It's always been you

Chapter 18 - Josephs birthday.

LUCY POV

Today was the 26th of January. Joes 19th birthday. We'd all agreed to go paintballing and then go out for dinner and drinks. I'm starting to think we all drink too much but we always have fun together! I was pumped! I'd never been paintballing before but I'd always wanted to try it. And I couldn't wait to shoot my brother (and my boyfriend) with a paintball gun.

I was getting ready to go. I'd pulled on some gym tights and sneakers along with a tank top and a hoodie. There was no point in doing hair and makeup because we were all bound to get hot and sweaty under the protective gear they'd give us at the paintball place. Ollie was whinging about not wanting to get bruised. I was ignoring him. And then he started on about my ankle.

"Ollie stop! I've strapped my ankle, it hasn't hurt for weeks and I've got decent runners on my feet. Can you shut up about my damn foot and stop using it as an excuse to not go?!" David started to laugh and said "yeah don't be a wuss! It's your best mates birthday." Ollie glared at him and said "remind me why I let you become friends with my friends?" "You didn't. Your girlfriend did."

Eventually we got in the car and drove to the paintball place in the middle of the forest outside the city where we met the rest of our group. Joe was bouncing up and down with excitement and ran to the car to give us all a hug. I gave him a squeeze and yelled "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" in his ear. He pulled away wincing and said "Jesus Luce I'm bloody deaf now." I handed him a gift bag from Ollie and myself. He opened it up and pulled out a jewellery box. When he opened the jewellery box he grinned when he saw the white gold simple chain inside. "Oh I love it! Thank you both!" "Wait wait! Look at the clasp!" He turned it over to see the clasp which was engraved with a small "AAP". The Three Musketeers. Our thing. Had to.

He grinned again and gave me and Ollie a group hug. "It's beautiful thank you guys." He wrapped it back up and put it in the glove compartment of his car before locking the door and said "no way am I wearing it now. I'll get paint on it."

The guy who worked at the paintball place, who introduced himself as James, gave us strict safety instructions and handed out all our protective gear, the girls were given chest plates and the boys were all given groin cups. and then showed us how to load the paintballs in to the guns.

"Now I have one strict rule that out does the rest of them. Do NOT take off your eyewear unless I give the all clear. Please. I can't stress that enough. Other than that let's go have some fun!" He led us to the first course and split us up in to two teams giving us all a red or a blue vest to put on over our overalls. Oh shit. I was on the opposite team to Joe, Ollie and my brother. They all realised this at the same time and grinned at me. I was going to cop it something fierce. The red team had myself, Camille, David and Hannah. The blue team had Nikki, Joe, Ben and Ollie.

Camille looked at me and linked arms with me. "You and me Luce. Let's take these bitches down." Ollie gasped and said "who are you calling bitches you pair of chavs!" The trash talking went back and forth. James laughed and said "ok good trash talking guys I like it. Red team you start at that end, blue team you start at that end. Aim of the game is to get to the top of that ladder in the middle and grab the yellow flag. First team whose player grabs the flag with out getting shot wins. If you get shot hold your gun over you head and leave the field. Anyone caught shooting someone with their gun over the head in surrender will have to take a free shot in the arse from everyone else."

We all laughed but he said "no I'm actually serious. I love doing that to people. Shoot a person who's out and you get shot in the arse by everyone. In your positions and go when I blow this whistle! 3, 2, 1" and he blew the whistle. It was complete and utter mayhem. A bunch of paintballs exploded in the dirt near my feet and I yelped, throwing myself behind an old rusted out car with Camille. "Your boyfriend just tried to shoot me!" "YOUR boyfriend just tried to shoot ME!"