36. Abbey

36

ABBEY

"Oh my God, get out of the way—I'm going to be sick!"

Someone rushed into the ladies room and pushed past Maria and Abbey to get to one of the stalls. She began gagging and choking but Abbey could barely pay attention to her—she was still so shaken by the fact that Chris Brander was here at the reunion after all.

"I'm so sorry!" Maria said for the hundredth time, rubbing between her shoulder blades. "So sorry, Abbey! I didn't know he was going to be here. I swear I heard he was in the UK."

"It's all right. It's not your fault," Abbey reassured her friend.

On her shoulder, Spex could obviously sense her discomfort because the little Eye-pet was rubbing against her cheek and making his soothing chrrrring sound.

"It's okay, Spex—I'm all right," she murmured, reaching up to stroke his furry little body.

"Pretty Abbey is not all right. Spex can feel her sad-mad-scaredness!" he protested.

Just then the woman who had been throwing up came out of the stall.

"Oh my God, Denise—are you okay?" Maria asked her, sounding concerned. "Your eyes are all wild and you're shaking."

"Yeah? Well you'd be shaking too if you just saw what I saw," the woman returned. Abbey vaguely recognized her voice—she must be Denise Fetherfew who had been in her Algebra class. But her identity wasn't important. Abbey couldn't shake the feeling that something bad had just happened.

"What did you see?" she asked apprehensively.

"That huge lion guy—that Monstrum. He…he just…" Denise stopped and took some noisy breaths through her mouth—possibly she was trying not to puke again.

"He what? He what?" Abbey demanded.

"He ripped Chris Brander's nuts off and threw them on the floor!" Denise gulped. "I think he might have ripped off his dick too. Oh, God!"

And then she was banging back into the bathroom stall to be noisily sick once more.

"Oh, no!" Maria's hand on Abbey's arm tightened. "Did you tell Solon about what Chris did to you?"

"No—never!" Abbey shook her head, feeling numb. "I mean, I told him I was, uh, attacked in high school but I never said by who."

"Well it sounds like he figured it out," Maria said grimly. "Come on, Abbey—I think we'd better get out there."

"Yes, we should." Abbey cocked her head to one side as her heart sank. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Maria asked her.

Abbey took a deep breath to try and calm herself but her heart was racing and her palms were sweaty.

"Police sirens. I think the reunion is over."