Noah crossed his arms and stalked out of the room, eyes trailing after him.
Cooper followed Noah, shutting the door behind him before standing in the center of the room. "Everything'll be okay."
He spun. "When? When will it be fine? When will it be okay?" Silence. "When are we going to stop fucking running, and hiding, and lying, and putting innocent people in danger?" Nothing. "Will it be next week? Next month? Next goddamn year?" A third pause. Noah stuttered, trying to voice all his thoughts at once. "The weight of knowing people are getting hurt, people you know, people you've met." Noah was yelling now. "And even those that you don't! Children and elderly. Teenagers. Adults. And you never will. Because they're dead. And that it's you're fault? Can you live with that? For the rest of your life!?"
Cooper let Noah storm in front of him, staying silent and watching the floor but paying attention to his words. "And the fact that no, you probably couldn't, makes it worse."
Cooper looked up. "Skipping over the fact that you think you know what I could and couldn't live with. How the hell does that make it worse?"
He spoke over his shoulder. "I dragged you into this."
"You didn't drag me into anything."
Noah stuttered again. "How?"
Cooper turned, facing Noah head on. "You gave us a choice-"
"It was a pretty shitty choice-"
"Can I finish?" Noah nodded, turning his head away but keeping his gaze on Cooper. "Thanks. You gave us a choice. But it really wasn't a choice." He held up his hand. "Not because of you. Because of me. You think that I'd leave you in danger? Bullshit. I'd fight tooth and nail to make sure no one gets hurt if I have a say in it." He turned away from Noah, scanning the room. "What would you do?"
"I don't fucking know, Cooper." Noah let out a quick, desperate laugh. "How should I know? There is nothing about this situation that I am, in any way, familiar with. Especially not fucking fractured jaws."
"Well maybe I am! Did you ever think that, just maybe, there's someone else here that had an older sibling?" Cooper spread his arms, turning back to him.
"I don't see Sean having been punched in the face recently!"
"Maybe I wasn't talking about Sean!" he yelled, voice cracking, before slamming a hand over his mouth.
YOU ARE READING
Shadowstruck
FantasyA girl wakes up in a forest with her memory wiped. Now they have to figure out who's behind The Uprising and, more importantly, how to stop them. If they can stop them. They're losing time. And the gods aren't on their side.
