Aftertaste [COMPLETED]

Chapter 14 :: Is This a Febreeze Commercial?

BERLIN'S P.O.V.

**

"NOW GIVE Me one more." "But Berlin, my mind is exhausted," Rory whined from where he sat at his dining room table. "I'm sorry? Are you complaining? You whining? Cause last time I checked, babies whine. Does that make you a baby? Baby want a bottle? When I tell you to drop and give me five, YOU DO IT!"

I blew the whistle in his ear and saw him wince in pain.

"Do I need to blow this whistle agin boy?" "No, no. God no...and since when did you become an American southerner?" I put the whistle in my mouth as a threat. "Okay, okay. Um how about...trying to convince your friend to...do something- I don't know, Berlin this is stupid. Besides you're not even on the team, how am I supposed to practise with you?"

I frowned. "Hmm, well, just like we've been doing. We'll improvise. If you can make an un-funny scenario funny, you are ready for any challenge. Alright. Now we'll go with the scenario you just suggested. I'll pretend to be someone trying to get a friend to come with us, and we can ad-lib from there." "Okay." Rory stood to his feet. "Now just follow my lead."

I pretended to walk up to him. "Well, she's not coming. But what more can we do?" Rory cracked his knuckles with a cynical expression on his face. "No violence Rory!" "Mkay, mkay," held his hands up in defence. "Don't use violence, violence is bad, mkay. "

I smiled at this. He was getting the hang of it after all. Then, he snapped his fingers as if to say eureka! He reached inside his coat pocket and pretended to pull out a bottle of chloroform. He 'poured' it onto a napkin and began to cackle. "Will you stop that?!" I shouted. "Wait, but I thought I was doing well?" "You were. That was just me in character."

Rory rolled his eyes. "Can we please stop this nonsense now?"

"Yeah, I'm getting sick of you anyways."

"Yeah," he said sarcastically, "cause being around you is just a walk in the park." Rory plopped down into his chair.
"Is doing this really necessary to beat out Eli as captain?" "Of course it is! Now put your shoes on. We've got a meeting to get to."
"Gahh! The meeting! I completely forgot about that."
"Well, its a good thing that you have me here to remind you."

"Yay."

**

In the car, I put on Spotify and turned it to Kevin Hart radio station to get Rory pumped. "Berlin. You do realise that this is just a meeting? There is no official schedule, no competitions any time soon."

"Maybe so, but you've got a be like a cobra ready to strike at all times. "Hm." "What?" I looked over at Rory to see that he wasn't looking at my face at all, but rather my neck, where the burns had been. They had all healed by then, thank goodness, and they weren't nearly as bad as the one on my hand. But I couldn't help but grow uneasy under his gaze.

"You know that you can't talk to me, right?" "Uh, yeah. I mean I guess." "About anything." Logan must have told him. "Mhm." I said brightly, trying to cover up the resurfacing pain.

"Berlin." I felt a hand on my shoulder. "If he's hurting you, you need to tell someone. You need to get out of that relationship."

"Yeah, well. I'm sure it's easier said than done." My voice was quavering now. "Besides. He isn't hurting me. It was a freak accident. He just lost his temper, that's all." "Okay, okay." He patted my shoulder awkwardly. "It's just that I don't want you to think that you can only talk to Logan and not me."