Expel by Addison Moore Page A

celestial variety.
    I shake my head, quick and nervous.
    “I don’t know what’s up with these two. I’m not even sure this one’s human,” she says before looking up at Gage. “You’ve got some serious competition from a lion and a, well, I don’t know what the hell that is, some prehistoric velociraptor with wings.”
    “Great,” Gage arches his brows like he knows exactly who they are.
    Obviously Logan is the lion and Marshall is the prehistoric demon-looking creature. Gage gets up to make room for the next boyfriend awaiting the relational guillotine. Not that our session with Em was punctuated with a blade to the neck. Gage and I are impervious to failing. He has nothing in the world to worry about.
    “Thanks Emily,” I whisper. “Can you save these for me?”
    She gives a knowing nod before flicking me away.
    Well, that didn’t go so bad. Didn’t go so great, either.
    A shoulder bumps me from behind. I twist to get through the merging crowd only to find myself face to face with my second least favorite Kragger, Holden’s not so long lost fraternal twin.
    Crap.
    “Guess who’s got regular scheduled visits with a social worker?” Pierce leans his face into mine. His hot beer breath rakes against my cheek. “And a lawyer who tells me things don’t look too damn good for me.” He spits as he grates the words out.
    Nat steps between us, all beady eyed and pissed like she might kick my ass if the situation warrants it. Her curls are embalmed in dried out hair gel, her eyes outlined like an obscene raccoon.
    “I’m not in control of the state,” I say. “I don’t decide who they go after.” Or apparently take down. Personally I’m rooting for the state. Even if Pierce didn’t knock a dozen people unconscious, or spin Nat in the air like a pizza that day last fall, doesn’t mean he should have gnawed on my neck in the cemetery or any other venue he chose to suck my body dry. Besides, if he’s not incarcerated soon, I might have to do something drastic the next time he tries siphoning the lifeblood from my veins, like kill him.
    Pierce leans over Nat. The two of them glower at me as if I had just set their children on fire.
    “I’m in control of me .” Pierce blasts his ethanol in my direction as he continues his verbal badgering. “I decide who I go after.” He thrusts a piece of paper at me, and knocks me off balance.
    Gage pushes him back a good ten feet without hesitating.
    Nat runs over to help scoop Pierce off the floor as the crowd filters between us.
    I unfurl the note. Cease and desist . Legal action against my parents? This is horrible.
    I stuff the letter into my purse.
    “Let’s go outside,” I spin us towards the exit in the event Pierce feels obligated to return the favor, only, for Gage, a shove like that might actually crack his hip in half and give him pneumonia. I might have to adjust my to-do list and move killing Pierce up to a priority position. There is no way in hell I’m going to let Gage end up in the hospital again.  
      I can see Logan from the patio helping some girl take off her sweater before pushing her into the pool. He’s no lion—he’s human all right.
    A hot roll of nausea explodes in my stomach.
    “I can’t stand this,” I say, ushering us into the yard.
    I’m going to end Logan’s hunger for attention. Smack some sense into him, make him aware of the fashion felonies he’s been committing, not to mention the ones he’s about to perpetrate with his flesh.
    “You should probably let Logan do his thing,” Gage says, pulling me back. The words escape from him slow, like a tire losing air. “Let him go.”
    “You’re right.” I place my hands on my hips, but really I don’t want Gage to hear me admit that I could never let go of Logan, let alone watch him do his ludicrous thing especially when that thing involves publicly ogling topless girls from East.
    The damp cool of night blows against me as I watch Logan’s hands race around the