As Sick As Her

22

"This is beautiful," I gasp as I take another look at the flowers, internally swooning over her gesture. Who would've thought, Orion being a romantic.

She shrugs, "I honestly just packed the basket. It's nothing special, but I'm glad it made you smile."

This only makes me smile wider, "Shut up. You planned all of this while I was sleeping? Don't tell me it's nothing special," It truly is. No one has ever put this much effort in something for me before.

"My first thought was to take you out to dinner, but since you basically only eat air, I thought you'd enjoy this, and the view better." She thought right.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear you mock my vegetarian lifestyle," I smile at her. "You jerk."

"Ouch," Orion clutches her heart sarcastically, and lets out her pretty smile, "And here I thought, we were finally starting to be civil with one another."

For the next three hours, we do nothing but eat. I feel bad because I'm vegetarian, which means that she went through all of this trouble to get food that I could eat, and even insisted on eating some herself. I can tell she didn't like any of it. "Here, try this." I hold up my fork to her, "It's just pasta."

Orion shrugs before taking a bite from my fork, "I've had better, but I'm glad you like it." It's one of my favorite dishes, Spinach and Artichoke dip pasta. My uncle used to make it a lot. Eight ounces of whole-wheat rotini, five ounce package of  baby spinach, roughly chopped. Four ounces reduced-fat cream cheese, cut into chunks. Some milk, some garlic powder, and a fourteen ounce can of artichoke hearts. Rinsed, dried, and chopped.

"You know you can eat meat around me, right?"

Orion nods, "I know that."

"So why are you forcing yourself to eat that?" I point out to what she's eating, a BLT sandwich, with no B. It's just plain vegetables, and it's clear she's not enjoying it. "Even I wouldn't eat that."

"Okay, you caught me." Orion laughs back, "I wasn't trying to impress you, by the way. I read online that having similar taste buds, is some sort of way people bond, you know, over food. I don't see what else we can talk about. I kill people."

"I may have some skeletons in my closet."

"Oh, do tell." Orion smirks in amusement.

I tell her the story about the time Emily and I stole from target. It's quite hilarious now, but wasn't back then. Uncle was furious, and grounded us for weeks. Emily cried, but I felt rebellious. It was during my emo era, my period where I hated everyone, and everything. It didn't last long, at all.

It was also during a time, before Emily began her rebellious era.

"It took me two days to realize that I in-fact didn't want to live a life of crime, and that was enough to make me change my criminal ways," I joke.

Orion nods, "Who would've thought? Ruth Foster being a naughty little girl," I chuckle back at her.

"And you? When did your little mischief period begin?" I question. Technically, it's not a period, if she's still being mischievous, but I ask anyways.

"Right when I came out the womb. Other fathers were probably reading their children bedtime stories, my father was telling me all of the different ways to inflict pain on my victims. I once killed two men in a hotel, and then set it on fire, killing everyone else who was there inside," She says, "Do I regret it? No. That used to scare me, but now, it's like I feel nothing. I don't care about who I hurt."

I nod, "And me. If you were to shoot me right now, what would you feel?" I already know. Nothing.

"Everything," She takes a sharp breath.

"And that scares me more than feeling nothing at all," Orion admits, "You make me feel, Ruth."

"I haven't even done anything yet," I admit, I've done nothing but get on her nerves. How can I make her feel? I'm nothing special. "Feel what?"

"Feel—" Orion gets cut off by the sound of her phone ringing. She grunts before picking it up, "What. I'm out, and do not want to be disturbed. Can't Romeo handle it? Atticus? Adonis? So you're telling me no one can handle this, but me? Idiots, all of you. Idiots." She grunts again, and hangs up.

"I'm taking you back home."

I raise an eyebrow, "Why? What happened?"

"I have to go to the warehouse to take care of some business, business that you don't need to see," She responds, stands up, and begins to pack everything back into the picnic basket. She drove us here herself, and then we walked a few minutes to fully get to the field, so Amiri isn't around.

It's just us here, in a field of flowers.

"Well, what if I don't want to go back to the house? Are you ordering me? Because I want to stay with you," I admit, "You said you wanted this. If you truly do, then no secrets, no lies. No leaving me."

"Trust me, Ruth. This isn't something you're going to want to see." Probably not, but I plead to go with her anyways. I need to understand her work. I may not have to like it, but understanding it, is the same as understanding her. I like her, I truly do.

"Do you want this, or not?"

• • •

I watch as Orion clocks her gun against the side of the man's face. I know it'll leave a scar, a big one. He looks scared, and like he wants to shit himself.

"You ruined my day, man," Orion speaks, "You see that beautiful little blonde right there," She points to me, and a smile tugs on her lips, "Pretty, right?"

The man slowly agrees, "Yeah."

Orion hits him again with the gun, "Yeah, and mine. I had this whole day planned for her, but here I am, with your stupid ass. You can understand my frustration, no?" His head nods.

"So here's what's going to happen," Orion rolls open the cylinder of her gun. I'm pretty sure they call this a revolver, but I'm no expert, so I just watch. She unloads five bullets from the gun chambers. Her eyes shift to me for a split second, before turning back on the helpless man.

"We're going to play a game."