To say that we were panicking was an understatement. I wouldn't have mind this all alone, but there was no way I was going to let any kind of trouble upon Dylan.
He's ten for goodness sake! He deserves to have a life full of joy! Not running away from bloody goons with terror in his eyes!
As I ran, holding Dylan beside me really close, I tried looking around to find something suspicious. But nope, everything was just so calm.
People had no idea what had just happened and why a seventeen year old girl was running like a freaking lunatic with a ten year old kid beside her.
Nope, everything was just fine.
Seeing everybody so casual like that made my blood boil. But again, they had no clue that one or maybe even more person could have actually died today if not for a little kid.
Then, I turned around to look at Dylan whilst running. My heart ached when I saw that confused face.. It wasn't always that he'd seen a bullet like that come straight at someone. I'd be surprised even if he knew what a bullet was. Well, I may be exaggerating a bit. He probably did know what a gun was; he did after all read so many books.
At times like these, I wanted to thank the lord for Dylan's brilliant eyesight. Of course, I have an amazing one too, but hey, I never said I had eyes at the back of my head!
The kid was tired now... I could see it in his eyes. Yet, he was trying so hard to keep himself going. Oh, did I mention that my bike was now punctured with a hole in its wheel?
Oh, of course not. As soon as we reached my bike, I realized that there was a hole in it. Awesome, right? Please note the sarcasm.
Dylan was now panting heavily and I knew if I didn't do anything about this, he'd fall onto the ground and be too tired to get up.
So, I did what came into my mind first; I picked him up and placed him on my back, piggy back style. He laid his head on my shoulder and tried to control his breathing while I placed one hand behind to make sure he won't fall.
I really can't complain, it's been more than fifteen minutes that we've been running. Trying to make sure we reach back home safe.
All of a sudden, I felt a pair of hands on me and my eyes widened as I tried to get away from the hands and tried to kick him. I could even feel Dylan lowering his head so that he could cover his eyes.
"Would you calm down? It's just me!" The voice yelled bringing me back to reality as I slowly turned to face him. Sure enough, there he was.
Jace.
"How can you expect me to calm down when you nearly give me a heart attack while I was running?" I asked yelling at him back.
"Fair enough," he said nodding awkwardly and scratching his neck.
Slowly, Dylan opened his eyes and saw that it was Jace.
"Jace!" He exclaimed getting off my back and running over to Jace, who scooped him up with a small smile on his face and an even bigger smile on Dylan's face.
I smiled as I watched Dylan's face. He was smiling. I guess that just made my day.
I cleared my throat, my smile still on my face, and both the guys hugging finally remembered that I was there and got up. Jace broke the silence first.
"Why were you guys running?" He asked curiously.
"Oh! You know this small, black thing almost hit Ashley but she ducked in time and then she told me to run, and when we went to her bike we saw that it had a hole in it.. Which is a shame since I love that motorbike as much as Ashley does.. And then we panicked and then we kept running and running until I finally got tired and Ashley picked me up and then-" Dylan rambled. Gosh, he just asked one freaking damn question!
"We get it, Dylan," I told him.
"And what was this small, black thing that almost hit you, Ashley?" Jace asked turning to face me.
"You don't have to know everything I do. Dylan's already spilled quite a lot of information," I snapped, narrowing my eyes at him.
"Yes, Dylan has spilled quite a lot of information but if you really need some help, you're going to have to tell me what's going on," he replied.
"We don't really need any help," I told him whilst glaring.
"Oh yeah?" he asked amused.
"Yes-" I was about to say but Dylan cut me off.
"Ashley, just get this over with!" Dylan whined. I could have actually strangled that kid right then. Couldn't he just shut his mouth?
Knowing that I was angry, he pouted adorably and blinked his eyes a few times for extra effect. I rose an eyebrow at him and smirked when he did that.
"Trying to get me to agree?" I asked, still smirking at him as he continued with the pout.
"Is it working?" he asked hopefully.
"Kind of," I replied.
"Please, please, please, please, please, please, pleas-" he ranted tugging my arm.
"Fine!" I yelled frustrated and yanked his hand away from my arm.
I looked over to Jace, who had a smirk on his face while he was watching us, and glared at him which in response he urged me to continue with what I was going to say.
I walked closer to him and then went closer to his ear.
"It was a bullet," I told him in a low voice, pressing my lips in a thin line when I said that. I didn't want Dylan to hear that just in case he knew what it meant. A panicking Dylan is the last thing you want in a situation like this.
"A-a bullet?" he asked mirroring my voice.
I nodded.
His jaw dropped open and his eyes widened trying to process what I told him.
"But why would someone want to kill you?" he asked whispering now. I looked at Dylan and saw him narrowing his eyes in suspicion.
"What's going on here?" he demanded. For a ten year old, he can be pretty scary.
"We were talking about..about.. the bike!" I finally found an excuse. He just gave me a confused look.
"We were just discussing how the bike may have broken or even got a hole in it. So far we've come to the conclusion that a football probably went in it, right?" I looked over at Jace and gave him an intimidating look to just agree on what I said.
Okay, I know that it wasn't the best excuse I could ever come up with but I made it up on the spot! Give me some credit.
"Yes," Jace replied doing something right for the first time.
