Us Against The World

Chapter 21

Jexton and I balk at the sound of pounding at the front door. We immediately look at it from the table, then stare at each other. "What do we do?" I ask and he frantically looks around. 

"Grab your plate and hide." he instructs and I nod. I motion for him to follow me into my father's old office. That's where my mother used to hide me when the Consilium soldier's did monthly house checks. I run and hide under my father's old desk, and Jexton hides behind the door.

The door bursts open and heavy footsteps flood the house. "Do you smell that?" a deep voice asks. "Someone was in here." 

"What happened to the woman that used to live here?" 

"Don't know. She's gone, obviously." 

Listening to the two soldiers converse made me even more nervous. My heart pounds harder and harder against my chest as the footsteps become closer to the office. I hope and pray over and over that they don't find the room and barge in. And if they do, I hope that they don't find me. If they found Jexton, it wouldn't be such a big deal because they know him and his father was the commander of the Consilium base.

After yelling for us to come out of hiding if we we're here, threatening to kill us if they find us and searching my house for what seems like forever, they finally leave and slam the door behind them. 

I let out the breath I have been holding in since they entered the house and look up at Jexton. He holds his finger to his lips and peeks around the door. I stay in my hiding spot for a few more minutes after that just to make sure the coast is clear. When Jexton tells me that it is, we emerge from the office and take our seats at the table once again.

 "I hate that so much." I say between breaths and Jexton nods in agreement. I walk to the sink and set my plate in it after scraping the remaider of my food into the garbage can. I lost whatever was left of my appetite.

"I wish we could just lock the door so they couldn't come in and scare the shit out of us like that." I say and Jexton smiles. "Why are you smiling?" I ask and he shakes his head. "It sounds funny when you curse because you seem like the goody-two-shoes girl who filters her words." I gape and smile. "I am not!" I defend myself and he begins laughing. 

"Yes you are! Admit it, before I came along you never said a bad word in your life." I roll my eyes and finish washing the dishes. "Whatever," I say and he laughs. "give me your plate if you're done eating." he stuffs the rest of the food on his plate in his mouth and walks over to hand the plate to me. I roll my eyes playfully and shake my head at his failed attempt to keep all of that food in his mouth at once. "You're cleaning that up." I say and cringe when some drops out of his mouth.

When the kitchen is finally clean, I walk to the living room and sit on the couch. There is a book that is being held open by the arm of the couch and I pick it up and read the title. "Pride and Prejudice". I smile down at the book and don't even realize Jexton walking into the living room and sitting on the couch across from me. "You were serious about liking to read?" he asks and I nod and smile without looking at him. 

"Yeah, me and my mom would sit in here and read together for a couple hours and then talk about how we felt about the chapters in the story that we read," I explain and I can tell he's judging me. "She was working on this one." I look at the page number. "She was on page 315." 

"Sounds extremely boring." Jexton says and I look up at him. "It was bonding time," I defend myself again. "we couldn't afford a TV, so this was the next best thing. And I enjoy reading, thank you very much." Jexton puts his hands up in defeat and we both laugh.

"What did you and your dad do for fun?" I ask, immediately regretting the question as soon as it jumped out of my mouth. "We didn't 'have fun'." he says with air quotes and wide eyes. "He got mad at me a lot for stupid reasons. I was never really a big fan of his demented mind and how it worked. If I didn't want to do something, he hit me." I gape and he nods. 

"I'm really sorry." I say and think about how my mother would sometimes hit me when she was drunk. You never really knew with her. Jexton sniffles and wipes his eye with the back of his hand. "It's alright," he says and sighs. "neither of us had very appealing parents I guess. But we don't have to worry about that anymore."