Take One Last Breath

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^*Kori’s POV*^
“So, Kori, how long have you known Austin?” April asked, looking back at me and Austin in the rearview mirror. They had just picked us up from the airport, and her husband Phil was driving us back to Austine’s cousin’s place.

“A while.” I hated the way my answers were short, but the plane ride hadn’t left me in that good of a mood to talk. When things went silent for a moment I just nonchalantly put my ear buds back in, Five Finger Death Punch still playing. I kept the volume down so I could still hear what was going on so I didn’t ignore Bam’s parents for Ivan Moody.

“You guys have a good plane ride?” Phil asked, and I looked over at Austine, who looked at me.

“Not really.” She answered, taking a deep breath.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had a decent plane ride.” April said with a heavy sigh.

“Not with Bam at least.” Phil added, and April agreed.

“How is Bam, anyways? I haven’t seen him in forever.” Austin asked, obviously trying to divert the conversation from our claustrophobic and panicky plane ride.

“He’s doing great.” April answered, and she began talking about him, and I just turned the volume up, hoping American Capitalist wasn’t so loud they could hear it. I rubbed my eyes, not having gotten enough sleep the night before. I swear I had only closed my eyes for a second. Apparently a second turned into ten minutes, because I came to with Austin shaking my shoulder.

“Hey, we’re here.” She said, smiling and I sat up, from the door, looking out the window to see the place where we’d be staying for a while, though I was still half asleep and too tired to really take in much about it. If there was a place inside where I could sleep, then I’d be fine. I took my earbuds out and shoved them into my pocket, keeping my phone in my hand. The car pulled on around, and I noticed the driveway was painted as a rainbow that stretched around the side of the house. Phil parked the car, and I opened my door and got out, Austin climbing out on my side as well and closing the door, though whilst taking a step forward I nearly tripped, but Austin caught my arm, keeping me from hitting the ground.

“Well, what a great way that would be to start off a visit.” I muttered, and I could tell she was trying not to laugh, knowing I had no friendship whatsoever with gravity, but I was trying not to as well as April got out of the car. “Don’t laugh.” I told Austin, putting my phone in my back pocket, and she just nodded.

“I’m not, I’m not.” She took a deep breath, seeming to calm down.

“Come on inside.” April said, and just as Austin and I turned to get our bags from the trunk, Phil shut it and came around with our things.

“I got ‘em.” He said and walked on in front of us, and Austin and I followed. April held the door, and shut it behind the three of us.

“Bam! Austin and Korissa are here!” April called, and I wanted to die as she called me Korissa, knowing that if Austin’s cousin was anything like she had described, I’d never hear the end of it. When met with silence April shook her head. “He’s around here somewhere.” She walked off through the kitchen to somewhere.

“APE! PHIL! THE CURTAINS ARE ON FIRE!” Some guy nonchalantly yelled from the other end of the house.

“Dammit.” Phil hissed, and put our bags down. “Your rooms are upstairs, they’re the very last two rooms on the left.” He said and we nodded and he quickly walked off, past the stairs and towards a room that I could see a pool table from my partial vision straight ahead.

“This should be a fun visit.” Austin said, picking up her suitcase, by the handle on the side.

“You’re telling me.” I said, throwing my duffel back on my shoulder by the strap.

“Let’s go find our rooms.” She said and I followed her to the stairs, and up them, me being extra careful since my face seemed to have a magnetic pull to the ground, and soon we got to the top she hesitated.

“Left.” I said as she paused and we continued to the left, and we reached the last two rooms on the right. She walked on down to the very last, and I got the second to last. I put my bag down to open the door, and then I walked in, but tripped, and as soon as I did a white could of something came up around me, and I was hit with something repeatedly, sounding like paintballs and feeling like rubber bullets as I cried out. “WHAT THE FUCK?!” I yelled, trying to get up, but slipping and falling, and not being able to see anything for the white mess.

“Shit, stop! Wrong target!” I heard someone yell, and the fire from the three guns ceased. I groaned as I rolled over onto my sore back, pissed off as fuck.

“What the fuck?!” I heard Austin’s voice, and slowly the powder began to clear as I rubbed the flour from my eyes.

“Dammit, Austin, you were supposed to be in this room!” I heard the same guy’s voice again through the laughter of a few others.

“What the fuck.” I breathed, covered in flour and bright green and pink paintballs.

“Why in the hell did you come in here?” I heard the guy ask again, and I began getting up from the floor with the help of someone, and I looked to see a guy in jeans and a black shirt that now liked almost with a beard smiling slightly like he was trying not to laugh. He brushed my shoulder like it was going to get the flour off, and a laugh escaped his lips though it seemed he tried to keep it back. “Hello, are you deaf?” I looked back in front of me to see the guy who had apparently set this up, and I recognized him to be Austin’s cousin, Bam.

“No, I’m not fucking deaf, I came in here because this is my new room.” I growled, now cranky, and pissed the fuck off. The stinging pain from paintballs wasn’t helping.

“Kori, are you alright?” Austin asked and I nodded.

“I’m fine just…” I motioned to myself, covered in flour and paint, but just a little too tired to be angry.

“Bam, why in the hell did you do this?” Austin asked, and Bam looked at her like it wasn’t obvious.

