I ran to the roof at top speed as I heard the clamber of feet and voices behind me. I swore as I slammed the door behind me and slid the lock into place. I slumped to the floor and turned to look at my partner in crime.
"You think we lost them?" Bryce panted. We had decided to switch the signs on the locker room doors on the days that the female volleyball team had a game and the football team had a game as well. And well, they weren't happy about that; lucky for me and Bryce they hadn't seen our faces when they were chasing us. I stood and stretched.
"I think we lost them." I offered Bryce a hand.
"I think so too. You know, just looking at you one would not think that you have an evil streak a mile wide." He stuck out a hand for me to help him up. But just as he reached it, he burst into a million pieces, and the floor gave way.
"You did this to yourself, Chuck."
I sat straight up in bed, sweat running down my body. What was that about? Oh, please tell me that he's not about to pop up again. Every time I have dreamt of Bryce, he has made an appearance in my life. Well, maybe luck will be on my side and its just coincidence.
Walking into the Buy More, I looked around, everyone was at their station for once and that meant only one thing. Big Mike has a new employee and no one wants to have to train him. I saw Casey terrifying a customer and went over to save them. After telling them where the iPods were and convincing them that Casey was not going to eat them, I turned to face the disgruntled Casey.
"What's going on?"
"The General is worried that the missions are getting too dangerous, so she is sending another agent."
"Okay? So you don't like this person?" Casey grunted and then pointed at The Wall. I turned and there on the screen was the picture of Bryce from the obituary with a large red x through it.
"Today the bank accountant believed to have died in a bank shooting came back from an extended vacation to find out that he was dead. The body that rests in his grave was that of one of the shooters, who had dressed like an accountant to gain access to the bank. On your way to work today you'll be seeing some heavy delays on …" I had stopped listening and turned to stare a Casey.
"Please, please, please tell me I'm wrong." I flinched as a familiar voice screeched through the air.
"CASEY, GET BACK TO WORK!" Casey left to help a customer, who after seeing what he did to the last one he 'helped' was pretty sure they didn't want any.
"BARTOWSKI!" I froze and slowly turned to see Big Mike walking toward me and right behind him in the nerd herd uniform was Bryce Larkin. Why me?
"BARTOWSKI, I want you to-"
"Train the new guy, show him the ropes." Big Mike glared at me.
"Don't read my mind, Bartowski."
"Sir, I hope you don't mind me asking, but why do I have to train him?" I look pleadingly at Big Mike, trying to tell him with my eyes that this was a bad idea. But did he get the message? No, of course not, because that would make my life too damn simple.
"Because you're the only one I trust not to teach him to be lazy like everyone else. And the only person who offered to show him the ropes was Jeff, and one Jeff is one too many." We turned to look at Jeff and Lester who were currently videotaping a customer's butt. Big Mike sighed and went to stop the impending lawsuit, leaving me with Bryce.
"Well, let's start." I started with the basics and went on from there. "And this is the price gun and it is just like a real one, except no screaming and it beeps instead of banging, any questions?" Bryce raised a hand, I rolled my eyes and he gave me a cheeky grin.
"Yes?" I sighed.
"When are you going to stop acting like we've only just met?" Bryce's grin was gone now replaced with rather pissed-off scowl.
"Let me rephrase, that do you have any questions regarding the price gun?" I said dodging the question. His scowl grew. "Well, that's everything you need to know. Time for the introductions."
I walked over to the nerd herd station where everyone was waiting to meet the new guy.
"I told them that the incident at Stanford was a simple misunderstanding and that one of our fraternity brothers stole the test answers and then framed me and that the Jill incident was a lie. Got it?"I didn't wait for a response.
"Hey, guys. Do you remember Bryce Larkin?" Morgan then of course went on his usual spiel.
"Larkin the man that claimed to be your friend and then got you kicked out of school and then after finding out what really happened didn't bother to send you even an email to say I'm sorry?! Then yes, I remember him."
"Morgan, Bryce contacted me and we have worked everything out."
"That doesn't change the fact that he's a total douche bag." Morgan muttered. "So who's the noob?"
"Morgan, I'd like you to meet Bryce. Bryce, this is Morgan, Anna, Lester and Jeff." Morgan's jaw dropped and Bryce gave a little wave. "Okay, everyone back to work."
I walked away to go fix some computers in the cage. Now that they thought that Bryce and I were good, they wouldn't give him too much trouble. Sitting down, I began to work on a computer that had an owner had claimed had broken coffee holder. It had taken twenty minutes to explain that the CD drive was not a coffee holder. I chuckled at the memory.
"Something funny?" I jumped, Bryce laughed and I scowled.
"Did you take spy or heart attack training?" I snapped going back to the computer; the fix would have been simple if the coffee hadn't gone into the wiring when the not-a-coffee-holder broke.
"Spy. Why did you tell them that we're good?"
"Because they would have made your stay miserable."
"I think after years of spy training I could handle a few nerd herders." He pulled out a chair, sat down and began to fix a boom box that had eaten 6 cassette tapes and set a CD on fire.
"They can be very creative." I shuddered at the memory of their last plan.
"Why are you mad at me?" I looked up into his blue eyes.
"WH-Why am I? Why am I mad at you?!" I spluttered. "You got me kicked out of school!"
"Which I did to keep you safe and out of the CIA's hands." I don't know what pissed me off more, what he did or the fact that he was sitting there calmly as if talking to a small child who's behind the learning curve.
"You stole my girlfriend!"
"She asked me out, I said yes because I thought she wanted to know more about what happened."
"You didn't contact me for 5 years!"
