"Why are you in such a good mood today? You're kind of humming." Daxon asks, sitting beside me at my table in the noisy ever-crowed cafeteria.
"What are you doing sitting next to me?" I ask, tilting my head at him.
He grins at me.
"Where else would I sit?" He says, scooching his chair closer to my side. I sigh.
"Not next to me, try the trash can." I wave him off, turning back to the war victim book I picked up from the library earlier.
"You don't have to act like you don't want me around." He nudges my shoulder and I swat him away.
"You're right, only I'm not acting." I train my eyes back down at the pages of the book.
"So I was thinking that we could go back to my house today. It's been a while." He smirks as I put my book to the side.
This is the only thing I like hearing from him.
I smile, nodding.
"It's only been 2 days, yesterday felt pretty long." I whisper the latter part of the sentence.
'Why did it feel long?" I scoff, looking up at Daxon's curious face.
"Maybe Daylight savings happened, I don't know." Shrugging, the lunch bell rings and we get up, leaving the café.
My eyes glance up at Daxon. His bubbliness from just now has faded and a scowl rests on his face.
I'm always seeming to forget that I don't know this guy, nowadays. I'm getting too caught up on his wavelength and I'm forgetting what mine used to be.
Things I would swear on before, are hypocritical now. If anyone asks me a couple of weeks ago what I thought of having friends or even getting along with someone a little, I would've laughed in their face, but after Daxon...
I guess everyone needs someone to push all their frustrations on to and if that counts as getting along with someone then sure, I have someone like that.
I don't trust him but I can tolerate him, which is a lot.
Maybe it's cause he's no good for me. He's worse than I am.
And I love that.
***
As the dismissal bell rings proud, class ends and I pack up my things, heading off to my locker. Daxon stands beside it as I round the corner.
"Do you leave class early or something? The bell just rang." I say, reaching him and the locker as he chuckles.
"I'm just a faster walker. Hurry up." Rolling my eyes, I stuff my books into the metal box and we head to the main exit.
"I think we're friends," Daxon says, breaking the silence.
"I don't." The fresh early summer breeze hits us.
"You do." He says. I glare up at him.
"I don't do friendships." He unlocks his beaten-down car and I hop into the passenger side, while he does the driver's seat.
"Then what are we?" He turns to me in the confined space, with those cold eyes betraying his words.
"You're my employer." I state, tapping at his hand so he can start the car. He shakes his head as the engine comes to life.
"I'm not paying you." He turns the corner, as I set my cheek against the window.
"Yes, you are. This is an exchange of services. I keep you safe and you let me hurt people. We're both scratching each other's back." I say, as we drive down the road.
"What if I want to be closer with you than that?" We stop at a red light and I stare at the side of Daxon's face.
Why is he saying this?
"What do you mean?" Green light shines through the window and the car continues forward.
"We have to be closer than just boss and employee." He curves into the home stretch of his forest.
"Why?"
"Because its better like that."
Better like that?
"Daxon, you-"
Glass shatters as the window beside Daxon has multiple holes blown into it.
"Get down!" He pushes my head down as the bullets come from multiple directions, bursting through all the windows.
The people after him are not playing around. They want him dead.
The car swerves as we skid to a stop on the side of the road, half-way into the forest. Daxon reaches over and unlocks the compartment in front of me. It drops open like a jaw and reveals two handguns. He grabs one as I sit staring at the box before me.
So he's had us armed this whole time? I mean, yes people are after his life and I'm supposed to be his bodyguard or whatever but, he's been completely ready, while I sit here ignorant to the fact.
He couldn't just tell me that-
"Naomi, wake up! This isn't the time to be spacing out. Do your job." He sneers at me, tossing my gun into my lap.
I blink as the exchange of gunshots and Daxon's words drag me out of my head.
A grin slowly spreads wide on my lips.
This is what I've been waiting for.
I grab the gun, turning to Daxon and gesturing that we move out of the car. He shoots from behind the cover of his seat through what used to be the back car window.
"We have to get out of here," I yell over the rain of bullets. I shuffle my body better in cover by my seat. He sends me a look of confusion.
"Our only advantage over them is that we're in the car. Naomi, there's probably a got 7-8 of them right now." A bullet lodges itself in the old car radio.
"You know your way in the trees of the forest, right?" I ask, checking if my gun is loaded.
Once I start using this thing, I don't know when I'll stop but at this moment, it's my shield. My weapon.
Daxon smiles at me, nodding.
"On three we'll roll out," Daxon says, putting a hand against the hilt of his car door handle.
I nod, placing my hand on mine.
"One."
Bullets come through the back window, all tearing up seats.
"Two."
I only had one training session before this, but I was in a hurry so I'm not surprised they were too.
"Three."
I won't let Daxon die.
We throw open the car doors, using them as a shield as we sprint into the den of life. Shouts follow us as I follow Daxon through the green, wild maze. We run past his home further into the forest, where the targets I shot stand.
"We'll use those." He says, running towards one. I'm right behind him.
A shot goes off and the skin of my ear sparks with pain. My hand goes up to check and blood comes away on my fingers.
They're either great shooters or gaining on us and I'm willing to bet on both.
We slide behind one of the straw dummies Daxon made.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" I ask him. My body shakes as my fingers tremble with the gun in my hand.
Is this excitement or fear? How can I tell?
Just fucking blow their heads off. You know you want to.
The wind breathes its words to me.
Yes. It's completely right.
"We'll most likely have one chance to kill all of them at once. They should be running in a group within here because they know better than to split up in an unknown area." Daxon says.
He knows a lot about them, huh.
We tuck ourselves against the back of the dummy, Daxon taking the left side and me taking the right.
"Watch for them. They are wearing suits like Moe was and they're sneaky. Make sure you're always aiming lower than your target, they like to duck." Daxon whispers to me. I nod.
Duck bullets? They might be funny guys. Too bad.
"And one more thing," he says, turning towards me and making eye contact. That crazy glint shines from his eyes and my heart skips a beat.
"Make sure you survive this." He grins at me, turning back to look at the men.
My heart doesn't come down.
That look of his is dangerous. Way too dangerous.
I pat my chest and shake my head, turning back to my side of the dummy.
I can't be worried about stupid things like this right now.
My chest rises as I inhale and fall as exhale. The men finally all stand in a circle, guns up ready to shoot but they can't seem to find us.
Here go everything.
"Ready?" Daxon asks.
"More than ever." My finger lays on the trigger.
The feeling of Daxon's arms around me, drawing my shoulders back and helping me aim, brings back my memory for how to stand and how to move with the gun.
"Then shoot."
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2.2k ~ 9/24/20
Thank you for 2k!!! sorry I've been so absent. School's hard.
Next update soon.
bye bye.