Left Behind (Completed) *editing*

Chapter Twenty

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Colin's Point of View

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Guzzling down my perhaps fifth coffee of the night, I looked over to Riley. He was sitting on my bed, staring out the window. It was damn near one in the morning. We had been here for two hours. After convincing my suddenly over protective brother that I was safe and staying at Mark's and Riley was satisfied with my ability to shoot a gun, we started our stake out.

"Are you sure you don't want coffee?" I asked Riley. My eyelids were heavy and I was relying entirely on caffeine.

"I was born to stay up all night," Riley replied. "I need nothing but the adrenaline rush I'll get when he does show up."

Riley moved away from the window and shuffled over to the card table in my room. "By the way? It's your turn. Go fish," he said, sitting down at the table. I rolled my eyes. This was extraordinarily boring.

The only light in the room was a small lantern that my mom used when the power went out. Riley insisted we had to keep the house as dark as possible. He told me that it had to appear as if we were all sleeping. That meant no video games or TV, according to Riley. I wasn't convinced Liam would show up here but I guess everyone else was. My mom had left to spend the night at Austin's, where I was supposed to be.

That would leave Val to stay with Dylan while Riley and I orchestrated our crazy plan. I joined Riley at the table, heaving a sigh. I picked up my cards and looked over the numbers I had. This pretty much did me no justice in my goal to stay awake. We couldn't have chosen a more tedious game.

"So... do you have any fours?" I asked him.

"No. Go fish," he replied in a monotonous tone.

"How do you not have anything I ask you for?! Come on, man! You're cheating!" I argued.

"I don't have any fucking fours. Get over it," Riley snapped at me.

I planted my face in my palm, laughing from exhaustion. The coffee made me jittery, rather than having the wide awake effect I was going for. Also, I found it funny that Riley and I couldn't get through a simple game of cards without fighting. This could get dangerous. We had guns. Two guns sat with us and we had hidden them through out the house as necessary.

Riley perked up at the sound of the front door opening. Fear flooded my bloodstream, leaving me frozen. Liam was here. It was time. A rush of exhilaration came through me. It was now or never. This wasn't a video game, I reminded myself as I grabbed my gun. This was my life. I rose to my feet, wandering through the doorway only to come face to face with Valerie.

"Val?" I managed to whine.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" She growled at me.

I turned to see Riley leaning against the door frame with a smirk on his face. I was mistaken. Valerie wasn't talking to me. She was talking to Riley. She shoved past me and we re-entered my room. On point, Val's eyes snapped to the guns, to Riley and then back to me. A look of disgust spread over her face and then she turned to me.

"What is all this?" She demanded. Her pretty green eyes hardened as she turned to Riley. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at Mark's."

The sass in her voice, the strong way she carried herself and her lack of fear made my heart race. These were some of the many reasons I loved her. My love for her brought me here with a strange alliance. The way Riley looked at me made me fully aware that I was doing the explaining to her. Val stood there, tall and strong with a look of horror as she stared at the two guns.