Out Like a Cigarette

“Oh, yeah, so, here, before I forget.” Jace turns to face me, handing me a sheet a paper. I open it and see a long list of crimes. “I even Googled a few for you.” He finishes, winking.

“Thanks. I’ll highlight the ones that I’ve done and give it back tomorrow.” I tell him sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

“I’ll be expecting it first thing in history.”

With that we fall silent again, having arrived at the park. We continue walking, both of us stopping here and there to take photographs. Some of mine turned out good, but when Jace showed me his they were like a gods work. It wasn’t fair in the slightest. Oh well. After what felt like fifteen minutes we checked the clock to confirm it was five. We were surprised to see it was almost six. No wonder the light had gone so much.

“So… I guess we’ll stop with the pictures?” Jace says, phrasing it like a question.

“Yeah, sure.” With that I turn and go toward the swing set about fifty feet away from where we had been standing. I walk slowly over to it and take a seat, camera hanging from my neck, hands grasping the chains. I hear and feel more than see Jace take a seat on the swing next to me.

"What made you start?" He asks out of no-where.

"Start what?" I ask for clarification.

"Start the illegal stuff. Why did you become a juvenile delinquent." He told me in explanation.

"Good question. Who knows, maybe someday I might give you a good answer to it." I tell him, leaning back on the swing.

"So the reason you started is a bad one?"

"If it was something to create a criminal of course it's bad." I tell him as though he was stupid. He might be.

"I mean bad like it isn't a good enough reason or the reason isn't really a reason or... Yeah..." He drifts off knowing how stupid he sounded.

"Depends. May be good enough for you, but not for me, or the other way around. To each their own. I just don't want to tell you." Harsh, but true. I don't know him, I don't trust him, I don't care about him. Why should I tell him anything when I know nothing of him?

"Fine. But one day, the day you admit how you feel, you'll tell me."

Psh. Yeah. Right.

"Not in your wildest dreams." I tell him, completely serious.

"Yeah?Well, what if-" but he never finished the what if. A gunshot rang out, slicing the silence. "What the fuck was that!?"

"A gunshot. Come on, we need to hide." I pull him by his wrist behind me, searching or a suitable hiding place. Damn bushes weren't big enough, fucking trees were too small and there was no man made cover. What the hell kind of park is this?

"Yo! Where'd'ya go?" A slurred voice called out. A very familiar voice slurred out. Whatever.

"Jace, we need to find a place to hide now. Split up, it'll be easier to find hiding places for one person than for two and it'll also give the people back there a more difficult time finding you."

"Finding me? How do you know they won't find you?" He asks me, offense leaking into his tone. Stupid male pride.

"Because they will find me. They know me, know how I think. You hide, don't come out until either thirty minutes after they leave or I call for you with your name. If I do not say your name, don't come out. If I say Chase or anything like it, do not come out. Now go!" Shoving him randomly into the darkness I turn and look coolly towards the swing set, where the drunk was stumbling around.

"Hello, Matt. What brings you here?" I speak aloud, directly to him. He starts from surprise, causing his drink to slosh down his front.

"Heeyyy, kitten, whas up yourr assh? If you wan' it can be mah dick."

"No. What are you doing here?" I ask again, this time more slowly as I walk closer to him. He smelled vile from ten feet away, I didn't want Yo find out how badly he reeked from two feet away.

"Looken' fur yuh. Kyle wan's tah know yer doin' alrigh'."

"Tell him I am fine and that he can leave me alone." Kyle could not get involved. He absolutely could not. I would sooner die.

“Now why’d he do tha’? He loves yah, yah know.” He tells me. Not that I didn’t already know it. Fuck.

“I don’t care. He can go to hell and burn for everything he did. There is nothing he can do to make it better. Nothing.”

“What’ll yah do if I don’ tell ‘im wha’chu wan’ meh to?”

“I’ll kill you.” I told him, my blood running cold. Hopefully he was drunk enough that he wouldn’t remember how I swore to never kill someone. How it was the one thing I will never do. How it is how I make myself different, just a little better than the rest of them. The look on his face told me that he was indeed that drunk. His face paled, fear and worry fighting their way through his cloudy mind. He turned and ran, fast, away from me. Good. Let him take that to Kyle. Time to get Jace out of hiding.

“Jace.” I call out a few times, loudly and in different places as I walk around. I hear slight rustling of leaves then see the movement of the bush. Found him. He was crouched low, looking at me in a way I was used to. Wary, disbelieving, untrusting, with a little bit of fear. At this look I ask him, wary of the answer I know I’ll get, “What’s wrong?”

“How do you know anything is wrong?” He asks a tremor in his voice so light that anyone else would miss it. But I grew up hearing the way people’s voices shook, lived to be what caused it. It never brought me the joy it brought others. I was skilled in hearing it, in detecting it, in causing it. That slight tremor will never escape my notice.

“I can tell by your face, I can hear it in your voice; I can see it in your eyes. What. Is. Wrong?” I ask, getting short. I just saved his life and I needed to go call Jake as soon as humanly possible. But alone.

“You- you said you’d kill him. I thought you said you’ve never killed anyone.”

“I haven’t. But that doesn’t mean I am unable to.” I tell him, making the warning clear.

“Would you actually be able to kill them, though? To be the cause of their death?”

“Depends. Look, I just saved your life, and I don't know or like you, so don’t question me. I am going to walk you home then go home myself. Do not tell anyone about this. Do not remember this. Do not ever bring this up again, understood?” I ask, ice freezing my words. I watch as he hears it, as it seizes his heart and soul, as it freezes him, too. He nods quickly. “Good.”

I move back, not having noticed how in his face I had become, how close we were. He stood up, on his own, almost poking his right eye out on a branch sticking out. We move away, heading for his house. As we were just going by the school he spoke.

“I must say, it’s a huge blow to a guys pride to be walked home by a girl to keep him safe.”

“I am not a normal girl. There may be dangers following me that you, no matter how tough a guy you are, or any other guy in the shithole of a town, can handle.” I tell him, keeping my words harsh. The less he likes me, the less he’ll want to be near my, the better. For everyone.

We fall silent the rest of the way. When we arrive to his street, which he told me it was, I stopped at the corner and turned left. He didn’t notice and kept walking up until he arrived to his houses gate. When he turned to say good night, I presume, he started, looking around for me. He couldn’t see me, which was good. I watched until he went inside to safety.