“Jonny!” Parker cried, slapping the tabletop. “You’re not listening to me, are you?”
“Since my name isn’t Jonny,” Jonathon said monotonously, his face blank, “then no. I’m not.”
I rolled my eyes.
The two had been bickering more than usual today, and I had a sinking feeling that it had something to do with some secret words said during an epic battle in Call of Duty. Since I wasn’t supposed to know of what goes on during these “bro chats” as Parker had dubbed them the other day, I didn’t ask, and instead I sat back and watched the two argue with each other over everything under the sun, Parker kicking up his amount of annoying to get under Jonathon’s skin as Jonathon tried with everything in his body not to explode in the other boy’s face.
Jonathon held my hand on the table, his thumb rubbing my knuckles unconsciously as he watched his British friend sputter across the table with a small, nearly invisible smirk on his face. I sat back and looked at him for a long moment, almost smiling myself at the expressions that flickered across his face so easily, like the annoyance at Parker’s unpredictable attitude or the amusement as his best friend rambled on and on without needing anyone to coax him onward. He glanced over at me and smiled when he caught me looking. I smiled at him sheepishly, and he pulled me closer to plant a kiss on my forehead.
“Ew,” Parker gagged. “Aren’t you two adorable.”
“More adorable than you,” I countered. He looked at me, horrified.
“I am too adorable,” he objected before making a face. “No, you’re right, actually. I’m less adorable and more ruggedly handsome.”
Jonathon coughed to disguise his laugh, but it didn’t do much good.
“Have you ever shot off a bottle rocket?” Parker asked me out of the blue, rolling his empty water bottle around in his hands as he pursed his lips thoughtfully, a devious plan playing out in his eyes. I shot a look over at Jonathon but he was studiously ignoring the black haired boy across the table from him, paying too much attention to spearing the broccoli on his plate with his fork. I glanced back at Parker, grimacing, but he still looked like he was having way too much fun with this.
“I haven’t,” I said cautiously, “but I’ll make sure to put that on my bucket list.”
“Not soon enough,” he teased, grinning. “I’m going to teach you a couple of things about life, dear Caitie. Now sit back and watch the master at work.”
Jonathon ducked his head over his meal, muttering something to himself. This whole situation would have been humorous if I truly wasn’t concerned at the thought of Parker having a potential weapon pointed into the sea of innocent students. I eyed the plastic bottle in his hands cautiously, chewing on my lip.
“I don’t know,” I said uncertainly.
“Come on, Caitie,” he scoffed. “Live a little.”
Jonathon rolled his eyes at his vegetable platter. I sent him a helpless look, but it was obvious to see he was determined to stay out of this entire conversation.
“Besides,” Parker announced cheerfully, grinning at me. “What can go wrong?”
And I watched, horrified, as he quickly wrung the bottle, aimed it into the large crowd of innocent students, and used his thumb to unscrew the lid.
With a loud BANG, the lid went so fast I had trouble following it, and I hid the sickness in my expression at the thought of it being a bullet.
A girl cried out and vaulted to her feet, whirling around with narrowed eyes as she rubbed the back of her head. Jonathon choked on his food and buried his head in his arms to hide the hysterical edge to his laughter as poor Parker froze, staring at the girl with a horrified expression as the blood looked like it was slowly leaking out of his face, emptying out through a drain pipe.
YOU ARE READING
Toy Soldiers (Helford #1)
動作On my first day of high school, they tested our abilities-they wanted to see who would outlast the others, and who would be outlasted. For hours and hours, we gave it all we had. When they came back into the room to give us our scores, we were put i...
