Sneak Peek: Good Intentions IV (Patreon)

Wandering Monsters 2 is IMMINENT, which means it's time to turn my writing focus back to Good Intentions! Wondering what it will include?

For starters: it's not a Good Intentions novel without some big social function and the inevitable, um... well... let's let Wade and Drew illustrate on the way.

“Hey, so now we’re all together an’ our new friend definitely ain’t sneakin’ around invisibly listenin’ to us...” Wade began. He sat in the front passenger seat of the car dressed in a black suit. In spite of his stated assurances, he still looked suspiciously through the windows into the night. “Y’all know what I’m thinkin’?”

Dressed in a similar suit, Drew kept his hands on the wheel and his eyes on the road. “That she knows way more about this party than she’s tellin’ us?”

“Yup,” said Wade.

“And she’s got some secret agenda she doesn’t want us to know, too?” Drew continued.

“Yup.”

“So maybe we should hook up with Sierra and try to figure out what’s really going on with these people ourselves while Alex makes a big-ass mess of their fancy party?”

“You speak as if that is inevitable,” said Lorelei. She reclined in the back seat, a black coat draped over her shoulders, amused enough to undermine the sincerity of her objections.

Drew and Wade glanced to one another. “He ain’t told you ‘bout our first dance in middle school, has he?” asked Wade.

“He has not.”

“It’s a fuckin’ middle school dance, so most of us ain’t got the sense to do nothin’ but stand against the wall with girls on one side an’ boys on the other, ‘cept some of the older kids.”

“Like me,” noted Drew.

“Like Drew,” Wade conceded. “And it ain’t even half the older kids dancin’. Everyone else has gotta cross the gym floor to ask someone to dance, with every other kid watchin’ like it’s No Man’s Land in World War I or somethin’. Jason didn’t try. Alex didn’t. I sure as hell didn’t.”

“I did,” said Drew.

“Right. So before the dance, we all get this shit from our teachers an’ the vice principals about how nobody’s supposed to do any ‘freak dancing.’ Like we even know what the hell that means?”

“I knew,” said Drew.

“Nobody’s got it in them to tell all the six an’ seventh graders not to have any ‘simulated sex’ on the dance floor or whatever. But then it’s dance time an’ shit starts up, so old Mrs. Switzer an’ Mr. Blake are out bustin’ kids for bein’ too nasty with their dance moves. Like anyone wants to fuckin’ line dance or Macarena or some shit.

“An’ there’s Alex, too shy to ask any girl to dance an’ no fuckin’ skills to do anything with her if he had the guts anyway. He’s watchin’ all this shit, thinkin’ it’s fucked up. ‘Censorship,’ he says. It’s oppressive, he says. Discriminatory, he says.”

Drew laughed. He seemed ready to speak, but instead shook his head and laughed more.

“That motherfucker’s twelve, an’ he’s pissed off at authority figures slut-shamin’ his peers,” said Wade. “So he get hisself a big-ass cup full of fruit punch an’ crosses the dance floor to the vice principal. He ‘accidentally’ bumps right into the guy so’s he can spill it all on Mr. Blake’s crotch. An’ then, while Mr. Blake is all freakin’ out at Alex, Mrs. Switzer comes over—like Alex knew she would—an’ he reaches out to her with his hand still all drippin’ with punch like he doesn’t see her coming and gets her with it, too. Then he plays all upset like he’s the one who’s humiliated and needs counseling and reassurance while everyone’s laughin’ their asses off.”

“Dude took out two administrators with one cup of that janky punch,” said Drew.

“He took them out?” asked Lorelei.

“Mr. Blake couldn’t chaperone the dance lookin’ like he’d wet hisself. That left Mrs. Switzer to deal with Alex, an’ she didn’t want to do that in front of everyone. The other teachers weren’t so suspicious of how other kids were dancin’. So yeah. Alex saved the Winter Ball for every kid who wanted to play-act at bein’ in a music video for forty-five minutes.”

“I see.” Lorelei smiled. “You do realize he knows how to dance now.”

“More like he remembers how to dance from his last couple lives,” Drew grumbled. “Seems like cheating to me.”

“He also knows how to handle social scenes with discretion. We go out all the time.”

“You remember that first party we wuz all at back in September an’ how that ended?” Wade pointed out. “Or the Halloween party when he stepped up to them assholes from Eugene who were talkin’ shit about Drew?”

“This seems like a rather more serious situation,” said Lorelei.

“Yeah,” said Drew. “This one’s gonna be full of legit bad guys. We’re talking about Alex. He might try to hold it together, but someone’s gonna be an asshole monster and then it’s gonna be on.”

Lorelei considered their words, and their certainty. She knew Alex intimately, had lived with him for six months, sharing dreams and fears and adventures. She had considered his inevitable discomfort at such a scene as this, ultimately placing her faith in his judgment and self-control. Yet Wade and Drew had been his best friends since childhood. Even immortal demons could have their doubts. “You didn’t consider bringing this up earlier?”

“It ain’t like he’s plannin’ to go knock over any tables,” said Wade.

“That shit just happens organically,” said Drew.

“And predictably enough that you both take it for granted.” Lorelei shook her head. “Thank you for letting me in on the plan.”