Eros

Chapter 4

Panting, I lean up against the side of a random car in the airport parking lot. After dodging cars, and nearly getting killed a few times I realized my efforts had been in vain, considering I didn't even know what type of car I was looking for.

I bent over and put my hands on my knees, breathing heavily when Charlie comes around the corner and stares at me with an amused expression on his face. "You know, if you hadn't taken off so fast I was planning on telling you what the car looked like." He chuckles at my angry expression, making me scowl even more. "Aw, c'mon dude, don't take it so bad. It's just a race." When he sees that I refused to give in he laughs again. ' Alright, alright, I'm sorry. Next time I'll make sure to show you where we're racing before we race there. Okay?" he was starting to look worried so I took pity on him and decided to  move on.

" Alright," I grumbled before adding, "If there is a next time". Clearly I wasn't quiet enough as I hear yet another laugh coming from the other side of the car that I was leaning on. I looked over at him confused when he started to open the door. "Are you stealing the car?" I ask.

"What? No, of course not. This is the car, my car."

"You mean-I, wait- this is- arghh!"  Charlie happily jumps into the car, and slowly whispering curses under my breath I follow.

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"What! What's happening?" I shout terrified, forgetting where I am. "what-oh. What's wrong with you?" I ask, looking up at Charlie, his face screwed up in pain clutching his head. He glares at me accusingly.

"Your screaming is what's wrong with me! You just about killed me! Do you always wake up screaming bloody-fucking-murder?" Charlie looked so indignant throughout this rant that I had a hard time keeping a straight face. I was about to make a smart comment back about just how much screaming I did at night when I caught sight of the building outside the window. Well, I say building, but I hardly think that describes it. It was like the castle I imagined living in as a kid, but modernized. It had a second building in front of it that I didn't notice at first. Mostly because it wasn't very castle-like. definitely much better then the giant box we had back home.

"Is that..?" I started at the castle-building thing wide eyed. Charlie seemed to understand what I meant because he smiled back at me.

"Yup! Isn't it cool? I'll show you around later. Its got a great field. very old too, one of the oldest buildings in the country." Charlie looked at it fondly. "We added that other part because we didn't think we'd have enough room for everyone because the fifth floor is practically un-usable, and we needed somewhere to put the dojo and the gym." Charlie walked out of the car and headed towards the door.  " Arn't you coming?" I took a moment to look at the castle, then back at the car. If I wanted too I could just... leave.

"Jake?" Charlie pulls me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm coming."