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“Absolutely not,” I say as I hurry ahead without them.
“Do you think we should keep an eye on them?” August asks.
“No. If we’re lucky, they’ll fall into the lion pen,” I say. “Sadly, the lion will have to resort to simply gnawing on Brandon like he’s one of those impenetrable squeak toys they make for dogs. Come, my brainwashed friends, let’s go.”
We head up to the front to get our tickets as half of the SAVCGEM work on a way to make a mess of something. Mom catches up as we reach the ticket booth and pays for the group of us.
“You didn’t need to do that,” I say.
“Eh, I don’t mind. Your father’s coming up with some scheme to get over the fence, so if you want to say your farewells before he goes to prison, you might want to,” Mom says.
I look over at Dad and just give him a wave which he heartily returns.
Once we’re in the zoo, we unfold the map and decide we’ll hit the African animals first, at Deus’s request.
“I am proud of you,” Mom says, snapping my attention away from the map.
I glance over at her. “Huh?”
“You’ve… accomplished a lot… and you’ve found yourself some good, while sketchy, friends.” She squeezes my shoulder. “I always knew you had many things you could achieve.”
I honestly don’t even know what to say. A part of me feels overly pleased by her words but another part is questioning where the catch is. I don’t have time to ask before there’s a squeal and Mom looks back as Brandon gets stuck in the gate which his cape snagged onto.
“I’ll meet you there,” she grumbles as she goes back for Brandon.
“That was nice of her,” August says.
“Suspicious but nice,” I agree.
“Your parents seem really neat,” Deus says.
Yeah, that’s because his parents were insane and buried him in a fuckingcoffin. That’s the only type of parents that can make mine look normal.
“They have their moments,” I say as we head deeper into the zoo.
There’s something almost… healing about it. Like all the stress, all the anxiety is just washed away as we walk through the crowded zoo, families and couples bustling around us. I do wish Nolan was here, but I make sure to take plenty of pictures and record parts of the shows we watch to share with him. The whole day feels low-key and delightful, and I love every moment of it. We meet up with the SAVCGEM for lunch and absolutely no one does anything ridiculous enough to get us thrown out, which has to be a first.
As we reach our final stretch, I notice August and I ended up a little behind as we’d stopped to watch a snow leopard dozing in the warm sun.
“This was… really nice,” I say, enjoying the feel of August’s arm around my shoulders.
“It was, wasn’t it? After last week’s events… I just didn’t even know if I had the energy to do things anymore, you know? But I feel better after today. I understand that just… backing away isn’t the right thing to do. I think I want to finish this,” August says as the others walk back to us after noticing we’d fallen behind, “and I don’t expectanyof you to help me. But I want to do this for the people who lost their lives because I was unable to do it right the first time.”
“It wasn’t thatyoucouldn’t do it right,” I say, wishing he’d realize this. “You can only do so much, August.”
He nods. “I know… with the hand I was given, I wasn’t able to do more. But I want to make it right for the families who lost people and weren’t even given the chance to grieve properly because their loved ones’ deaths were covered up.”
“You know I would follow you to the end of the earth and back,” I say. “As long as it doesn’t require me to walk, and I can have a book and get to see you naked every so often.”
“Of course,” August says with a smile.
Deus leans against a pole as he folds his arms over his chest. “I never got to choose what I did growing up or who I killed. In a way, I understand why Landon robbed banks and did shit like that because when you grow up being led to believe one thing, you don’t know or understand anything else. You guys have given me more purpose than I’ve ever had, and if this is what you’re going to do, you better bet your ass I’m going to be right by your side to do it.”
Lex nods. “I… want to help. I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but I’ll try my hardest. And I promise that this time I’ll leave your clothes on.”
I grin at that. “I mean… only if youhaveto.”
“No, he has to,” Ellison growls.
