“Yeah, Zack and I are doing better,” I said. “It’s easier now, somehow, since we broke up and got back together, I guess.” I grabbed a mini sub sandwich that had been sliced into one-inch segments, and took a bite. Roast beef, turkey, ham, lettuce, tomato, mayo and mustard combined in my mouth with oil and vinegar. “Seems like that cut some of the tension out of the relationship, the inflated expectation because we’ll never be able to, uh...well,” I hemmed, “you know.”
Kat’s eyebrows rose. “Have sex?”
“Yeah. That.”
“So you don’t know how your mom did it with your dad?”
“Kind of, I think,” I said, pinching the sandwich between my fingers with enough force that it pulped and I mashed it into my mouth before it came apart. “But I mean...I don’t know. It doesn’t seem very romantic, what I’ve figured out. There’s not a lot of contact, you have to wear protection, it just seems...” I shrugged. “Cold. Calculating. Like Mom, I guess. Not warm and affectionate at all, everything at a distance except...well. Pretty sure I was an accident based on what she told me. I don’t know, we’ve been doing...” I felt myself redden, “other stuff that seems to make him happy, so I haven’t really wanted to venture into dangerous territory by trying something potentially fatal.”
Her eyes widened. “‘Potentially fatal’ does seem to be on the far side of exciting.”
“Not quite the kind of excitement I’m looking for, no...”
There was a noise out on the balcony, and I looked up to see Scott throw his hands in the air in exultation. “YES!” I heard him call through the glass.
“Oh, good, they’ve created an elemental disaster that they’re super excited about,” Kat said without any enthusiasm. “Do you suppose he’ll notice if I’m not as thrilled about it as he is?”
I watched Scott turn around as the three of them came back toward the door, heading inside. “Nope,” I said, “He’s gonna be happy about this whether you are or not.”
“That. Was. Amazing!” Scott said as they opened the door again, letting the chill wind follow them inside. Reed and Zack trailed behind him. “We totally did it, created a waterspout right in the middle of the lawn, out of nothing—”
“Yes,” Zack said, unimpressed, “and promptly ran it over a line of meta teens that were leaving the building.”
“Pfeh,” Scott said with a wave of the hand. “Nobody got hurt.”
“No,” Reed said, “but that one kid looked scared as hell when he flew about ten feet into the air.” I watched my brother’s expression; he did not seem pleased.
Scott snickered. “Yeah, but...it was funny. You could have just dropped him the minute he walked into the path of it, you know.”
“First of all,” Reed said, “he didn’t walk into the path of it so much as he veered like a moron into it and got sucked into the air, second, I didn’t want to drop him because he was at least ten feet off the ground, third,” he reddened, “I bet he never stares at Sienna in the cafeteria line again.”
“Aww, you were taking up for my honor?” I gave him a fake smile. “The little one with glasses?” Reed shook his head. “Oh, well, still, how sweet. Next time, though, run your water tornado into Clary’s room and wash the place out. Of course, that’d be a labor on par with cleaning out the Augean stables, though I bet it’d take more than a day, even if you used the entire Mississippi...”