Game of War (Cashby)

Chapter 7

I woke up to a sore back. Which wasn't really unexpected considering the floor I had slept on. I rolled over and closed my eyes, hoping to forget everything for a little while longer. My dreams taunted me with the memory of the night before over and over again. It was hard for me to fall asleep though, every time I closed my eyes I saw Shay. Like he was glued to the back of my eyelids in some sort of morbid memorial.

"Austin?" I heard Alan call softly from above me. I opened one eye and shifted so I could see his face peeking over the edge of the bed.

"Yeah?"

"Oh good! You're awake," he said, jumping out of bed. "Come on! Let's go get breakfast, I'm starving." I chuckled lightly, nodding and following him out of the room.

"Morning boys! I hope the floor wasn't too unbearably uncomfortable, Austin," Alan's mother said as soon as she saw us walking down the hall. I smiled happily at her.

"No, it was just fine thank you." Alan didn't wait for me as he sped down into the kitchen to grab something to eat. He wasn't kidding about being hungry. Felix wasn't too happy about Alan bouncing around the small room this early in the day, but we got our food all the same. We took it back out and sat down on the floor in the main room to eat.

"What are you going to do today, Alan?" His dad asked when he saw us sat there. Alan shrugged.

"I think I'm going to go down to the forum, if that's ok?"

"That's fine, you can walk Austin home before you go." I nodded my head in agreement and looked over at Alan. The look in his eye told me this was his plan from the start.

"Right, Dad. See you tonight!" He said, then bolted over to his room. I followed him at a slower pace and pushed my way in behind him. I was a little taken aback to see him facing the wall opposite of me, pulling his shirt off. All of a sudden I was frozen there, staring. It's not like I had never seen another guy shirtless. Quite the opposite actually, no one from the Legions ever really cared. But for some reason, I just couldn't bring myself to look away. His pale back was soon covered by another shirt though, and I was left finally able to breath again. I quickly brushed off whatever that was and moved to my side of the room.

I pulled a fresh set of clothes out of the small stack beside my makeshift bed. Alan had bought me two shirts and two pairs of pants yesterday and insisted I not worry about it. I couldn't help but feel a little guilty, and silently I had vowed to pay him back when things were normal again. I changed fast and turned around once again to see Alan on the bed with a huge grin on his face. I was about to ask him what he was so happy about when he spoke first.

"You ready to go?"

"I think so," I said. I had seen forums before and actually spent a lot of time wandering around them, but today was different. Today I was a citizen. Today I could actually look at everything and consider things and maybe do stuff for myself. But also, today I was wanted by the very people I used to be. The guards. I frowned slightly at that, but pushed it out of my mind never the less.

We left the house and began walking down the streets. I nervously ran a hand through my hair. No one would notice me right? God damn it, why did I have to be so tall. I glanced at Alan, and he must have noticed my fear, because he grabbed my hand and started pulling me down the street.

"Come ON! Let's go, I wanna show you all the cool stuff out here," he said over his shoulder. I shook my head and focused on trying to keep up with the little fire ball. This was the first time I had seen the city from the actual streets, and not the back alleys. And even then I wasn't much in the mood for taking in the scenery.