Ineffable ꕥ Joost Klein ꕥ

34.

'Hey, Joost-oh... hi, Elke.'

Stuntje paused as he turned from the car's engine. The man had been passing the time before the meeting by finishing off a customer's transmission. While everyone trickled to the back room out of sight, Stuntje waited for Joost's arrival. But he wasn't just greeted by the Klein, whose bandages peaked out from underneath his white tanktop.

'Hi, Stuntje,' Elke greeted from behind Joost. With his hand in hers, Joost and Elke stood in the workshop together, making Stuntje raise an eyebrow.

'Uh, are you heading off to work?' he asked Elke.

'It's Sunday.'

'Oh...'

Joost rolled his eyes at his friend's obvious looks of confusion. He tried to express a 'what-is-she-doing-here?' look all while fronting friendliness to Elke. The meeting was about to start and to Stuntje, Joost was acting like the bullets had altered his judgement.

'She knows, Martijn. You don't have to pretend anymore,' Joost relieved his friend of the torture. In relief and surprise, Stuntje's shoulders relaxed and he halted his shifting eyes.

'Ah, great. Cool,' Stuntje nodded along and gave an awkward smile over Joost's shoulder. 'Well, it's good to see you're still here, Elke.'

'Thanks...'

Joost glared at Stuntje as Elke managed a close-lipped smile. The comment was genuine but it had an undertone that got under Joost's skin. Stuntje showed he knew this by letting his eyes slide made to Joost before returning to Elke with a sadistic twinge to his smile.

The three moved out of the stiff conversation to the backroom of the shop. Joost followed after Stuntje, making everyone seated look up. The last time they saw their friend was when Daan was pulling the bullets out of his flesh. His dazed and half-conscious state was a stark difference from how he walked into the room. Their first reaction was to stand and ask how Joost was doing, noting that he seemed to be walking and functioning fine. But as Elke trailed in behind them, everyone, but Donnie, froze.

'Elke!' Alanis cried, taking the intiative to stand from her chair in front of her computer screens. 'I-It's good to see you! I didn't know you were coming-'

'She knows. Save us from this embarrassing act. Elke's sitting in on the meeting.'

Sighs of relief sounded throughout the room. It had been a challenging game to straighten up and change the subject whenever Elke was in earshot. The group had worked hard to keep their profession a secret, something that Joost greatly appreciated. It showed that they respected his wishes to keep Elke safe from it all. But it was beginning to get irritating when they would have pause a discussion because the girl wandered over cluelessly.

'Thank god,' Tantu threw his head back over his chair. 'No more sneaking around.'

'What was the slap like, Joost?' Donnie snickered from the end of the table.

'Deserved.'

'I apologised afterwards...' Elke's quiet addition made the room erupt into more snickers.

Alanis dropped onto the flats of her feet from her toes. Her small stature made her attempt to cover the screens pitiful. Stepping forward, Alanis brought Elke's attention to her. Alanis was glad that she could finally be truthful towards the girl she considered her friend. She didn't like lying to Elke. It didn't feel right and Alanis felt like Elke deserved better than to be the only one left out.

As Joost moved from the two, Apson stood up to ask how his wounds were. It left Elke to have her first wholely truthful conversation with Alanis.

'I would say that I'm glad you're here,' she started. 'But this won't be glamorous even in the slightest.'