The Citizen Soldier (DNF)

35) Blood of the Covenant

*George POV*

The two were hugging each other for what could be seen as an uncomfortably long time, but it really didn't bother me at all. I was just happy that they were both starting on the path to healing their relationship with each other. I was no family therapist, but I was certainly someone who valued the bonds that could be created through blood.

I remembered something that my dad once taught me. 'The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.' That teaching told me that the people that I always chose to surround myself with would teach me and possibly be even more influential than the people with whom I was born. It taught me that the people I decided to keep in my life and heart were the same people who were like me, who were people I devoted myself to and ultimately became one with. The culture and the teachings would be absorbed and they would take me in, no matter my family's view on the topic or culture.

I lived by this testament every day, no matter how bad it was or how wrong it felt. I now knew that the blood of my covenant was to keep it from ever being shed. I smiled at the two in the rain. At least they had blood betwixt them. Taking a deep breath and almost swallowing water funny, I shook it off and headed back to Wilbur's car, only to find that Clay and his sister were running to catch up, so I stopped and let them.

Once they caught up, we all walked in a comfortable silence back to Wilbur and Nikki's car. Clay smiled widely at me and offered his hand to me as we walked. I looked at him, slightly confused, but took his hand anyways, which felt warmer than I expected in the rain. There we walked, hand-in-hand to the car, which had just started to roll down its windows.

"So there's another one to take in?" Wilbur laughed as we all tensed a little. "Don't worry, I'll drop you off. Where y'all heading?"

"Never in my life did I suspect you would say the word "y'all", Brit boy." Clay was talking like he would when he would razz his friends, I could tell from the ease he held in his posture.

"Well there's a first for everything, now isn't there?"

Clay laughed. "I suppose so. Come on, we should get home."

"Oh, if you need me to I can leave,"

"Nah, you get in here with us."

Clay got in and almost got me to trail behind, but his sister pulled me away from him and the car before he could get the chance. The rain had started to come down harder now, and I could tell that lightning and wind and cold was on its way; we had to get to cover, and fast.

"What?"

"I take it you're a friend of Clay's?"

"Yes?"

"Good to meet you. My name is Christina. I'm his sister, and I'm strong-headed and vicious. Don't mess around with him."

"What's that supposed to-"

"Look, don't hurt him. Don't hurt him real bad, okay?"

"How would I even do that?"

"He once was in a band of kids, they weren't real nice kids either. He strayed from the herd, was different than he rest of it, and then he got shunned. Woulda gotten over that eventually. But what happened the. Couldn't be forgotten or atoned for. Don't actually physically hurt him, no matter what. Straight with me?" She looked me in the eye with a look that could put a snake back into its shed skin.

Technically anything but, I thought, and almost sniggered, but it wasn't the time for funnies, it was time for sincerity. I nodded. "I won't hurt him. I promise that I will do my best to keep him safe." I vowed. She nodded and smiled, then skipped back to the car, humming along. I caught up just behind her as the wind began to pick up.

"What was that about?" Clay inquired.

"Oh, it was nothing. Just a couple words." Christina really pulled that one off well, and I secretly wondered how often she lied to her brother. When Clay turned to me for confirmation, I just nodded to go along with it, then shrugged to keep him thrown off the scent.

After we sat down, I gave Christina the biggest onion-eye I could muster, but she unfortunately didn't seem to care about it at all. Apart from Clay giving Wilbur his address and Wilbur facepalming and asking why Clay didn't go outside more often for so many years, we were all silent. It was a somewhat comfortable one bordering awkward and uncomfortable from the energy that radiated from both me and Christina that I could just tell Nikki had already picked up on and Clay was soon too, though Wilbur was entirely focused on driving.

A couple of times, Clay even opened his mouth to speak, but ultimately didn't say anything. I started to feel tired, which didn't make much sense to me for some reason, but once I started nodding off Clay nudged me in the side and pointed to the windshield. I looked at him, confused.

"Just like two more minutes and then we'll be at my place. You can sleep in a guest room or something, I don't know." I just kept looking, which could probably be chalked up to me just being really, really tired all of a sudden, but his eyes were entrancing me again. Out of the corners of my eyes, I could see Christina looking at me with a raised eyebrows but I obviously didn't care or I wouldn't have just kept staring at him.

Unfortunately, Christina decided to nudge him, which made him look at me and then do a double take, looking at me with confusion this time. I just kept staring with a static facial expression. Then he started to stare at me too. I could hear someone turning around in their seat after a couple seconds and then I crashed.

~~~

I woke up in an extremely unfamiliar room, though the wallpaper seemed like something that I would see in somebody's grandma's house. That's when it hit me where I was. Sitting up, I looked around and found a clock on the dresser. Grabbing it off of the dresser, I checked the time, then threw it back onto the dresser and ran through the room, opening the door and getting down the flight of stairs faster than I thought I could possibly go.

It was the. That I realized I wasn't wearing any shoes and that I'd just walked into a mid-afternoon tea conversation including a lot of people, including Eret, Clay, Nikki, Wilbur, Christina, Skeppy, Bad, and now me. I didn't have to introduce myself because I'd already made a scene, but I cleared my throat and found a comfortable spot next to Clay on the floor anyway. Skeppy smirked at me from where he sat, so I shot him a scathing glare in return.

It was comfortable sitting on the floor like this, with one leg up close to my chest, one arm hanging over my knee, and my other leg bent at a fifty degree angle as my other leg rested over my foot, my other foot just brushing Clay's knee. I yawned and then conversation seemed to return to usual after someone poured me tea and gave me a cookie with it. Wilbur called it a biscuit, which I was a little surprised about for maybe three seconds, then when realization struck me I just accepted the cookie and didn't mention it.

I started drinking the tea and the warmth spread through my whole soul, filling me with a feeling of content that I hadn't in a while. Perhaps it was the random conversation occasionally floating through the air, perhaps it was the lack of total isolation on this rainy day, but whatever it was, it was very nice.

I leaned back into the couch, closing my eyes and just breathing for a minute, then something strange happened, Clay rubbed my shoulder from where he was sitting. It wouldn't have made any difference to me if it were the side he were sitting on that he rubbed, but it was my tea arm that he had rubbed, which was on the leftmost side of me. I was sitting on his left, and when the rubbing stopped, his hand lingered.

I reacted with surprise, perhaps a small bit of startle, but I didn't mind it that badly, it seemed. After a few seconds of just staring at his hand sitting on my shoulder, I felt it starting to retract from the spot. I touched my fingertips to the ones on my arm, stopping the hand and teasing it back to the spot it was in before. My current smile somehow widened.

His fingers felt warm and safe, and I loved those two feelings, being amongst the most scarce in the place that I lived, which was my car. I closed my eyes again and blocked out any conversation and wallowed selfishly in the comfort of the covenant. I didn't care what my dad would think, because all he should have ever wanted for me was to be happy. This made me extraordinarily happy.