The Weight of the World (26 page)

“She
left the reception early. They stayed about ten minutes. She didn't
say a word to anyone. Astin looks like he's taking it as hard as she
is, man.”

Zach
hated being the leader at a time like this. Everyone was fighting,
Devon had gone ahead and told everything to Adam, and now Lewis and
Diana had lost a friend. The burden was on his shoulders to carry
everyone through this.

“We
should have a Pantheon meeting,” he said, “Tomorrow, after
football camp.” Zach sat down at his computer and turned on the
monitor. “I don't think we should wait for Sunday to talk with
Adam. I want to look him in the eye when I decide if Devon made a big
mistake.”

“I
hear ya. It'd be a good distraction for Di, too. I'm worried about
her, man. She and Ryan were pretty serious.”

Zach
had a message waiting in the bottom right-hand corner of his screen.
It was the Discordia Facebook profile. “Feeling betrayed?” it
said, followed by a link.

Zach
hesitated before clicking it. The blog loaded and the first entry
made Zach freeze. There was a clear photo, shot from a low angle, of
June straddling Lewis on the sofa in his garage. A surge of
electricity coursed through his body. His phone sparked and his
wireless mouse caught fire.

“Shit!”
Zach grabbed the blanket off of his bed and put out the fire on his
desk.

He
stared down at his computer screen, unable to believe what he was
seeing. Lewis and June? He didn't even think June liked Lewis. At
all.

Zach
sat down and read the article, his hands shaking with rage as he
neared the bottom of the screen. He tapped the down arrow on the
keyboard to scroll to the bottom. Lewis and June. How could they do
this to him?

The
house phone rang. Zach's mother called to him. Zach stood up so fast
that his computer chair fell over and thunked hard on the carpet.

“Hey,
dude. Your cell was going straight to voicemail,” Lewis said when
Zach answered the phone.

“I
fried it again.”

“Yeah?
See a ghost?” Lewis chuckled.

“Where
are you right now?”

“I'm
at home, changing out of my monkey suit. I was going to go run,
though, seeing as the rain's stopped.”

“Meet
me at the school track in fifteen.”

“Okay,
why?”

“We
need to talk.” Zach slammed down the phone.

Lewis
didn't need fifteen minutes to change and get to the track. He ran
the whole way as a blur of blonde and was waiting, standing in the
wet grass at the center of the track.

Zach
had to borrow his mom's car. He hadn't replaced the Thunderbird yet.
He pulled up in a hurry and did a sloppy, crooked parking job in the
row of spaces right in front of the bleachers. Lewis smiled and
waved. “Hey, dude. You look pissed. What's up?”

Zach
didn't speak as he passed through the gate in the chain-link fence
and marched across the field towards Lewis. Lewis' smile faded with
every step in Zach's approach.

“Dude,
what's wrong?” he asked.

Zach
shoved the heels of his hands into Lewis' chest, pushing his
unsuspecting friend flat on his back.

With
the breath knocked out of him and cold water soaking the back of his
t-shirt and shorts, Lewis stared up at Zach in disbelief. “What the
hell?” he gasped.

“I
should have known,” Zach said, ready to voice the speech he had
been preparing in his head the entire drive over here. “It was only
a matter of time.”

Zach
reached down to grab Lewis by the collar, wanting to yank him to his
feet so that he could hit him again. Lewis saw the fury in his eyes
and rolled out of the way. In a flash, he was on his feet and was
twenty yards away from Zach.

“What
the hell! Are you going to tell me what this is about or just keep
taking pot shots?”

“You've
always lived vicariously through me. You're always here, ready to
leech off of my popularity. The clever sidekick is really just
waiting for the hero to fall, to take his place.”

Lewis
was having a hard time regaining his breath from Zach's first attack.
Every word that came out of Zach's mouth caused a horrible twisting
in his gut. Was this how Zach really felt?

“It
was only a matter of time before you swooped in for my leftovers,
right? Is that what you were doing with June? That's why you
convinced me to try and move on. I bet you were the one who tipped
her off. How long were you waiting for her to end it?” Thunder
rumbled overhead. The rain returned, falling in large, infrequent
drops as Zach spoke.

“June?
Oh, crap. Zach...” Lewis shook his head. “June threw herself at
me, and I shot her down.” He knew that he should have been straight
with Zach the minute it happened. June's plea, though, to not
embarrass her by telling Zach, had gained his sympathy. Had June told
Zach to make him jealous? Was she playing them both?

“Right,
so Speedy Gonzales wasn't quick enough to avoid being
mounted
on his own turf?”

“Quite
frankly, Zach, I didn't expect the prude to try and ride me like a
horse. So, no.”

“You're
so full of shit,” Zach said, starting to march towards Lewis again.
Lewis dashed out of the way and stopped fifteen feet behind Zach.

