Lilah

Chapter 31 Party

?Azalea?

This isn't a good thing for me. It's really not.

"Why are you not confident about kicking their butts?" Abby laughs as we walk into the laser tag place.

Oaklee's idea and since I've never been, I made Grey come. I've never seen someone so unhappy to be somewhere in my life.

"Before I tell you the reason, do you have any drugs with you?"

She looks at me like I'm mental.

"No," she drawls out.

"Okay good. They're feds. Not fed-ex workers, they're like FBI level feds," I explain, watching as Theo and Lincoln get out of Linc's black Tahoe.

"Are you kidding?" she asks, her eyes a bit widened.

I know she probably doesn't believe me. I did make up the whole story about Grey being an actual crackhead with eight kids.

"No, I'm not kidding this time," I shake my head.

"All of them?" she whispers looking around at them.

"Yep," I put my hand on Grey's butt, which doesn't even make shock him at all, "this one."

I point to Oaklee who is flexing his arms at Grey for some reason, "that one."

"All of them."

"Let's beat some ass," Oaklee seems really into it, opening the door to the place with his foot.

"C'mon," Grey grips a belt loop on the side of my shorts, pulling me with him. I grip onto Abby's arm, pulling her too.

"You ready to get whooped by me and Abby? Huh? You're gonna get beat," I bump my body into him threateningly, a scare tactic I learned from a CIA video made by someone who's never been in the CIA.

"There aren't teams," he answers. I guess we're playing the 'every-man-for-himself' way.

"Well, me and Abby are underdogs so we're a team."

"Sanfred's held a gun three times," he rolls his eyes.

"Then he can be on our team too," I shrug. After paying for everyone, a lady hands us the vest things we have to wear.

"Dumb as shit," Grey grumbles as he puts his vest on. Then she gives everyone a headband. Grey looks at it and hands it back to her.

"That's not fair, you need one too," Theo points at Grey.

"I'm fucking shooting you first if you don't shut up," Grey warns.

"Okay, rules," the lady claps her hands and Grey tilts his head at that.

"No physical contact with each other, no running unless in the open part of the arena, no climbing anything, and to reload your laser gun, you press this button," she holds up one of the guns and shows us a button on the side of it.

"Reloading takes approximately twenty to twenty-five seconds."

"Are you fucking me?" Grey grumbles, wrapping his arm around my shoulders.

"Am I? Yes," I blurt, "oh." Sort of.

He looks down at me and a little smile turns the corners of his lips up.

"Everyone here knows how to hold a gun, correct?" the lady asks, bored.

"God bless it, I forgot how to," Lincoln taps his head. She spends five minutes showing him something he already knows how to do before we're released into the actual arena.

"Five minutes to get ready, turn on your lasers and vests. An announcement will sound when it's time," she closes the door behind us and the place is just hardly lit up with fluorescent-like lights.

The guys run off and Grey turns to me.

"Don't target me," I warn.

"I'm not going easy on you," he raises an eyebrow.

"That's not what I said. I said don't target me," I poke his chest twice. He grips onto my hand and pulls me to him, kissing me slowly.

"It could've been me and you Lilah. We could've been a team," he mumbles in between kisses.

"Then I would carry our team the whole time," I tease and the corner of his lips rise. I reach around and pat his butt a couple of times.

"I'll see you on the flip side Sugar," I smile.

"I love you," he kisses me one last time and my heart flutters out of my chest. I hold back from squealing but I feel my body shimmer in happiness.

"I love you," I reply and start to walk away.

"Grey, you know what? You better take it a little bit easy on me, I can't even walk fast," I raise my finger at him.

