Blaire leans over a table, her index finger inviting me with a come-hither motion. A playful smirk plays on her heart shaped lips as she looks at me, ever so coyly. I glup, resigning my fate to the temptress in a short plaid skirt and black stockings.
What can I say...?
I'm just a man, after all, as I playfully jump at her— almost there — but there's something pulling my other hand. My fingers are so close to her warmth, her beauty within grasp, yet so far because this thing wouldn't let go!
I jerk my hand only to find the grimacing face of James Smith, or whatever. His dark eyes are narrowed at me, lips pushed full in a devious smile. I gulp, trying to escape him and fall into Blaire's arms but, his grip is too tight.
Too real.
A tug, and another—
"Will you stop moaning in your sleep please?"
"Can you not shut up and let me sleep?!" I whine, turning over my side. But a foreign warmth overhead burdens my senses and if that wasn't enough, someone shakes my wrist — without quite touching it? Though, a jingle follows.
"Wake up or I will make you sniff your feet."
I blink my eyes open and there's him, leaning over me with his face looming right beside mine. His hands cage my head, one on either side, as his eyes stare at me with the most brazen of all glares. He's alive. But—
"What the fuck dude?!" I jerk up and bump my head against his, crossing my arms in protection of my womanhood. All men are creeps, I tell you.
"Geez," he rubs a hand over his forehead, standing up straight and weirdly my hand follows his. A bright silver chain gazes my vision and I glup as he controls my hand with his. "There's no peace with you around," he whispers and rubs his forehead, my hand being dragged along this shenanigan.
We're tied together. Well, more like cuffed, police cuffed, handcuffed. Wrist locked and everything. Oh the trauma — !
"Wait— how the f—" he presses a hand against my mouth and I instinctively bite it away. He scowls, pulling a face and rubbing my wet saliva on my bedspread. Bedspread?! I look around only to realise that we're surrounded by the pristine white walls of a hospital ward.
There's an empty bed on my right, sheets wrinkled and green curtains drawn back. Other than that, the green curtain veils us from all sides, hiding the medical jargon, trolly pushing and children wailing from my sight. The familiar scent of spirit and antiseptic makes my nose scrunch, though before I could burst in a flurry of questions, he speaks up.
"We need to get out of here, fast," there is an urgency in his tone as he stares at the curtain behind him. I notice that he is kneeling over the visitor's stool and not standing on the floor.
"Why? What happened?! Why are we here?! How are you alive? I thought I killed you! Did you see that table on you?!" I whisper shout with a frown.
"Yeah well I saved your life, be grateful and obliged to this saviour of yours," he turns to face me again, lips pushed in that devious smirk from my nightmares. Oh how loathsome!
"I wouldn't have almost died in the first place if you hadn't run!" I spit.
"And I wouldn't be running if you hadn't broken in!" He spits back.
"It's your fault!" — we grimace at eachother, in sync. I turn to face away as he continues, "Listen, we need to get out of here. This cannot continue or go to the police or be registered, do you understand me? It will NOT end well."
I shrug, "Why should I be afraid if you're the one who started it. Criminal." I enunciate the last word with much passion.
"Sh, sh, hush!" He points his thumb at the curtain behind him as the clear sound of heavy footsteps draws closer.
My eyes widen as he jumps from the stool to his bed, almost making me fall off my bed with his pull, and glares me down. His eyes narrow as if saying, "Close your eyes chicken head."
The curtain in front of his bed is pulled and I instantly shut my eyes close.
"Still not up?"
"Yeah, they were hurt a lot. Let them rest a while."
"Did you obtain the evidence I asked you to?"
"Yeah I did, both of them are currently suspicious. I called their emergency contacts so they'll be here any minute."
"And the school?"
Chills run down my spine, birthing goosebumps all over my hands and feet.
"Oh I forgot about that! She was wearing her uniform, after all, how amature. I'll get to it after the interrogation."
"Good. Update me on their medical charts please."
