Chapter 6:
One by one, the members of our team leap out of the train car. I wait at the back of the line, and Zeke smirks at me. I roll my eyes as I smile, and he grins. "Your team's going down." He says as he winks when I get up to jump off.
"We'll see about that, dude." I say, then leap out of the train, Zeke's happy laughter moving father and farther away from me wth each second.
I've never liked jumping off of the trains at night, because you can't see where you'll land, and you could jump straight into a building.
My stomach drops when I leap off of the train, and then slams into the ground when I do. Pain echoes through my legs, starting at my ankles and flying up into my already pain-filled knee.
Once I regain my balance, I stand up, and walk to where the whole team is meeting up.
My father already has a special plan; he always has; The Ferris Wheel.
"Six and I will climb up the Ferris Wheel, and place the flag at the top, and we will then guard the Wheel." My dad pauses, "I want four of you on offense, and four of you on defense."
"Maddie, Olivia, Colsen, and Ashton are on defense. You will hide in the bushes around the Ferris Wheel, and then you will shoot anyone from the other team who comes near the Ferris Wheel." My mom says.
"The rest of you will be on offense, and sneak attack the other side. Go!" My mom finishes.
I walk over to one of the bushes, Steven Colsen directly behind me. I then climb behind one of the bushes, and Colsen climbs in right next to me. I sigh. Why is he right next to me? Why me?
I look at him, and as soon as I open my mouth to say something, he leans in, until our breaths are mixing, and then he leans in even closer, until there is no space.
And. His. Lips. Are. On. Mine.
I don't know why, but I kiss him back. Also, the weird thing is, I feel sparks, fireworks even, when I kiss him. When I kissed Jordan, I never felt like this.
I feel alive right now.
I know this is wrong, but something just told me to. The best thing is- Jordan is all the way across Navy Pier, he doesn't know what's happening right now. "Did you like that?" He whispers, his lips brushing against my ear, and his hot breaths tingling my face with every word. I feel his lip piercing against my skin and I cringe.
"Yeah, sure. Whatever, but I don't know anything about you. I just know that you hate your first name, and that all of a sudden you just kissed me and—you know what, I don't guess it matters." I say, putting my hand on his padded chest, then moving it to pull a leaf out of his blonde-brown hair.
After we recuperate, we jump out of the bushes, and get into defensive position.
A few minutes later, I hear a rustling in the bushes. Then Julia walks out of the bushes. "It's just me, guys." She says breathlessly, then giggles.
"I need backup. Everyone else has been shot. Can You and Steven come with me?" She questions. I nod slightly.
"It's Colsen!" Colsen says and Then Julia motions for me to follow her.
We walk across the Pier, until we reach an old, abandoned building, and then we stop there. "They're hiding the flag underneath the bean. I'll run out and distract them, and then you two go for the flag." She says.
"Okay." Colsen says. Then she walks out. "Yo hoes! Yeah, I'm talking to you! Come and get me!" She shouts. All of the guards from their side run and follow her silhouette, as it becomes smaller the farther away she runs.
I see Zeke on top of the bean sculpture, facing away from us. I aim my gun at his back. I then shoot, and it hits his lower back. "Shit!" He screams, and then he lays down.
"Now," I say to Colsen, who follows me as I race toward the bean. We're all the way on the edge of the Erudite Headquarters now.
I see Uriah eating a corndog when we reach him, and Colsen aims the gun at him, and shoots him.
He misses at first, which sends Uriah into shock, and he fumbles for his gun, completely forgetting about the corndog, which he drops on the ground.
Then, before Uriah can get his gun, Colsen actually hits him in the stomach, and we race to the flag.
I grab the flag before Colsen, and then I climb onto the top of the bean, where I wave the flag around in the air, our team clapping for us. Colsen is down at the bottom of the bean, still clapping for me. That's when I look off to my side, and I see it.
It kills my heart, in more ways than one.
I see Angela pressed up against a wall, and Jordan in front of her, kissing her. They have paint splatters on their black-clad bodies, signaling the fact that they're out.
She isn't doing anything to stop him, and he's just sitting there, kissing her, his hands against the wall, while I'm watching him do it. It kills my heart cause I thought that he loved me, but it also makes me somewhat happy just because I'm ready to break up with him.
I guess Ashton was right when he coined Jordan Pedrad as a hoe. Ariana was wrong when as called him a hoe for me, because he's really a hoe for Angela.
By now, I have stopped waving the flag, and Steven-Colsen has seemed to notice, too. He looks over at them and cringes.
I sigh, then hold the flag in my hands as I walk over to where Zeke lays, on the edge of the sculpture. I sit down beside him and rub my fingers across the shiny, glowing neon fabric.
"Hey, Mads." He says softly, instead of yelling like he normally does.
"I can't do it anymore." I say to him. "I just want to quit." I look out at the fence line and close my eyes, looking down. I feel like I'm going to cry, but I bite my lip to stop myself from doing it.
"What?" He asks.
"Jordan and Angela. He's cheating on me, and It makes me want to quit." I whisper. "It's not even just that, it's something else," I say, and send him a knowing look. He nods his head. "It just makes me wonder, you know? Like, why did it all happen to me?"
By now, Zeke is standing and he pulls me to stand up as well. "You'll find the guy, Maddie, Sooner or later. I promise." He winks, and I grin.
We step down from the bean, and I walk over to where Jordan and Angela are.
I tap Jordan in the shoulder. He pulls back from their heated kiss, and immediately tries to cover up.
"Save it." I say. "You hurt me. We're done." I finish, smiling.
I turn, and see Uriah standing behind us, fuming. "Jordan Malachi Pedrad!" He screeches. "What happened to all that I taught you about girls? We treat them like gems, not the next price of trash we're going to throw away." He finishes.
"I do treat them like gems. I treat Angela like a gem." He says, and Angela playfully slaps his arm. "Stop it," she says, smiling.
"You obviously didn't treat her like a gem!" Uriah says, pointing to me. "You can leave, Maddie. I know you're hurting." Uriah tells me after patting my shoulder, "I'm sorry."
So I walk away with Zeke, Steven-Colsen already at the tracks, which I'm grateful for. "I'm actually glad that I'm finally broken up with him. I never really liked him that much anyway, you know?" I say.
Zeke laughs. "You remind me of a girl version of Ashton." He laughs and I roll my eyes.
"Well, that's why Ashton's my best friend..?" I say, then hold my hands up in front of my face as I shrug, and Zeke nods.
"True, true." He says, then walks over to my father as we approach the tracks.
"Congratulations." Colsen whispers to me, right before everyone else cheers for me, even Zeke and Uriah's team. It feels good to be appreciated, especially when you feel like you have nothing to live for, like me.
"No, I don't deserve anything anymore." I whisper, but he doesn't hear me.
Maybe Steven really is the one for me. I definitely know that it wasn't Jordan. He treated me like trash. But maybe Steven Colsen won't treat me like that.
Maybe, just maybe.
a/n: ****rewritten on 7/19/16