pull the trigger

23

"do you think flowers have feelings?"

jacob looked up. "what the fuck are you on about now?"

troye furrowed his eyebrows. "i said, do you think flowers have feelings? because i think they do."

jacob rolled his eyes. "no, i think you're just high as fuck."

troye giggled. "maybe i am."

a silence settled around the treehouse after that. jacob flopped back down onto the bed, letting a drawn out sigh escape his lips. he draped his arm over his forehead in an almost dramatic way before mumbling, "i'm so fucking bored."

troye hopped up from the edge of the table where he was sitting, weaving a dreamcatcher together. "then let's go for a walk!" he suggested happily, and jacob sat up, rubbing his eye with the back of his hand. "i don't know... i don't know if i could stand being with you for too long."

troye just chuckled. "well, you're gonna have to get used to me, because until the council gets things ironed out, you're going to be here for a while."

after some painful minutes of jacob protesting, and troye tugging on his arms to make him stand up, they were finally out of the treehouse and making their way through the woods.

"so, have you gotten to know anyone here yet?" troye hummed, his hand clutching tightly onto the sleeve of jacob's jacket needily, a small smile on his face.

"there's other people living here? i've only seen the people who look like me and you- if you'd even call them people."

"of course there is, i-" troye started to say, but cut himself off when two people wearing black cloaks, the hoods pulled up over their heads, started making their way towards troye and jacob.

"they're gonna walk by us, but don't look at them," troye said quickly. "what? why can't i-"

"i said, don't look at them!" troye snapped, and a cold breeze brushed by as the two people walked past them silently, and jacob adverted his eyes, just as he was told.

troye let out a small sigh of relief after they passed. "you didn't look, did you?"

jacob shook his head "wha-why can't i look at them?"

"because then they'll force you to become one of them."

"one of them? what do you mean by that?" jacob scoffed, and troye frowned. "they're called 'watchers' and if you look at them in the eyes, you'll have to become one of them. they'll cut your tongue out."

"why would they do that-"

troye froze for a moment, his grip tightening on jacob's arm. "you know what? let's go the other way," he mumbled, staring blankly into the darkness of the trees.

"no, i want to go this way..."

jacob saw a four pairs of black eyes peek around a tree. it looked like his and troye's lookalikes, but he couldn't be sure.

but, sure enough, both lookalikes came stumbling out from behind the tree, sitting down on the ground in front of the real troye and jacob calmly.

the real troye's cheeks turned a bright shade of red and he let his grip loosen on jacob's arm before wandering away from the older boy, his arms crossed over his chest.

"what're you doing?" jacob furrowed his eyebrows, looking at the lookalikes curiously. they were just sitting calmly in the grass, both of them looking over at troye.

"nothing," the lookalike jacob mumbled.

"oh? why?"

"because he told us not to do anything," the troye lookalike stated, a small smile starting to creepy upon it's face, being that jacob was standing in front of it.

"who told you not to do anything?"

'troye' nodded over to the real troye, who was standing quite a distance away from jacob now, his cheeks still bright red as he fidgeted with the sleeves of his shirt, pretending not to be listening.

"wait, what?" jacob snapped.

"we're his thoughts. or didn't you know that?" the lookalike jacob chuckled, and the real jacob's heart felt like it fell to his feet.

jacob's gaze shot over to troye, who now had his hands covering his face, his ears pink with embarrassment. jacob stormed away from the two lookalikes and towards troye, who didn't even bother looking up.

all the disturbing things the lookalikes have done, troye was controlling them all along?

jacob had his hands clenched into fists, having every intention of beating the shit out of the younger boy.

but as jacob approached him, he heard troye hiccup softly, and as jacob came to a stop in front of him, troye looked up, his eyes swimming with tears, embarrassment, and shame. he looked as if he expected to be hit.

but jacob slowly uncurled his fists.

instead, he wrapped his arms around troye tightly and pulled him into a hug.