Chains

Chapter Three - Coffee Fix

-3-

Coffee Fix - Ethan

Shit, I wonder what would happen if spiders could fly.

Waiting around is one thing I could not do. My mind tended to wonder and I quickly lost focus on the task at hand, I hated just sitting there, not doing anything - it was boring! Though I guess sometimes it was nice to just take a break, to stop and reflect, but that’s not what I wanted to be doing right now.

I sighed, mulling over my previous thought a little more as I leaned against the red brick wall. I hate spiders. They’re so disgusting and creepy, the way they crawl and the way they look – God and the fast ones are scary as hell. And if on top of all of that they could fly? I’m telling you, we’d all be screwed.

“Evans. Hey, listen.”

Blinking back in to reality, I focused the voice coming in through the earpiece. Carter. I decided to stay silent a little longer, just for amusement purposes. He continued to yap away and my smirk quickly grew into a grin - I was far too easily amused. It wasn’t until he started screaming down the line, almost shattering my eardrum, that I responded.

“JEEZ CARTER WHAT THE HELL!”

“Quiet. You’ll blow your cover.”

“I’m standing outside a school. The most I’ll get is a detention for loitering” I replied sarcastically, taking a seat on the ground.

“Whatever, now listen, you know the target right?” He said.

“Yeah sure. Five eight, brunette, green eyes” I replied, nonchalantly picking at the ends of my laces.

“Good. When she-“

“Hey Carter?” I interjected.

“Yeah?”

“What do you think would happen if spiders could fly?”

There was a pause. It was a good few seconds long and I thought maybe my earpiece had stopped working. I was, however, sorely mistaken.

“WILL YOU GET A GRIP SHANE?” Carter shrieked nervously.

I erupted into a loud chuckle, laughing so hard my stomach hurt and I heard him sigh in frustration on the other end. It was so easy to wind up Carter; he was such a stress head. After about another minute of debriefing me for the tenth time that day, I mutely nodded when he was done.

“You got all that?” he asked.

“Yeah” I said.

Silence once again consumed me and I was left alone. A sound I was used to was familiar to my ears now and I didn’t mind it so much anymore. It used to bother me, a lot, but I’d grown to like it, the perpetual solitude that always surrounded me. Not physically but mentally, and everything in between. Even when I wasn’t alone, I felt everything that was synonymous to feeling alone and that was just as bad as it was good at times.

I pulled out the phone in my pocket and flicked it open.

3:40 PM

Five more minutes, I groaned. Five more minutes and this quiet sanctuary would be filled with the noise of college and high school students. Stuck up rich kids and depleted lowlifes. Five more minutes and my target would come walking through the gates.

I rummaged around in my trouser pockets once more and pulled out a small piece of folded paper. A photograph. I’m not going to lie; she wasn’t that bad looking; I could see why the guy had her as his girlfriend. What I couldn’t quite figure out was what she’d be like though and I spent way too long just staring at the candid shot, as if the girl in the picture would suddenly start talking to me. Creeping myself out, I shoved the creased paper back into my pocket.