The next morning, I woke up early after a good four more hours of sleep. I woke up ready to take on the day, with a little more bravery than the last week because of my talk with Kobra last night. One step at a time.
          There was coffee already ready for me at the table, so I sat down with the others. "Good morning, best friend," greeted Kobra, with a warm smile.
          "Good morning," I greeted him back the same way.
          Ghoul blushed and gave us a smirk. "You two are quite friendly with each other."
          Kobra and I just looked at each other, awkward. Kobra hesitated, then laughed at Ghoul. "Shut up. We literally are just friends."
          "Yeah," I laughed along in agreement. "We've only known each other for a week?"
          "We know," Poison jumped in. "We're just kidding." The whole group then just laughed. "Anyway, what's going on?"

Jet pointed as if he knew what to say immediately. "I heard something going on last night. Like someone was going up on top of the roof or something?"
          Again, the awkward smiles. "Oh yeah," Kobra replied, "It was just me again because I didn't sleep too well last night."
          "And me too," I jumped in, "Had kind of a... nightmare."
          "Ooh that sucks!" Poison exclaimed. "Tell us about it?"
          I hesitated and took a deep breath in after a sip of coffee. "In short, it was of all my worst fears coming true. That's all I'm gonna say."
          "What are those nightmares?" asked Poison.
          "I don't wanna talk about them right now, I need a break."
          "Girl," pressured Poison, "It's okay, we're not gonna judge you."
          "Bro," confronted Kobra to Poison with a head shake, "Chill. Don't pressure it on her." He gave his brother a sassy grin and put his fist under his chin, as if waiting for him to own up.
          Poison sighed with even more sass. "Fiiiine." Then he did chill. The table burst into laughs. Kid was laughing harder than any one of us. Awkward as heck but much needed entertainment. Then soon it stopped, and Poison got an idea. "You know what, team? Let's all take a break today. We all seem a little off today."
          All six of us looked at one another, nodding in agreement.

We quickly finished our coffee and got ourselves ready to head outside for the day. Then, we were on our way driving out to wherever. First, we stopped at Rainbow's place to ask her to join. "I really could use a break too!" she exclaimed.
          "Yeah of course! It was quite a night last night, so my brain is not up for fighting today."
          "Perfect timing, because me neither," Rainbow agreed. "Where are we going?"
          "Getaway Mile!" exclaimed Poison. "The safest place around here."
          "There's a safe place?" I asked, confused. "I thought nowhere was safe."
          "That's true," answered Ghoul, "but it's the safest."
          "The safest," mocked Poison.
          "Am I wrong?"
          "No."
          Awkward laughs. Then we all agreed to head out. Rainbow rode her bike, following the car to whatever this Getaway Mile was. Poison drove fast and turned the radio up loud. I felt weird being the only one not knowing the lyrics to any of the songs, but I still felt like I fit right in, a feeling I haven't had in over a decade. I did shoot the few Dracs we saw along the way, but the Getaway Mile, as soon as we arrived, was empty of bad guys. It hit the zone limits, the furthest place out here where it's safe from fatal radiation.

"Here we are, team!" exclaimed Jet. "Got the stereo, Kid?"
          "I do!" she gushed, getting the larger stereo from the back of the car after the motor was turned off. She turned the stereo on to Dr. D's station. "How long we gonna stay?"
          "As long as we want to," answered Poison. "For today at least."
          Kobra softly and jokingly slapped his brother in the shoulder. "Shut up, don't make us think about that."
          "Whatever you say, boss."
          "Speak for yourself."
          "I'm not bossy, I'm the leader."
          "Whatever, whatever."
          "Anyways," I chimed in, "let's have some fun woo-hoo!"
          Awkward silence and shrugs followed, and they played along. Kid turned the stereo up, and directed us to dance.

The next several hours of today were absolutely magical. We spent the time partying and singing, as I learned a few lyrics. There were a lot of songs I recognized from the Mad Gear concert a few days ago, and I couldn't help but think of the attack and the bombing.
          I looked back on that attack in disgust with how someone could be so anti-human and destroy a place where we were supposed to have fun, taking so many young lives in the process. In fact, it was our primary source of fun and escape from the daily battles in this war. And that was taken away too. But I didn't mind having to drive a bit of a longer way to the Getaway Mile to have that fun... less often. These pigs were after all of us, but they'll never take us alive.
          "Snap out of it, Fireball," I thought to myself. Focus on the good stuff. I managed to remember the special handshake Rainbow and I had back when we were in school. We even still remembered the silly little songs we had made up in second grade.
          "We were so cringey," laughed Rainbow.
          "I know!" I exclaimed.
          "And you know what? That's okay!" gushed Kobra, then he turned to Ghoul. "Especially you."
          "Gravity? Pffft," babbled Ghoul with a high jump in the air. "That don't mean too much to me."
          "These pigs are after me," continued Poison, suddenly singing, "after you." Then all the guys were singing. Rainbow, Kid, and I just pretended it to be a concert.

Sunset. The sky was full of beautiful orange, yellow, pink, red, and a sun setting along the flat horizon ahead. A slow song was played on the radio, so Jet directed us up for one last dance of the night. "I can't dance, but you guys can," he said.
          "I can't dance to save my life," joked Kobra. "But someone else can lead, whoever is being who's partner or something."
          Poison and Ghoul partnered up, taking Rainbow to them, and Jet took Kid's hand to "partner" up with her. That left me to be Kobra's partner. What it was that made me trust him and admire him so much, like even more than the others? I led him in a dance as I realized that answer: he's the only one who can truly make me forget about my past, to run away from it, when I absolutely needed to. I felt so safe with him for that, as if it was what stops all the nightmares.

He made my heart feel like it was bulletproof, like he was that one best friend who always protects me from anything, any bad memories or metaphorical shots to the heart, coming my way.