Reece Blackwell-King

I quietly follow her into the dilapidated house. The hinges of the door squeak as I walk in.

The floorboard creek as I step on them. Threatening to give up, at the heaviness of my weight.

"Cooper please. Let's go." I plead.

She doesnt say anything. She doesnt even turn. I cant help but shiver at how cold the house is. And it is boiling outside.

I wonder is this is her house. She seemed to know exactly where the key was a few minutes ago.

"Is this where you lived?" I ask.

She nods.

My heart clenches. What the fuck was that?

I look around. The house looks ready to cave in. Its bones are beautiful, you can tell that it was once a gorgeous home.

I look back at her, pitying the fact that she had to live here. Maybe thats why she packed her shit and left.

I watched as her jaw clenched and her hazel eyes turned stoney again.

"Please, let's go. I'll explain." I tell her.

She only gets up and follows closely behind me as I lead her to the black BMW.

I open the door for her but she opens the back door and sits down on the backseat.

I close the passenger door.

This doesnt have to be this hard. I dont even fucking care about her like that.

I get a slight pain on my rib.

I have to get home.

I settle in my seat, and start driving us to my house. Silently humming to the Ella Mai song pouring out of the stereo.

I steal a glance through the rearview mirror,  her eyes are so hard and icy it scares me.

She's staring directly at me.

Usually I'm good at keeping eye contact, but the hard glare her eyes are delivering makes me avert my gaze.

The house comes into view and I speed up. Ready to get out of the tense situation.

As soon as I park the car. She's out of the car.

I take a moment to breath. Feeling exhausted afyer today's mission.

The gun that was sitting uncomfortably on my waist is now in my hand. I put it in the glove compartment before sighing and slipping out of the car and into the house.

Colt in shirtless nursing his bruises.

"What did you say to her? She didnt even greet me." He says when I sit on the barstool next to him.

"She's mad that we didnt pick her up." I chuckle.

"Bro, I forgot." He returns the chuckle.

"She asked me earlier today, and I told her that I'd give her a ride. But the fucking mission happened and just like that my focus shifted." I tell him. He laughs pouring us both glasses of whiskey.

"Yea, you'll have to apologise." He says, the amusement in his eyes promiment.

He knows that I never apologise.

"You're a bitch Colt." I spit. He only laughs louder.

I walk up to my room to try and catch some sleep. God knows I need it.

No one told me that accepting this life would mean accepting insomnia as well.

I toss and turn for so long that I end up sitting up and staring at the door.

With my bare back flesh against the headboard,  I try to lull my head to exhaustion.

Images of todays massacre flash by ny eyes, I squeeze my eyes shut. But am faced with familiar hazel eyes.

There is so much I want to know about her. I want to know how she does that thing when she masks her emotions, and why she does it.

I want to understand why it pissed her off so much that I didnt pick her up immediately when I did.

I want to know what her eyes are hiding.

But I cant. And I know I cant.

But the way she is just intrigues me. She is so much like me that it scares me.

I need to stop thinking about her.

With that I decide the head to the kitchen to get myself another glass of whiskey.

The house is dark and empty. I sit in the dark kitchen, silently drinking the burning liquid.

Thats until I hear a door close. Someone walks gently downstairs.

Her silhouette appears in the kitchen.  She doesnt notice me sitting on the barstool. She opens the fridge and grabs a bottle of water.

When she turns out, a freaked gasp leaves her mouth. Her eyes widen when she spots my silhouette. The fear in her eyes is no clear.

Tears fall from her eyes, no sound leaves her lips. The bottle of water drops to the floor.

Her reaction is odd. Somehow causimg my emtire insides to shatter.

"Mars, it's me." I say as gently as I could. Afraid to frighten her. More than she already is.

She sighs, but her body still doesnt relax.

Her eyes are still as wide as they were.

I get up from the stool, my arms extend to her body but that only causes her to bolt to the stairs and up to her room.

A part of me is content that she finally recognizes the amount of danger that she's in around me.

But another part of me, and thats a very small part of me, wants to run up those stairs and find out what's bothering her so that I can erase it's existance.

I sigh, going to close the fridge door that's still open.

I didnt expect that reaction from her. But it is dark and I sat there silently the entire time.

I sighed and took the cup of alcohol upstairs with me.

Her reaction really moved something in me.

I laid back down. This time, not dumb enough to expect sleep to engulf me. Instead, the frightened hazel eyes haunt me.

I cant help but pace around.

It couldnt have been that scary.

Or did she find something that alerted her what I am?

Why would she be so genuinely scared?

Dawn soon cracks with me staring at the ceiling. I freshen up, before preparing for school.

I walk down the stairs. Colt is already up and is making oatmeal. Do not be charmed ladies, thats the only thing he knows how to make.

Marceline is sitting silently on the last barstool of the island.

"Good morning baby." Colt says, fake tucking hair behind his ear.

"Good morning sweetheart." I greet back, trying to stiffle a laugh.

"How did you sleep?" Colt asks, faking concern.

"Now you know we barely got any sleep beautiful, so why would you ask." I respond, casually slipping into the barstool.

"Baby, not infront our kid." He says giggling in a high pitched voice while cocking his head towards Cooper.

"You two are fucking disgusting." She says, staring at us.

Colt gasps.

"Marceline Lee Cooper!Is that how you speak to your father? Young lady, no breakfast for you." He says putting a hand on his hip.

I snicker, he throws me a glare. Too fucking into character Colt.

He then bursts into laughter and then starts dishing up for us.

"Can you drive?" I ask her.

She looks up at me and nods. Colt's interest is peaked. His brow is nearly connected to his hairlime before he continues dishing up for us.

I nod and them walk to my room. I grab the key to the black Audi.  I can't help but feel the need to distance myself as much as I can from her.

Walking back into the kitchen, I find her and Colt laughing loudly about something.

I cant help but admire how she looks when she laughs. Its so pure.

I slide the key towards her. She looks at me confused.

"We're probably going to leave early today and tomorrow as well. Figured you might drive yourself." I tell her, I leave no room for a response.

Instead, I head out.

"What the fuck? He never lets me touch those cars." Colt grumbles.

It's true, and thats because he has his own cars and I dont touch them.

I wait for Colt in the car.