“Meh. There’s a warlord out there with the fire-to-ice shtick and a demon mask, and I’d bet money he did it so he could make the reference every chance he got. I can’t use ‘hell freezing over’ because it’s tainted with that guy’s suck.”

“He sounds Fallen,” Sveta said.

“No,” I said. “Just a douche.”

“We ran out of good names and now all the good themes and ideas are being taken or spoiled,” Chris complained. “I have no fancy way of saying ‘that kid is never late’.”

“Kid?” Tristan asked. “You’re only two years older than her.”

“She’s way more of a kid than I am,” Chris said.

“I don’t know, Chris,” I said. “I think she has the edge when it comes to certain kinds of maturity. Work ethic, maintaining the relationship pillars…”

“What the hokey garbage fuck is a relationship pillar?” Chris asked.

“…and she’s more polite,” I said, teasing. “The pillars are honesty, trust, respect, caring, sharing…”

Chris withered like he was in physical pain, a vampire exposed to the cross, hissing through his teeth and braces.

“She’s pretty on the ball with that stuff,” I said. I craned my head and flew up until my feet were just above the others’ heads, so I could try to spot Kenzie. Chris continued hissing.

He was very good at his inhuman sounds.

He stopped hissing to say, “I regret asking. I miss Ashley and Rain already. Without them to balance out the group, we’re going to end up getting back together as team Caramel Friendship with tramp stamps like the Love Bugs have.”

“I hate that term,” Tristan said. “‘Tramp stamp’.”

“It’s a label for a reason,” Chris said.

“I had a crush on a guy in high school who had a lower back tattoo, and he wasn’t a ‘tramp’,” Tristan said. “It gets me when I think of that term getting thrown around and an awesome guy getting shit because of it.”

“He should have paid more attention, then,” Chris said. “His fault.”

“Let’s not fight,” I said. “Kenzie. At what point do we spread out and hunt for her?” I asked.

“Soon,” Tristan said. “I thought we’d give her ten minutes, and that was four minutes ago.”

There was a pause. The wind whipped past us.

I was hoping they’d put up a nice structure around each portal, to control the pressures and block the wind. I wasn’t sure of the logistics of it, but it would be really nice to fly again without it being the effort it was now.

“I’ve never seen Love Bugs,” Sveta commented.

Chris snorted. “Count yourself lucky. The younger kids at the institution are always watching that kind of crap. It’s so high pitched it sets my nerves on edge when my senses aren’t heightened.”