It's Time to Choose, Soldier (BxB)

Chapter 8

A week.

That's how long Al had been in the medical wing. When he was finally released we went back to the same dilemma. Max and Al would get into more and more arguments which only seem to worsen with each argument that passed. When Al told me that Max had always hated him I didn't know what to make of it. Then Andrew told me that he'd always know about this feud I was even more confused.

Now that I'm taking the time to think back on everything, I notice that there was still so much I didn't know about Al. He refused to let anyone tell me his actual name which I found odd. He doesn't seem to ever carry his ID so I didn't have much to go off of. Everyone else in our team I had the pleasure to grow up with and get to know but Al was a mystery to me. Whenever given the chance, he wouldn't talk to anyone about what happened with his family before the war.

I mean, I could understand that it was probably something he wouldn't want to remember but nevertheless, I found it very odd because he never let anything slip about them. We all would share stories about our past lives before the war. I didn't tell much because I couldn't remember much from when I was 7 and younger. Around that time I had been adopted which didn't give me many stories to tell. To this day, Al is the one guy I knew nothing about. But tonight, that was going to change.

To say the least, I was overjoyed when Max had finally decided to stop yelling at Al. I thought it would be for the best but even then, that ended up leaving a whole lot of tension in the air. Being the caring girls that they are, Cora and Elise had come up with group activities for all of us to participate in. The girls figured that we needed team bonding exercises so they set out to create a weekend full of them. I wasn't one for activities or being social but had to say yes when Elise almost pleaded with me to go. We had all gathered in Hunter's room and sat down on his carpeted floor next to his bed in a circle. We were playing truth or dare, which to a bunch of teenagers, it looked kind of childish. "Alright, Xan. Truth or dare?" Elise asked and I shrugged.

"Truth" I answered and she smiled wickedly to which I gulped in response.

"Who do you hate the most out of everyone here? Bonus, you have to give us a reason for your seething hatred for this person" She dared and took a deep breath filled with relief. At least it wasn't a question that I wasn't going to be able to answer or something embarrassing.

"Damn, I honestly thought that you were going to ask me a horrible question but that's easy to answer. It's obvious that the person responsible for my deep loathing is Al! He's so damn mysterious and won't talk to anyone about anything!" I exclaimed and watched as he rolled his eyes. Groans echoed in the closed-off space and I smiled sheepishly.

"Awww, I thought that was gonna be more fun and juicy but that answer was plain out boring" she whined, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting.

"Al, truth or dare?" I quickly asked turning to him. He looked up from the carpet at me and rolled his eyes.

"Dare"

"I dare you to tell me your full name" I quickly said and watched as his eyes widened.

"That's what you're going to waste your dare on?" He asked, raising a brow in question. I smirked and crossed my arms as Elise had.

"So is that you refusing to do the dare?" I asked with a brow raised. This was it, the moment where I'd finally learn something about this guy. Yeah, I know this sounds like something stupid to get excited for but to me, it made me feel like a detective about to get the biggest clue to an unsolvable case.

"My full name is-" he began but was cut off by a sudden loud and startling knock at Hunter's room door. All heads snapped in the direction of the door,  confused expressions taking over our features. Well, all except for Max whose face remained filled with boredom.