Middle School Miniature

Chapter 23, Explaining The Situation

Up to this point, Max had been holding me.

I was sitting in his hand braced against his chest to try and keep me stable through the rough and tumble run through yards and across streets to this 'Jordan's' house. The run was still uncomfortably jostling, even with my own effort of holding on tight to his shirt and the crease in his hand. Max slowed to a walk, looking around to make sure we had fully escaped the suited men, and then stopped, breathing long breaths from his ten-minute jog.

"Alright Amelia," he said between breaths, "Jordan would probably be a little freaked out if we came in like this and he saw you straight away..." his sentence died off for a second.

I turned my body and crained my neck up in a way for me to see what I could of his face which was anxious and a bit guilty.

"The thing is," Max started again, "It would be better if you could start out in my pocket and let me try to explain before putting you out in the open." I sighed because it made sense. I fidgeted with the ends of my hair before responding.

"Yeah. Okay. Just, be careful," I relented. I looked down, let go of his shirt fabric, and braced myself. The hand I was on started to smoothly shift down to Max's jacket pocket and pushed into the fold of cloth staying there, which gave me a ground to be stable on in the pocket. Max began to move again and I could feel the jolts through my limbs when he bounded up the stairs and rang the doorbell.

__________________

I stood by the door, acutely aware of the men still hunting for us. I had to dodge a car or a man running along the road a few times on the way here by jumping another fence or hiding behind shrubs. 'Come on Jordan,' I thought 'get your lazy but down here.' Jordan wasn't a bad guy, he was pretty nice all things considered, but whenever he had a free moment, that guy was on a gaming platform. Steam, Nintendo, Xbox, VR, you name it, this guy had it and played games every free waking moment. This was a good thing because it was one of the ways I met the dude and it made for a killer time when we had sleepovers, but getting him away from his games was like tearing apart two pieces of paper that were glued together. I rang the doorbell two more times and heard footsteps approaching. I looked around while waiting some more and my eyes widened when I caught sight of a man in a suit walking across an intersection five or six houses down. I jiggled the door handle again, wishing it to be open.

"Who's here?" Asked the annoyed boy's voice who I knew was Jordan's.

"Dude it's me, hurry up!" I angrily said as loud as I dared. There was some grumbling as the bolt was unlocked and opened up to a slightly taller, brown-haired, brown-eyed, guy who was obviously going through puberty. I pushed in past the door in a rush, leading with the shoulder opposite of the one Amelia was in the pocket of.

"Hey. What's going on!" Jordan exclaimed when I pushed past him.

"A lot," I grumbled, pushing the door shut and locking it. "Is anyone else here?"

"My dad is up in his office, but why?"

"You'll see in a minute. Where can we go to be alone and not overheard?"

"The basement I guess. What the heck is going on man?"

"You'll see." I clipped, repeating myself. "Let's go." I gestured and strutted towards the downstairs. "Oh and Jordan," I turned around, "don't answer your door no matter what, and if they ask, I am not here." With that I went downstairs, Jordan following behind me in utter confusion.

In the basement, I sat carefully on the couch feeling Amelia struggling in my pocket trying to stay upright, I attempted to help by shifting my hand, feeling guilty that I was unable to keep her from falling over. Jordan flopped on the couch's other side, sinking in with gusto to his familiar spot.