the purge ○ matthew

27

27.

March 22, 2015

6:50 AM

Olivia Coleman

All eyes were now on me – I was officially revealed to everyone. Their expressions were different, but the main person was Matthew: he looked at me with wide eyes that said to me: 'what the hell are you doing?!'. His expression gave me the impression that he was angry at me – angry at me for not obeying his command to stay where I was.

But if anything, I was the one who had to be angry at him.

"Matthew," the dude said while studying me. I was frozen and tensed up, and when realization of what I just did processed through my mind, I gulped. "Who is this, and why is she here?"

"Get out of here, Olivia!" Matthew growled, looking at me but still had his gun pointed to Ansel. I rolled my eyes, ignoring what Matthew said. Yes, I knew I was stubborn and I may be overreacting at the moment, but I don't care. I'm aware that this was the Purge and there's no time to overreact.

"That's reasonable, Espinosa, because you'd so want to leave her out there during the Purge." Ansel said sarcastically with a snicker, though he did have a point. Ansel talked to me. "Come here...Olivia." He ran his fingers through his hair and watched me as I slowly made my way over to where he was. I stood beside Matthew, yet kept my distance.

"What the hell did you do?" Matthew forced himself to be close to me. I ignored him. "Olivia, answer me!" Matthew must have then gotten infuriated and even dropped his arms (so that he was no longer pointing it at Ansel), forcing me to turn around to face him. I gasped silently as he did so, in disbelief.

"Espinosa, that is not how you treat a girl!" Ansel interjected with a smirk on his face. Matthew scoffed.

"Like you know how to treat a girl. Look at Lauren." My eyes shifted to Lauren and I gasped again, seeing her have a bruise on her cheek and red eyes. She looked exhausted and looked like she was going to give up any minute now.

"Aw, but I only treated her that way to get answers from Cameron, here," Ansel made his way to Lauren, bending down so he was eye-to-eye with Lauren. Lauren looked at Ansel in disgust, and her eyes bulged when he held her chin in his hand and leaned in. "She's actually a cutie." Ansel hovered his lips over Lauren's – Lauren tried to back up, but she couldn't go a far way. Cameron looked at Ansel, ready to burst any second and kill him.

Ansel leaned in a centimetre but then pulled away completely, chuckling to himself and standing back up. I swear I heard Lauren sigh in relief, and also Cameron. "But, back to the situation, why is she here, Espinosa?"

"She's with me because she's my girlfriend." Matthew answered, lifting the gun back up again. Lauren caught my attention and her eyes were wide, and her expression said 'what the heck happened?'. I just shrugged, confused myself.

I mean, Matthew never asked me to be his girlfriend – I knew we acted like a couple, but he never asked. I didn't think he thought of me as his girlfriend, but now that he said it, I felt butterflies in my stomach that I tried to ignore at the moment.

"Woah, woah, Espinosa's got a girlfriend," Ansel remarked to his two other men. "I thought you were never going to get a girlfriend, remember? Olivia, this dude told us that he was never going to get a girlfriend, just because he wanted to take his 'gang life' seriously."

"What gang life?" I questioned, wanting more information. I did it nonchalantly – like I wasn't talking to a dangerous person.

"Shut up, Ansel." Matthew warned, clenching his jaw while glaring at Ansel.

"Yeah, didn't he tell you that he used to be part of a gang? My gang? I can't believe he didn't tell any of you guys – especially you, Olivia. I thought that it would be the first thing he would tell you," Ansel said. "I mean, he was part of one of the most dangerous gangs in New York. I think him being a killer just a few months ago would be some important information."

"Matthew..." I said and looked at Matthew for information. He looked back at me, his eyes showing guilt and sorry.

"Olivia, don't listen to him, please."

"No, no, I think she should listen to me." Ansel interrupted. I looked at him again. "You've been hanging around a killer, Olivia. Just think about that."

He's right, my mind said in realization. I've been walking around with a killer during the Purge!

"He could have killed you any time." he added.

"Olivia, please don't-"

"Don't what, Matthew?!" I raised my voice, hurrying away from Matthew. He looked hurt as I did so. "Why the hell didn't you tell me?! I trusted you...I fell asleep with you on the watch – and all that time, you could have killed me!"

"I was never going to try and do anything like that, Olivia...why would I do that?" he was desperate for me to understand.

"Yeah, sure." Ansel laughed.

"I don't even know who to believe anymore." I muttered, shaking my head. We've all basically just forgot the situation.

"Not him, Olivia...not Matthew." Ansel gave me a grin, but that grin didn't give me a choice, it gave me chills. Ansel then clapped his hands. "Well, that was a dramatic turn to this situation...but now we've got four people with us! Could this get any better?"

One of the men from behind Ansel came towards me, and at the moment I realized that I was holding a gun. How did I forget about a gun? I'm not sure, but thank goodness I realized I had it.

I lifted up my arms and pointed the gun at the dude who was about to walk over to me. He instantly stopped and scoffed, looking at Ansel for any instruction. I was tempted to say 'drop your gun' to him, but I I couldn't really talk.

Because at this moment, I also realized that this was the part of the story when I either live or die.

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