Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day
Baxter
All of my senses are on high alert the second I open my eyes and I’m inked in darkness, a tight squeeze of pressure around my body making me wonder if this is the result of someone’s one and only chance and they took it, wrapping me in a tarp and disposing of me.
A dry chuckle leaves my lips and someone shushes me. Are you fucking kidding me! Someone is in here, which means I have to save them or kill them…the latter works for me.
My arms are trapped tight against my body, the distinct sound of a pop as I move has blinding rage rushing through my body.
Though the incessant thumping in my head makes it hard to concentrate.
Whoever captured me knew I had to be incapacitated, but how did they get to me?
That is the real question. I’m Baxter fucking Branson and no one bests me.
“SURPRISE!!!!” Choruses around me, my retinas burn at the sudden assault of blinding light.
Some fucking idiot obviously forgot to give me the memo that this is a party.
The idiot in question turns to face me, a manic shit-eating grin on his face.
Kalen fucking Knox.
I should have known.
Just beyond him, Amelie is glancing all around the room and she smirks when her eyes land on me.
It all starts coming back to me now…Amelie’s SOS message, me thinking that I was meeting her but it was actually Kalen who showed.
I knew I should have turned and walked straight out of the bar, but on the slight chance that something was wrong with my best friend, I never would have forgiven myself. So I stayed and agreed to one drink and now here I am. The fucker drugged me.
“I’m going to fucking kill you,” I growl menacingly, the rumble coming from deep writhing my chest. Raven is going to kill me.
I obviously didn’t make it back in time for our breakfast date this morning.
Not a date, date. Just a regular…appointment.
A meal. Two friends and a little lady meeting to eat food. I wish it was a date.
Either way, she’s going to be pissed I bailed on her without warning. Fucking hell, I’ve gone from having no-one in this world who gives a shit about me, to pining after a woman who mother hens me. And I fucking love it.
Focusing on the present and not the dread of how to explain to Raven why I missed breakfast when I do get home, I realise that I am not in fact wrapped in a tarp like I originally suspected. How is it possible that fucking bubble wrap has me trapped?
The whole room looks fucking ridiculous. Everything is either covered in bubble wrap, or looks like fucking bubble wrap.
I have to get out of here.
Kalen’s always been a fucking weirdo, but he’s well and truly lost the plot this time. And how the hell am I wrapped so fucking tightly? I need my knife, the one tucked securely in my boot.
Kalen throws his head back and laughs. “What were my options? If I asked nicely would you have come?”
“Un-fucking-likely,” I snap.
“I don’t know Bax, this is a good look for you. Maybe we should send you back to this mystery girl you still won’t let me meet and whom I could look up, if I wanted to. Mind you, I’m trusting you have your reasons for not telling me.”
I soften a little as Amelie talks to me. Still though, she won’t let me out of my bubble wrap cocoon, not until I promise not to hurt Kalen.
“Cut him down,” Sawyer says, “It’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.”
Onyx scoffs as he steps up beside his brother, “There is no law that says we can’t gift wrap Amelie’s present.”
“You,” I seethe.
It’s no secret that Onyx and I hate each other.
Still. After all these years, the only reason either of us haven’t tried to kill the other, is the woman standing in front of me.
I have no idea how I let her weasel her way into my life but now I have a – fuck its still hard to grasp – frienship with her, it’s almost as if I have a conscience.
I would feel bad that she would grieve for the moron if I killed him.
No question of him killing me first. I never lose.
“I knew that he wouldn’t be smart enough to pull off kidnapping me. I should have known better than to let my guard down, but she makes me fucking weak. She also makes you weak.”
“The best kind of weakness,” Slate replies, stepping up beside Amelie.
“Gag,” Adrienne says, placing her finger down her throat. Now she doesn’t get on my nerves as much as the others. Not until now when I see a twinkle in her eye, she takes a few steps towards me.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I warn, seething. “Or the two murders I’m planning will turn into a mass fucking suicide…at least, that’s what the police report will say when they find your bodies.”
