A Silent Hope

Chapter Thirteen

Mackenzie

"Since this shitty town has no Paintball arenas, I had to improvise." I told Thalia excitedly on Thursday evening.

At exactly 2pm, I showed up at the gym and, after some pleading and her going home to change, brought her to Paul's house. His grandpa wasn't around since he stayed over at his daughter's for a few days.They had a huge space near the forest and backyard where we'd set up our own Paintball arena.

Using old tires, barrels and pallet boards I got from a junkyard, we placed them as blockages. I bought kids size paintball guns for us to use, having invited Blue and Vivian over as well. The aim was to have fun and I hoped this did the trick.

The woman opened the passenger door of Paul's car and stared at the setup before her. I anxiously awaited her reaction, but Thalia only lowered her eyes as her face showed something between disbelief and sadness.

I didn't let it bother me, it was her day after all. "Come on. I kinda asked some friends to join us so it would be more fun. It's an uneven number so we'll make it work."

I grabbed her hand without much thought and walked us over to the other three. Paul and Vivian were bickering over who got to be on whose team while Blue appeared uninterested in what they argued about. I quickly made introductions between Thalia and the couple. Vivian invaded the birthday girl's personal space with a tight hug, one Thalia seemed too shocked to do anything about.

"You three against us two." I suggested while pointing at Thalia and I.

A gentle touch on my arm stole my attention and I was taken back by the shyness the brunette showed. "I don't know how to play so you might want to reconsider." She whispered.

I almost awed at the cute expression, but deemed it an awkward thing to do. "It's okay. We'll be fine, trust me."

After wearing our masks, we got into position. Blue, Vivian and Thalia were simply out for fun while Paul and I took it a little bit more far with the competition.

Thalia was right about her not knowing how to play. She mostly hid behind me while I eliminated Blue at first. He was trying to switch his hiding spot from a stack of old tires and I'd shot him while he ran.

I'd spotted the older woman crouching behind a pallet. "You sure you don't want to try?" I looked over my shoulder to the birthday girl. We were using two stacks of tires as shields.

"Uh uh." She vehemently shook her head.

"You said you wanted to play Paintball." I narrowed my eyes on her.

"Because I thought it was fun. This isn't fun, I feel like I'm being hunted. The fuck is Paul doing?" She gestured to my friend who was pretending to be a sniper from behind a barrel. I was his main target.

I sighed. "Come on, just aim. She isn't even moving. Here." I moved behind her to assist in aiming.

My body pressed against hers and my hands reached forward to help steady the paintball gun. For some reason she was shaking and I bit my lip to not laugh. With an easy shot, Vivian was out.

"Oh, that was easy." The brunette mumbled.

"Told ya."

Paul was more tricky, since the young man was sneaky and sly. Somehow while trying to crawl towards a line of three barrels, I was shot by the gloating man. Thalia had gotten there before I did, panic overtaking her features.

"You got this." I gave her a thumbs up, my other hand rubbing the slight sting on my stomach.

"No, I don't." She whined.