Free The Almost Girl – ebook edition

by anything ugly.
    “Hey, you OK?” I ask her.
    “She’s fine,” the boy says, pulling her away from me in the opposite direction.
    “I wasn’t talking to you,” I say to him, and grab Charisma’s shoulders so that she’s facing me. Her eyes are dilated, and she’s looking at me as if she’s trying to focus but can’t. “Charisma, are you OK?”
    “I told you she was fine!” the boy snaps, pushing me backward with one hand. My brain registers two things in immediate succession. One, Charisma is drugged, and two, this boy is lucid enough to shove me backward. My body kicks into battle mode, and everything slows to the point where I can sense the movements of his friends behind me.
    “She’s not fine, and I am going to take her home. Back off; I don’t want to hurt you,” I say quietly. I figure I should prepare him for what’s about to happen.
    “You and what army?” he jeers in a loud voice. Instantly, he has the attention of everyone within ten feet of us. “Look, guys, we have a late addition to the party. Get her a drink before she hurts herself.”
    He laughs, and his friends join in. Someone thrusts a cup in my face, and even without tasting it, I know that there’s something wrong with it. I can smell it. My eyes narrow and I bat the cup away with the back of one hand.
    “You guys don’t go here, do you?” More slurred laughter. They must have come for the meet and then decided to take advantage of girls while they were at their drink fest. “Don’t you know it’s a crime to drug people’s drinks?”
    “Lookit, we got ourselves a deputy,” one of the boys giggles. “You gonna arrest us?”
    “Arrest me, arrest me, Ociffer. I’m underage!” another says.
    I glare him into silence. Where I come from, there’s no drinking age. Consuming spirits is a rite of passage, and considering it’s cheaper and more accessible than water, people don’t make that much of a big deal over it. It’s mostly consumed in toasts and celebrations. And frankly, people are too busy to risk the effects on their day-to-day responsibilities.
    “I don’t want any trouble. I just want Charisma. Just pass her over, and you can go back to getting yourselves drunk.”
    “Charisma wants to stay,” the dark-haired boy says and turns to her. “Don’t you, baby?”
    “Mm hmm…” Charisma murmurs incoherently. A line of drool has made its way down her chin, and she’s starting to teeter on her feet. The boy glares at me with a vile expression in his eyes and then kisses her while I am watching, his tongue slithering over her mouth. I don’t flinch, not even when he grabs the front of her chest. “You’re my girl, aren’t you baby?”
    “Touch her again, and it will be the last thing you do.”
    “You mean like this–”
    I break his fingers with a single flex of my own before he can even touch the front of her dress, and then I’m on the move, spinning backward and knocking two of the guys behind me off their feet. The fourth boy takes one look at me and flees in the opposite direction.
    I turn back to where Charisma is still standing near the dark-haired boy, who is screaming on his knees and clutching his mauled fingers. With his uninjured hand, he removes a switchblade from his pocket and brandishes it, weaving unsteadily to his feet. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice that Charisma has teetered her way to a tree and has slumped down against its trunk. At least she’s out of harm’s way, but I know that I don’t have a lot of time. She can’t fall asleep before I can get her some help.
    “You’re going to be sorry,” the boy snarls, pointing the knife at me.
    This time, I can’t stop from laughing. “Someone once told me that if you point a knife, you’d better be prepared to use it,” I inform him. His answer is to swipe at my face, an attack that I dodge easily. “You should know that where I come from, I graduated the top of my class in hand-to-hand combat.”
    “What are you?