Chapter 27 | More Than Childish Games
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"Took you guys long enough!" Taylor says exasparatedly, her blond curls flying behind her as she zooms down the brick steps of her house to meet us.
"Don't blame us. Blame her," Noah grumbles, throwing an accusing finger in my direction.
"Just shush, Noah," I drawl, flicking him in the back in retaliation. He grunts his uncommitted reply, but otherwise continues on into the house.
He isn't wrong, I had taken about twenty minutes to gather my stuff for tonight's sleepover. In my defense that was only so I could put makeup on my black eye so I didn't have to put up with the annoying (and slightly deceiving) sunglasses anymore. Noah had noticed, but thankfully didn't mention anything.
I also might've had to finish the last episode of Stranger Things I started a couple days ago. Things like that can't wait.
Before she can make a move back up the steps, I call out to Taylor. "Wait up, I have a question.
"What's up?" She asks, waiting for me to approach by her side before allowing herself to resume stepping up the stairs.
"Could you drop me off to school from now on? My mom can't anymore so I need a chauffeur."
We both attempt to squeeze through the narrow doorway and successfully make it through, but she doesn't answer for a couple of seconds while she twists around to slam the door shut roughly.
"Sí señorita," she says in a horrible Spanish accent, chocolate brown eyes lit playfully as they set on mine.
"But," I add, noting her strange upbeat behavior. "I don't want you speeding through the streets like you did when I had the date with Chance."
I only realize the poor choice of words when I'm bombarded by Taylor's excitement. "Date? You finally consider it a date? EEEEE!" She screeches. My hands to fly up to my sensitive ears, but even then the loud sound practically shatters my eardrum.
"What's wrong?" Sam asks anxiously, bursting out of Taylor's bedroom and jogging towards us. His hazel eyes travel around us two, searching for the problem while his posture tenses threateningly. Noah appears right beside Sam, grey eyes lingering on me. And I know exactly why.
Because I'm accident prone.
"Everything is absolutely, positively great! Kirsten finally r―" Taylor starts in a babble, her hand reaching up to twirl her hair. I've recently noticed she only does that when she starts a long sentence, so I save us all from her endless chatter and throw my hand over her mouth.
I don't want the two in my business about Chance, so I debate on the best way to get them off of my case. Finally, I settle for a plan that has a zero percent chance of failing.
"We were talking about girl stuff," I say in a serious tone, raising my eyebrows in emphasis. Immediately the two boys pivot around, fast walking into the door they came from and giving us privacy.
"Way to scare them off," Taylor compliments after she finishes a fit of giggles.
"It was too easy," I laugh, running my hand through my long brown hair.
"Anyway, back to Chance. . ."
"I didn't mean to say date. I meant gathering," I insist. Tired of the constant bring ups of this conversation, I lean back against the wall.
"Okay so if that doesn't count as a first date, why don't you ask him out?" She counters, eyebrows raised. "And don't try to say you don't like him. Your face is as red as a rose."
Self concious, I pat my face. Sure enough, it's hot to the touch.
"He's totally into you! Do you see the way he looks at you? Just consider it. Yolo, right?"
Her mini speech isn't that far off. I only live once, and I might as well have a good time while I'm alive. It can't hurt to try something different.
"I might."
"Good." Her lips quirk up in a satisfied smile, but then she's off, heading up the stairs to her room. I hurry up and follow her, but we're not even four steps in the room when a loud sound startles us.
"GUYS!" Rumbles Axel suddenly. His thunderous steps pound on the wooden floor and shake the frames hanging on the wall. I jump at the unexpected ruckus, twirling around to face the door.
He appears in his full glory an instant later, black curls and green eyes wild. Carolynn appears behind him, her body practically hidden from Axel's bulky one.
I'd saved us from Taylor's endless babble earlier, but I unfortunately have no power to save us over Axel's. A mute button would work great right now, but you just had to invent the lightbulb before you did a silent button on the universe, didn't you Edison.
"Carolynn and I had the most amazing idea. We were in the living room, alone, and I was bored. I grabbed a bag of dark chocolates from the cabinet―"
Taylor's warm, brown eyes go wide with surprise, features etched with anger. "You did what?! Those were mine!"
"Uh, whoops. Not anymore," he chuckles nervously. I haven't seen him anymore uncomfortable as this as he scratches the back of his head, stumbling a step backwards like he's afraid of her. From the corner of my eye, I swear I observe Taylor's lips perk up in a faint smile at her powerful effect over him.
"Does the chocolate have anything to do with what you have to tell us?" Noah asks impatiently from his spot in the loveseat, his forefinger drumming against his thigh as he waits for an answer.
This makes him think for a bit. "No," he finally concludes.
"Then get to the point, will you?" I exclaim, drawing his attention back to the original conversation.
"Long story short we got to thinking. What if we played some games from back in the old days?"
"As in?" I ask, motioning for him to get to the point already with multiple twists of my wrist.
"Hide and go seek tag!" He finally voices, his expression contorted in happiness.
