Page 26 of The Surprise
I close my eyes, hoping for a moment that I hallucinated his voice.
“What on earth are you doing out here this late?”
I turn around slowly, one arm still keeping Beth upright. “Hey, Dr. Archer.”
His eyes scan over me, Beth, and then the cans we’re leaving. Finally, he turns toward my car. “You drove over here, and now you’re drinking?”
I open my mouth to tell him about Beth, how she almost got hit, how I found her, and then I remember what she said about her dad being a dragon. And about how she’s villain-spawn. What will happen to her if I rat her out? I thought I’d given up on being a superhero. I thought that dream was long dead.
But looking at Beth, some relic of that desire stirs inside of me.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “It was irresponsible.”
Dr. Archer swears under his breath. “Your mom’s got a lot on her plate. Rumor is, Donna Ellingson filed an affidavit today.”
Beth coughs.
“She’s testifying that your family was gone too long, and the alien folks are demanding the ranch go to them instead.”
I can’t even speak—and then I realize that Beth must have known something about it. The villain-dragon thing makes more sense. She can’t date me because her dad’s a villain.
Oh, good grief.
It should make me angry.
I should toss her right under the Dr. Archer-shaped bus.
But for some reason, the news does the opposite. She thinks I’m hot. She thinks my family’s shiny. She’s upset with her dad, who threw a cup at the wall. Did he do it because she was upset? Did she defend us? Either way, I want to help her get home.
And there’s no way I’m going to risk getting her into more trouble.
“I need to get her home,” I say. “I think that alcohol hit her way worse than me.”
“Clearly,” Dr. Archer says. “Do you think youcanwalk her home?”
I nod.
“Give me your keys.”
“But I’m—”
Dr. Archer scowls.
I hand them over.
“When you get her home, I’ll be waiting on the street with your car. I’ll drive you home.”
“But then, how will you get home?” I ask.
“I have legs, boy.”
“Oh.”
Thankfully, Beth says nothing on the way home, at least, not until I get her within a dozen yards of the front porch. I kind of expect an attack dog to run out, barking and foaming at the mouth. Or her dad to be sitting on the porch, cleaning his gun. Or brandishing it.
The lights aren’t even on.
Do her parents even realize she’s not home?
