Kiss

Chapter 3

"I know I said we could go to the movies and we can," I told Lyle as we drove away from my house. Last night I had gotten him to agree to go to the movies with me. Step one- check. "but I left my purse at Jen's house and I need it."
"Can't you wait till after the movie?" he asked. "We're going to be late."
"No we won't, and no I can't wait till after the movie," I huffed. "It has my library card in it."
"We aren't even going to the library!" he was trying not to laugh. Probably because of how stupid my logic was.
"Okay... fangirl," I made a pointed to myself. "I can not live without it."
"Fine," he finally gave up. Step two- check.
"You're amazing," I told him smiling.
"Yep, I know I am," he grinned back and I rolled my eyes. When we pulled into Jen's driveway I started step three- get him into the house. I made a confused expression cover my face. "What?" he asked.
"Could you come in with me?" I pleaded. "I'll get lost if I go alone then we would miss the movie."
"Okay," he got out of the car. "Let's hurry," I got out of the car too and we headed to the door. Lyle got the spare key and opened the door. "anyone here?" he asked as we walked in. there was no response of course. "Where did you leave it?"
"The party room," I pointed in the direction I thought would lead to it.
"yeah good thing I came in with you. That hall leads to the bedrooms," he then pointed in the totally opposite direction. "It's that way."
"Oh," I felt like an idiot. "Oops?" we walked down a few halls, none looked familiar, but we finally came to the party room.
"So where-?" Lyle started to ask.
"Surprise!" Jen, Dillon, Isabella, and Josh all appeared out of thin air.
"What?" Lyle look so confused it was hard not to start laughing.
"It's your birthday," Jen reminded him. "so yeah... Happy birthday!"
"Oh, it is! I totally forgot!" he said.
"Obviously," I laughed.
"There are presents over there, and a cake that way, and the paintball guns are-"
"Paintball guns?" Lyle had the same look in his eyes a ten year old would get hearing paintball.
"Well and bombs, and knives, and well I think that's it." Jen told him.
"Knives?" I asked... sounds painful.
"well they are foam pirate swords with paint on the end," Josh spoke up.
"Josh, its great to see you again!" Lyle said.
"great seeing you again too," Josh smiled.
"Okay so what should we do first?" Jen asked.
"Paintball!" Lyle barely let her finish her sentence.
"Fine," she agreed laughing. "Okay so rules and stuff are easy. We'll be in teams of two, and each team has a flag. the objective is to get both of the other teams' flags. The first to do that wins... oh yeah! And you are out if they hit you in the stomach or chest, or back, but there are little smiley face stickers so if you get hit and your teammate finds one you're back in..." she paused to take a breath. "sound fun?"
"Sounds amazing!" Lyle answered. It did.
"Okay so me and Dillon are obviously on a team," Jen stated.
"can we be a team Lyle?" Isabella asked.
"um, yeah sure," he replied. There were only two people left now me and...
"So I guess we're on a team," Josh smiled as he walked up to me. He didn't really seem happy about it, but not like angry either... but I mean why should I even care right?
"Yeah," I tried to smile back, but I'm socially awkward around everybody so it just made it worse that I liked him.
"Don't worry, the game isn't hard at all," he said laughing. I guess he took the awkwardness for nervousness.
"Okay."
"And at least one person on each team knows where we keep the guns hidden... we didn't want a bloodbath right away," Jen told us. Then she handed each team a flag: Lyle's team was blue, Jen's team was white, and our team was gold. "Okay so in three... two..." Jen counted down slowly. "One... GO!" there were like five doors in the room so each team could run out a different one.
"follow me," Josh said as he ran out one of the doors. I followed quickly after him not wanting to get lost in the middle of, what I thought of as, World War 3. We took a left, then a right, then another left... or was that a right? I had already forgotten how we got there... lovely. We came to a giant staircase that lead to the second level of the house.
"So where are we going?" I asked curiously as we ran up the stairs.
"I have three guns, five knives, and at least ten bombs in my room. I think that should be good enough," he sounded like he was ready for a real war.
"Hopefully," if we needed more than that we were doomed. We got to the top of the stairs and stopped at the first door. Josh pulled out a key and unlocked the door, and then we stepped inside. The room was three times as big as mine, and was mainly filled with video games and paintball guns (and he had more than three guns).
"Whoa," I gasped as I looked at what could be where the army kept its weapons.
"Here," he held out a gun that looked way to big for me to carry with one hand. I gave him a are you stupid look. "Oh, yeah," he grabbed a smaller gun. "I'm used to having Zach on my team."
"Who?" I asked confused as I took the gun.
"A friend of mine." he told me as he grabbed a gun that resembled a machine gun, probably was, and a few bombs and knives. He then handed me a knife and three bombs.
"That's all I can carry I think," I admitted trying hard not to drop what I already had balanced in my arms. He laughed and then paused for a second. I'm not sure if he was listening or thinking, but he finally snapped back to reality.
"Hold on," he pulled off his leather jacket and held it out for me to take. "It's your first time and it stings really bad when you get hit. This helps a bit though,"
"but," I could think of a million ways I could ruin it, and it wasn't fake leather. It had to be at least $2000.
"It's fine," he told me, "I would wear it if you didn't. I don't care if it gets messed up."
"Okay," I was actually quite happy to take the jacket. Anything to help block the sting of the hit, and I was sure I would get hit. I put in on quickly. It was a bit big on me, but really comfortable. "so is there a plan?" I asked once I was all ready.
"Well we have to find the other teams first. They might be looking for us though so we have to be careful. When we find a team I'll take out one you take out the other. We don't get hit, we take out the other teams, and we win," the way he put it made it sound simple. I nodded, excited now, and we headed out the door.

