Shark Fins - Danger Days

7. Level Six Friend

Y'all I DID it I finished NaNoWriMo with an ACTUAL novel and not just FAN FICTION (and then had to come back to Wattpad and remember what in the hell I was working on before) but I'm BACK and I'm READY and here we GO. Ready for some BACKSTORY? WOO.

"Burning on just like a match you strike to incinerate the lives of everyone you know. And what's the worst you take from every heart you break? And like the blade you stain, well, I've been holding on tonight." --- "Helena"

Level Six Friend

"Your home?" Kobra echoes, a look of disbelief on his face. "What the hell do you mean this is your home?"

I roll my eyes, wrenching my arm out of his grip. He'd caught me off guard, for sure, but now that the initial shock has faded, I'm really irritated that his stupid ass followed me all the way here. "I mean this is where I used to live, obviously. Did you think I was just born and raised in the Zones? I'm too old for that, and you know it." My fists are clenched at my sides. "You have no right to be here."

"I have every right to figure out why you'd just walk out on the four of us like this."

"I was coming back!" I snap, throwing my hands into the air. So mistrustful, so ready to doubt me, and until now he's been given no other reason to doubt me at all. "I was just getting ready to leave when you showed up."

"What are you even doing here?" Kobra's voice is still cold, but he's turned away from me now and just sort of wandering about the living room, hazel eyes scanning everything.

I scowl at the back of his head. "You ever heard of a supply run?" He gives a short laugh, but there's no humor to it. "Anyway, I should be asking you the same thing. How the hell did you even find me here? You were asleep when I left."

"Because you tried to drug me."

"Successfully drugged you, you mean."

Kobra rolls his eyes, looking back over at me with an expression of distaste. I have to admit, I don't really enjoy how upset with me he is. He definitely wore a serious expression for the first few days after I helped the Fabulous Four escape, but he'd been nothing but cheery - and kind of dorky - since then. But the cold anger in his eyes is really not what I expected to see, and I definitely am not a fan of it. "More to my point," he says icily.

Regardless of how intimidating he is right now, I can't exactly back down. I haven't done anything wrong. "I'll admit, I was hoping you'd be asleep longer. But you still didn't answer my question," I point out.

He exhales heavily through his nose and sits down on the arm of the couch, resting his elbows on his knees. He's still not looking at me, in favor of glancing around the apartment warily. Is he expecting a Drac to come bursting out of the closet or what? "I used your radio. Took me a little while, but I managed to get ahold of Sparx and Radio and ask them where you could have gone. They offered to come and get you themselves, but I told them I'd find you." He finally looks over at me, his expression clouded. "Lucky their directions were good."

"Lucky for who?" He flinches. I turn away. "Though I suppose it is a good thing you found me; otherwise I'd have gone back without you, and you'd have been none the wiser. You didn't stop to think that your brother and friends would be worried if you didn't turn back up?"

When I glance over at him it's to see that his face has gone bright pink. So he didn't stop to consider it, then. I shake my head, perching on the other arm of the couch and crossing one leg over the other. I can still feel his eyes on me, making the hairs on the back of my neck rise. "Why did you follow me, anyway? Mad that I took your car?" There's a smug smile on my face, but it doesn't feel as genuine as I'd expected.