Unravelled

[CHAPTER 35]

CHAPTER 35

Lara's POV

I spun around.

From where I was standing, I saw Jayden leaning against the wall about six meters away. He was only wearing a T-shirt, jeans and boots despite the cold weather. His posture was relaxed but he looked distracted, almost like he wasn't paying attention to what was happening around him.

When his eyes made it around to me, he gave me a brisk nod. I returned him with a low wave accompanied by a smile. I shifted my gaze back to my friends when Kelsey was staring at me wide-eyed. "What?" I asked.

"You know him?" Kelsey asked me back. "Are you like friends with him?"

Before I could even make up my mind to reply her with Yes or No, Lia said, "Oh, they're more than just friends."

"We're just friends," I corrected.

Kelsey stood on her tiptoes and shifted her head to get a better look at him. "Who is he? Is he new or something? I'm sure I'd remember a guy like him." I could almost see her drooling over him.

Behind her, Scott snorted. Kelsey smacked him on his arm and slid him a look. "Tell me he isn't good looking."

Scott rolled his eyes. "Well, he does have a great body. I wonder which gym he goes to."

"Sorry Kels, but Lara called dibs on him. He's the guy we were talking about that day in my house," Lia shot me a smile which said You're welcome.

"I did not say anything," I said, emphasizing every word.

Lia shrugged. "You don't have to, I know you well enough. Now would you go over and say hi, for us too," she suggested, pushing me toward where Jayden was standing.

I didn't exactly decline her suggestion but I wasn't sure if I should go to him so I looked over to Kelsey. "Yeah yeah, you should go and say hi. Whatever, I don't really care," she said nonchalantly.

With that, I starting walking toward him. I just needed a push and Kelsey had given it to me.

"Hey," I said once I reached to him. "Never knew this is your kind of hangout."

He pushed himself away from the wall. "Thought I'd give it a chance. Played any games?"

"Yeah, basketball is so far the best." I answered smugly, thinking of the points I'd scored.

"What about darts?"

I was taken aback by that. Though he kept his tone cool enough, I somehow felt that he was teasing me. He must have seen me fling my last dart into the booth wall. For a moment, I wondered how long he had been watching me.

"Not my best, I can say," I shrugged. "Are you good at darts?"

He slipped his hands into his jeans pocket. "Only one way to find out," and walked toward the darts booth.

There was already a large crowd by the time we reached the booth. A round of applause was heard and followed by cheers. Since I wasn't tall enough, I squeezed into the crowd and successfully made it to the front line. I was just in time to catch a glimpse of the dart before it hit the board.

Right at the bullseye.

The crowd whistled and applauded for the player again when his points were showed on the credit board. Undoubtedly, all three of his darts landed in the outer bullseye area. I turned around to look at the player and turned out, he was someone I knew. Ashton Sanderson.

When the crowd started to dismiss, I went up to him and punched his arm. "Great shot, Ashton!"

"Hey Lara," he said. "Why, thank you."

I laughed. "So when are you going to teach me those great skills of yours?"

"Well, I can always-" he stopped when the leftover crowd let out a small gasp. More like an awe.

Jayden was standing in front of the booth, holding a dart. From my sight, I could see his first dart already on the board, together with only two of Ashton's darts. I didn't quite understand what was going on so I closed the distance between me and Jayden.

I stood behind him and watched him throw his second dart. His dart hit the board, knocking off one of Ashton's dart before replacing it at where it was embedded in. He did the same with his last dart, again knocking off Ashton's dart before landed at the exact position Ashton's dart was at.

The crowd must had been impressed because only a few moments later, a tremendous cheer came from them. In the midst of the cheer, Jayden asked for another dart. Since Nick was too stunned to speak, he obeyed Jayden and handed him a dart.

He held it at eye level for three seconds or so before he threw his dart with a smooth action. As I expected, it landed at the bulls-eye.

Exactly at the center of it.

The crowd gave him a round of applause accompanied by cheers and whistles. "Guess he makes a better teacher than I do," Ashton said, grinning and he shuffled away, along with the dispersing crowd.

"Come on," Jayden said.

When he guided me down the walk, I said, "You're really good at it. Where did you learn it?"

"Lara!" someone shouted. Jogging toward me were Josh and Matt. "Hey, have you seen Ryan?"

"Oh hey, no I haven't. Oh wait," I tried to visualize the text I got from Ryan earlier. "He's trying to finish the last bits of the weekly magazine so he'll be late."

Josh rolled his eyes. "He's always busy with the school magazine."

Matt laughed. "Oh okay then. We'll catch ya later, bye!" he said and walked away with Josh.

I turned back to Jayden only to see that he was already at another booth. I went over and realized that it was some quiz booth, which explained why it didn't have a crowd like the other booths. The guy running the booth asked us to choose a topic on the list and while I thought of going for something easier like Guess The Lyrics or Complete The Poems, Jayden picked one of the hardest-Name The Weapons.

A paper was slid on the booth counter toward us. Twenty different types of guns, rifles and pistols filled the page.

I spotted quite a familiar weapon and before I could stop myself, I said what came into my mind. "Oh I know this one, AK 47," while pointing at the rifle.

The guy gave me a sharp laughter and pointed to another weapon. "No, this is."

Well, they looked all the same to me.

Jayden named the weapons one by one without missing a beat. For a moment there, I wondered if he was just spitting out words and acting as though he knew the names. But when I saw the guy's eyes widening, I was positive he got all the names correctly. "Fort 12," Jayden finished off.

The guy did a jaw drop, probably couldn't believe that anyone would get the names correctly.

That makes the two of us, I thought.

"Do you watch a lot of spy movies?" I asked Jayden once we left the booth.

"You can say that," he answered almost after an afterthought.

We exited the doors only to realize that there were a few booths outside. The first booth we came by was the Shoot The Culprit Game. It was one of the largest booth since people had to shoot targets from a distance. Two guns were on each end of the counter and I picked one up.

"One player or two?" the person behind the counter asked.

I set it back down and said, "Oh, I was just looking at it."

Jayden handed him a few dollars. "Two players," he said and picked up the other gun.

I raised my hands in surrender. "Oh no, I'm not good at aiming."

"Come on, just give it a shot," the guy handling the booth urged, probably so he could earn more money out of two players.

I shrugged and was about to hold the gun up when someone beat me to it.