The Queen Of Spades

Chapter 7, Continued, Again

I went to the kitchen and instinctively looked out the window while grabbing an apple to make sure no one was watching the house, then proceeded to do the same at every window on the first floor before walking over to Oliver. When he looked at me, I asked "Who" in sign language. "Bad guy." He finger-spelled back, I kept forgetting that he didn't know much sign language. I grabbed my playing cards from my pocket and made a card house out of spades, putting the queen on top and looking at the man's reaction to what I did. At his raised eyebrows, I asked, "What are you doing here?" In a tone that sounded more curious than accusatory.
"I'm selling and checking security systems." He told me.
"Why is he still here?" I asked the other side of the table. "We don't need a new security system. Especially one from him. I recognize him now, his company sold the security system to the school before homecoming."
"Calm yourself, Madelyn." Robin said, "This is a grown up conversation, why don't you just go back to making your card house." I stood, enraged, and started to make my way to Robin when Oliver put his hand on my arm and shook his head ever so slightly. Yanking my arm out from under his, I took my cards and went upstairs to where Olivia, Gideon, Noah and Anton were playing go fish to help Anton learn English. Gideon excused himself from the game and followed me to Olivia's room, shutting the door behind him.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"There's someone downstairs, Robin is an idiot, oh and I still haven't gotten a bandage for my hand." I said, remembering that I had yet to do that.
"Why is it bad that there's someone downstairs?"
"He has a gun, two actually. Very suspicious."
"It's probably fine. Give me your hand." He said softly, putting his hand out in front of him.
"No. Why?"
"Give it here, I'm gonna fix it."
"It's fine, Gideon. I'll bandage it in a bit."
"Let me see it, Madelyn."
I rolled my eyes, hesitantly putting my arm forward to reveal the cut on my hand.
"Oh, for the love of all things Holy. What did you do?"
I held up my queen of spades card, "It was in my bag when I was trying to find my phone."
"I'll make it feel better." He brought my hand to his lips and gently kissed my hand. "See, all better. Like magic." He smiled at me as I took my hand back. It was so corny I couldn't help but smile back at him.
"Well," I said, smiling. "If that's the logic you're going with then I can make your lip feel better too." He had gotten another busted lip in the past week.
"I guess you can, Lyn." He smiled as I leaned forward and planted my lips on his, giving him a quick kiss. "Hmm," he said with a smirk, "I don't think it worked. Maybe you should try again."
I laughed and looped my arms around his neck, pulling him towards me in a kiss that, unlike kissing people to keep my cover, was breathtaking.
"I think that did the trick." He said, moving to sit beside me on my bed. "You're very good at that, you know."
"Well I should think so, I'm good at everything I do. That's why I'm the queen."
"How did you get that name anyways. How did the people at the school know you?"
I put my head on his shoulder, "I don't want to talk about it. You make me feel normal, so I want to be normal around you. Can we just sit until you have to go home?" So we did, we sat on my bed together and I laid my head on his shoulder quietly until Nada came upstairs to take him home. When he left I took my sketchbook out and drew a picture of a playing card dripping in blood, with a "Q" and a spade in the corner. I signed it as the queen of spades and ripped it out to hang on the wall. I had thought a lot while I was sitting with Gideon and decided to embrace my codename. In the end, that’s all I’d be known for. I’d go down in history not as Madelyn Everhart but as the Queen of Spades. "We're going shopping." I told Olivia the next Saturday after I got back from the cemetery. She smiled and ran to get ready, coming back ten minutes later with a new outfit and a face of makeup. As we walked to the bus stop, Caleb came up behind me and walked with us, talking the entire time. I rolled my eyes and kept moving, thinking about what I was going to buy.