“Oh god, here we go.” I heard someone else say.

“Shut up Hanna.” Bam said, and the guy who helped me up just put a hand over his mouth, a man now standing beside him with a blonde Mohawk, and a mustache, his lips pursed as he crossed his arms over his chest, and I guessed him to be Hanna.

“You shut up.” Hanna then mumbled back.

“What’s going on in he-” April appeared behind Austin, but then stopped. “Bam, what did you do?!”

“He apparently had this set up for me, but Kori took this room.” Austin said as April’s eyes widened at the mess, and at me.

“Your son’s an inconsiderate asshole.” I said in the most polite voice possible.

“I’m aware.” April said, sounding annoyed and I just sighed as Austin stepped forward and took my arm gently, trying not to get flour and shit on herself.

“You can use the shower in my room.” She said and I turned and glared at Bam as Austin led me from the room, and he glared back. I hadn’t been here for more than ten minutes and I already had an enemy. Awesome.

“And Ryan, you’re not going anywhere, you’re going to help clean up too. All three of you, clean it up.” April said, and I could only guess that Ryan was the guy that had helped me up since he was the only other person in there. I picked up my duffel from the outside of the room as Austin walked me into her room, and I heard them begin whining about cleaning.

“This is going to be a long trip.” I muttered, sitting my bag down on a chair and grabbing another pair of jeans and an A Day to Remember tee before walking off towards the bathroom.

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^*Bam’s POV*^
I left Ryan and Mark to clean up the mess as Ape barked orders at them. I told Phil to make sure Austin got that room. I made my way into the den, where Novak was talking to Phil, using hand gestures towards the curtains.

“Phil, I told you to make sure Austin got the first room!” I said, walking over to the two.

“I thought the house was on fire-”

“Where did you get that?” I asked, and Novak smiled.

“It was my idea, I thought maybe-”

“You thought wrong!” Ryan yelled from the second floor and threw a rag down, and it hit Novak, leaving a small smear of Pink paint on the shoulder of his black jacket.

“Yea, now I have her bitchy friend all pissed off at me, and it’s all because you distracted Phil.” I said and Phil held his hands up.

“Leave me out of this, I was just worried.” He walked off towards the kitchen, and the front door opened, my wife walking in.

“Hey, Missy.” Novak greeted.

“Hey Novak.” She smiled slightly, walking over to me and wrapping her arms around my waist. I put on a smile despite my mood and kissed her on the lips.

“Is your cousin and her friend here yet?” She asked and I nodded.

“Yea, they’re here all right.” I said, my mood coming down some.

“Oh great, what’s wrong?” She asked, pulling away.

“He’s already pissed off Austin’s friend by shooting her up with paintballs and dumping bags of flour on her.” Novak just smiled, and Missy looked at me with wide eyes before lightly punching my arm.

“I thought you said you were going to watch your behavior while they were here!” She accused, and I scoffed.

“Well I lied!” I defended and she sighed, shaking her head.

“You haven’t seen her since you were little, can’t you at least try to show her you’re not a kid anymore?” She asked and I thought for a second before shaking my head and she sighed. “Didn’t think so.” She muttered, walking off towards the kitchen.

“Someone’s going to be sleeping on the couch.” Novak teased and I glared. “Maybe you should take a nap.”

“Novak, now’s not-”

“Thanks for leaving us up there with Apezilla, Bam.” Ryan said, and I looked back to see him walking down the stairs.

“Where’s Fanna?” I asked and he chuckled.

“Cleaning up.”

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^*Kori’s POV*^
After I got out of the shower, I got dressed and dried my hair before I went back into Austin’s room. My whole back was stinging from not just the paintballs, but thanks to the paintballs, the water, too. I sighed as I sat down on Austin’s bed, and she looked over at me from the dresser, where she was putting her clothes up.

“You okay?” She asked and I nodded.

“Fine, just…hoping I can survive the rest of the day so I can slip into a coma for the rest of this trip.” I said, not sure how things were going to work around here, but already seeing that this wasn’t going to be a normal visit. “You have one more interesting cousin.” I told her and she nodded.

“Yea, I know, but he has a sweet side.” She said, closing the drawer, and came over, sitting beside me, and I wanted to laugh.

“How many years ago was that?” I asked, looking over at her.

“Okay, so he had a sweet side when he was little.” She said and I was about to ask if she was sure he was mentally stable, but April looked in.

“Everything’s all cleaned up.” She smiled as she stepped fully into the doorway, and I stood up. “Sorry about Bam.” April said and I offered a smile.

“It’s no problem.” I said, grabbing my bag, and she patted me on the shoulder as I walked by, and I winced, and she took her hand away. “Sorry it’s just…tender.” I whispered and she nodded, understanding as I walked into my room, where Hanna was picking up a few rags that had gotten most of the flour and paint out of the carpet, but small traces were still there.

“Sorry about the paintballs and…floury shit.” Hanna grumbled, grabbing the bag of dirty clothes and the cleaner and sighed. “But it wasn’t my idea.” He said and slipped past April and I.

“If you need anything, don’t be shy.” April said and I nodded, and looked back to see her walking off. I went over and dropped my bag next to the bed and fell onto it, worn out. After a moment, I was struggling with consciousness, and soon I was pulled under by sleep.