The Squirrel King

7 • Zoned Out

Is it that bad to share a smoothie with me? I mean I got two straws, so does it matter that much? Never mind, I shouldn't dwell on small issues. I began drinking the smoothie by myself and staring at her. I really don't mean to stare at people, but it kinda just happens. It's not like she'll notice anyway cause she stares off into space as much as I stare at people.

"Hey, Beau? Is there something on my face?" I heard her ask as she woke me out of my trance. Maybe she doesn't zone out as much as me.

"Nah, just got distracted by something behind you." I lied. After that, I quickly finished the smoothie and tried not to stare at her. I got up to go throw the plastic away and motioned her to came along now. I began walking back towards the tree to ge-.

My thoughts were interrupted by her speaking to me. "We've already searched this area, we should be looking on the other side of the mall." I told her I found a clue already, does she forget that easily? Plus, this is something we should've done from the start. I decided to ignore her and keep going. Once I looked behind me to check if she was there, she of course wasn't. Such a stupid girl... I saw her figure in the distance and went after it. I can't leave her alone by herself now, she'd probably go missing too.

I caught up with her quickly and grabbed her arm, "We need to go this way. You better listen to me." I dragged her along by her arm and heard her sigh. How dare she sigh more than once today? I'm supposed to be the emo one here, who does she think she is? Anyways, I guess she gave up going against my wishes because she began walking alongside me. I didn't let go of her arm though, I don't trust her yet.

We walked back up the stairs to the house and I forced her to sit down in a chair. She gave me a look like she hated me more than anything. I pretended to ignore it and went to find what I was looking for.

"BamBam! Jum-P! Ekorn!" I yelled the names of Bennett's most trusted squirrels. If I gave them anything with his smell, they'll find him. The only reason I really wanted to go out before was to eat, but it turned out I had to pretend to look for him with her. The squirrels scattered around up to me. I recognized them by their distinct features. BamBam's dark fur with darker spots. Jum-P is light brown with a white spot around his eye, and always looking sleepy. Ekorn is the color of an acorn, like her name suggests but in a weird spelling.

Moving on from squirrel explanations, I put the napkin, from earlier, in front of them, hoping they'd find his scent. Their little noses started twitching so I put BamBam and Ekorn in my bag and held Jum-P. He has the best sense of direction. Jum-P started to try and run out of my hand but I held him tightly and ran over to the girl. I grabbed her arm once again and continued running along with the way Jum-P was twitching.

"What the heck is going on here?!" She exclaimed while we were running.

I sighed, taking back my emo glory, and replied, "We're finding your squirrel king." She'd probably share a smoothie with him... I still don't get why she wouldn't. She would probably be okay with him dragging her along... Why the heck does he get all the happiness with her? I don't think that's very fair.

Jum-P and the squirrels and my bag stopped moving around once we reached a weird looking metal door.

"This is dangerous, there's no way he'd be here. We should just look somewhere else." She spoke quickly. I guess she's scared but I don't know why. What could be that bad on the other side of the door?

I ignored her for probably the tenth time today. Her scared atmosphere is starting to enter my system too... But I'm not going to give up. I reached for the door handle and braced my self for what I was about to see. I closed my eyes though, I'm not that brave.

A moment after I opened it, I heard a clatter of chains and then... plastic? Before I opened my eyes something hit me in the face. It wasn't hard, and it didn't hurt but still... What? I finally opened my eyes and looked at the ground. There's a plastic spoon sitting at my feet. I knew they'd find him.

I looked up to the middle of the room with an angry, but happy, expression. That soon turned into horror and disgust. Behind me, I heard her scream and cry in terror. All I could do was stand still with my mouth gaping open.

Why?

*This Chapter was in Beau's Point of View.