"I love you."
"The four letter word is a lot of commitment Johanna, are you sure you want to use it on me?"
"Just shut up and say you love me back."
¥ ¥ ¥
Johanna has to face her hardest mission yet, one of an old friend named Caspian.
"Ok Phillip what do you want?" Johanna asks sitting down next to Phil on the couch.
"Don't call me by my full name Anna. And don't sound like you don't enjoy my wonderful company," Phil says pretending to do a hair flip.
"Gay," Johanna mutters while coughing.
"True," Phil responds without missing a beat.
Johanna laughs, slinging her legs across phil's lap and leaning back. Phil gives her a look but doesn't make a move to move her.
"Mr. Alabaster gave me the case," Phil says suddenly dropping the cheery demeanor. "He said that you and I have to work to protect Caspian Edgar."
Of course.
Johanna sighs to herself before running a hand through her hair. Of course they had to protect the guy she has promised she would never befriend again. The agency knew that. Did Mr. Alabaster want her dead?
"But the whole thing with the serial killer...?"
"I asked about that. He said the serial killer shouldn't come after you," Phil says staring off.
That's extremely uplifting.
"Shouldn't," she says bitterly. "That's great. So how are we supposed to protect him?"'
"Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid after all, he's only a teenager."
"Phil we're teenagers."
"But we're brilliant teenagers."
Johanna sighs to herself again knowing what he's saying they have to do.
"Phil, are they forcing us to be social for this case?"
"Oh dear! Poor Anna's gonna have to be social," Phil says pretending to cry.
She punches him. For the nickname or the insult, she doesn't know. Maybe both.
"Dude this is gonna ruin my bad ass persona," she says gesturing to herself. "This guy is like, I don't know, the guy who is always pining after me that I always reject."
"Mr. Alabaster said for us to help him not do something stupid that could get him arrested, severely injured, noticed, or dead," Phil explains.
"The dude plays soccer," Johanna responds recalling a past memory. "What do we do? Befriend him then say, sorry man you gotta quit soccer or you could die because there's a crazy ass serial killer on the loose?"
Phil just shrugs.
¥ ¥ ¥
"Fuck," Caspian mutters to himself as he rushes around his room grabbing random clothing out of his closet and throwing it on.
He's running late. Again. It's a terrible bad habit that he has, telling himself 5 more minutes and waking up 30 minutes later.
He pulls on his shoes and grabs his backpack before running down the hall and out the door.
He'd have to walk to school, hell, he'd have to run to school if he wanted to make it on time. But knowing him, Caspian already knows he'll be late unless he gets a ride.
He starts trudging to school, trying to think of an excuse to give Ms. Braden.
He hears an engine roar beside him and tires screeching on the asphalt as the car comes to a stop next to him. He glances over and he sees a shiny black impala instead of a van with free candy like he expected.
The widow rolls down and none other then Johanna Volfson pops her head out of the car and smiles.
"Hey Cas so um," she bites her lip awkwardly. "Want a ride? You're gonna have to go in the back, I'm taking Phil too."
Phil?
"Sure," he mutters, opening the back door and sliding in. "And it's Caspian."
In the front seat sits Johanna behind the wheel and in the passenger seat, a guy he's only seen in the lunchroom. He's pretty tall and has black hair and is extremely pale.
Caspian ignores the small pang of jealousy in his chest.
After a few minutes of awkward silence, Caspian clears his throat.
"So are you two....?" Caspian asks finally breaking the tension by adding more tension.
He watches as Johanna glances at Phil, and Phil glances at Johanna and then simultaneously burst out laughing. Caspian looks between the two, not quite sure why they are laughing so hard.
"Is there something I'm missing?" Caspian asks raising an eyebrow.
Johanna tries to concentrate on driving and not the funny thing that Caspian asked. She starts taking deep breaths so she doesn't swerve the car.
"The thing is Cas," she continues after finally calming down. "Phil is gay as fuck."
She bursts out laughing again as she looks at Cas's flabbergasted look.
"Hey Cas," Johanna states as they pull up to a stop light. "Close your mouth. Literally every other person is gay nowadays."
Caspian closes his mouth, not noticing he had opened it in the first place.
The rest of the drive was spent in an awkward silence after telling Caspian the 'news'.
When they pull up to the school, Johanna parks and they all get out. Caspian checks his watch and curses under his breath.
"We got here with only a minute to spare," Caspian exclaims as Phil rolls his eyes.
"Well at least we have time to spare," Johanna remarks slamming the door and speed walking past the boys.
Caspian tries to keep his eyes from wondering lower then they should and thinking things he shouldn't even though a girl he thought hated him was suddenly being kind to him. Somewhat. He shakes away his thoughts and jogs to get to class on time.
¥ ¥ ¥
"Don't look so bitter Anna," Phil says leaning next to her locker as Johanna rummages around.
She slams the locker and glares at Phil before pulling her back pack higher on her shoulder and walking past him. Phil jogs after her and pokes her in the side.
"Seriously don't look so pissed," Phil says, still poking her in the side.
"Phil stop poking me or so help me I will break your neck and and push your face so hard into the ground you'll be able to greet Satan," Johanna says grabbing his hand in a firm grip.
"Ohh feisty," Phil replies smirking before letting go of her hand. Suddenly, his eyes become very focused on a point above her shoulder.
Johanna rolls her eyes when she realizes Phil isn't looking at her anymore. She follows his gaze and see its trailing after a boy. The boy walking right beside Cas. The boy Phil was staring at was tall, well built and had similar hair to phil's except brown.
"Izsac Hathington seriously Phil?" Johanna asks rolling her eyes and stepping out of his line of vision to let him ogle at his new man candy. "We are not having lunch with Cas so you can get laid."
