon and Cass, a little bewildered that I wasn’t standing next to them anymore. I stood by the cash register instead. Jon and Cass didn’t seem to have noticed that I had apparently teleported to the opposite end of the bar.
Cass laughed while I watched, leaning closer to Jon’s ear to answer something he’d said.
Feeling the man in front of me waiting, I jerked my eyes back to his.