It had been about fifteen minutes and there was no sign of the other teams.
"Does it always take this long?" I complained quietly.
"Yeah normally," Josh replied. We were both quiet for a second then he spoke up. "So why did you move here?" I looked at him confused. "Just wondering," he told me.
"Well," I took a deep breath. "My father and older brother died about three years ago. My dad was the one that worked and my mom home schooled my brother. When they died my mother had to find a job. We couldn't for a while so we stayed with my aunt. She found a job here last month and... yeah." I felt tears start to form but I held them back. My brother was my best friend, and my father meant the world to me. Why did they have to die?
"I'm sorry," Josh interrupted my thoughts.
"Its okay, you couldn't of done anything about it," I said shrugging. I turned the corner, and spotted Jen and Dillon coming from the other end of the hall. I scolded myself in my head for letting my guard down.
"Sorry." Jen aimed her gun at me and pulled the trigger, but I was never hit. Right after she fired her gun Josh stepped in front of me and you could hear his gun go off too. "Ow!" Jen shouted and I could guess he had hit her.
"Sorry," Josh replied shrugging. Then to me he quietly said, "Dillon is on the right of Jen... hurry up I can't block you all day." I leaned out from behind Josh and fired at Dillon. You could hear him gasp for air as it hit him right in the middle of his chest. "great shot," Josh said at he sat down against the wall, a large pink mark on the left side of his chest.
"Why did you...? You didn't have to block me. You're probably better at this game than me. You would have probably won." I stuttered confused. We would probably loose now because of me. He shrugged dismissively.
"I like that jacket," he told me, matter-of-factly. "Anyways you should probably find Lyle and Isabella, and get the flag from Jen."
"Oh yeah," I ran over to where Jen sat.
"Here," she handed me their white flag. "and do me a favor," she smiled her now famous evil grin. "shoot Lyle a couple times... as punishment for forgetting his own birthday." I could hold back the laugh.
"Okay," I agreed nodding. "I will," I stood and walked back to where Josh sat. "I'm gonna get lost probably." I admitted.
"It's easy to find them don't worry," he sounded sure that I would find them. "It's Just down the stairs, take a right and go straight for a while." Actually that did sound pretty simple. "And then there is a very easy way to get them both out. Ask for an alliance with Lyle... tell him I left for some reason. Then ask if they've seen Jen or Dillon, and then when they are looking backstab them."
"So violent," I chuckled a bit, of course this is what my new friends love to do... kill each other.
"Yup... but it's fun isn't it?"
"Yeah I guess so," I agreed. "Well I guess I should go?" He nodded encouragingly and I headed off. Down the stairs... to the right... straight... Then I spotted them. Isabella aimed at me and I put my hands up defensively. "Alliance?" I asked hoping Josh's plan would work.
"Where's Josh?" Lyle asked scanning the surrounding area like he expected an ambush.
"He left," I stuttered trying to think up a story. "He said I was horrible at the game and we would loose anyway," I made my voice shake a bit trying to sound sad.
"Oh," Isabella sounded like she believed me.
"yeah and I haven's seen Jen or Dillon... so alliance?" I waited nearly shaking with fear... fear that they wouldn't let me join and the plan would fail.
"Yeah sure. Let's go find Jen and Dillon then," Lyle seemed quite happy to let me join. We started walking down the hall, Lyle in front, me in the middle, and Isabella in back. I guess they didn't trust me yet. As we walked down one hall after the next I noticed we were heading where I came from... if they saw Jen and Dillon I'd be in trouble. So quietly, and slowly enough to where they didn't notice, I slid one hand around my gun and the other around my knife. I took a deep breath and counted down in my head. three... two... one I aimed the gun at Lyle and threw the knife at Isabella getting her out. Lyle turned and only had time to shout in surprise before I shot him in the chest. I snatched the blue flag from him, and remembered my promise to Jen.
"Sorry Jen asked me to," I shot him a couple more times. "for forgetting your own birthday." I pulled the other two flags out of my pocket.
"Josh and I win!" I shouted so loud my throat hurt and I was scared I would loose my voice, But really I was to happy to care. My team won!
"So you lied to us?" Lyle seemed angry.
"It's just a game, get over it," I replied a little smugly.
"Did you shoot him for me a few more times?" Jen asked as her and Dillon appeared.
"Yup," Lyle answered for me as he walked to where we stood wincing every few steps.
"Where's Josh?" I asked her looking over her shoulder hoping to see him. He won too technically.
"He left," Jen replied a bit sadly, just how I felt. "His friends had some sort of emergency and they needed him. He wanted to stay." she tried to cheer me up.
"Okay," I nodded numbly.
"To bad," Lyle said smiling. "It's his loss. He won't get any cake." We all laughed a bit and then we headed back to the party room, but now the party seemed dull.