"Alright you two," Alejandro smiles at us, "Asegúrese de que se mantenga fuera de problemas."
"Sí." We waved them goodbye and walked to the helicopter. Our mission has moved on. We were going to Eastern Europe and do a pit stop in England, to regroup with another organization that had been contracted to help us.
I look over at Charlie, he is taking a nap, on the helicopter floor. Ghost and Price were minding their own business. From the corner of my eyes, I see Soap and Gaz walk over to Charlie. They turn to me, Soap places a finger over his lips and crouches down in front of Charlie's sleeping form.
I slightly kicked him, he stirred but his eyes didn't open. He was awake. I look over to see Gaz and Soap smiling at each other. They haven't noticed. They pull out a sharpie and bring it to his face. Charlie kept a still face and let them draw across his face. They draw dicks across his cheeks, a unibrow, and a ridiculous mustache.
"So," His eyes open Soap and Gaz jumped back startled by his loud voice. I chuckle and look away. "Mirror?" I pull out my hand mirror and hand it over. Charlie looks over at them with an unimpressive look.
"What are you two? little boys?" He asked. He takes the Sharpie lunges at Soap and slams him into the ground.
"Wait Wait!" Soap shouts. Gaz tries to pull Charlie off of Soap. I get up and grab onto Gaz holding him back. Gaz looks at me with betrayed eyes, I just smile back. I look down to see Charlie scribbling across Soap's face. He jumped up and drew across Gaz's face.
I let go of Gaz backed off and looked at the three. The three were staring at each other, waiting to pounce on each other. A wide smile across their face. I sat down next to Price who watched on with a smirk.
"You're not going to defend him?" He asks.
"No, he can handle himself, he's taller than them." Charlie was around 6'3" a few inches taller than both Gaz and Soap. He was around the same size as Soap, but his inexperience was his own downfall.
"Oi," Charlie calls out. "Get your ass here!" Charlie shouts at me.
"Yeah! you can't just walk away!" Soap smiles and grabs my arm pulling me up. Gaz moved over and grabbed my other arm.
"Why?"
"Because you're part of this mess."
"No, I'm not."
"You got involved the moment you held me back." Gaz points to me with a smirk.
"Fine," I sigh and get up I walk over to Charlie, "what are we doing?" I look back at them feeling myself smirk. I can't lie, I'm highly competitive I also know I'm a sore loser. I normally don't participate in most activities. I'm quite toxic.
"You two are going down!" Soap gets into a fighting stance. I turn to Charlie who pulled out a uno deck.
"Prepare to get wrecked!"
ᔕᔕᔕ≼∴≽ᔕᔕᔕ
"This isn't far!"
"Gisele your fucking cheating!" Soap roars glaring daggers at me as I lay down my final 4+ card onto the stack. It was always my finishing move; I won the third round. It was 1 v 2. We were winning.
"I swear to God if you're cheating!" Gaz glares at me too. "I'll make you do 100 push-ups!" He threatens. I look over to Charlie with a smug smile.
"Relax boys, she's a mastermind strategist," Charlie chuckles. "Now let's fight to see who gets second place."
"You're on Charlie!"
"Charlie, don't you dare!" Soap yells fearing the wide smirk on his face.
"Oh, I dare!" He added a 2+ onto the stack, Soap had to draw 8 cards.
"Monster!" Soap dramatically gasps a burning hatred in his draws more cards. Charlie snickers and turns his ire to Gaz. Gaz gulps and stare into Charlie's wicked gaze.
"Don't you even think about it!"
"Oh, I'm thinking about it!"
The three of them continue a long battle, of gaining cards and removing cards. Their real rage over each other was so fascinating to watch. From the outside it is ridiculous, but I know in their shoes I be just as heated.
"This is what it's like when you're throwing a hissy-fit," Charlie turns to me. I give him the middle finger and look away.
"You know I can't help it."
"Yeah, I know to you, your life is falling apart."
"You make me sound like a brat."
"You have brat behavior." Charlie hums before freezing. He turns to me with a 'don't you say it,' look.
"So, I guess you got brat tamer on your test."
"Shut up." Soap looks over to Gaz who shares a look. Their friendship is very strange— cute even.
ᔕᔕᔕ≼∴≽ᔕᔕᔕ
"Alright," I look over to see Price walk to the front of the group. "Roach is back from leave, he'll be joining us."
I feel my face stiffen and the blood ooze down in my gut. Shit. My mind raced, why? I side-eyed Charlie who was already staring at me. His hand reaches out to mine lightly grazing it. I looked away I felt my world slightly tilting.
Don't be so dramatic...
You're being a brat...
Stop thinking!