Taylor― thankfully―rejects his extraordinary offer. "It's too dark to be playing tag outside, not to mention too cold to be hiding."
"Then we can play hide and go seek tag inside! Please!" He insists, a gargantuan smile still plastered on his lips.
"You're such a man child," I utter purposefully loudly.
"But you still love meee," he sings. My unladylike snort at his reply reverberates throughout the room.
Taylor throws her hands up on the air with her indecision. "Well, it's not up to us to decide I guess. Carolynn, do you really want to play this?" She pauses before muttering, "we're juniors for crying out loud."
As if it would help her case.
"If Axel wants to, I'm in " she says in her usual quiet sounding voice. Taylor grumbles while Axel shouts in victory, pumping his fists into the air.
"Well. . ." Taylor says slowly, walking up to Axel. The ginormous yet gullible guy shrinks back as if he expects her to hit him. She takes the advantage, pushing him aside and running out of the room.
"You're counting, Axel!" She yells, her voice wavering due to her body jostling in her run to her hiding spot. The others follow pursuit, running away from Axel and to different parts of the house.
Unlike everyone else, I calmly walk out of the room. Before I fully exit, I stop next to Axel's flabbergasted form.
"You asked for this," I tell him through a shrug before resuming my way out. With a humongous sigh, I hear him reluctantly start to count.
My first choice of a hiding spot is under the kitchen table, but as I run over Sam's hand suddenly appears from under to rudely shoo me away.
Well then. I guess it's a fend for yourself type of thing. Man versus man. I didn't know this game would get so competitive.
My last resort is the basement, but I'm too timid of it's unknown darkness to actually commence walking down. Don't judge, there could be rats, ghosts, and worst of all radioactive spiders. My clumsy self isn't qualified to become Spiderman. Or Spiderwoman that is.
Instead of running into uncertain waters, I run back towards the room Axel's stationed in. He faces away from me and towards the wall, causing a sliver of hope to bury itself in my stomach. If I can get past him, I'm home free! He'll never suspect someone in that room while everyone ran the opposite way.
With careful movements, I step on the balls of feet so the creaky floorboards are silent underneath my weight and tip toe over there. My method works for the most part, each step tedious yet lacking sound.
"15, 16," he continues, oblivious to my presence. I'm not exactly sure when he's going to stop counting, but I do know I don't have much time left before he finds or senses me creeping.
There's only enough room between him and the doorway for me to squeeze through. Gritting my teeth, I hold in a breath to make myself as small as possible, squeezing through the narrow space with centimeters to spare.
The real issue is making it all the way through. As I slip into the clearing, I totter dangerously.
"23! 24! 25! Ready or not!"
I don't wait for him to finish as I quietly regain my balance and dash over to the opposite side of the bed. Just as he finishes his sentence, I stop, drop, and roll under.
Who knew something I learned in 1st grade would be so helpful in a game of hide and go seek tag? Granted, if someone finds me I won't have the chance to run with the difficulty of getting out from the tight space, but it was a risk I would have to take.
As I had hoped, Axel doesn't bother walking in the room. He heads the opposite way, over to the kitchen.
From all the way from my spot underneath the bed, I can hear Axel's holler. "I found you Sam!" A scrape of a chair on the hardwood floor sounds as Sam probably tries to make a run for it, but I then hear him groan in disappointment.
Ha, karma.
The thing about hide and seek tag is it gets boring after a while. I'm typically a restless person, so laying still and doing literally nothing and staring at literally nothing makes me fidgety. Fully knowing Axel isn't going to check this room anytime soon, I struggle underneath the small space to get my phone out of my pocket. I downloaded Trivia Crack earlier, which is a great pass time.
"Pssst!" Someone whispers, their sound cutting through the rooms dead silence. My hands freeze as they finally wrap around my phone, body following suit. When did Axel get in here? How did I not hear his footsteps?
"Kirsten?" Murmurs a feminine voice.
I crawl towards the end of the bed and lift up the sheets covering the open edge. Instantly, I notice the door to the closet across the room is slightly ajar with a head with strawberry blond hair peaking out through the small crack.
I attempt to restrain it, but I can't help breaking out into a giggle. It isn't because of anything she did, I just find the situation hilarious. As my wild cackles become more violent, Carolynn begins her own set of laughter.
At the sound of our now gasping breaths, Axel starts to jog over. I force myself to continue my laughter silently and retreat back underneath the bed, letting the sheet back down to cover me. Carolynn is about to retreat into her own hiding spot, but she's too late. Axel already barges in, his footsteps heavy and practically bouncing the floorboards.
"I've got you cornered Carolynn," he teases playfully. I hear her squeal in newfound laughter, some shuffling, then abruptly become cut off.
She must be telling him where I'm hidden. Trying to catch her so I can call her out, I slowly yet purposefully crawl back to the edge of the bed and slowly lift up the sheet to reveal what's going on.
What I see shocks me to no end. Well, I guess I was expecting this sooner or later, but not under these circumstances.
In front of my very own eyes, approximately twelve feet away from me, Carolynn is off her feet, Axel practically carrying her as they passionately lock lips.
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