Children's Draft

Chapter 13 (Part Two)

    "That's not what I meant," I clarified. "You seemed worked up when you were telling me about it."

    He shrugged uncomfortably. "I mean, it's embarrassing." After a moment of silence, he blurted, "but no more than that."

    "Landon, I know how you act when you're embarrassed," I reminded him. "You start blushing and kick Tristan under the table. Occasionally you'll stutter, but you've never seemed like you were out of breath."

    He had brought his hand back out and gazed at the palm. After being in a trance-like state for a few seconds, he shook his head. "No really, it's fine. It's not like they were intending to hurt me."

    "Do they ever?" I questioned.

    "Holly," he stopped me. "It's okay. We've got bigger things to worry about: The bombing. We need to know exactly what places got hit, so we know which guys will need the most help calming down."

    "But-"

    He cut me off. "Just let me know when you have information on something that matters."

    I sighed, going back to my desk. "Will do."

    He gave a small nod and left. Figures. The only time he refused to talk was when I wasn't telling him to shut up.

(Tristan's PoV)

    Lt. Jason barely made it through the doorway before we could ambush him with questions.

    "What's with the package?"

    "Who's it from?"

    "Nevermind that--who's it for?"

    He spun the package upside down to read the label. "It looks like it's for Ned."

    The short, self-absorbed, freckled boy pushed his way through the crowd. I wanted to tell him off for touching me, but I distracted myself with the thought that we were finally gonna get some information.

    Ned grabbed the package and gave it a small shake. "Oh good, I've been waiting for this for a while."

    Gavin nudged me. "Why do you think it needed to be in a package?" he whispered.

    I shrugged. By now our entire platoon was crowded around Ned, anxiously watching him rip the tape off of the cardboard box. As the packing tape came off in one smooth motion, my stomach lurched. To calm my nerves, I said a quick prayer.

    Hey, Heavenly Father. It's me, Tristan. Listen, I know it's already happened, but could you make it so Fremont wasn't one of the places that got hit. I want all of my friends and family to be safe. Not that I want anyone to be a victim, but if you could just keep a special eye over Fremont, that would be super chill. Stay holy and stuff.

    So it wasn't a typical Mormon prayer, but I was under a lot of pressure.

    Ned stuck his hand into the box and pulled out a bag of cookies.

    Landon furrowed his eyebrows in speculation. "Could those be like...'I'm sorry' gifts?"

    "Possibly," I replied. Although it was awfully odd of Ned to be smiling if that was the case.

    He held a bag of Mike and Ike's close to his chest. "Finally, it's here!"

    "Wait," I said slowly, coming to a horrible realization. "This is what you've been waiting 'a while' for?"

    He gave a small laugh. "Yeah." The pause in his speech seemed to indicate that he expected all of us to know the importance of this. "It's my 13th birthday present." He opened the candy wrapper before adding, "And my birthday was actually on Monday, so I had to wait two whole days for this."