'Hey, relax,' Charlie signs in my face. I look at him, and slightly nod. He pinched my hand. 'Deep breath.'
'Can't.'
'Hey! Look at me,' He signs. I look at him. 'You're freaking out.' I slightly nod.
I know it's small— being dramatic— Charlie smacks me over the head. I look over to him. 'What?' I sign back to him.
'Get out of your fucking head— this is a legit problem for you.' He signs.
New people, new strategy, new stress. I love my autism... I have to overhaul my strategy and form a new one. Are they like Soap and Gaz who need more energy input? Are they like Ghost whom I need more patience? Do I need to walk on eggshells like I do for Ghost? How much masking must I do? Do I have to mask all the time like I need to with Captain Price?
My mind swirled into oblivion.
"Get out of your fucking head!" Charlie smacked my head again.
"Something going on?" Price asks looking back at us.
"Nah, I got it." Charlie dismissed him with a wave of his hands. Price slightly frowns but walks off. Ghost, Gaz, and Soap look back at us a little longer. Charlie shoos them away.
"I'm in danger, danger, danger, danger—" I echo.
"You were fine with working with the Mexican special force—"
"Because I expected to work with outsiders for some time but not forever!" Charlie sighs, he honestly never understood how her mind worked. It is what it was. He just tried to end the panic; he didn't want to handle an autistic meltdown.
"Look— it won't be that bad—"
"What if they're worse than Ghost and Soap and Gaz?" I interrupt my voice turning whiny. My mind just spirals I already suffer from permanent masking— I couldn't drop it in front of them. I can tell their judgmental maybe not all to the same degree but still.
"You don't know that—" I give him a slight panic look.
"Alright, I'm still here—"
"And when you leave, I'll be alone!"
"I'm not gone yet!" Charlie sighs pushing his hair back. He had let it grow long, he looked good with longer hair.
"Well, when you are I'm going to be stuck here with people I can't stand!" Charlie waves his hand across my face.
"One step at a time, just meet the person— let me talk, let me figure out the guy. You might like them—" I give him a look. "You might be able to stand him."
"This is a nightmare, nightmare, nightmare, nightmare!" I lament to him.
"Worse than high school?"
"You're right," I mumble.
"This is character development."
"Is my autism not enough development?"
"You want to be a one-note side character?"
"Shut up!"
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"Hey c'mon you two," Gaz calls out to us. Charlie pushed me forward and we began to walk.
"Keep your mouth shut." I grumble and he nudges me, "Correct that scowl." I try to smooth out the slight press of my brows, the sneer on my lips, the edge in my tone. Don't pick a fight, just act dead. Just be a shadow.
Be the fucking mirror that I am.
Just don't be yourself.
Just mirror everything.
I looked over to Charlie who kept side-eyeing me. It's nice knowing he's watching over me, very nice. I hate my peers, but one thing I cannot deny is my ability to be maskless around them. Around them, I truly become what I am, A bitch.
To be me.
But I can't here.
We regroup with each other and from another helicopter a man walks out, face obscure with goggles and a mask. He walked up and waved. The others walk up to him chatting and laughing. He looks over at us before walking to us. I turn to Charlie with burning eyes.
He extended his hand and Charlie took it with a smile. They were close in height, but Charlie was still taller. He turns to me hand out stretch. I looked at it... Do I have to? Charlie smacked me in the head, and I reluctantly shook his hand.
My lips press into a fine line. I wanted to throw up. The cringe. The texture of the glove itched my skin, I wanted to slice off the skin on my palm. The texture made me sick. I turn to Charlie trying to burn a hole into his head.
Look at me!
Look at me!
I'm going to kill you!
I snatch my hand back my skin crawling with disgust. Charlie's eyes flicker to me giving me a warning glare. I tilt my head; I'm going to hit him!
"This is Gary Sanderson, we call him Roach," Gaz explains wrapping his arm around him.
"Cool, this is Gisele and I'm Charlie, She's your teammate, not me." Roach turns to me, from behind his goggles I could see his eyes widen.
"He's mute."
Great...
"You two can communicate—" Soap begins.
"She knows ALS, the American Sign Language unless he knows that they're gonna struggle."
'I know ASL,' great... I turn to Charlie.
"Her ASL is shit."
"But you two signs often."
"It's her style." Roach nods and turns to me.
Do not sign to me. Do not sign to me. Do not sign to me. Do not sign to me. Do not sign to me. Do not sign to me.
'Hi.'
Fuck. Charlie nudges me.
'Hello,' I sign back.
"Two is better than one, right?" Soap smiles. I look at Charlie and he looks at me. My safe communication is gone.
Damn.
Author: So... I added a few tags. Also, figure out the endings. I am not sorry!