final round - lrh

sixty-six.

 The closer we get to the final round, the more willing Calum and Luke are to make me miserable at these trainings.

In fact, I've been at the gun range for almost twelve hours now, doing tedious work with Calum as it's far from fun, even though he'll insist otherwise, as I've tried not to complain and suck it up.

But twelve hours of shooting a gun at targets is truly nothing short of miserable. Mostly because Luke got me up at seven for breakfast, then sent me off to train with Calum at eight, and the only break I got was dinner.

It was that much more awful considering Luke wasn't there, still having a lot of training to do which left Calum, Ashton, and I as I tried to rid my brain of images of targets that have been practically embedded in my gaze.

They tried to engage in conversation with me but I couldn't really process anything they were saying, instead, trying to take advantage of the opportunity to have some peace. They caught on and eventually blamed my silence on Luke's absence which only earned a glare from me as that wasn't the case.

I'm just exhausted.

We're less than a week away from war and they're really working us to our fullest extent. I've practically crawled into bed every night, cursing Luke out as I know he's the reason for it all. In response, he just laughs it off and tells me he just wants what's best for me.

I know there's truth to his words but it doesn't change the fact that my body feels like jello at his expense.

As an apology, he holds me extra close to him every night, tangling our legs together as he reminds me every time just how proud he is of me. He doesn't dare let me fall asleep until I hear these words fall from his lips which is almost enough to make me forgive him for the hell he puts me through here.

But I keep reminding myself, I asked for no special treatment.

And it's crunch time. We don't have much time left before we're going to be fighting for our lives. They're going to be picking up on anything that we're not doing properly and working us until we're experts on it. For that, I really shouldn't be complaining.

"Focus, James!"

Jumping in my spot, I'm thankful more than anything that I didn't pull the trigger as I've gotten better at responding to things that startle me when I have a gun in my hand. I know Calum would've added an extra three hours to this training if I had done so and right now, honestly all I want to do is to climb into bed.

"God, you've got to stop scaring me like that. I'm going to put a bullet through your head one day," I say, placing a hand to my heart in alarm as I turn my head towards Calum who's towards the back corner of the room.

"It wouldn't have scared you if you were focused, James."

"I'm plenty focused," I say to him, the lie coming out far from convincing to either one of us.

Calum scoffs instantly, "Who are you trying to convince? You or me?"

I sigh, knowing I'm beyond the point of focused right now as my brain is jumbled and I don't even have the energy to lie and convince anyone otherwise. I hate wasting Calum's time but in my defense, I gave him about eleven hours of my attention.

"What's going on in your head, LJ?" Calum asks, a sympathetic tone to his voice as he moves from where he's from, seeming eager to join me and give me his attention.

I shrug my shoulders, taking advantage of the opportunity as I place the gun down on a nearby table in order to take a pause and talk to Calum about literally anything.