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Unfortunately for him I really don’t like it when people sneak up on me, especially not after he got the drop on me in school. I react instinctively by bringing my elbow up and jabbing him in his throat. He moved in time for me to not accidentally collapse his esophagus, but he still chokes and cups his neck.
“Don’t sneak up on me,” I snap, pressing my back to his truck and holding myself.
He continues to act like he can breathe despite the fact he clearly can’t.
“Dude,” Joseph mutters, looking concerned. “You okay?”
With red eyes Nok nods and looks at his friend. “Fine,” he husks, his voice breathy and hardly there.
“You both need to go,” I snap, feeling edgy and irritated. My anxiety has been triggered.
They don’t move.
“Now,” I snarl. “Go. I can fix my own damn bike.”
“I’m almost done.”
“Go,” I yell, tucking my trembling hands into my pockets.
Nokosi grabs Joseph by the collar and yanks him to standing.
“Don’t come back here,” I shout after them, looking around me to double check that nobody is listening in. I’m not in the mood for any more invasions of privacy and personal space today.
“She’s a bit loco,” Joseph mutters as he climbs into the car and I resist throwing a wrench at his head.
I look at my phone in my stained hand when a text comes through. It helps to take my mind off everything that just happened.
But when I see it’s from my sister, I glare up at her bedroom window, directly at the part where the curtain is twitching.
Willow: Why do you put yourself through this?
Lilith: Go back to sleep. You need your rest.
Willow: *Insert middle finger here*
I laugh through my nose and look at the road where the truck no longer is.
Then I finish my bike myself.
I can breathe again now that they’re gone.
I can’t say the same for Nokosi, however. I bet he won’t sneak up on me again.
“Heyyyy!” Winona calls when she sees me exit the tree line. I wave back and hit the track. This place is contagious, the weather is perfect, the views are beautiful, and the school isn’t terrible, it’s making me almost wish I didn’t have to leave.
My bike is fixed so all is right with the world again. It took me less time than expected. So much so that I got to sit and watch my sister pick her food, dose herself, and pass out. Mom didn’t come home either, but she did text me telling me she’d be home later and not to wait up.
I don’t plan on waiting up for her but chances are I’ll get home later than she does.
About twenty minutes and two sweet runs later, I stop and head over to where Nash is.
“Watched you clear that double, that was sweet,” Nash says as he raises his knuckles for a fist bump that I reciprocate. “You’ve been watching and learning.”
“That and I’ve memorized the track,” I pant after ripping my helmet from my head. “And I fixed my bike.”
“She sounds a lot healthier.”
I grin and sit beside him on a log with a mat tossed over it. “She does, doesn’t she?”
“So…” He bumps his shoulder against mine. “How are you liking Lakeside and Westoria?”
“Beautiful places, if not a bit lackluster.”
He chuckles and digs his heel into the muddy ground, making a rivet in the earth. “I feel you. There’s not much to do around these parts. Though we do have a drive-in.”
I blink with surprise and slight excitement. “You do?”
“It plays mostly crappy movies. Older horrors. But they do amazing fries and popcorn.” He bumps me again. “Maybe you’d like to—”
We both startle when Nok suddenly slams his booted foot into the narrow space between us. He nudges his brother, forcing him to move and stands fully on the log, cups his hands around his mouth and howls at the sky like a wolf.
Everyone stops what they’re doing to join in. Everyone but me.
Howl upon howl sound around us. It’s amazing, but also crazy.
Then he just stops and sits between us, his hip against mine. He rests forward, arms on his knees, hands clasped, biceps bulging, eyes on the track.
“Why do you smell so good?” I ask, scowling at him. I don’t know why I verbalized my inner musings, but I did and now I really fucking regret it.
Nash looks over his brother’s shoulders at me, realization in his eyes though what that realization is goes beyond my mind-reading capabilities and Nok smirks sideways at me. He looks as smug as ever.
I need to fix this.
“You should smell like ass and brimstone to match your soul.”
Nash laughs, Nok’s smirk vanishes.
He keeps his eyes on the track and I take this moment to look over his forward leaning body to seek out Nash.
“Nash? You were saying?”
He glances at Nok and then clicks his tongue against his palate. “Just that there’s a movie on tomorrow night.”
