Jupiter

C H A P T E R|| t w e l v e

She acts like summer and walks like rain,
Reminds me that there's time to change

E l l i e

"I'm coming with you," I couldn't recognise the voice at first, or maybe I just didn't want to. From the tips of her blonde hair and freckled skin, it didn't take much for me to understand why she wanted to come. Noah was an all round pain in my ass, like I'm sure she was everyone else's. I was certain the only real reason she wanted to tag along was to keep up with that expectation. Not for Jupiter's sake. Nothing she ever did was for Jupiter's sake. Other than cheat on her.

Dodged a bullet.

I glanced behind Noah discreetly— as best as I could, really— and looked at Joel for help as he saddled up Beardy. He merely shrugged at me with wide eyes, looking away innocently when Noah flung her head around to see what I was looking at. The blonde sighed deeply through her nose, pursing her lips tightly together. Almost as if she was about to put up a fight.

"I just want to make sure she is safe." She explained, blue eyes catching mine in a silent plea.

"How do you even know she is gone?" I asked.

Noah looked around nervously now,"The lady." I heard as she swallowed, the sound causing my fists to clench at my sides,"I didn't catch her name– but she asked me where she could find Jupiter last night. I told her, not thinking much of it. I think it was her."

My heart just about sunk, and as much as I wanted to punch the worried look off of Noah's face, I didn't. I kept my fists balled together, sinking my jagged nails into the palms of my hands. I couldn't get angry, I needed to stay alert and on point of the game. We all did. As much as it pained me, I nodded once to Noah. The fact that she knew the face of the woman who could've taken Jupiter was advantageous, and I was going to take everything I could get,"Go saddle up your horse then." I waved Noah off in the direction of the stables, she just about ran towards them.

I faced Joel once again, a tight, pinched expression etched onto my face,"What are you looking at?" I asked him, my left eyebrow twitching upwards.

Joel tightened the horses reigns, not offering much more than an inconvenienced huff,"What are your plans with that one, Kiddo."

I smirked devilishly, shoving my loaded clip into the backpack strapped to Penelope's– the sister of Shimmers– stomach and said,"live bait."

We hadn't been at it for long when my ass had already started to go numb from the horseback. Surprisingly enough, there hadn't been a peep out of Noah for the past hour. Even more surprising, Joel hadn't spoken either. It was an uncomfortable silence nobody knew how to break between us. We were all here for different reasons. Well, I didn't really know why Noah was here but for the most part I didn't really care. I wasn't exactly lying about her being live bait. I didn't give two shits about what happened to Noah. Only Jupiter.

I glanced down at the map when we came to the edge of our monitored zones. I hadn't been out this far in years, apparently, Noah had never made it half this far since she had been in Jackson, which was really most of her life. What a boring life. We still had around seven-hundred and fifty miles to travel, my asscheeks just about screamed at the thought of it.