The curtains are drawn again and I open my eyes with a slightest wink as the voice draws a bit far. He's gone.
As much as I care for him to end up behind the bars, it would not work out if I have to go back to the school. If they realise that I had skipped school to rob— they'd shove me into their detention and rehabilitation program.
Our female lead had a stalker in school, like literally every other female lead, she was almost assaulted by him. Though, the male lead saves the day and cripples the man, urging for jail time. But because he was a minor, and the authoress wanted to be UNIQUE, the school puts him in a hellscape of their own creation. There weren't many a details about his time, but I know for sure that he was driven to insanity by the students.
Judging by his actions, and as a reader, I was fine with it. But as someone who is currently living and breathing in this world, it makes me want to drown in a pool of my own cold sweat.
James tugs at our handcuffs and mouths, "Let's run."
I nod.
"How?" I mouth back to James.
He sits up and leans forward to see, from the gap in between the curtain and the floor, feet going left and right. He gestures for me to get up and I do, only for him to jump over my bed in a swift motion.
"Ouch!" I groan, my hand almost cramping up with the swift motion.
"Stop being a wuss!" He whispers, tugging my hand to face the closed curtains on my right.
"Stop being such an ape!" I snap back, crawling behind his back to align our chained hands beside eachother's. My left and his right.
"Three, two, one, let's go!" He sucks in a deep breath and without as much as a warning, pulls the curtain and jumps over the other side. I let out a muted yelp, falling in foot with him as we stand in front of an old man's bed. Thankfully, he's sleeping with a snore.
My heart thunders as he looks at me with a glint in his dark eyes. I scowl at him. "Not bad," he smirks, slipping his feet in the old man's slippers.
"Hey! What about me!" I point at my barefeet.
"Finders, Keepers." He grins.
"Chivalry is dead and it started with you," I flip him off. He rolls his eyes and tip toes to sneak a peek outside the curtains. He looks left, then right, then gestures to move along.
"All clear," he whispers as we slip out of the curtains and into the long and busy hallway. "Don't look back. No one will notice us," he breaths with uncertainty, as if trying to convince himself rather state a fact.
"Yeah surely not, with our two hands restrained and everything," I roll my eyes and grab a hold of his hand. Our fingers intertwine, he wraps his other hand on my cuff and I wrap mine over his. Why were his hands so big and why were mine so small?! What freak of nature eats up hands like his did to mine?!
I frown up at him as he cheekily whispers, "Don't fall in love."
"Please, get a life," I roll my eyes as we walk ahead with our hands locked and shoulders pressed together. Our faces plastered dumb smiles and crinkled eyes as I try to keep up with his pace.
Darn these short legs.
"Where are we going?" I ask as we turn round a corner and make it to the main waiting area. Lined with chairs and the receptionist's desk, populated with sobs and silence.
"Promptly to a locksmith's first. Then, you go your way and I go my way," he shrugs. I gape at him.
"Excuse me?! You're just going to make me escape the police and then abandon me into nowhere?!" I whisper, exasperated.
"Why, are we friends or something?" He frowns at me as I scowl back at him. "Or did you fall for me already?" He sighs, running a hand over his face.
"Shut the heck up with all falling in love bullshit, will you?! I will not fall in love with you because I am not like the girls, okay? You cannot just leave me to the hungry dogs!"
His eyes widen with an amused sparkle as he goes, "Oh ho ho, you're one of THOSE girls."
"What girls?" I frown at him. At this point, we're not even walking anymore.
"I'm-not-like-the-other-girls girls," he snorts like a gentleman.
I scowl at his audacity, "Trust me, I'm not, okay? I'm one of the guys."
He snorts even harder at that and takes a step back, just as much so that our cuffs wouldn't show. "Cringe," he says and scrunches his nose.
I, wholeheartedly, flip him off again.
"I bet you were a wattpad girlie. If not that, then you were surely reading one direction fanfics in your teens," he laughs. There's Wattpad in this universe?! And One Direction?!
