The Departed (Working Title)

Chapter Eight

Les's arms were crossed and she was tapping her toe at me with complete impatience. We were in the privacy of our cabin, just the two of us. I was attempting to eat my sandwich but was finding it difficult to do so under the judgement of the petite figure glaring before me. I had no clue why I was struggling to just come out with it - there was nothing going on between us, I was just trying to be supportive... It wasn't like my skin burned at his touch or I longed to see him again immediately after I left him or anything.

"Well?" Les barked at me. She was practically crawling out of her skin with excitement.

"Well what, Les?" I threw my hands in the air.

"I saw the way you were looking at him. I saw you guys holding hands. What has been happening between the two of you?" She demanded, playfully pushing at my shoulder.

I let loose a long sigh before I finally told Les what had happened. I skipped the details involving me waking up in his cabin after our shadow round, but I did tell her what I saw during my time following Jax and what he told me while we were making lunch.

"It was just that - me trying to be supportive for our fearless leader who has no one else to rant to because he's really not supposed to. At least I don't think," I ended my rant.

Les squinted her eyes at me suspiciously, "Uh...huh."

I didn't have her convinced, but that was okay because I knew where I stood with things. I was just recently deceased, trying to manage my way through the afterlife, and I didn't need a budding romance to get in the way. Besides, I was pretty sure he didn't actually feel that way about me. He was just trying to be supportive of his charges. Les must have known I wasn't going to budge, since she decided to move on and join the rest of the campers for lunch. I decided to remain in the cabin to eat the rest of my sandwich in peace.

The rest of the day was booked solid. After lunch we immediately started working on spell casting - calling upon items, defense shields, and hover charms. No one had accomplished any of the spells by the end of the lesson, but Jax said that was relatively normal, so I didn't take it too personally.

During combat training, I was able to get a good hook into Reach's jaw after relentless taunting from him. Without fail, every training Jax was pairing me up with this guy. He was always kicking my ass, and I was tired of it. The look of surprise on his face was priceless, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment afterwards. Hell, I was just as equally surprised when it happened. I was so shocked, I hadn't even realized the pulsing pain penetrating my knuckles after the fact.

Once combat training was complete, we all suffered through one more round of conditioning before settling in by the fire for a hearty dinner of beef stew. It was nice and toasty with the crackling of the fire keeping us company. When everyone finished eating, we all passed around beers and listened to the subtle melody of Kyle's guitar in the background. We were all trying to forget about the big weight resting heavily on our shoulders that was the council's visit in the next couple of weeks.

I think Jax could sense the tenseness building within us, because he was more social than usual on this particular night. I was nice just getting to see him enjoy dinner with us. Usually at this time, he was off prepping for the next shadow rounds. However, those weren't going to start back up until the next day.

"I want to do something different tonight," Jax finally announced amidst the subtle laughter and chatter.

Silence fell upon us all as we watched our leader shift in his chair, taking another swig of his beer. "I know there's a lot of heaviness in our hearts after the first set of shadow rounds and with the council's visit looming, so I wanted to do a little ice breaker, then play a game."