Page 13

Chapter 13

Graham

“Okay! Let’s do this. Gray versus green. Gray team is me, Julia, Chloe, and Fletch.” I wave behind me a few feet where they are standing. “Green team is Nathan, Josie, Greg, and Paige. Last man standing wins. You’re out after three hits. Just to make it interesting, the losing team buys the pizza. No face shots; keep it clean, friends, keep it clean. Oh, and here are some jerseys to make sure no one gets confused.” I throw the green vests at the other team. Nathan catches it on his chest and then holds it up for an inspection. The front of the vest has a crude dragon drawn on with black marker. Underneath it says TEAM DRAGON, each letter getting progressively smaller because I ran out of space. An artist, I am not. The gray team jerseys were simple, each one reading TEAM KNIGHTS. That’s it. Even I have too much pride to try and draw a knight logo without being embarrassed.

“Team Dragon? Why did you pick that na…?” Nathan lets his voice trail off. “Dragons. As in slay a dragon for her? I’m the dragon? You have got to be kidding me. Let me see this.” He reaches over and grabs Greg’s pinny shirt. It’s a solid green, no team name or dragon. “Come on! I am the only dragon? You’re going to be gunning for me the entire time! Here, Greg. Trade me?”

“Haha, no way. This sounds way too fun.” Greg, a guy from the school basketball team, grins.

“Paige? Please? Be brave. Take one for the team since your boyfriend won’t.” Nathan holds his hands together, begging.

“Hard pass. Sorry, Nate. You got this though. I’ve heard about paintball with Graham. He’s not that good, right? Just indiscriminately fires, no method to his madness. You’ll be fine.”

Nathan takes a deep breath, looking relieved. “You’re right, he’s not that good. You will all help protect me, right?” He looks around his team, all of them nodding encouragingly. Nathan slips the pinny over his protective gear from the paintball field. They all put on their helmets, and Nathan nods at me. “Okay, we’re ready to go.”

“Perfect.” I grin, and Nathan narrows his eyes suspiciously. I turn and nod at my team, giving them the go ahead to get geared up. “Just one more thing,” I say, smirking as I drop the visor on my helmet. “The list item is actually ‘encourage me to slay my own dragons.’ I’m not sure if you remember, but while I am a wild card, shooting all willy nilly as my Tutu says, Jules is a little more detailed and, well, let’s face it, nasty. Good luck, dragons.” I turn and run toward my team's base to the glorious sounds of the other team groaning in fear.

***

Julia

“Okay, we are murdering them. It’s just Nate left, and Josie might have one hit left. I’m not totally sure. She’s turning out to be a wily one,” Graham reminds me, while we are both lying on a straw bale tower I have been using as my high ground. We’ve been playing for an hour, and I’ve been pacing myself, picking them off one by one. Paige was an easy out: three shots, right in a row. Honestly, I think she was grateful. She’d much rather sit and watch than participate, but she’s a good sport, especially for Greg. Greg was a little harder, more motivated to stay hidden. Eventually Graham got him in the leg for the final hit. If someone asked me what Chloe and Josh were doing, my guess would be as good as theirs. I haven’t seen or heard any part of them since we left the base with our initial plan. Graham was going to be a distraction and be willing to sacrifice his body for the cause, and I was supposed to take people out from my sniper perch. Did Chloe and Josh even have a role? I don’t think so. I’m too excited to really pay attention. I love paintball, and I was thrilled when Graham told me that would be date number two. Besides it being one of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon, it is a lower pressure date since we are in a group. I had kind of hoped to get to shoot Graham, but Nate is a good second choice.

“Okay. I’ve been hit once. I’ll distract Nate, but you have to hurry. He’s a good shot too, and I’d hate to die before you can take them out.” Graham starts to stand up.

I reach out to stop him. “No, we need to get Josie out first. Where are Chloe and Josh? Can they help us flush her out?”

“Josh, can you hear me? Josh?” Graham speaks into a walkie talkie the field provided.

“Yeah, I hear you. What’s up?” Josh’s staticky voice comes over the small speaker.

“Where are you?” I say, pulling the walkie talkie toward my mouth. “We need you and Chloe to distract Josie so I can take out Nathan.”

Josh’s voice comes through the small speaker. “Chloe has taken herself out of the game. She’s talking to Paige and has been for a while now. She said it wasn’t worth it to get shot.”

