Free Falling

Chapter 24 | Try Not To Get Us Pulled Over

~
"You cannot find peace
by avoiding life"
~

"Austin it's not like we're moving to another continent. It's Colorado." Jake says, as Austin clings to me.

"How are we supposed to last two weeks without you three?" Austin cries, referencing Kara, Jake, and I.

We're leaving tomorrow for Colorado to spend the holidays with our whole family. Every year, we switch where we go for Christmas and New Years, and this year is Jordan and Arianna's turn to host.

Kara ended up fully moving in with us a week after our birthday and since she's living with us now, she's obviously coming with us.

It's currently December twenty-third and we're all hanging out in my room as I pack, seeing as how I'm a procrastinator and haven't packed at all and we're leaving at three in the morning.

"I hate that you Richardsons do these dumb vacations." Sierra mutters.

"Yeah, well deal with it." Jake says, rolling his eyes. "I personally think it'll do us good to get out of Texas for a while."

"Whatever." Sierra mutters, and I laugh.

"Let me see the tattoo again." Kara says, grabbing my arm and looking at my bicep.

Jake and I went to get our tattoos last Saturday, since that was the only opening Travis's dad had. It took us a while to get a solid design that we both liked.

We ended up with Jake getting a feather like arrow with the words 'my sister's protector' in the middle. Mine ended up being similar, it's just a key with the words 'my brother's keeper' in the middle.

"It turned out so good!" Kara says excitedly.

"Yeah, I love it." I say, smiling.

"It fits you and Jake so well." Sierra says.

"Yeah. So what did y'all wanna do?"

"Well, I actually had a few ideas..." Austin starts off with a grin.

Oh no.

He has that smile on his face.

"Don't look so scared Em, it's not that bad."

But the second my parents left to run a few errands, all hell broke loose and now Kara, Sierra and I ended up cowering behind the sofa in the living room, holding nerf guns, scared out of our minds.

"Who the hell convinced Austin that we were okay with this!?" Sierra hisses, poking her head around the corner of the couch to see if the guys were coming.

We were split into two teams. Originally it was Kara, Dwight, Chase and Austin and on the other me, Sierra, Travis and Jake.

But Kara defected halfway into the game and now it was an all out war. Sierra, Kara and I ran into each other and just decided to form our own little team.

Now it's girls versus guys.

"The only reason we're fearing for our lives is because the guys caught wind that Kara abandoned her team." I whispered, glaring at Kara.

"You try being on the same team as Austin who 'accidentally' shoots you every five seconds." She whispers back, rolling her eyes.

"You know you girls should really learn how to whisper more quietly." My heart almost drops at Travis's voice.

All three of us look up slowly and see him towering over us, nerf gun raised and ready to fire with Dwight right beside him. Both of them give us an evil smirk.