Authors: Danielle Breeze
Well, I couldn’t help it after that, I giggled, then slapped my hand across my mouth to hold it
back, Jase wasn’t finished with him yet.
“No?” He began... “Well, maybe you’d like to explain what makes you more of a man than me? Huh?”
It was awful, hilarious, but awful, Mason looked like he was totally lost. Flicking his eyes from one person to the next. If only he knew that Jase was completely toying with him. Poor boy.
“I didn’t mean it Jase, it was just, what I meant was, you three” He pointed to me, Jase and Tay then continued... “And us three.” Pointing to just himself, but it was clear who he meant.
“So then why is that guys against girls?” Jase asked, raising an eyebrow. He really wasn’t going to let him off easily. Mason sighed and his shoulders dropped slightly.
“Okay, I just figured, well, ya know? You’re kind of
feminine
! It was just a figure of speech, I wasn’t being literal, so can we please just forget it and go in?” His eyes were still wary and I swear my lip ached from biting down on it so as not to laugh but it broke from my mouth when Jase shrugged and spoke again.
“Sure thing, come on then ladies.” And he linked his arm through mine and Tay’s, then flicked his head to side as if he was throwing his imaginary hair over his shoulder and strutted towards the entrance.
I stole a glance over my shoulder to see Jax and Ruben laughed and slapping Mase on the back, but he seemed frozen to the spot, trying to comprehend what just happened.
Lesson: Never take on
Jase, he’s the queen of drama!
We strapped our target packs over our chests, grabbed our guns and had to listen to a five minute, boring, health and safety lecture,
then we were allowed in.
We entered through separate doors and for my
team, our plan was to shoot as fast and as regularly as possible. We figured we were bound to hit one of them at least.
Ahh.
Maybe not.
Mason
“So you go left, I’ll go right, and Ruben, you go straight up the ramp. Don’t shoot too often because you’ll have to recharge and that will give ‘em chance to shoot you. Keep your back to the wall as often as you can, and keep yo
ur eyes peeled. They’re not quiet, so follow their voices, but you stay silent okay?” Jax advised.
Yeah, so we might have all been in our twenties, but
dammit! We wanted to win, so we had a battle plan!
We all took off in our suggested directions and almost immediately I heard footsteps ahead of me and peered around the corner, seeing Jase running towards me, so I flattened myself against the wall and waited for him to run past.
He noticed me straight away and raised his gun to fire, but I was quicker and shot straight on target.
Get in!
Leaving him to his five second penalty, I took off under the bridge seeking my next victim. Yeah, it definitely felt like I needed to do an evil
Muahahaha!
laugh, but I held it in.
I was on a stake-out!
I heard a screech and a shout of “Motherfucker!” from somewhere over on Jax’s side, followed by a loud hoot, so I assumed he’d managed to get Taylor, but I was on a mission, there was only one girl I really wanted to be chasing.
“Taylor! I need to recharge!”
Oh, she really could not have made it any easier for me, clearly she was not a Laserquest pro! You never admit your weaknesses.
I ran towards their recharging station, knowing that she would have to head there. Peeking out from behind the wall, I saw her look both ways before dashing across the walkway directly to their station.
Easy target! She may as well have handed me the win. Silly girl. I took aim, fired once and hit her target first time. She whirled around, searching for who had shot at her but I darted back behind the wall hoping the she wouldn’t see me.
It was all part of my plan, really piss her off and confuse her, that’s when the real Harper shines through. I get her eyes, fierce bright and beautiful.
Her mouth, vicious, feisty and hot. But mostly, her lips, red, full, biteable. I loved her lips, if I could, I’d feast on them forever.
Forever doesn’t scare me, when you’ve had the life I have, you want secure, safe, stable.
Does it matter that I was only twenty one? I didn’t think so.
When you know, you just
know.
And I knew.
Most people wouldn’t go out of their way to piss off their girl, but I did, I wanted her over the top, exaggerated reaction. Badly.
When she didn’t react to our set-up earlier, I wanted to question her about why she was avoiding me, tell her to stop playing games and being so scared. The girl lived inside her own head too much.
So this was all part of my plan, I wanted her riled up, and I was going to be the one to do it.
Harper
I just knew it was him! Jax would have basked in the glory of his shot and Ruben would just have chuckled and walked by as if he didn’t do anything. I knew them too well. Not Mason, he was purposely trying to get to me. I bet he thought he was so damn clever.
Wrong move pretty
boy, you’re mine now. No one beats me!
I stayed in the recharge station for a good five minutes, hearing the screeches and curses from all the other players as they either managed to hit someone, or they were the ones getting hit. From the language I could hear from Taylor’s mouth, I was fairly certain we were losing but the game meant nothing by then, it was all about me beating Mason.
I flattened myself against the wall and slid out of the station, I knew if I ran across the walkway, he’d get me, so I followed the edge of the arena until I came to the bridge. I crawled up, praying he hadn’t figured out my game, then rose onto my knees, peered over the side and spotted him almost immediately, silly fucker was still where he’d caught me, as if I’d wait around that long!
Bless.
Aimed.
Fired. Scored!
Perfect shot.
His mouth dropped open and his eyes did a sweep of the area before they connected with mine. I stood, knowing he was on a penalty, and gave him a grin and a wiggle of my fingers in a condescending wave before high-tailing it away from him as fast as I could.
I’ll be honest, it was so much fun.
