Ancient Evil (The First Genocide Book 1) by Brent J. Griffiths Read Free Book Online Page B

he kind of mumbled it, as if the word had no right to come
out of his mouth. As the drinks flowed and his shyness waned, her name flowed
off his tongue. He overused it. He would use it in every other sentence so that
it became an inside joke for them.
    “Would you like a pint, Bex? Or perhaps a
glass of wine, Bex?”
    “So, Bex, do you have any siblings, Bex?”
    It seemed kind of lame in the cold light of
morning, but she had found it amusing. Well, she laughed at it anyway.
    Hmmm, curious. It really wasn’t that funny.
    Maybe she was just pretending to find him
amusing.
    Could she have been pretending?
    He could feel the demon of self-doubt start
to creep up on him. A drip of cold sweat wended its way down his side.
    He replayed the night in his head, looking
for some sort of confirmation that she despised him.
    He came up with nothing.
    Maybe he was too involved to be objective.
He needed someone to talk it through with or he would never be able to focus on
the huge statistical analysis he had signed himself up for.
    Who to discuss it with?
    His options were slim, very slim. He
couldn’t talk it through with Proctor; too embarrassing. Dawson, the prick, was
out. Bex herself? He’d rather cut off his left arm. He did not have any family
he could call.
    That left his flat mates, Aye and Jonni.
Aye was even more sheltered than Finn and not much of a conversationalist.
    That left Jonni. He would have to talk to
Jonni.
    He threw up a little in his mouth.
    It was eleven thirty on Saturday morning,
so he knew where he could find Jonni, in the Union having his breakfast pint.
    He started the laborious process of backing
up his work to floppy disks. He did not want to save any of his real work on
the University network.
     
    “So what happened after I left last night?
Did you call it a night? Go to bed early?” Jonni asked. Finn had found Jonni
waiting in line for some food; it seemed like Jonni was running late as he was
still pintless. They both bought macaroni cheese and chips, the highest calorie
count per penny food that that was sold in the Union, so the Union sold a lot
of it because most students wanted to save their money for booze. They got
their food and waited in line to pay.
    “First of all, you didn’t leave. You were
punched in the mouth by a big German and thrown out of the pub.”
    “Oh yeah, that’s right. That explains the
fat lip. I had a few bevies before we went out. It’s all a bit of a blur.”
    “Quel surprise.”
    “Hey, I thought we said no frog talk before
noon.”
    “It’s twelve oh five.”
    Jonni made a face. “Let’s consider the
intention of the law rather than the letter, alright? Anyway, I assume you left
soon after me. I can’t think that you wanted to hang out with Duchess all
night.”
    “Well no, not Diana.” Finn emphasized her
name. “I actually stayed out pretty late. I teamed up with that other girl when
you left. What was her name again?”
    “Ho, ho, ho. You dirty bastard. You finally
got up the nerve to talk to Rebecca pert tits Jones, did you? Did you do her?
Did you go back to her place and bang her brains out? No, I would have known if
you brought her back to ours; I have a nose for quim you know.” He winked
widely and touched the side of his button nose. Some of the people in the line
in front of them turned to look at them.
    Finn tried to pretend they were looking at
someone behind them. “You have a serious problem, you know that? She’s a nice
girl. More than nice. She’s smart, pretty, funny. Just a cool girl. OK?”
    “Alright, alright. Sorry.” Jonni raised one
hand to indicate he was backing off, juggling his tray of starch and fat in his
other hand. “So you had fun, then? Did anything interesting happen?” Finn
narrowed his eyes. Jonni continued, “No not like that. Just polite chit chat.
I’m just trying to see if I missed anything. I don’t want to turn up on Monday
and have to ask Duchess for all the goss.”
    “Well, one really funny