My Partner In Crime

Chapter 16

(Hi!! I'm sorry I've been taking such long breaks from this!! I had to put some focus in school for awhile and I totally forgot about this. I'm writing this on my phone on a flight to San Francisco, so please have some grace with spelling, grammar, and confidentiality errors (I haven't come back to this since like July, I think), I'll be keeping a close eye, but I'm sure something  will slip. Happy reading!!)

After planning it out, Dodge came over to my house to have dinner with me, Jesse, and my dad. He arrived at the golden hour, so I could see the sun turning the edges of his mousy brown hair to a fiery red. He looked up at me and smiled, eyes glowing from the sun. He was wearing a white t-shirt and dark jeans. He had a bouquet of red carnation flowers, which he handed to me.

"Thank you." I said with a smile as I led him inside. My dad was in the kitchen and Jesse was sitting on the couch. "Dad, Dodge is here!" 

My dad walked over and shook Dodge's hand. Jesse stood up and came over as well. Dodge and Jesse did some Bro™ handshake and Dodge turned back to my dad.

"Hi sir, I'm Dodge Mason, we've met before." Dodge said, eyes wide. That's how boyfriends always are when we meet the father. I had a boyfriend in my Sophomore year of highschool named Joel and my dad pulled a gun on him when we invited him over for Christmas Eve. I knew he was joking, of course, but Joel had no idea, and he was pissed. We've since broken up—he had to move to Phoenix for his father's career—and Dodge is my first boyfriend since.

"Hey," my dad nodded, looking past Dodge  and landing his gaze on me. His brows were the slightest bit furrowed, as though he were asking if I was absolutely certain I wanted to date Dodge. I nodded and a smile flashed across my dad's face. "Welcome to the family."

"Thank you, sir." Dodge said with a proud grin. Jesse left his mouth open in silent exclamation. He then hastily walked down the hall and into his room.

"Oh no." I said breathily.

"What?" Dodge asked, turning toward me. My dad went back to the kitchen to continue what he had been doing.

"He's getting Nerf guns." I said, pinching the bridge of my nose, although both Jesse and I have wanted to have a Nerf gun war with my future boyfriend or his future girlfriend.

"Hell yeah!" Dodge said excitedly. Jesse came back out with three identical guns and a small plastic bucket of big, red bullets.

"Rules." Jesse said. "This is going to be a One 'v' One... 'V' One? Yeah. We each start off with ten bullets. When you run out, you have to go out and take five from the bucket. There will be no pausing, unless it's for food. If you are the first out, you have to take a shot—"

"No." I said with a shake of my head.

"You have to take a shot of apple cider vinegar." Jesse finished, shooting me a pointed look. "First place winner gets ten extra bullets in the next round. Everyone on the same page?"

"Do we get bases?" Dodge asked.

"Yes." Jesse nodded, leaving and popping his head into the kitchen to grab my dad, so that there could be unbiased base locations.

"Okay." Dad said, joining our little huddle and fixing his gaze on Dodge. "Dodge, your base will be the bathroom." He then looked to me. "Clem, yours will be the broom closet." Then Jesse, "Jesse, yours will be the pantry." All these bases were all in the same general area; the only exception being the bathroom, which was only about a yard further than mine and Jesse's from each other. We all nodded in agreement and my dad went back to the kitchen.

"At 5:45, the grace period is over." Jesse said, glancing down at the watch on his wrist. "No locking doors. No going into or opening other people's bases."

At that, we all took our ten bullets and retreated to our separate bases. I clicked the door shut and flicked on the light of the broom closet. It was a single lightbulb, so the closet was dimly lit. I took off my shoes—they're too loud in a quiet house—and exposed my dark blue socks, which make it very easy to walk around without a sound. I watched my phone until it finally hit 5:45 PM. As soon as it did, I slunk out of the closet and held my gun in a readied position. I turned the corner to find the living room totally devoid of human life. I continued to slowly walk toward the back of the house, but stopping when I got to the entrance of the kitchen. Jesse's base was in the kitchen. I heard the stiff sound of Nerf plastic rubbing together for a quarter of an instant, realizing that Jesse had the same idea as me. I began to walk backwards at an incredibly slow pace. As I got further away from where Jesse was standing, and picked up my pace. Eventually, I was standing in the other doorway of the kitchen (there were two). I decided to take my shot. Lunging forward, I darted past my dad and shot Jesse in the back.

"Clem!" Jesse yelped, jumping up in shock. 

"Sit down, loser." I said with a grin, gesturing with my gun to the kitchen table.

"Get ready to sit down, Clem." I heard from behind me. I let out a groaned breath and turned around, gun pointed out towards Dodge, who was standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

"And then there were two." Jesse whispered. I began to slowly back up, hoping to escape the inevitable bullet. As soon as the fridge obscured my view of Dodge, I bolted into the living room. Dodge had backed out of the doorway and anticipated my being there, whipping around and shooting me in the side. Jesse then skidded into the room. "Clem! I thought you were better than this!"

"Shut up, Jesse." I said, dusting myself off (for dramatic effect) and dropping my fatal bullet into the bucket.