"Oh.." he trailed off nodding, with his eyes narrowed as if he didn't believe us a bit. Thankfully, he let it go.
"Yeah," I told Dylan awkwardly.
"Umm.. Ashley? You want me to drop you anywhere? I mean I do have my car with me," he told me.
I just shrugged. "Anything's fine with me," I told him.
"Alright, let's going shall we? Dylan?" he asked for his approval. Dylan nodded a few times before the both of us followed Jace to his silver Volvo.
"There it is. Come on in," he told us and opened the door for both me and Dylan.
"Thanks?" I kind of questioned. No one had ever done this for me, so it was kind of awkward. Apparently, chivalry was not dead.
"No problem," he told me before getting into his side of the car and starting the car.
Once we were off, I debated whether to tell him where our house was or just get him to drop us somewhere near and tell him that our house was nearby. After quite some time of considering the possible options, I settled with the idea of dropping us nearby.
"Where to?" he asked, his eyes fixated on the road.
"A few buildings away from the shop alley. I'll tell you the directions once we reach there," I told him.
Our house was just seven minutes from the shop alley and if I could get him to drive us a bit nearer without telling us the exact location, Dylan and I would have to walk less and remain a bit more safe.
I saw him take a turn to the right and asked, "Which direction are we using?"
"Umm... the usual one?" he questioned, unsure of how to explain it to me.
"This route is going to take more time. You could have just taken a left from the area you were and continued straight on, it would have been faster," I explained.
He seemed to think about it for some time.
"You're right," he told me with a genuine smile.
"I know, I take it every time," I mumbled earning a chuckle from him.
"But how? I've been here for quite a few years now and you just shifted in," he asked confused by the fact that I knew more about the roads than him.
The real reason was that I literally memorized all the lanes when I came in to look for a place for street fighting but I just shrugged as a response.
I looked over at the back to see why Dylan was awfully quiet during this whole ride. He's usually so hyperactive that its hard to believe that he was sitting there without talking.
When I looked back, he was sleeping. That explained the silent part.
I smiled seeing at his sleeping figure and turned back to the front, sighing.
"Tell me more about yourself," he told me all off a sudden, looking at me for a second before turning his head back to the road.
"What do you want to know about me?" I asked.
"Anything," he shrugged.
"I'm a seventeen year old girl- turning eighteen the day before graduation- with a passion of street fighting yet looking for a stable job to take care of my dad and brother," I told him all in one go.
It was weird how I told him all of that without hesitating. Well, it's not like I told him anything personal yet.
"Your dad? Doesn't your dad have a job?" he asked.
"Gosh, you've got too many questions. This is the last one I'll be answering though. No, he doesn't have a job." I answered.
"Wh-" he was about to ask another question before I cut him off.
"Oh, would you look at that? We're here, and I didn't even need to tell you the directions," I quickly interrupted.
He sighed before looking back at Dylan.
"What are you going to do about this guy?" he asked.
"Wake him up," I told him in a 'duh' tone.
"You want me to carry him up to your home?" he asked.
I turned defensive. "No, no. We'll be fine, he's a big guy already," I told him referring to Dylan as a big guy for the first time in my life. Well, that was partially the truth.
"Really?" I heard a voice behind and internally groaned because I knew he would never let that drop.
"Yes, really, Dylan. Let's go now," I told him and he nodded sleepily and I opened the door and got out.
Dylan was out of the car as soon as I was and we looked back at Jace to tell him a quick 'thank you' when I found him staring at me.
"Umm.. thank you," I told him awkwardly with a forced smile.
"Anytime," he replied.
We were just about to go when he called me again.
"Ashley?" Jace's voice stopped me and he rolled down the windows.
"Yeah?" I asked raising an eyebrow.
"You have to trust me," he told me sincerely.
"What?" I asked dumbfounded.
"I know this isn't where your house is, but I'm not going to force you to tell me. But your going to have start trusting me," he said before rolling the windows back up before leaving me out there confused.
So, he knew this wasn't my house. Was my lie that easy to see through? But what did he mean that I was going to have to trust him?
Leaving my mind puzzled for a few minutes, I dragged an almost sleeping Dylan till home and then placed him on the bed where he was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
However, I couldn't sleep as Jace's words echoed in my head. I needed to trust him? Why?
That's when another question popped up in my head as if I hadn't had enough in my head already.
Where in the world was dad?
Ugh! As if I didn't have enough in my mind already.
*******************************************************************************************************************************
An update for you lovely fellows! Your welcome ;P
I just came back from a school competition and won first place and won a trophy, medal, and two certificates!!!!! I am really excited and hence the update ;)
Another thing is that I felt too bad leaving you off on that cliffhanger. I know how annoyed you get when the chapter ends with a cliffhanger and you have no idea when the next update is and your aching for more.. I've done that quite a few times. I usually read completed books and if I accidentally read uncompleted books, I get quite tired waiting for the next update :)
Achievements:
35K and 1.8K votes!!! AND #3 IN ACTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I could go on with the exclamation marks forever ;)
Thank you so much for reading this and yes, I will make a note to myself to make these author's note shorter. Also, excuse my mistakes as I will edit all these chapters once I'm done with the book.
Till then;
-Vote!
-Comment!
-Share!
-Follow!
~Pakhi<3