“You talk a lot of smack for a man as defenceless as yourself, all wrapped up in bubble wrap. It’s so cute of you to get in the festive mood for national bubble wrap day, Baxter. I really didn’t think you were the type.”
What the fuck is national bubble wrap day and why the hell am I being forced to take part?
I thrash around as Adrienne steps up to me, reaching out she pinches a single bubble between her fingers and it makes a loud, obnoxious, popping sound. Her laughter, along with others’, echoes around the room.
“For fucks’ sake, you’re all children,” Elsie snaps and they part to let her through without question.
The little fire bug has grown on me. We have a mutual respect for each other. She wanted to learn to wield a knife, and now the woman can flay a man to perfection, and is The Order’s best knife skills teacher we’ve ever had.
She pulls out the very blade I gifted her that she had strapped to her leg, slicing right down the front of the fucking material wrapped around me and my feet drop to the floor.
Kalen’s eyes go wide when I zone in on him and he grins in excitement before he turns and runs.
With me hot on his heels, he cuts across the room, jumps onto the dance floor and it pops.
The fucking idiot lined the dance floor with bubble wrap. What the fuck is wrong with him?
Not the first time I’ve asked myself – and others – that question, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Not many people can surprise me, and yet Kalen’s stupidity always manages to. Just when I think he can’t get any worse, he manages to one-up himself.
Stepping a boot onto the dance floor, it crushes the bubbles beneath it. The sound is loud, obnoxious and so fucking Kalen.
He watches me, waiting for my next move. He may be Kalen, but he still knows what to do when faced with danger. He’s still a member of The Order, with training to make him as lethal as his brothers when he needs to be.
“Come on Bax, I thought we bonded over that nipple piercing! Relax and enjoy the party. It’s not everyday that you get to celebrate bubble wrap.”
“And I never fucking will,” I snap at him.
“Tuck away that unhinged look, it’s fun,” he says moving from one foot to the other, purposely popping the bubble wrap beneath his bare feet.
Every single sound echoing in the room sets my teeth on edge.
It’s a wonder he didn’t fucking suffocate me, wrapping me in plastic while I was unconscious.
That sound is going to haunt me for years.
“Unhinged,” I laugh. “I’m nowhere near unhinged right now and you really should be grateful. If your girl wasn’t here, you would be free game.”
“That’s right,” Amelie says, placing her hand on my shoulder.
We made a deal that I wouldn’t kill any of her men in her presence.
It was the best deal that she was getting from me and she knows it.
“Baxter, come and have a drink with me. Cheers to this ridiculous holiday, and I will make sure that you’re not dragged unwittingly into any more of Kalen’s twelve months of celebrations. ”
“Twelve months of wh…Actually I don’t want to know, let’s get that drink so I can leave before I go back on my word and kill that moron you call a fiancé.”
Amelie pulls me by the back of my shirt and we head towards the bar.
What kind of idiot celebrates bubble wrap?
I don’t voice that, because Kalen, that’s who.
Fuck my life. I missed out on breakfast with the two brightest women in my life today for this.
Who knows when I’ll next be able to see them both with how busy work is.
Adrianne is already at the bar watching the bartender pour drinks. I scowl at her, even though none of this is her fault.
She grins back at me. “I must admit, I liked it better when you were attached to the wall.”
“Why don’t you go and fuck Cap and pretend he isn’t madly in love with you?” I snap.
She looks across the room and I smirk. Yeah, she didn’t think anyone knew about that, but everyone does.
“Fuck you, Branson. You’re such a dick.”
The hairs on the back of my neck prickle as someone approaches behind me. “If you had dick as big as his or mine, you would know why we can get away with it.”
Slinging my hand back and making contact with my intended target without even looking, Kalen wheezes and falls to the floor, cupping his crotch.
“Happy bubble wrap day,” I say to him as Amelie laughs and raises her glass in toast.