The Chase

Chapter One - The Ambush

Summer's POV

"Oh my gosh! Liam, quit it!" I manage to yell through the giggles.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think that's possible," Liam laughs his butt off, clearly not sorry.
He kept tackling me and tickling me in the feet... he knows that's my weakness.
"AHAHA! Keep doing it!!" Ava shouted, hysterically laughing.
"Come on, Ava!" Liam yelled over his shoulder.
Ava hops up onto her living room couch where me and Liam are struggling for the win.
"Aha!"
Liam pins me down, a goofy grin adorning his braces covered teeth. Ava straddles my legs, back to back with Liam, holding my bottom limbs down while tickling my feet like a lunatic.
I don't know what came over me, but I go insane in this moment. I scream and flip flop around over and over again, begging for mercy like it was my life at stake.
"Gah!" Ava shrieks.
Both her and Liam hop off the couch and run to Ava's bedroom. Success - I guess that did the trick.
Maybe it's weird, 13 year olds having a tickling party, one being a boy. Oh well. I think of what my Mom always says; do what makes you happy and leave whoever doesn't contribute to that in the dust.
And I am everything but unhappy. I feel carefree, at home, cheerful, joy, and happiness. These people, I think to myself while looking at the picture frame sitting on the side table of Liam, Ava and I at the beach last summer, these people are my home.
I walk through Ava's white wooded door and into her small cozy room. Liam jumps out at me, laughing. Not much of a sneak attack there, bud. I dodge his lung, but before I could knock him onto the bed, Ava sneaks behind him and does it for me. She pins his arms down.
She might only be 5'3 and weigh, what, 95 pounds? But she's 95 pounds of pure muscle. Ava's parents are seriously healthy, they push her to go to the gym with them for an hour or more every day. Not to mention she kicks serious butt in volleyball. She has one mean spike.
"Summer!" Ava disrupts my thoughts.
I look over to the bed and see Liam down. I know that he can get Ava off of him easy peasy, but he won't ruin our fun. His heart is too gentle, and we never fail to tell him. I catch Ava's eye and she laughs. I run over to them and tickle through his shirt and under his pits, that I happen to know is his weakness. Thank you very much.
"Argh! Get off of me!" Liam says, struggling to get up with both of our bodies on him.
Ah. The sounds of justice.
Liam manages to sit up, wait. What am I saying? Manages? No. Liam is strong. I mean, he's no meat head but he's definitely no spaghetti string. He'd been in and out of sports for years. Trying out all kinds; football, basketball, lacrosse, hockey, you name it. He stuck with hockey and football. And yeah, he goes to the gym too. Liam stands over my 5'5 figure at 5'7.
We lay on the bed in silence for a few minutes., staring at the ceiling.
"Well. That was fun." Liam remarks, smirking.
"Who are you to talk, Liam? We b-e-a-t, beat you. You should be ashamed, honestly." Ava responds like a know it all.
"Only because I let you."
"And why, exactly, would you do that?"
"It's you're birthday, dumbo."
"Oh my gosh! I forgot about presents!"
I laugh at their conversation.
"Of course you did! Ava Flemming, why did I expect this of you?" Liam teases.
I join in.
"Shut it, Li. We have presents to open."
I walk out of Ava's door.
"Summer!" Liam says in frustration, "You know I loathe that, right?"
"That's why I do it."

