Stay With Me (She's With Me #2) - Jessica Cunsolo Page 0,73
able to keep a straight face in our standoff.
“Did you just shoot my little brother?” he asks me as he takes off his mask, his lips curving up on one side.
I take my mask off as well and smirk at him. “Maybe, but I thought you were gonna save me for last?”
He tilts his head to one side, as if thinking through his answer. “I was, but that was before I knew you were playing a ruthless game. I don’t want to be on cooking and cleaning duty for three days.”
We eye each other, and at the same time, aim and shoot at each other right in the stomach. Aiden looks at his stomach, now bright pink, and looks back at me, eyes bright and playful.
“You shot me!”
“You shot me too!” I defend myself, even though I heard his gun go off but didn’t feel anything hit me.
“I purposely missed.”
I look at the tree about five feet to my left, freshly painted bright blue.
“But … the gun … you shot … and the tree?” I stutter, and Aiden gives me a mischievous smile.
“I’ll give you a ten second head start,” he warns, his eyes alight and playful, so different from how he was just a couple of hours ago with his father.
“But you’re already dead!” I point out, knowing there’s no way I’ll outrun Aiden. “And it’s not my fault you can’t aim!”
“One …”
I turn around and take off, and a few seconds later I feel strong arms around my waist and we both go down. If there’s a way to gently tackle someone, that’s what Aiden does, turning so that he takes the brunt of the fall into a pile of leaves.
“That was not a ten second head start.” I laugh, dropping my gun and mask beside us.
“I’m a fast counter,” he jokes, his hands tangling in my hair.
I love seeing this side of Aiden. Okay, all sides of Aiden are nice, but the playful side just melts my heart. He pulls me in and our lips meet as my heart explodes. He groans softly and his arms move to my waist, pulling me closer and letting me melt into him.
“Really, guys? We’re having a very competitive game here,” Julian says, and we break our kiss to look up.
He’s standing with Annalisa, different colored paint smudged all over them. I roll off of Aiden and we both sit up, the front of my jumpsuit now smudged pink, just like how Annalisa’s looks.
“Oh right. Like you guys, weren’t just doing the same thing?” I smirk, and Annalisa sends me a big smile in response.
Aiden and I get up and he hands me my gun and mask as we hear yelling from around the corner. The four of us look at each other and run toward the noise to see what’s going on.
“You already shot me multiple times! I’m dead! Stop shooting me!” We hear Noah say as we get closer.
When we get there, we see Chase and Noah, each covered in different colored paint.
“You started it!” Chase yells, shooting Noah in the stomach for what appears to be the tenth time.
“We were just trying to have fun but you’re taking it personally!” Noah shoots him back.
“Oh, we can get personal!” Chase exclaims, dropping his mask and gun and tackling Noah to the ground, and not in the gentle way that Aiden tackled me. They roll around for a bit before Aiden and Julian step in to break it up.
Noah sits up. “What the fuck, man! If you have something to say just say it!”
Chase sits up as well, all the anger that he’s been feeling suddenly coming to a boiling point. “You were going to sleep with Charlotte!”
“And?”
“And you’re one of my best friends! You were going to sleep with the girl I’m in love with!” Chase shouts.
“I tried apologizing but you’re being a salty little bitch!”
“You can’t do something you know would hurt someone and then apologize and expect it to be all better!”
“I didn’t know how you felt about her!” Noah defends himself.
Chase gets up and dusts himself off. “Everyone knew!”
He collects his gun and mask and storms off in the opposite direction, leaving the five of us staring after him, unsure if we should go after him or not. We were supposed to use paintball as a way to have fun and break the tension, but it seems like it just piled on even more.
Looking at the mask in my hand, I roll my eyes. Maybe next