Frequency by Christopher Krovatin

Author:Christopher Krovatin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Pied Piper, fairy tale retellings, music, rock and roll, forbidden love, DJ, revenge; Teen and Young Adult Fairy Tales and Folklore; Teen and Young Adult Paranormal and Urban Fantasy; Teen and Young Adult Fantasy Action and Adventure; Teen and Young Adult Fantasy Romance; Teen and Young Adult Paranormal Romance; Teen and Young Adult Fantasy; Teen and Young Adult Romance; Teen and Young Adult Literature and Fiction; Teen and Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy; Teen and Young Adult Loners and Outcasts Fiction; Teen and Young Adult Social and Family Issue Fiction; Teen and Young Adult Fiction; Teen and Young Adult Emotions and Feelings Fiction; Teen and Young Adult Friendship Fiction; Teen and Young Adult New Experiences Fiction; Teen and Young Adult Magical Realism Fiction
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Published: 2019-03-24T00:00:00+00:00

17

On Monday, the stone-gray sky cast a damp pall over Fiona’s world. The light through her bedroom window was the same when she woke up at four, overwhelmed by dread and unable to sleep, and seven, when she finally crawled out of bed. It was one of those days that just wouldn’t get any brighter.

When she finally left the house, a wind chillier than any this fall pierced her clothes, making her zip up her jacket and shiver as she got out her bike. Her eyes scanned the neighborhood, and she registered the first grinning pumpkins on lawns and shroud-wisped skeletons dangling from porches. She’d been too overwhelmed by her own problems to notice Halloween creeping up on Hamm, a time when people who would assault a young man indulged in a simple kind of scariness.

She was climbing onto her bike when Keller rolled up and honked for her. She considered blowing him off and riding away, but knew that was her being cowardly, not aloof. She dropped the bike, went to the car, and flopped into the passenger seat.

“So,” said Keller after they’d rolled down her block a ways, “what’s up?’

“Nothing much,” said Fiona, casually. “What’s up with you?”

“Nah, come on, Fiona, you know what I mean,” he said, his voice sharp and hurt.

“Look, Keller, it’s been a rough week, I don’t really want to—”

“This needs dealing with now,” he said decidedly. “First you freak out at Horace, then you start ignoring us, and now you’re hiding from us when we magically spot the Pit Viper at some café. Three strikes. You owe us an answer.”

Fiona chewed on her lips, trying to come up with the response Doug deserved. “It’s tough, okay?” was the best she could do.

“Jesus, Fiona, help me here,” he said. “Are you in trouble? Like, life-threatening trouble? Do you owe anyone money? Was hiding for our benefit?”

“Nothing like that,” she said, wishing that her situation was that dire, that she had a real problem for him to help her solve.

“So, then, you’re just being shitty for personal reasons,” he said, and then glanced at her. “Because you have. Lately, it feels like you’re too cool for us. Like you’re better than being our friend. And I know Hamm kind of sucks, and we’re not the coolest bunch in the world, but we’re still your friends. We’ve always been.”

“I know,” she said, unexpectedly. Some part of her wanted to sneer, roll her eyes, say, Who are you, Calvin fucking Hokes? Instead, the same incongruous guilt from the day before washed over her, making her hunch into her seat. Maybe it was Keller that got to her; she could easily snap back at someone like Calvin when he stared or Horace when he behaved like a goon, but Doug was an all-around good dude, kind of doofy at his very worst. “I know. I’ve been unfair to everyone. There’s just something…there’s a lot going on in my life that doesn’t concern you guys. And I guess I’ve been preoccupied by it lately.

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