The Trade Off | The Lost Boys

Chapter 8

A/N: It's Friday and it's rainy and it's the perfect setting to write. Work is over for the week, and as Cyndi Lauper cleverly put, "When the working day is done, oh girls just wanna have fun!"  This is it! This is my fun.  Happy weekend.

Chapter 8

Olive was scared and tired, and more than that she was tired of being pushed around. She had been thinking over everything, and if David could get into her head and make her think that she was eating bugs she didn't want to know just how far they would go. For all she knew they could be the reason why she had slept so long - the reason why she was forgetting things. They weren't just four young men hanging out, but something else entirely. They must have had their own agenda.

With a brave face Ollie pushed off from leaning against the counter and stepped forward to David. He wasn't going to hurt her. Max said that none of them were going to hurt her.

"Are you always this pleasant? Or should I feel like a special exception?" She inquired carefully. Her tone was as even as possible, and she stood tall even though her heartbeat was far from steady. David did not retreat, and instead he cocked his head to the side with a smirk.

"Trust me princess," he belittled confidently, "It's an exception."

He was the worst.

"Thank you for the warm welcome." She bit back, looking anywhere but at David. At least she wasn't the only one not pleased with their current situation. Marko and Paul shared a similar cautious if not curious expression, and Dwayne was looking at nothing in particular, but she could tell that he was deep in thought, his brows drawn together stiffly.

It was quiet. It was too quiet.

"You don't do this often, do you?" Ollie joked dryly, and she looked over to Paul and Marko. Her mood had changed from scared to apathetic to cynical. She needed to change her tactic. "You don't entertain living, breathing people, do you?"

There was a quiet moment, but it wasn't long before a snort of a laugh came from Paul. Ollie turned away from the two stoic men and she could see the light bouncing in Paul's eyes. He nudged Marko's shoulder playfully.

"What gave it away?" Marko grinned, shaking his head. He was playing coy.

Maybe it was the lack of compassion in the way they talked. Or the lack of insight. Or maybe it was the blatant murder. It was a toss up.

"I'll level with you chica, this is so weird." Paul agreed with a breathy laugh. For once he didn't have some witty comment on her overreacting or some bold accusation to throw in her face. "If we knew that you didn't know that we were, you know, we would have -"

"We would have never expected you to come." Dwayne snapped out of his cold spell, his mouth twitching into a frown. There was something disappointing in his tone, like he had a sour taste in his mouth and he had to spit the words out. His eyes were cold and articulate, and his dark hair hid half of his face. Olive couldn't make out the different moods of the group. It was giving her whiplash.

"But here we are." She concluded as a matter of fact with a similar frown. "So what do we do now?"

He lifted his cold gaze and pushed the hair out from in front of his face, and Ollie watched as his hardened jaw slackened and he finally looked over to her. She could have easily gotten lost in his dark stare if he didn't break her out of her trance with his voice.

"We compromise."

There was a certain level of trust that would have to come with it, and that was easier said than done.