Disturbed

Chapter 13. A Glimpse

It was chaos outside of the bus, the policemen were all shouting and aiming their guns. But after firing a few shots of his own Jerome yanked me over to him and held the gun to my head. I winced as I felt the cold barrel against my skull. To say that I didn't trust Jerome would be an enormous understatement. "Uh uh uh!" Jerome shouted and laughed at the cops. They couldn't shoot with the school bus behind us, even if they hadn't taken a hostage. 

It was taking a lot of my self control not to turn around and elbow Jerome in the face. He was holding me a lot tighter than necessary considering that I was in on the whole thing. Behind me, I could feel his body pressed against mine. And his face was just over my left shoulder. In fact I could feel his breath tickling the side of my face. It felt kind of strange and tingly but I blamed it on the fact that thats probably just what happens when  a homicidal psychopath breaths on you, I don't know. What else could it be?

Once they decided to light up the bus everyone but Dobkins headed back for the gas truck. Outside the protection of the school bus, Jerome dragged me along closely to prevent any cops from shooting at them. I noticed that there wasn't really any room in the front of the truck when Jerome went to hop onto the side of it. He pulled me up beside him and wrapped an arm around my waist to steady us both on the edge of the truck's tank. I probably would have protested if it weren't for the lack of any better ideas. I certainly wouldn't prefer to squeeze up front next to Greenwood. 

The truck took off immediately down the road away from the sirens. That's when I looked up to see Jerome's face. Suddenly I was regretting my previous decision to cooperate. He grinned smugly at the way he was holding me against his chest and I scowled. If it weren't for the speed at which we were currently careening down the road I would have considered falling a better alternative to this.

"Wipe that smile off your face." I growled.

Jerome laughed mischievously, "But I'm having so much fun! We make a great team don't you think?"

This time I laughed, "Is that what you call teamwork? You get to go crazy with your own secret plans while you use me as your own personal bullet shield?" The sound of the sirens was going faint as we disappeared further into the city.

"Hey I didn't even spray you with the gas!" He shouted like that should change everything. The wind rustled his hair as we sped along.

I laughed again sarcastically, but I had a harder time keeping my tone angry as I responded, "Oh well how kind of you, my apologies. Thank you soOO much for not being as big of a jerk as you could  have been. I can't imagine how I'll ever return the favor."

"I've got a few ideas," Jerome wiggled his eyebrows up and down. My stomach jumped into my throat.

"Ha, ha." I pretended to laugh cynically as I hit him on the arm. But then the truck hit a pothole and I nearly fell off. Instead I fell into Jerome further and he grabbed me tighter to keep us both from falling. Both my arms were now wrapped around his neck and for some reason I didn't remove them after we had both steadied. I forgot for a moment just who I was with, the things he had done. Maybe it just felt nice to laugh with someone. So I let my head rest against his chest and closed my eyes against the wind that rushed past us as we continued back to headquarters. I could hear his heartbeat thumping rhythmically. And Jerome seemed more human than I had ever experienced before as he wrapped his strong arms around me tighter.

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Sorry for a short update! I just only get the chance to write in short bursts and I figured you guys would probably rather me post more frequent short updates than wait twice as long for a more lengthy one. But tell me what you think, and I just wanted to say thank you all so much for your votes and comments. You make me feel so happy that someone out there is enjoying what I write, and it's my biggest motivation to continue writing. :)

Love always,

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