I was fairly sure it turned out to be some sort of twisted foreplay for Taylor and Jax seeing as I caught them making out
twice
during the game. They were supposed to be on opposite teams, the clearly didn’t care about the rules!
Traitors!
He shot me, I shot him, then vice versa. Over and over again. We were literally at a stalemate. I didn’t care by that point though, I was just enjoying myself.
I was too busy trying to hide from Mase to notice anything around me. Then again, I never really pay attention to anything!
So I ran off the end of the bridge, turned the corner and collided, face first with something, or some
one
else. The force of it sent me down and I landed with a thud, screaming out at the pain that shot through my wrist.
“Fuck!”
“Are you okay?”
Ruben. He always was too bloody quiet, so quiet that I ran straight into him.
I spoke through clenched teeth.
“Do I fucking look okay?”
“No not really, but thought I’d ask. Do you want a hand up?”
I held my injured wrist to my chest and gave the other hand to Ruben to help me up.
No matter where we go, or what we do, it’s always me that somehow manages to get injured. That time I couldn’t even last ten minutes without doing something stupid.
Urgh, it’s so damn frustrating!
My body poured with sweat, it was disgusting and the throbbing in my wrist didn’t seem to be easing but when the final buzzer went just seconds later, I bent and put one hand on my knee, panting, still with a huge grin on my face.
I knew Mason was fun, but this was playful, competitive, good-natured
friendly
banter. It was probably the first time, in the almost three months that I’d known him that I really felt like he was making an effort to be my friend, and a little less effort on trying to get me back into bed. I felt relieved, I think, but there may have, possibly...been a little regret in there too.
Damn!
Being in love with someone that you knew you could only ever be friends with, it hurt like a bitch. I took the pain though. It was better for me to deal with a subtle ache, than a gut-wrenching agony. Because that’s what would happen. I knew it, nothing good could come of me and Mason, we were both too damn stubborn, too controlling.
So I ignored the pangs of regret, the feeling that I’d made a huge mistake by pushing him too far, and I tried to focus on the group.
It was probably just the pain making me think stupid things anyway.
Yeah, it definitely had to have been the pain.
I was lucky, not many people have truly
amazing
friends like I do, when I figured Mason would be there right along with them, it eased the ache slightly. Nothing made it fade completely though.
Fuck, why did I start thinking so much? What a way to put a downer on a good day.
Mason
I have no idea what happened. We we’re having such a great day, everyone laughing and joking around, spending time together. Watching Jax and Taylor make-out
far
too often was the only downside, until Harper just shut down. I swear I actually saw it happen. She was holding her own, joking around with the rest of us, then she just, stopped laughing.
It was like the light had
gone out of those beautiful, unique eyes of hers.
“Go make sure she’s okay.” Ruben suggested.
“Why?”
“Did you not hear her scream? She’s injured. Might want to take her to the hospital and get it checked out. She had a pretty harsh landing.”
She was hurt? How did I not know that?
I stepped closer to her
and noticed straight away that she was trying to hide her grimace in pain and she was holding her wrist against her, shielding it from any contact.
“Come on Sunshine, can’t take you anywhere can we? You’re so clumsy! Let’s get that wrist checked out.”
“No.”
“No?” I asked, wondering why she wouldn’t want to get it looked at.
“No. I’m not going to the hospital.”
“Why? It could be broken.”
“It’s not, look it’s fine.”
According to Harper, ‘fine’ must mean that it hurts like a bitch because she just moved it slightly and sucked in a sharp breath from the pain.
I really wished she wasn’t so fucking stubborn.
I couldn’t keep up anymore. She was funny, then bitchy, then sweet, then pissed off
, then cute, then stubborn as hell. It was well and truly fucking with my head. It was the first time I’d had thoughts of just, giving up on her all together.
Just watching her, clench her teeth and look away from the group sealed it for me. I wasn’t going to give her up, but I was going to stop chasing her like a fucking lost puppy.
No more, Harper.
No more.
Chapter Eleven
Harper
The day out with the all the guys had me feeling low. I didn’t like it. I didn’t do depressed! I kept myself upbeat and happy at all times.
Just not then.
Damn that Mason
Fucking
Brent.
He was under my skin, so much I could feel him with every heartbeat. Like fire, moving through my veins. I didn’t want him there, I wanted him out.
At least I thought I did, but his behaviour when we were out was, to say the least, unsettling. I had become so accustomed to his flirtatious behaviour, with it not being there...I missed it.
This was only made worse by an impromptu visit from Taylor that afternoon. She’s always had a key anyway, so when I heard the door open, I glanced up expecting to see
Jase, or even Mason but nope, little miss ‘look-how-much-my-boyfriend-loves-me’ came strolling through, with Jax. Urgh, they even looked at each other like their whole world was made of one person. Disgusting.
I know that sounds bitter, and I guess I kind of
felt slightly that way. Not about the fact that they were happy, no, I
loved
that for Taylor. It was that I’d lost my best friend...in a way. She just didn’t need me anymore. It was the feeling of being
needed
that I missed.
“What’s up chick?” I asked, knowing from t
he wariness written all over Tay’s face, that I wasn’t gonna like whatever she said.
“Well...” She hesitated,
then started again, “I just wanted to talk to you, to see if you really are okay lately? You’ve been quieter than usual, and we all know you’re not one for being quiet! What’s going on with you? Does it have anything to do with Mason?”