"You don't get it, that boy was born lost, like his daddy, he's been slipping through my fingers ever since the day I gave birth to him. It's his father's darkness, you leave him alone and he'll head straight towards death."
Once you had to put the...
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I sat, in the morning, beside Troy. He was currently recruiting new people, me being one of them, my brother, another. Ethan had never been a fighter. He worked out when we were children, he played lacrosse at school. Needed to vent all that sexual frustration of his girlfriend not sleeping with him. But the day he found out she cheated on him, he went into a fit of blind rage, regretted it, no charge at all, nothing, it wasn't even put on his record. Just faded into the distance. But he'd felt so bad he signed up for community service went there every night, just like clockwork, showed up after school came back before dinner. Troy met my gaze as he walked over to me bow and arrow in his hand.
"Give it a try, something tells me you'll like it more than the guns." Troy offered. A blinding smile formed on my lips as I jumped up taking the bow and arrows in my hand.
"Something tells me I think I'll end up liking you more than I initially thought." I teased him patting his arm as I pulled back on the string. I closed my eyes as my fingertip brushed against the string, it reminded me of the harp, flashes of me sitting up on that stage nervous, my fingers bleeding the first time I ever played in front of an audience. No one could see it but after the strings drenched red. I shot the arrow off into the distance, my hand steady as the arrow embedded itself into the target. As I let the bow fall to my side my eyes landed on the target as Troy walked up beside me impressed. Or at least I'd hoped so.
"Knew you'd like it more than the guns." Troy shared a small grin forming on his lips, something I found so kissable and seductive. I barely knew what had come over me, but every time I encountered him, my body and mind couldn't help but react in these ways.
"The only thing you were right about today. What's Nick doing here?" I asked after a moment of pause letting my eyes finally graze over Nick's lanky form.
"He wants to join us; I asked if Maddison knew about this." Troy informed me but I could only watch on amused, letting my lips curl into a smile.
"He doesn't need his mummy's permission for this. Do you ask your dear old dad every time you want to experience new things?" I retorted my eyes grazing over Troy's face. Once I'd finished up practicing with the bow and Arrow I saw Nick holding his ratty hair attempting to cut it off. Waltzing over to him a coy smile formed on my lips. "You look like you need help with that." I offered holding out my hand unfaltering. I tried not to compare in my mind how different Troy and Nick were to me. How different I felt with them. I tried not to compare the feeling in my gut whenever I was around them, whenever their different eyes bore into me. Nicks were kind and I knew he would always be kind, always try. Letting the knife fall in my hand I grasped it sitting behind him as I began to cut at his hair. I heard the patter of Maddison's feet as I moved to sit in front of Nick cutting the front of his hair now all short and ruffled I could barely believe who I was looking at.
"Do I have to be worried?" Maddison called out in wonder ever the mother of her child.
"I'd rather back the malitia when we're attacked then hold the rear with the old timers." Nick called out as I reached over grabbing the mirror not before ruffling his hair making him move back his body caught between my legs a small smile on his lips. And then it felt like before everything had happened, like it all faded away. As if I was seeing him for the first time, his intense eyes, kind smile and his way of talking that made my heart melt. Even after everything I'd been through, as much as I wanted to turn away from everything I once was, that smile reeled me in every time it was flashed in my direction.
