The Blonde Bowstring: Steelgray's Story

6

"Nini!"

The woman's hazel eyes snapped open. She was out of the sheets and on alert in an instance.

When she finally recognized it as her mother's voice, she dropped her fists and relaxed her shoulders. "Right, this is Colorado, not Detroit."

Nicole looked around her messy room for the sweatsuit she bought on her second day back. She found the green pants and zip-up hoodie that went along with it. "Or the island," the woman added as an afterthought whilst pulling up her pants.

"Coming!" she called down, realizing her mom was still waiting. She quietly closed her bedroom door before jogging down the stairs and reaching the wide-open corridor. "Yeah mom, sorry for the wait."

After all, she was sluggish in the morning. She didn't think the sun had even fully risen.

"What wait? That was like ten seconds."

Nicole frowned and shook her head.

"Wow, green is really your color. Anyway, I was so scared yesterday. You know, when you were..."

Kidnapped, Nicole finished mentally. She stared at her mother with crossed arms. She was still unhappy about Sebastian. Luckily for him, he wasn't here at the moment.

"You know what happened. Um, so I wanted you to meet..."

But when he came out from the living room, mohawk gone and poised, Nicole realized that she already knew the boy her mom was introducing her to.

"No," Nicole shrugged, boredom oozing out of her. "Find someone else." And she turned around to walk away.

"Nicole-" her mom said. Jillian didn't bother trying to grab her daughter. She was still haunted by the early morning before. She had KeyTSD.

"Why don't you come back here and say hello to your old friend from high school?"

"Mom, we were never friends," she informed. But then her anger got the best of her and she turned on her heels. She padded up to Kyle Rushman. "How are you so comfortable showing your face here? I'm surprised you haven't been eaten up by the city alone. But just you wait, because-"

Rush quickly got bored of hearing her voice. "Hard to do that as a military hero."

Nicole had just noticed his full head of hair, suit, and most frighteningly of all, badge.

"The badge is fake. Temporary," Rush breathed out. "Said they'll have it made in the next week or so."

Nicole just stared incredulously into his eyes.

"Nicole, if you'd give me the chance to explain," she heard her mother say, but she kept her eyes on Rush, just in case.

"Kyle here went into the military right after high school. He served for seven years before being discharged under honorable conditions."

"This boy? Honorable?" Nicole couldn't help but look at her mother, trying to figure out if she was being punk'd. It felt more like she was being fucked. Over. She was being fucked over.

Rush quickly rolled up his left sleeve. "Blown clean off," he said. Nicole had to look at him now. She backed up about half a foot and stared at the black, metal arm. God, that had to be really heavy. "Sometimes I play with the stump."

Rush shrugged. "It's like a genetic stabilizer, so I like it. They let me keep my gun."

"No," Nicole shrugged. She walked away again, this time making it to the stairs.

"It's either this or a therapist."

Nicole looked over her shoulder at her mom. Was that the best she could come up with?