Stepping out of the front doors of church, I feel a little more refreshed. Something about the environment made me feel safe and secure. It's somewhere I can let go of everything and just feel there, like I'm not alone, even when I often feel like it.
Mom and Dad meet me at the car once they greet our pastor. Sydney and Tori thankfully went back to college yesterday night. I know I shouldn't say that, but they bring me more stress than I needed.
Once we get home, I collapse onto the couch and take my phone out to see a million messages from Hannah. She's begging me to come over since Dumb and Dumber, also known as Tyler and Will, were taking over the downstairs of her house.
I run up to my bedroom and pull on some more comfortable clothes, like some yoga pants and a big T-shirt, and announce that I'm leaving to go to Hannah's house.
"You're going to Hannah's? You're sure you don't have practice or homework or anything?" Mom asks. She's always coming up with something to get me to stay home.
I shake my head. "It's Sunday, Mom."
She sighs and purses her lips. "Okay, but don't be long. You need to be rested up for practice this week. One bad night's sleep and you'll be ruined for the rest of the week."
I mentally roll my eyes at her theories. "Okay."
With that, I leave and head to Hannah's.
*
Sprawled out on the furniture in the Carters' living room are Will and Tyler with Xbox controllers in their hands.
The game is Call of Duty, so every time they let loose an M16 on an enemy, it practically shakes the house. I almost close my ears so they don't burst.
Thankfully I'm able to sneak by them without being seen and carefully climb the stairs.
Hannah is in her room sitting on her bed, her head leaning up against the headboard so that her chin is touching her chest. A bag of Ruffles chips sits on her stomach.
When she sees me, she sits up immediately and smiles.
"Thank the Lord you're here," she says.
Her TV is blaring The Vampire Diaries re-runs on Netflix.
"What's up?" I ask her as I collapse onto her bed, grabbing a handful of chips and shoving them in my mouth.
Hannah suddenly groans. "I need to eat healthier." She adjusts her glasses on her face and shoves the bag of chips away from her.
I take them and lay them on my stomach then.
"Oh yeah, a salad sounds so good right now," I say sarcastically as I shove my mouth full with chips. Hannah laughs and shakes her head.
"But really, what's up?" I say again.
"Those boys are driving me insane!" She tells me. "We came home from church, Mom and Dad left to go to town or something like that and they've been playing that since. It's so loud."
Downstairs, the loud noise suddenly stops.
Hannah and I look at each other with wide eyes.
Then we hear the knock on the door.
Neither of us get a chance to answer it - or even lock it - before Tyler bursts into the room wearing a smile. Will follows behind him, wearing that same smile that can only mean one thing...
They want something.
"What do you want?" Hannah asks. Tyler sits on her bed and takes the bag of chips, dropping a few in his mouth.
"Why do you always assume I want something?" He asks her. I look up at Will to see him already looking at me.
"What?" I say.
He shrugs his shoulders. "Nothing."
"Okay, okay," Tyler finally says as he jumps to his feet. "We kind of made this bet with these dudes online and... well, we're desperate."
I raise an eyebrow at him. "That's no way to ask for our help."
Will steps up. "We need your help. Like, really bad."
"We're the last people who can could help you with that," Hannah tells them and I don't object. Although I won't admit aloud, I know I'm not that great of a video gamer.
"We get a hundred bucks out of it if we win one match. And we're supposed to play five matches."
Hannah and I look at each other again.
"500 bucks?" She exclaims, hopping out of bed.
I start towards the door to follow Tyler and Hannah downstairs but Will stops me by grabbing my wrist.
"You have to keep your cool, okay? These guys are freaks when it comes to yelling." He explains to me how we can hear them and they can hear us, something's that's very foreign to me.
"What are talking about?" I ask him. "I'm always cool."
"Not when you play COD."
"Yes I do!"
I push him out of the way and head to the living room to get a remote.
Tyler starts the game before Will can even downstairs, so Will jumps over the back of the couch and lands beside me - almost on top of me - and Tyler throws him his controller.
We start battling our opponents, and suddenly a voice books through the TV's speakers.
"Are you guys ready to get blown up?" A boy asks. I instantly think of a teenage boy sitting in front of his computer or TV screen thinking his life depends on this game.
"Bring it on!" I shout and Will elbows me. I grin at him and start shooting at nothing on the game.
Tyler and Will both scold me while Hannah just laughs.
Finally I'm able to find a an enemy and I gun him down, but not without the help of Will. I may or may not be very competitive.
"Will!" I say. "He was mine!"
"Shut up, Jessa," Will says through clenched teeth and as he tries hard to get out of enemy gun fire. His fingers press down hard on the controller.
I shake my head and keep hunting. I'd like to have some money, I mean, why not? So I shoot the next enemy I see.
I jump up after my fourth kill in a row and do a little happy dance.
It earns me a groan from Will.
While I'm doing my happy dance, someone shoots my person down on the game.
"What?" I say in shock.
"Would you sit down?" Tyler tells me. I want to yell at the person who can probably hear everything I say, but I don't. I sit back down beside Will and throw my feet up, going into game mode.
"Do you guys have girls on your team or something?" The boy asks. "I can hear screaming on your end."
"What's it matter if they do-" I shout but Will quickly covers my mouth with his hand and pulls my head down to his chest.
"Would you shut up?" He whispers. "For the millionth time."
Jerking away from him, I begin to hunt down the boy.
When I see him, I take one shot and nail him in the back. He falls lifeless.
I ignore the urge to run it in his face that yes, I am a girl and yes, I just shot your butt.
As we play, I notice the look on Tyler's face. He looks almost uncomfortable but also determined. I look at Hannah and notice she isn't seeing the look on her brothers face.
What's he thinking about?
*
"We won!" I shout as I jump up, dropping my controller onto the carpet. No one cares though, because we're so happy to have won one hundred dollars.
Even if we have to split it four ways.
Will surprisingly wraps his arms around me and I do the same to him. That is, until I realize what we're doing and I awkwardly back out of it.
I almost catch myself not wanting to let go since it just felt like normal. Like it used to.
"How are we supposed to get the money?" Hannah asks.
"Just leave it to me," Tyler says. "I'll take care of it."
I glance down at my phone and notice that it's already five.
"I should probably go," I announce. "Mom wants me home early."
I walk into the kitchen with Hannah and grab my shoes by the door to pull them on.
"Are we still going to hang out tomorrow?" She asks and I remember her asking me that last week. She's supposed to be showing me something but I haven't gotten it out of her.
"Of course," I tell her.
"Jessa," Will calls from the living room. "Are you still riding with me tomorrow?"
I walk over to see him and I raise an eyebrow. "What?"
"Remember? I'm giving you a ride tomorrow to school?" He asks. I remember him offering then and how it's supposed to make up for our little adventure the other night.
I wasn't really expecting him to make it up, but hey, why not? It would be saving me gas money.
But then I have Connor to think about...
"I don't know..." I trail off.
"Come on. We'll make a coffee stop," he offers and winks at me.
I roll my eyes. "Okay, but don't make me late, okay?"
"You got it." He turns back to Tyler and I can only imagine what they're saying to each other.
I tell Hannah our plans since she squally rides with me, even though she's been taking Tyler's car for the past few days.
"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow after school so I can show you that thing," she says with a giddy smile.
"What is it?" I ask in attempt to get it out of her.
"You'll find out!" She shouts as she skips up the steps.
I shake my head and leave with a somewhat happy conscience.
________
This chapter is a little shorter, but I hope you liked it!
Let's just pretend that the controllers in the picture above aren't Play Station controllers haha!
Song is Enemy Fire by Bea Miller.
Thanks for reading!