“Dude,
I don't know what she told you--”

“Told
me? She didn't tell me anything. There are photos online!” Zach
turned around and charged at Lewis. Lewis dodged. Zach changed
directions and tried again.

“Coward!”
Zach shouted and Lewis easily slipped his grasp.

Lewis
stopped just yards in front of Zach and stared him down. The rain
began to fall more steadily, soaking Lewis and Zach as they
faced-off. “You know we don't all worship at the altar of Zach
Jacobs. Even your own Dad doesn't want anything to do with you.”

“You
would be nothing if you weren't my friend,” Zach snapped. “No
girls, no football, no friends. Everything you have is from riding on
my coat tails.”

Lewis
stopped playing defense. He wasn't very strong and he hadn't taken
physics yet, but even Lewis knew that force was the product of mass
and acceleration; Lewis sure had that acceleration thing down pat. He
raced past Zach, sticking out his elbow as he passed and clipped Zach
in the face. To Lewis it felt as though he had slammed his elbow
against a concrete wall. To Zach it felt like a hammer to the face.
Zach went down hard, clutching his fractured cheekbone. Lewis reeled
back, clutching his elbow.

Zach
rolled around on the ground for a minute, but his fighting spirit was
not lost. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and reached out,
shouting with fury and launching a bolt of lightning at Lewis.

Lewis
saw the lighting as it crackled at his fingertips. He tried to dodge
it, but lightning moves at 90,000 miles per second. The electricity
surged around the wet surface of Lewis' skin and clothing, and the
force threw him to the ground. As the last sparks discharged, Lewis
lay on the wet grass, gasping and twitching.

The
throbbing in Zach's face surged to a peak. The sky seemed to be
flashing, though the lightning was gone, and everything through his
right eye looked fuzzy. Zach opened and closed his mouth a few times.
Things felt cottony. He looked at Lewis as he lay shaking on the
ground and wondered why he was acting funny, then Zach's head flopped
down and slipped into a dream.

The
rain stopped.

“
As
the builders say, the larger stones do not lie well without the
lesser.”

-Plato

xxii.

As
thanks to Atlas for food and warm shelter

on
his journey home from slaying Medusa,

Perseus
bid Atlas to make a request

within
his power.

Atlas
was tasked with holding up the heavens

and
though he was the strongest of the Titans,

the
charge had worn on his back and made him tired.

He
asked for a rest.

So
Perseus took the head of the Gorgon

from
the leather sack with which he carried it

and
turned the petrifying eyes to Atlas

and
froze him on sight.

The
limestone of the mountain beneath his feet

climbed
skywards and grew up around his ankles.

The
mountain encased the whole of the Titan

leaving
just a peak.

“
It
is with our passions, as it is with fire and water, they are good
servants but bad masters.
”

-Aesop

XXII.

Thirteen
members of The Pantheon and Jason Livingstone sat around Celene
Davis' living room. Zach was laying in the hospital with a concussion
and a fractured cheekbone. Lewis was in much more serious condition.
He was awake and responsive, but he had memory problems that ranged
from missing the occasional name or phone number in his long-term
memory to remembering absolutely nothing of the day before the fight.

The
rest of the kids sat on couches and office chairs, wondering why
Celene had called them here without serving the usual soda and
cookies. Celene stood over them, her fists balled tight and her eyes
scanning each face for signs of guilt.

“What
the hell have you all been doing this summer?” she finally snapped.

Everyone
just blinked at her. They had never heard Dr. Davis swear, even for a
minor curse like “hell.”

“Zach
and Lewis are hospitalized for fighting each other. They are best
friends! Teddy and Peter were arrested for fighting; Astin had to use
his powers
in
public.
Devon is pregnant. Then I find out you're all fighting over a gossip
blog that claims that Evan tried to fight Frank, June verbally
assaulted Minnie in a book store and I don't even want to start on
what it's saying about Nick. What is wrong with you?”

Silence.

“Anyone?”
She folded her arms and took turns staring each one down. Jason
slipped to the back of the room to avoid having to say anything.

“Nick
is going around seducing the members of my abstinence club just to
mess with me,” Valerie said. “So you should be glad I haven't
attacked him yet.”

“Go
ahead. You know you want to,” Nick said.

“Nick!”
Minnie snapped.

“I
wasn't fighting in public,” Teddy said. “I was attacked. Big
difference.”

Nick
shrugged, “I'm just saying I have a right to my own romantic life,
whether it morally offends Valerie or not.”

“You
are targeting and manipulating them just to make me mad,” Valerie
said.

June
chimed in. “Nick, you're disgusting.”

“Oh,
don't act holier than thou, June,” Devon said. “We all saw those
photos of you pouncing on Lewis.”

“Really
now, coming from the next teen mom? Are you just sleeping with Evan
and Frank or should I be inviting someone else to this meeting?”