“Chloe. Always wants to be involved, never wants to participate.” I chuckle. “Okay, have you got this, soldier?”

“Soldier? Uhm, you’re kind of intense there, J. And to answer your question, probably not, but I’ll do my best. Where is Josie, anyways?” Josh answers.

I prop myself up on my elbows, looking around as carefully as possible. I can’t see her bright green pinny anywhere.

“I have no idea. Good luck. Be prepared to die for the cause,” Graham answers, winking at me while he talks to Josh.

“You two are crazy. Over and out.” The walkie talkie screeches in feedback. Josh must’ve turned his off. These are not high quality walkie talkies but they get the job done.

Graham switches his off and jumps up to the balls of his feet, getting ready to run. “Are you ready?”

“10–4, soldier. Ready.”

Graham grins and leans over to give me a kiss on the top of my helmet. “For luck.” He winks and runs away, whooping as loud as possible to draw all attention to himself. I hear the pop pop from the compressed air of the paintball gun, followed by a yelp.

“Dude!” Graham groans. “Where did you come from? Josh was supposed to be watching for you.” I lean forward slightly to get a better view, definitely showing more of my helmet than I am entirely comfortable with.

“I got Josh out right after he switched off his walkie talkie.” Josie smirks. “Maybe I should’ve told you that I spend a lot of time with my little brother. He’s very into laser tag and paintball. So much so that we have our own gear. And at our old house in New Mexico, we had a lot of land, and my dad set up a small range for us. I never lose.” Josie holds her gun up beside her mouth and blows over the barrel, still half-hiding behind a rainbow-painted bush.

“Hot,” Nathan says, much louder than I imagine he meant to, coming out from his hiding place. My eyes take in the barely recognizable dragon on his chest, and it takes me a second to decode what it is. I glance at Graham and see the slight smile on his lips and the hope in his eyes. He mouths number three. My eyes widen and a smile spreads across my face. Nathan is my dragon. Josie might never lose, but Nathan is easily distracted by her pretty face. I squeeze the trigger, letting three paintballs shoot for good measure. I watch as the gray paint explodes on his chest, one right after the other. Nathan looks down in surprise as Graham jumps up and down, cheering for me. His enthusiasm is contagious, and I can’t help myself from jumping up and cheering right alongside him. I feel a stinging pain in the arm and then two in my stomach. I looked down at the green paint covering my gear. Josie smirks at me across the field and asks, “Where’s a girl get a good slice around here?”

“I think I’m in love,” Nathan croaks, holding a hand over his heart dramatically. Josie looks at him over her shoulder, a big smile on her face.

After we return our guns and gear, we all separate into different cars, me and Graham alone in his truck. I take a minute to try and tame my frizzy waves after wearing a helmet for the last hour. Graham reaches over and tugs on my hand, making me drop my elastic.

“Leave it. I like it down,” he murmurs, never taking his eyes off the road. He starts to run his fingers through my hair, gently tugging at the little inevitable tangles. I close my eyes and allow myself to get lost in the sensation. We pull up to a local mom-and-pop pizza joint a few minutes later, and I open my eyes, slowly rolling my head to make eye contact with Graham.

“Thank you,” I whisper.

“For playing with your hair? Literally any time. Maybe next time not in the truck. The angle was a little awkward, and I am going to be cleaning blond strands up for weeks now.” He smiles at me, making sure I know he is only teasing and not at all upset with the state of his truck.

“No. Well, yes. Thank you for that. But I meant thank you for today. Thank you for encouraging me to slay my dragons. I know you were joking, and it wasn’t an actual dragon, but I liked knowing that you believed I could do it, even though it was just Nathan in a pinny. I like feeling like you believe in me.”

Graham’s eyes soften and he reaches forward, tangling his fingers with mine. “Always. Besides, it was fun. I want to spend all my time with you. And we both know Nate can be a bit of a dragon sometimes. Plus, getting to watch him scream like a little kid is an added bonus.”

I squeeze his hand, and I watch his eyes light up.

“Does this mean I get to hold your hand now?” Graham asks, hope coloring his tone.

I gently pull my hand away from his.“Not yet. You still have nine more items to cross off.”

“Yet? That sounds promising.”

“I think it is, Graham. I think you are.” I smile at him before slowly opening the door and slipping out of the truck into the pizza place parking lot.

“Yet is my new favorite word,” Graham says to himself as the truck door closes. I hug myself and smile, allowing myself to feel it all right now.