The Last Alignment: Cry of the Scorpions by Nathaniel Stewart Page B

like four hours ago,” Awbrey spilled. Androse closed his eyes,
unable to stop his cheeks from going red. Thank you , Awbrey , he thought
crossly.
    “ Really?” Natalye’s
question was aimed at Androse, but before he could answer Awbrey
spoke again.
    “ Androse hadn’t done or
said anything to him. Zander just walked into the situation and
took it upon himself to start problems right off the bat before
getting to know anyone. I have absolutely zero tolerance for people
like that.”
    “ I definitely agree with
you, but it just seems weird that Zander came in and automatically
attacked Androse for no reason.” Natalye sounded as if she were
having a hard time accepting what Awbrey had said. Androse stuck
his hands inside of his pockets wishing that they would just drop
it and not give Zander any more attention than he did. Awbrey
licked her lips and then smiled, and Androse knew that she was
going to press the issue.
    “ Okay,” she sighed.
“Natalye, I don’t know you, I don’t know where you’re from, and I
don’t know anything else about you for that matter. But in my experiences in the
world that I live
in, people don’t need a reason to treat others like crap and they
don’t need a reason to be unkind. They do it because they feel like
they can and Zander is one of those people. He’s a prick,” Awbrey
said simply. “Nothing more, nothing less.”
    “ Wait a minute,” Natalye
said placing her feet back on the floor. “What do you mean ‘the
world that you live in?’” You have got to
be kidding me , Androse thought wishing
that Awbrey would’ve kept her mouth closed. “Last I checked, we
were all living in the same one, and you are exactly right.
You don ’ t know me
and you don ’ t know
where I’m from, so please don’t sit there and talk to me like I’m
some ditsy, airheaded dumbass with no life experience. All I’m
trying to say to you guys is that even though Zander may not have
given the best first impression, you shouldn’t be so quick to judge
him and write him off.”
    “ And, why the hell not,”
Awbrey asked. Androse and Hudson looked at each other, both feeling
like they didn’t know what was going on or what to do.
    “ Because we don’t know
him! Awbrey, are you sure that you were there when our families
were talking to us,” Natalye questioned. “All five of us are in
this together. If we have to do what they say we have to do, then
we have to be a unit. There isn’t any room for pettiness. It’s not
like Zander is some random guy on the street that you can just
ignore because you won’t have to see him ever again in life. We
need him, and he needs us just the same.”
    “ Are you serious right
now,” Awbrey asked widening her eyes.
    “ Uh, yeah. Kind of,”
Natalye replied. “Now, don’t get me wrong. I absolutely believe you
when you say that Zander is an ass, especially since he was kind of
creepin’ me out earlier, but we need to move passed that. If there
is a problem, then it needs to stay between Androse and Zander and
the two of them need to work it out by themselves. No one else
should be involved because that’ll just create more drama.” Awbrey
closed her mouth and looked as if it took all that she had to keep
it shut. However, Androse agreed with Natalye and his fondness of
her grew even more.
    Androse was an extremely private person who
didn’t really care to have his problems be discussed so openly and
boldly. He was the type to handle things on his own the way that he
saw fit, so when Awbrey and Hudson took him aside earlier and
started preaching to him about what he should do about Zander, he
held back his urge to tell them to stay out of it. Normally Androse
wouldn’t hesitate to state how he felt, but he had never gotten
along with anyone as quickly as he did with Hudson and Awbrey, so
he just stood there and took their barrage of unwanted advice.
    “ Okay,” Hudson said
seizing the floor while the girls were quiet. “Let’s not start