Paper Bags

Paper Bags 14

Morning greeted Haru with a blinding sunlight the second he stepped out of the motel, his friends taking a stand next to him. Adam huffed a breath from underneath the Bag, hands shoved in his black hoodie. He tilted his head, the straight-faced emoji on the crinkled brown paper briefly flicking to an eyebrow-raised look as he looked at the gang.

"Well?" Rain said, pushing past them and jogged down the small number of steps before she made a small jump to land on the dusty ground, kicking up some small particles in the air. She turned around, hands on her hips. "Are we heading out now?"

"Yep," Adam said. "It should be a straight path from here to Llama Town."

Haru shifted his weight from one foot to the other. After a beat, he reached a hand to curl around the black hoodie on Adam's right arm, halting him from stepping away. The man in question turned to look at him, the emoji on the Bag now had returned to the usual straight-faced emoji. Wow, Haru was beginning to hate that. Fingers itching to rip the Bag off and holding his instinct back, he took in a deep breath.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "If not, we can just continue using the map."

Adam scoffed, shaking his touch away. "I know y'all have little to no trust in me, but I haven't led you lot to your deaths yet, have I?"

"That 'yet' there doesn't make me feel easy," Fatima said, biting her bottom lip when Haru met her gaze.

A second of silence passed between them before Adam sighed. He turned to face the tan-skinned woman, holding his hands out, palms facing outwards. Fatima blinked, tilting her head slightly to the right. What was Adam doing now?

One moment the bad boy had the Bag on him and the next, it was gone, revealing his face to the world for the second time since Haru had allowed him to join them on this trip. His breath hitched in his throat, taking in the wide-eyed look Fatima was giving him and the soft gasp from Rain.

"See? I believe you guys' stupid theory," Adam said, the dryness in his tone had Haru wincing. "Can we go now?"

"You decided to take your Bag now just to prove to us what exactly?" Rain asked, crossing her arms against her chest as she eyed him.

Adam did a full swing of his body to face her before he collapsed the Bag into a neat square, no longer resembling in its three-dimensional shape, and shoved it into his hoodie pockets. Then, he jogged down the steps, lessening the distance between her and him. Whatever that was on Adam's face was enough to wipe away Rain's expression.

Once he stood in front of her, he reached a hand out and tucked a few strands of her hair to her ear. "To make you trust me," he said. "Is that so wrong?"

"N-No," Rain said, stammering a little as her cheeks reddened.

Haru bit his inner cheek at that, eyebrows furrowing at the scene before him. Rain looked like she had been spooked, so whatever it was on Adam's face mustn't be his usual smirk. Despite the slight curiosity, he squashed it to nothing when he a brush of fingers on his right hand. He turned his attention to his best friend, looking at him with his usual piercing green eyes, stealing away his breath like he usually did.

"What?" Haru asked, a corner of his lips threatening to quirk upwards when Jason looked away and pursed his bottom lip. His heart tightened his chest when those gaze landed back on him again, as if to say 'See? Look at me'. He couldn't resist placing a hand on his best friend's shoulder and squeezed. "Come on, let's get going."

While he knew that their relationship, friendship, was teetering at an edge into an undefined area, he was still stuck in fear of moving forward. The broken-hearted look Jason had given him last night still burned in his memories, but it was the best he could give him right now. His own face heated, definitely not because of the sun, when the other man's words echoed in his mind, circling in a way that reminded him again that they were never going to go back to what he knew them to be.