Bad Taste (Part I) // Colby Brock

179 - Rebecca

He grinned. "Wanna have a competition? I bet I'll win."

"As if," I snorted before I could stop myself. Jake zipped across the room to get the knives and daggers back then handed me two of them, revealing another that he had in his pocket. Two each.

"Hit perfectly on target twice. You mess up, I win. I mess up—which won't happen—you win. Deal?"

"Deal," I replied instantly. He went first, hitting on target, then I followed suit. Tara was standing back to watch and fetching the daggers after we threw them. She wasn't on either team, but I could tell she was cheering more for Jake. That only made me want to win this fucked up competition more.

The first game was a tie. After a rematch that also ended in a tie, we started to change up the rules. We had to throw at a moving target, which Tara was responsible for. If we didn't get it perfectly on target, we still had a chance to redeem ourselves with a second throw. If that didn't work out, the other person won.

I won first but lost at the rematch. When Jake failed miserably at a simple challenge, I found myself grinning at him. "Ha! You're shit!" I yelled, bouncing on the spot. Tara handed me my daggers back, a small smile on her face, too.

"She has a point," she said.

Jake rolled his eyes. "I'm not shit, you're just too good at this."

"Nope! You're shit."

"Let's go vampire speed and see who wins then," Jake challenged, raising a brow at me. I threw the dagger in my hand at him only for him to catch it and snarl at me. He fuelled my fire, making me want to try again.

"This looks like a fun game," I pointed out as I pretended to line up another shot.

"Psycho."

I snorted. "Like you didn't already know."

"You're right, I did already know. Come on, try to hit me again."

"Don't have to tell me twice." I threw the other dagger in my hands. Jake dodged it this time instead of catching it and suddenly came at me. Since I didn't have vampire blood in my system, my abilities didn't kick in to protect me. I was tackled to the floor beneath a giggling Jake.

"Get off of me, dickhead!" I yelled as I tried to push him away. He was just laughing at me pinning me down. "Tara!"

"Sorry, Beck," Tara replied with a giggle. "This is too funny."

"Ugh." I pushed Jake as hard as I could to get him off of me. He let me move him, shoving him to the side. Tara was beside me to help me up but she was too busy giggling to say anything about what just happened. I tried so hard to keep looking annoyed, but deep down I knew I wanted to smile. This had lifted my spirits more than I thought it would.

By the time Jake was stood back up, I'd thrown a dagger across the room again, proving that I was actually much better at this than he was. I hit the target perfectly and the grin that wanted to form slipped through the cracks. It was like Jake's eyes started to sparkle with the way his expression changed.

"I wanna do a re-"

"Jake," Tara interrupted with a raised brow, "it's going to get light soon and we can't stay here much longer. As fun as it would be to watch you two head to head again, we have to go."

Jake and I groaned at the same time leading us to look at each other. Tara, before we could gang up on her, quickly zipped to me and grabbed me by the hips. The world around us turned to a blur until my car appeared. We were in the back seat again, a sad Jake on his way over to the driver seat.

"We should do this again sometime," Tara muttered as she motioned for Jake to hurry his ass up. I glanced at her but didn't say anything.

We headed back to my apartment fairly quickly, eager to avoid either of them getting drained by the sun. I doubted that'd happen anyway, but I understood that they wanted to take the precaution. We got back to my place and Jake instantly dropped onto my couch with his hand behind his head and his phone in front of his face. He started to type while Tara and I headed for my bedroom instead.

I changed back into my sleepwear—an oversized t-shirt—then sat down on my bed, where Tara was already waiting for me. She was on her phone, too used to me ignoring her when we went to bed. Something deep inside me compelled me to lean across the space, steal the phone from her hand, then drag her to me. It was a tight yet short hug, just enough to tell her that I appreciated tonight.

The smile on her face afterwards was priceless. I hated it so much that I quickly turned my back on her, curling beneath the covers as if nothing had happened. I could still feel her smile but I tried to ignore it.

After a minute, she settled in behind me and the room was turned to silence. I found myself reminiscing about the night we'd had... and I found myself smiling while I did it.