Three hours later I am standing in a secret underground training centre glaring at Josh. He is literally my partner in crime. He is my compulsory partner and my parents chose him. Miss Greenworth said it was because his reveal date was close to mine and our parents know each other, I didnt know this obviously.
Our first part of training is physical we study this for two days, then mental for two days and finally mini missions around campus and I have to do this all with Josh. We start physical training today, our trainer is called Sara. The first the Josh said to her is "Do we have to be trained by a girl," I turned to him and smacked him on the back of the head and he grinned at me, and I realised that he was joking, I blushed and looked at the floor feeling stupid.
The first thing Sara teaches us is physical contact. We don't get to fight each other which what I would have enjoyed. We are in the middle of training, and I am winning my fight, when an alarm goes off. At first I think its the fire alarm but when the lights go out and I hear Sara scream "Run" I realise its slightly more serious. I rush towards the direction that appears to be the door but turns out to be a wall, I smack into it hard and fall into a heap on the floor, silently screaming in agony. I look around and I'm sure everyones already left, when I hear Josh calling out quietly in a whisper "Emma," I groan in response. He fumbles towards me in the dark, his hand trailing along the wall for support. He reaches me and slips his arm around my waist and helps me up. The way he's holding me makes my knees go weak which they shouldn't, this is Josh remember. The guy who throws paper areoplanes at the back of your head in math.
Five minutes later Josh has half carried half dragged me out of the training centre and into a storage cupboard, hidden from whatever is out there. He pulls out his I Phone for light and inspects my face. "Oh Shit" he whispers, not meaning for me to hear. "What happened did someone punch you?" He asks concerend, this can't be the Josh I know. "Something like that" I mutter. "You didn't get punched?" He looks confused. "Not exactly, I kind of walked into a wall" I say looking at the floor, I feel my cheeks flush. When I look up his face is cracked into a grin. I hit him hard, and wince because it causes me pain. "I'm sorry, not funny, not funny." He says still chuckling. I wince again, this time not because of pain, why is Josh making me feel so weird?
Josh cleans me up a best he can with the limited supplys in the cupboard, he's so gentle when he touches my face cleaning some of the blood off. One of my most obvious injurys is my bleeding nose, but at least it doesn't seem to be broken. Also I cut my eyebrow and will need stiches, back to hospital ward. I suppose its better than going back to an empty dorm. Its weird, but I know as soon as I'm trained I know that Miss Greenworth is going to send me after Molly, I guess that means Josh too. I know this because she hasn't sent anyone after her, I can see it in her eyes when she tells me she's got it covered.
I look at Josh, his eyes are closed, I say "What are you thinking about?" He opens his eyes "Not much," He says unconvincingly. "Yea right, come on we're gonna work together for the rest of our lives so we may as well not be like turtles, all cooped up in ourselves." I say grinning at my on wit. He looks up and grins, oh my god his grin is so cute. Wait, what did you just think Emma? What is wrong with you?
"Okay, I was thinking about my parents, I'm kind of worried. You know my reveal date was around the same time as your real one, I was bumped up to. I don't really get why, our parents must be really close." He says carefully.
"I never actually thought about it, I assumed your reveal date was around now? I'm not that worried about my parents, more about Molly." I hoarsely whisper feeling tears well up in my eyes, its dark so I hope Josh doesn't see. I don't want him to think I'm weak.
"Of course, you guys were super close weren't you, that must be awful" I feel him look towards me in the dark." How are you doing?" He asks.
"Well my best friend was kidnapped by a murderous pair of criminals, I'm hiding in a storage cupboard from the same people and I can hardly breathe and now you've just made me scared for my parents. So yeah my life is swell at the moment."
"Sorry, Idiot" He says pointing at himself.
"Don't worry, I can help you get over your idiocy” I laugh
“My idiocy, ok that’s cheap coming from the girl who walked into a wall” He replies grinning, eyebrow raised.
“Not my finest moment I must say.” I reply giggling.
He shuffles over to me and sits beside me. I pull my knees into my chest and hug them. He leans back on the wall. My heart starts beating double time and I close my eyes, our shoulders touch and this is my reaction? Okay am I sick? Oh stop lying to yourself you know exactly what’s going on! You like Josh! Oh my I like Josh, I like Josh. I really really really like Josh. I lean back.
“I’m tired” I whisper.
“Me too, you can lie on my shoulder if I can lie on your head” He whispers back
“Deal” I say and lie down.
His shoulder’s strong and secure. I feel safe sitting with him even though as we speak there are two murderous men running around the building. But now I don’t feel like I have to worry about that any more, I just shut my eyes and drift into a warm, cosy and safe dream about Josh and his strong shoulder.
Authors Note: Hope you like this chapter! I think its much better written than the others and it only gets better from here so yep enjoy!
