~17~ Nicely Played

(Brian’s POV)

I was sitting in the hallway of Devin’s room because of the “Bro Code”. I wasn’t going to cock-block him from doing whatever he was doing with Stacey—that girl that was originally looking for a “CJ”—in that room. He deserved at least some action. I mean, he was a nineteen year old boy that hadn’t ever had a relationship because he was busy wafting some science project under his nose. So what else would he do when he was already a world-recognized scientist? He was already so crazy about her. And in the time before I was basically kicked out of his room, it seemed like she was crazy about him.

“Hello?” I whined over the phone when Lulu called me.

“Is he there yet? Is he there yet?”

she asked in a chant. I rolled my eyes. She was so persistent on him making an appearance with checking on Devin. Maybe she thought it was cool that it was all due to her?

“You talked to him just yesterday,” I reminded. And it’s not like Zac Tyler was ever the person to arrive early. “It’s not like he shipped himself with Fed-Ex overnight.”

Ironically enough, someone walked down the hall carrying a prism-shaped Fed-Ex box.

“I gotta go. Bye,” I rushed and then hung up on Lulu. The man with the box stopped in front of Devin’s door and looked down to me. He frowned.

“I don’t know you,” he stated. I saw his name badge and realized that he was a dorm advisor.

“I’m here visiting Devin, but he’s not here yet,” I lied. His face relaxed.

“He’s never there,” he sighed and then looked down as if that was the only reminder of the box in his hands. “Oh! Can you give this to him then? Tell him it couldn’t get shipped without a stamp.”

“Uh, sure,” I said. He handed me the approximately three-pound box and I set it in my lap. He happily walked away.

Now what exactly was sent back? Under the giant “RETURNED TO SENDER” stamp, I saw it to be addressed to Zac’s P.O. Box from Devin, but the date sent was just yesterday and I knew Devin hadn’t been out to send it. I smirked when I understood it.

Only Zachariah Tyler would play the postal system by getting his package through over-night shipping without a stamp making it be sent out to his actual sender by just switching the addresses. Nicely played, Tyler.

With the package in hand, I stood and knocked on the door. To my surprise, it was opened in seconds and I looked down to see Stacey with her binder and books in her arms as if they were actually studying in the first place.

“Bye, Brian,” she quietly said, blushing and walking past me.

“Bye, Beautiful,” I charmed, just to see Devin’s smile drop and get death glares shooting out at me.

“What’s that?” Devin asked, his gaze switching to the box.

“Well—” he took it out of my hands and immediately opened it before I could even answer him or he could even read who it was from. Under layers of bubble wrap and Styrofoam was tubes of blood and a note card beneath them all—aside from even more packed protection.

“Devin, I hope this is all you need. –Zac” it read. I scoffed. Pathetic.

“Yes,” Devin hissed. Yes?

He took out the blood and immediately pulled out his hidden Science-Lab-for-Drugs-and-Cure-creations-Only.

“I’m confused,” I commented. I noticed that he pricked his finger and placed the bead of blood on a show glass for his microscope. He opened one tube of Zac’s blood and used a dropper to add the blood to his. He looked through the eye piece and put his mixture in focus.

“Maybe it wasn’t the…” I heard him mumble.

“What?” I asked.

“Maybe it wasn’t the elements,” he repeated, sliding around in his rolley chair and writing something down in his journal. “Maybe it was the DNA—since that’s the main reason why there are powers in the first place.”

I was confused, but decided to let him have his moment of Crazed Scientist. Suddenly, he walked over, grabbed my right hand and pricked my finger.

“Um, ow,” I commented. He walked over to his microscope and added my blood to another slide with a drop of only Zac’s blood.

“Now all I need is Joey’s blood,” Devin said, looking at me directly in the eyes. For once, his irises weren’t a gray color. They were its normal brown, hitching a genius idea for his Cure.

***

“He needs my what?” Joey asked me over the phone.

“Your blood,” I repeated, sucking on my finger. Devin had pricked it to an extreme. It was right about now when I started to feel exactly what Diabetics did when they had to check their sugar levels. Godd4mn…

“And you expect me to what? Send you a blood pack?” he snickered as if I wasn’t serious.

“Zac did. Why can’t you?” I figured with a shrug.

“Zac?” he asked. “You’re saying that idiot made Devin’s Cure?”

“No, but it got Devin closer,” I restated. “Now he just needs all of our blood.”

“With that, I’ll mix it with each of their personal triggers and then with each other,” Devin added. He looked up at me and pushed his glasses up. “Oh and I need some of Angel’s blood.”

“NO!” Joey yelled, obviously hearing Devin. “I thought we said Angel wouldn’t be in this mess!”

“She already is,” I whispered.

“Shut it,” Joey commanded, then I started thinking about how the h3ll Devin was going to mix blood with abstract triggers.

“Wait, wait, wait,” I said to him. “You are not extracting anything from my eyes!”

“I could give you anesthetics if you need,” he offered. My jaw dropped. Was he serious? Then he took the phone from me. “Joey, could you possibly get some of Lulu’s blood—”

“Stop it with all the d4mn blood!” Joey shouted. “I am not taking blood from Lulu or Angel—or even myself to send in the mail!”

“Then come down to Massachusetts,” Devin offered. There was a silent moment.

“Fine,” Joey said. Great. More blood withdrawal.

(Joey’s POV)

“It’s a good thing you’re rich,” Lulu laughed as Angel. I looked over to her from the couch.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, offended.

“There would be no other way for us to fly out every other day,” she answered. Hmm.

“Oh stop it,” Angel said. “You know that he’s only paying for his and Devin’s paying for mine. And all those flyer miles that Brian has are paying for his.”

“And me?” she asked. “What about me?”

“What about you?” I asked. Angel lightly hit my shoulder and I smirked.

“You can just stay here,” Angel answered her. “You don’t need to go.”

Lulu looked to me.

“Didn’t you say that Devin needed me?” she asked me. I shrugged.

“Not much. I mean, probably just to compare us to a human without any interaction to the Drug,” I explained.

“Isn’t that why they need me?” Angel asked. I looked over to her beautiful face.

“No,” I stated. Who knows how much affect the Drug had indirectly had on her…?

“Then why…?” Angel started to ask, looking at me now instead of reloading a smaller suitcase for yet another trip. I grabbed her waist and pulled her down next to me. She leaned her head on my shoulder and sighed.

“You’re involved with it just as much as we are,” I whispered. Because of her, Zac had the ability for his powers to take action and stop in the fear of harming someone he cared about. Because of her, I had the ability to even be happy enough to generate power.