The Hijinks War

32. Wink Wink

"What about the one to town?" Town; a solid hour and a half away at middle of nowhere highway driving speeds. I didn't want to imagine what that map looked like―through the unpredictable forest to the closest town―or how long that journey would take.

"We'll go over that and the squad that's going to make that journey once we're out, remember? Emma's holding on to those." 

Kellen eyed me in annoyance when I rejoined him on the bed, sending several papers whooshing into the air, messing up the chaotic order we'd had. When they settled on the navy bedspread, I carefully placed them all back into their folders.

"Where's Leon?" I scanned the room I'd already slept in and woken up in once before.

Kellen shrugged. "At mine. We swapped rooms since those meatheads don't actually know who any of us are, just how many of us are supposed to be in each room."

I glanced at the time display on his phone, reminded by his words of the fact that there was one less head to count in my room, and one more here. Kellen picked up on my nervousness with what I could only read as amusement.

"Don't worry, Cole, Jess has it covered." He swiped at my phone. "You're already in bed; you passed check-in."

Raising an eyebrow, I grabbed my phone. Sure enough, Jess had rigged a very real looking Nicole into my bed so I could keep doing, "all those possible things you're doing. 😉😉"

Ugh! She would never let this one go! "So, I guess Jackson and I leave in the morning with our crew... whoever they are."

Kellen, saw right through my subject change, and smirked in a self-satisfied way as he flipped open a file. It was one in which we had a collection of the current yearbook pictures already sorted into groups we had loosely decided on with everyone yesterday. He fanned them out on the bed and set a time limit of three hours to finalize the squads, and assign evacuation groups. So I could get some sleep, he claimed, before my early morning departure into the forest.

I scribbled quickly, making note of both definite and potential needs, and was so engrossed in my list that I was completely thrown off guard—and off the bed—when Kellen tackled me.

Utter confusion stopped any loud reaction I might have had, and thank goodness for that. Kellen's door opened and the sound of a warden's voice broke the silence, "Curfew che—This one's missing!"

"I'm right here..." Kellen pushed himself up slowly, so that he would be visible from the other side of the bed. Amused, I imagined the warden taking in Kellen's slow movements and dumb expression, and labeling him stoned. Which is frankly what we'd all been trying to convince them we were.

"Never mind. He's here," he grumbled and the door clacked shut loudly.

Letting out a breath he'd been holding, Kellen dropped back down, huffing against my shoulder. "Shit, that was awesome... you were so close to being caught!" He grinned down at me and then froze, the smile faltering on his lips.

I watched his face redden and he awkwardly tried to lift himself off me. And that was when it fully registered that Kellen Fitzpatrick was straddling me, and in the most uncomfortable compromising way too. If I wasn't preoccupied with planning our escape at that moment, I might have turned red too. Instead I was annoyed as Kellen stuttered an apology and attempted to get up without touching any part of me.

"God above, Kellen! What are you, 13?" I grumbled, shoving him onto his back and sitting up. "Put a fucking muzzle on it, and let's get back to work. Besides," I added with a grin as I plunked back onto the bed. "You wish!" 

Laughing, he picked up the Roster and settled beside me at the top of the bed. "Fine, fine, back to work. But, I was really hoping you wouldn't see through my plan of having the wardens almost catch you here. How am I ever going to recreate that moment?"