United Assassins

c h a p t e r / t w o

"Grams!" I exclaim, forgetting about the stranger next to my car. I run up to the front porch and we hug, while I take in her familiar lavender scent. I inhale deeply, admiring the smell.

"Was that Eli you were talking to?" She asks. I laugh slightly and pull away, looking back at my car.

"No," I say, looking at the figure still standing next to my car. As if he could tell I was watching him, he slowly starts backing away before turning around and walking back to the Bennix house.

"Eli still lives there, right?" I ask hesitantly.

"Yes, but he's moving out in a few months. He started working for the government last year once he graduated high school," she states, looking up at me kindly. She was always small, short, and round, while I was tall, lean, and skinny.

"He's about to turn nineteen, right?" I ask. Eli is the same age as I, but his parents put him in school a year early, making him a grade above I. In my opinion, was a good decision. He was always the smartest in our school. "Valedictorian, I'm assuming?" I ask with a smile on my face.

My grandmother grins up at me. "You know it." She opens the front door and guides me into her house. "Come on in."

"Oh, I didn't grab my stuff."

She smiles at me and guides me into the beige-colored kitchen. "I'll have Eli bring them in the morning."

I smile back at her and think about Eli. I wonder how he's been? A job with the government? That sounds interesting. I wonder if he still had the same short, sickly skinny figure he did when we were young.

"Do you want anything to eat?" My grandma asks, snapping me out of thoughts. She starts washing the small pile of dishes next to the sink.

I smile at her, then gesture to the stairs. "No thanks, I'm gonna go to bed."

"Okay. Have a good night's sleep," she says, drying her hands and then walking over to me and giving me a hug.

"Love you, goodnight," I respond, hugging her back.

I turn around and walk back into the front foyer, looking around. The dark colored wood banister seems to blend in with the darkness of the house, the only source of light coming from the kitchen. I walk up the white carpeted stairs, turn left, then walk down the hallway a little more before I enter a door to my left.

The room is a light pink with white swirly designs. The canopy bed is pushed against the far corner, with a small white side table next to it. Along with those pieces of furniture, there's a white desk with a black swivel chair, a light pink dresser with white trim, and then a door next to the dresser.

After taking in the room, I decide I'm too exhausted to change. Instead, I quickly pull off my Nike tennis shoes, then collapse on my bed and fall asleep.

|/|/\|\|

I wake up to the sounds of pots and pans banging in the kitchen downstairs. Glancing at the alarm clock to the right of my bed, I notice it reads 8:30.

"I should still be asleep," I mutter to myself, getting up from my bed. As soon as I do so, I immediately miss the soft warmth of the covers on top of me.

Sometime throughout the night, I had pulled the covers over top of myself, but I'm still wearing my black leggings and basketball t-shirt from yesterday.

I get up and tie my knotted hair up into a messy bun, hair still sticking out of it. I was about to walk to my dresser when I remembered my stuff is in my car.