"I didn't think you wanted to hear from me, since I couldn't tell you the truth about what happened and as I said before I was trying to keep you safe." Bryce had gone back to fixing the boom box. I was standing at this point, shaking with anger.
"Then you send me the Intersect. Which put my life in danger but that must have been some twisted way to keep me safe as well." He refused to look at me. "Did you even remember that the day you sent me the Intersect was my birthday?" He still refused to look at me. I could tell that he was getting mad from the tick in his jaw.
"I knew that you would be able to retain the Intersect's information without losing any data."
"So you only contact me when you need something? I'm just some tool for you to use? I was told that you were dead! Do you have any idea how that made me feel? Knowing that the last things I said to you were words of anger? How much I wished I could hate you?"
"Well if I screwed up your life so much, why don't you hate me?" He was standing as well now his eyes furious.
"Because I'm in love with you, you insufferable JACKASS!" I was shouting at this point. I froze. I had not meant to say that. Bryce was staring at me, wide eyed. Okay wide eyes on some people means surprise and on some it means anger, but on a CIA trained assassin I wasn't sure and I didn't want to find out. So I did what any remotely sane person would do… I ran. Bryce had run track in college as had I and he had years of spy training, but I had a few things he didn't. One was years of running away from bullies and specially trained hit men who want to dissect my brain and two I had 'Pineapple.' I ran past Morgan, shouting, "Pineapple."
Morgan seeing me and Bryce running away from the cage assumed there was a fire or he just did as he was told for once, I'm not too sure, I'm too busy running, but he pulls the fire alarm. The ensuing stamped blocked Bryce as I slid into the crowd and proceeded to 'borrow' Morgan's bike. I peddled to my secret hiding place. (I'd tell you about it, but then it wouldn't be a secret hiding place) I hid there till 2 am and then slowly made my way home. Slinking into my room I was surprised to see no one there. I guess he gave up. Throwing myself on my bed I fell asleep instantly. Tomorrow I would learn that Bryce doesn't give up that easily and when checking your room for spies that you happen to be in love with always check the ceiling. As it was, I didn't see the eyes looking at me from the upper left corner of my room.
Stupid sunlight, I scrunched my eyes tighter trying to fight off the morning rays. I voiced my unhappiness.
"Stupid blinds, I thought I closed them." I felt my bed move, then the 'stupid' sunlight left me alone and my bed shifted. I rolled over on my pillows; my eyes closed savoring the dark. And then my head hit a very comfortable and very warm spot.
"Ellie must have closed the blinds and left a hot water bottle. Thank you Ellie." I hoped my sister heard me.
"Comfy." I moaned, nestling in closer to my pillow I felt it laugh. Since when do pillows laugh?
"One, I'm not your sister or a hot water bottle, but I'll take it as a compliment, two, you're welcome and three, you still sound like a puppy when you sleep, just FYI." I froze, pillows don't talk either. I looked up at my pillow. Pillow thy name is Bryce Larkin. He smirked down at me; I screamed, got caught in my blankets and took a very painful trip onto the floor.
"Owie." I moaned from my undignified spot on the floor. I heard a snicker from my not-pillow as he stuck his head over the edge of the bed. I attempted to squirm my way out of my linen prison and ended up even more stuck. I glowered at the snickering form on my bed.
"Help me out of this will you?"
"Will you run if I get you out of your feral sheets?"
"No." I wasn't going to run; I was going to do my best roadrunner impersonation and be out of there before he could blink. He stared at me and then slowly pulled off the offending sheets. And I was out of there. Well, sort of. I made it to the door. I felt a hand on my shoulder and the next thing I knew I was pinned on the floor by a very angry Bryce.
"You told me you wouldn't run." Bryce snarled.
"I lied." I was rather scared at the moment. I mean, the man I've been in love with for years even when I was dating the girl he introduced me to, was pinning me to the floor of my bedroom while I was in nothing but a pair of sleep pants. I stared in to his bright blue eyes, the same eyes that haunted my dreams every night.
"Since when do you lie to me?" His eyes were careful not to miss anything my face might give away.
"Since you died and I had to learn or get killed. But I guess that's what you get when you fall in love with a spy, lies, deceit and a broken heart. " I wanted to cry but I wouldn't, not in front of him, so I got angry instead. Bryce looked at me, pain evident in his eyes under the anger. "But you know what the worst part is? I still love you after every shitty thing you've put me through and I'd do it all again just to hear your voice."
"Chuck." His voice was soft and soothing, caressing my ears before winding its way in to my mind, taking hold of my heart and squeezing till I wanted to scream.
"But I'm done. I can't take any more. I'm going to get over you and get on with my life. Now get off, I'm going to be late for work."
"No." His eyes were hard and had a look I hadn't seen before, and believe me I spent most of college studying them. "I'm not letting you go."
"I'm going to be late for work!" My voice was not as compelling as I would have liked but…nope, still didn't work.
"I'm. Not. Letting. You. Go." He leaned downed so his face was way too close to mine. And then he was closer than 'too close' as his lips met mine in a gentle caress, which told me that if I ran he would catch me, and I would not like the consequences. It didn't stay that way very long and neither did our clothes.
I snuggled closer to Bryce as he wrapped his arm around me. I sighed contentedly.
"Am I really that good a pillow?" I laughed. I was very late for work as a matter of fact I didn't go at all. Big Mike was going to crucify me tomorrow but I still couldn't bring myself to care. Then the door opened.
"Chuck, Morgan said you didn't go in to. OHMYGOD!" My sister, who by the way thinks Bryce is dead, can crucify me in the next five minutes. MY LIFE SUCKS.