"Come on, come on! Hand it over, Sum!" Ava says in a tone that sounded like an "eek!!"
I hand over the little green bag with a bow and sparkle tissue paper stuffed out the top. Ava yanks out the tissue paper and pulls out my present to her.
"Aw, Summer!" Ava had been wanting a bathing suit from Victoria's Secret for the following summer.
Liam made a gagging noise at the mention of the supposedly "girly and inappropriate" mention of VS.
We were in the 8th grade and summer break was in 5 weeks. I knew how much she wanted the bright blue top and black bottoms, and sadly her parents wouldn't get it for her. So, voila.
I examined my best friends faces. They looked so happy, so content. Ava was flashing her big white teeth at us, her golden eyes shining. Her auburn hair falling down loose, right past her shoulders.
I looked at Liam, next. Ah, Liam. He's such a happy person. I admire him. He walks around throwing kindness around like confetti. He was laughing, his shaggy black hair bobbing up and down with his body, and his sea green eyes appearing like a whirlpool.
Ava snaps me out of my thoughts with the tight squeeze of one of her passionate hugs.
"Thank you so much, Sum. I love you!" Ava tells me.
I giggle, "I love you too, Ava. And you're welcome."
"Okay." Liam interrupts, loudly, might I add. "Enough of this mushy girly stuff. Time for the real present."
"Oh, yeah?" Ava smirks.
"You bet. Lemme go get it." Liam runs off to Ava's room to grab the gift.
Before we know it he walks out, empty handed.
I raise an eyebrow. "Well? Where's that fantastic present you mentioned"
"Haha... about that..." he starts.
"You did not!" Ava says.
"Oh, he so did!" I chuckle.
"Bingo..." he trails off. He kneels at Ava's side. "I'm sorry, Ava. I promise I'll bring it to you next weekend. I swear I put it in my bag..." Liam says in all seriousness now, confusion crossing his face.
"Hey! It's okay, it's the thought that counts, right?" Ava assures his feelings.
"Still..." I say jokingly.
"Team Liam for the win??" Liam squeaks, gritting his teeth.
CRUNCH.
"What was that?" Ava nervously ask.
     "It sounded like it came from outside," I answer.
"Let's go check it out!?" Liam excitedly badgers.
"What would your birthday be without a good adventure?" I asked Ava, smiling.
"Come on guys, let's go!" Liam tempted.
"No way. Not gonna happen. It's dark out!"
"Come on, Ava. For me?" I gave her my puppy dog face.
She couldn't say no, could she? Nah. She knew I wanted to try new things.
"Fine." she plastered a clearly fake cheesy smile on her face.
We stealthily climbed out her window, one by one. She had a ranch style house so it wasn't too far a drop. Phwew. I'm more scared than I'm leading on.
"I can't believe I actually agreed to this..." I muttered.
It wasn't normal for me to do something that feared me. I was always one to stay within my comfort zone. But I'm also one to want a fun time. I decided it was time to step out of habit. So there I was, sitting on Ava's window, about to jump down like the crazy person I was, apparently!
"I feel like a ninja." Liam said strictly, making it six times funnier.
"Oh my gosh, same. Lol!"
"Ava! Why do you do that?" I ask, laughing at her. She's so weird.
"I don't know, actually."
"Stop blabbering and jump, Summer." Liam said annoyingly.
"Okay, okay!"
I carefully lower myself downwards so I'm hanging off the windowsill by my hands before letting go. I land lightly on my feet. I'm a level 8 competitive gymnast, after all.
"Guys, come on. it's creepy down here!" I whisper-yell up to my friends.
Shortly after I landed, Liam falls down onto his butt next to where I'm standing.
"Don't even think about it." he says.
I laugh under my breath.
"I'm coming down!" Ava calls.
Ava's feet hit the ground.
We're standing by that tree about 10 feet away from her house, looking out into her vast yard.
"Wow, you're right. It is pretty scary out here..." Ava agrees with me, trailing off.
Ava looks around the yard with curious eyes.
"Hey guys, I don't see any-"
Her words are cut off. Someone grabs her from behind. Ava screams bloody murder, but her voice is muffled out.
Before me or Liam could react someone wraps there huge arms around my waist.
"AVA!" Liam screams.
The dark figure covers something over her mouth. She's still attempting to yell. But her struggle to break free quickly slows down before Ava goes limp.
     "No!" I yell in defiance.
Liam looks over to me in horror, now realizing that I've been grabbed too. Liam starts to run towards me but before he can someone grabs him from behind with a huge yank backwards.
"Liam!" I scream.
"LET GO OF ME!" Liam fiercely demands.
I start to scream at the top of my lungs. But quickly after the start of my screech my captor covers a cloth over my mouth.
"NO! Summer!" He stares at me with worry planted firm on his tan face.
Liam's captor does the same. I meet his panicked eyes. We keep each others gaze. Why do I feel so tired all of the sudden? Liam's eyelids fall flat.
I'm silently praying someone heard our screams as everything goes dark.

A/N
I hope you liked the first chapter of my new book. Also, Liam's nick name "Li" is pronounced "Lee"