"Go fuckin' hide somewhere," he shoos me away and I scrunch my nose at him to which he mimics.

~~~

"Oh my gosh," Abby whispers frantically. I think we're in a real warzone. I peek from behind our small hiding space and the sounds of the guys' laser guns going off is a nonstop ringing in my ears. And some shouting.

"Why couldn't we have gone bowling or something?!" I whisper shout.

"We're gonna get found soon," she winces. Our hiding spot isn't the greatest ever. Footsteps pound the floor near us and in less than a second, Oakee is throwing himself between Abby and me.

"They're like animals. I need protection from y'all," he lays his head on my shoulder.

"Pew pew motherfuckers," Theo suddenly appears in front of the three of us and we all try to scatter. He shoots Oaklee immediately and tries to get Abby but she's able to run away quickly.

"Oh, I'm sorry Azale-" he pauses when suddenly his vest turns red and then his gun shuts off. His mouth drops open.

"Did I kill you?!" I gasp, holding my heart. Why am I feeling bad? He was about to murder me cold-blooded.

I'm an actual bad-butt.

I don't even know how to use the gun and I killed him? Wasn't I just standing there?

"Only I can shoot her, fucker," Grey glares at Theo and my mouth drops open.

"You killed me?!"

"You killed him?!"

I thought I did. Gosh dang it.

Theo stomps away unhappily. Then Grey sets his sights on me. I poke out my bottom lip.

"I'll flash you if you let me walk away," I smile.

"Ten-second headstart," he decides. I lift up my shirt and he looks for a second.

"I'll count slow," he licks his lips and I lower my shirt and walk out of the hiding spot. I almost trip over Oaklee who lies on the floor like he's actually dead.

I walk by Abby who's trying to talk Roman out of shooting her.

Lincoln's using the bear-hug tactic against Maxon so that he can't shoot him. Which ends up failing.

Then Maxon comes for me but he's shot before he can get to me.

Grey.

His arms wrap around me from behind and I lean my head back against him in defeat. Roman shoots Abby and comes for us but Grey shoots him before he can even raise his gun again.

I turn around to him and look up at him. I look behind us to the leaderboard and we're the only two left.

Really?

"On the way back home, we need to stop by the store," I pause and shoot him, "and get more Fruity Pebbles."

He looks down at his now red vest and then back up at me. My mouth is wide open.

"I swear, I don't know who just shot you but I didn't see them, I was watching just to make sure and I never even saw anyone."

"Mhm," he kisses my temple.

"Mhm yeah, that's right! I killed you fella! You can't beat me! I wake up in the morning and I pee excellence," I quote Ricky Bobby.

We have two more rounds of the laser tag game. The second time I actually went around trying to kill people. I got shot within ten seconds so that the game didn't really last long. Then the third and final game, Abby and I really teamed up and we were two of the last five left.

So basically, we're the best there ever was.

"Oh Lord help me, it's raining cats and dogs," I look out the large windows in the lobby of the laser tag place.

Grey pulls me further into his side, tracing my hip with his finger.

"You're beautiful," he says and I let a smile grace my lips.

He takes a step back and stands in front of me. He leans down and wraps his arms around me.

"I'm still sorry Azalea," he mumbles, "about the way I talked to you. I can't stop thinking about it."

"You can't stop thinking about it?"

He lets his hands travel along the surface of my back before they stop, wrapped tightly around me.

"I don't deserve you," he kisses the spot under my ear. I get that he's made mistakes and everything but we've overcome those things.

"Why do you say that?" I ask him softly. He doesn't answer, never moving.

"Are you hungry? Let's go eat somewhere," I decide, pulling away and watching him reach forward for me again, not wanting to let go.

"Everything's okay now," I rub his lower back.

"I forgive you, you're okay," I reassure him.

"It's not okay," I feel him shake his head.

"Grey, you're making me jealous, hugging on her," Oaklee nudges Grey.

"Don't touch me," he replies grumbly.

"Let's go eat," I pull away from him slightly, he gives me a slight nod and we proceed to the door. We walk out and just as raindrops hit my head, Grey drapes his arm over my shoulders and shields the sideways falling raindrops from me, pulling my head under his chin.

"Aw, Sugar," I place my hand on his back, "so sweet."

He opens the door for me like the gentleman he always is, and I give him a little nudge for him to open Abby's door too. He does 'cause if he didn't I'd attack him fearlessly.

"Where would you like to eat Abby?" I question her, pulling down the mirror in front of me to check if my hairdo got fudged up due to Grey's monstrous arm throwing itself onto me. Multiple times. And since it's raining, I wouldn't want to look like a wet dog.

"It doesn't matter to me-"

"Don't make me come back there and beat it out of you," I warn. Just say a restaurant, it's not that hard. I'll eat anything. Grey will too. He picks off my plate anyway. Hooker.

"It really doesn't matter," she chuckles.

"Where do you want to eat Azalea?" she questions.

"I don't know," I'm a slight hypocrite.

"Grey?" she wonders.

He looks over at me like I'll give him an answer. I shrug. He shrugs back. I scrunch my nose at him. He scrunches his nose at me.

He picks up my hand from the center console and he interlaces our fingers, bringing my hand up to his lips.

My heart does a jumping jack.

"Let's go to Texas Roadhouse!" I spot one, "Make a U-ey Grey!"

We arrive and I nearly fall out the car. Of course I do. The raining has eased up and we walk right in.

"How many?" A waitress asks.

"Three," I smile brightly. She picks up three menus and tells us to follow.

She leads us to a table and Grey makes me sit on the inside because he has this weird thing about always having to be on the outside, I don't know what it's about but I don't mind.