Strays

Chapter 11

"Hey, everybody," Lindley shouted as she walked into Old Rick's. She dropped her bag on the counter and made her way straight to the dartboard. Wren walked out and watched her start tossing the darts toward the board with an unconscious scowl on her face. A playful desire to get her attention came over him, and he slinked up behind her and waited until she was about to throw another dart, before shouting, "Boo!" from just behind her ear.

Rather than throwing the dart at the board, Lindley gasped and spun around, her hand darting out.

Before she could process what she had done, she heard Wren grunt a stifled growl of pain. Her hands flew to her mouth and her eyes grew to the size of two horrified lamps. In her surprise, she had panicked and jammed the dart into his chest, just under his clavicle.

"Just gonna stand there?" he gritted out through clenched teeth. His face was screwed up in pain, but Lindley just continued to stare at the dart sticking out of Wren's chest.

"Am I supposed to pull it out?" she asked, in a shrill, panicking voice. "Aren't I supposed to leave it in until an ambulance gets here? What if it hit a vein and pulling it out will make you bleed out?" Her hands hovered in front of the dart, and her wide eyes focused intensely on the dart.

"You're not calling an ambulance for a dart," he said, starting to sound much more under control of his pain. He blew out a long, slow breath, and looked at her, before losing his calm all over again. "You stabbed me with a dart!"

Just as he said this, Lindley reached over and pulled it straight out. Wren let out a strangled groan, but Lindley's hand flew to the cut and she pressed her hand against it.

"Wyatt, get a band-aid!" she shouted, still holding the dart raised above her head in one hand with the other pressed against Wren's chest.

"He's not here," Wren laughed breathlessly. "It doesn't hurt anymore, I'm sure it's really okay." Lindley blinked at him a couple times before realizing her hand was still pressing on his chest. She snatched it back with a quick apology.

"It's okay," Wren said softly, a hand reaching out to her arm. "Now, please put the dart down before you do it again."

"I can't believe I just did that," Lindley gasped, placing the dart gently on the table and returning her hands to covering her mouth. Her eyes stared at the tiny hole in his shirt that was no longer aligned with the hole in his body. He was wearing a black shirt, which made it hard to tell if he was bleeding, but it didn't look like he was hemorrhaging blood at least. "Are you okay?" She looked up at him with her mouth agape.

Wren laughed and pulled her in toward him wrapping his arms around her shoulders. "It's fine—it's really okay." Lindley shocked herself by letting him pull her close and hold her. She found herself giggling, and wrapping her arms back around his torso.

"You never texted me back," he said, pulling back from her. "Was everything okay when you got home?"

"Oh," Lindley gasped, pulling herself away from him. "Yeah, everything was fine." She smiled up at him. "Don't worry about me when I just put a hole in your chest."

Wren smiled at her, offering her a drink. "Because I definitely need one."

The two of them quickly drowned a few drinks, Lindley sitting cross legged on the bar, and Wren leaning over it on one arm.

"Hey," he said, nudging her knee. "Let me take you out sometime."

Lindley cocked her head to the side. "Like with your friends? You want me to go to your stomping ground?"

Wren grinned at her drunken obliviousness. "Well, I would love that—to show you the city and where I'm from. But no, I meant on a date. Do you want to go out sometime? With me?"

For a moment, Lindley's ears rang. She looked at him, "Oh. No—thank you." She hopped off of the bar, unsteadily—Wren's hand reached out to keep her from falling, which she comfortably put her hand on. "I should go anyway. I just came to blow off some steam—which I did."

She grabbed her bag and booked it out the door, calling behind her. "Bye! Tell Wyatt I say Hello when he gets here!" Wren's mouth never closed during the entire time he watched her walk out of the silo. What just happened?