I mean, yes, I read Wattpad in my real life but that was to support my sister with her writing dreams. Not to read cringe and toxic love amongst delusional teens.
"Who even are you? Why do you have so much personality?" I roll my eyes and turn to walk away but instantly turn back and push him against a wall.
"Woah, woah!" He goes as I press my side against the wall and cover my face with a free hand.
"Hide! My roommates are coming!" I whisper, having spotted pretty Blaire in the blink of an eye.
"And why should I evade your roomates?" He drawls, leaning against the wall as I press our hands into hiding.
"Because if I get caught, so do you, and we go back to the police together!" I snap, pulling him closer. He leans in, caging me with one hand. His giant of a body thankfully hides me and our cuffs in front of his chest. His breath falls on my forehead and I instantly turn his chin away.
"Take your hot breaths to Neverland, please," I grit my teeth. He's standing impossibly close now, in an attempt to hide our faces from my incoming roomates. They strut down the corridor, Blaire's face pushed in a worried frown and yellow-bed-person just plain glaring.
"Well then stop breathing down my chest," he snaps back. Out of spite, I breath faster and harder against his chest as my roommates' conversation comes within earshot. He pinches my nose with his cuffed hand and I dig my nails in his wrist to make him let go.
When he does not, I blow hot air from from my mouth, corrupting his hands. He scowls and lets go. Ha! Me - 2 and Him - 0.
"Do you really think she did it? I don't want it to be her!" Blaire whines, biting on her lips. Sexy.
"Shut up Ambrose! She's our friend! We do not look right and wrong with friends. We support them throughout! Okay? No matter, until the end, friends forever!" Yellow-bed-person scoffs, melting my heart.
"Yes yes, I love my friends, but stealing is a sin, Stephanie." Ah! So Yellow-bed-person is called Stephanie! I shall cherish her forever!
"So is all of your existence."
Blaire deflates, "You're such a meanie," she whines with shoulders slumping and everything, as they turn round the corner.
I push him away.
"You've got some good friends," he steps back and I sigh in relief. I may remain unaffected by him but this body was making its heart race a mile a minute within his close proximity.
"I know, right?" I press my lips up in a smile.
"The Stephanie girl would have helped you escape," he shrugs, "too bad."
"Oh too bad indeed!" A voice chirps.
We jolt away from eachother, our cuffs clinking and paining us back close. A nurse, dressed in white, hugging a few files close to her chest, curiously eyes us up and down. I gulp as she continues, "Everything okay ...?"
"Oh yes, definitely," he pulls us closer and intertwines our hands again. I purse my lips as he continues under her suspicion, "My wife here wanted to get a little frisky in bed and unfortunately it got out of hand so here we are," he laughs, so charismatically that it makes my body's heart clench a little.
What a fake arsehole!
"That looks uncomfortable," the nurse narrows her eyes at our restrains. He shrugs in defence.
"We aim at authenticity. We're farm owners, you see, so we're authentic," he lies through his teeth, eyes switching between me and the nurse, ever so kindly.
"Ah, of course. I guess you forgot the key at home? Do you want me to contact a doc—"
"Oh no no no! No, no at all! No, we're just out for a walk, you see, we have our dressing gowns and everything — and...we couldn't really finish our roleplay last night..." His voice tones down at the last part, sounding almost petulant and upset. I stare at his bent head with scandalised eyes wondering if I, indeed, got transported into a new story, suddenly.
"Your wife doesn't even has her slippers on," the nurse rolls her eyes but before she could breath any further, he jumped with a reason.
"That's a part of our plot," he holds out his wrist — in which I had dug my nails just a few moments ago — for the nurse to see, "I must punish her."
"Oh wow- um," the nurse is rendered speechless as I step over his foot, crushing it. He seethes in pain.
"Don't mind my husband, dearest, he has no filter, no censor, no tact," I grit out the last part, pulling him away to escape as soon as possible, when a loud shout brings doom upon us.
"CATCH THEM! They're escaping criminal supervision! They are thieves!"
And I freeze in my footsteps.