"You wouldn't cheat for your old flame, would you?" I asked as we swooped through the traffic on my motorcycle on the way back to the housing complex.
"She- she's not an old flame. We were never together." Tereus stammered.
"Yeah, whatever, but you didn't answer my question." I replied, nearly yelling over the whooshing of ongoing traffic.
"No, I'm calling a fair race." Tereus sighed. "But it's funny how Briareos and I are split up the way we are. You know, I'm with you and he's with her."
"I know that Briareos is fair so I don't think I'll have to worry about him. It's you I'm concerned about." I said, braking, leaning and accelerating into a turn at a traffic light.
"Me? Why do you have to worry about me?" Tereus asked with a raised voice.
"With this whole bioroid emotion control thing and your old feelings for Deunan; you're loose cannon right now." I chuckled.
"You'll know if I'm acting strange. I'm a bioroid, there are a lot of things I'm not supposed to feel or do." he retaliated. "Besides what do I need Deunan for when I've got you?"
"See? Now I'm skeptical about having you judge the final leg of the race again." I replied, shaking my head.
"What? Why?" Tereus chuckled.
"You're showing symptoms of bioroid mind control because that was so out of nowhere." I said, making the turn into the complex and reducing the speed as we rode up our street.
"I was joking! Relax, Tenari." he said in a calm tone. "Besides, where can we go as partners if you can't trust me?"
"Then stop messing with me! All of you!" I replied as I came to a complete stop curbside of my house. I put the kickstand then both feet down before removing my visor-less helmet. "Then maybe I'll think about trusting you, okay?"
"Fine." Tereus said. He swung his leg over and followed me up my driveway. "So where'd Deunan say she was going?"
"She went to fill her bike up before the race." I said, swinging my helmet at my side by the mouth guard.
"Shouldn't you be filling your bike up too?" Tereus asked.
"It's already full. Getting from here to headquarters doesn't take up hardly any gas so I just left it." I stretched my hand equipped with my helmet over my head. I entered the pin code to open my garage on the holographic panel that appeared as I approached the left side of it. It slowly opened; I ducked under it as soon as it reached a level where I could. "Come on in. She'll be here soon." I said, reaching in my jacket pocket for my door keys.
"You still carry door keys?" Tereus asked.
"I like the way they sound when you walk around." I replied.
"But they're in your pocket. You can't hear them unless they're hanging on something." he said with a smart tone.
"Well are you going to pay for a scanner to put here instead?" I sneered as I inserted the keys into the lock and opened the door. I walked inside through the laundry room, opening the door into my kitchen. I placed them on the dark green marble countertop that wrapped around the whole right side of the kitchen under all the light brown cabinets. The stainless steel sink was against the right wall; the microwave, stove and oven were vertically aligned on the opposite side. I walked through the kitchen and into the living room.
"You should be able to. ES.W.A.T. soldiers get paid a lot." Tereus said sitting down on the nearest couch
"I haven't been here long enough to get paid." I said, tossing my helmet into a nearby chair as I wondered to a hall closet to find a new visor for my helmet.
"Oh." Tereus said awkwardly then cleared his throat. "Um, your house is pretty nice."
"Thanks, but I didn't do too much to make it like this. Everything was already here." I replied, trying to move things around as neatly as possible. I was really resisting the urge to just start throwing things out. "But if you want I'll give you a tour after I change."
"Okay, that's fine." Tereus said. "Hey, if they just brought you here basically from off the front lines then why do you have all this stuff?"
"They brought it from base camp." I sighed, closing the closet empty-handed. "I don't even know how they even got there and back in one piece."
"Why?" Tereus asked.
"At my base camp there are eight people, including me." I started, making my way back to the living room and sitting on the edge of the chair with my helmet. "No one who isn't invited can even come into the eyesight of anyone in there or get shot, or on rare occasion of persistence, severely injured or killed."
"That's pretty intense." Tereus said with a lowered brow.
"Yep. No one was ever killed though." I said. "In case you're wondering, no we didn't have anything to protect other than ourselves. We just wanted to build a reputation so that people would leave our hard earned territory alone."
"So who were the other seven people?" Tereus asked.
"My second family." I smiled. Just the memory of those guys brought a smile to my face. "There was me," I started counting on my fingers as I spoke. "My best friend, slash, big brother Keoni, his brother Dominik, and my other friends Lumiere, Motoko, Lucas and my second father figure Gunnar. He taught me some of his sniping skills. They all taught me a little bit of something, me being the youngest."
"I suppose you had a lot of fun with them, seeing as how you can't stop smiling." Tereus replied.
"Yeah, after I left boot camp I stumbled into their territory when Keoni came out to confront me and we skeptically became accomplices and soon friends. Then I became friends with the people he lived in the base with and they let me move in." I said happily. "But being around people isn't what I do. I don't like being around people too much for too long. I get irritated sometimes. But with him, it's like he understands me. He grew to know me better than Kudoh and in shorter time and vice versa. And over time. . . ." I grinned shyly.
"You started to like him." Tereus smiled. His smile is so cute. It made me feel comfortable and warm inside.
"I never told him how I felt, though." I shook my head with an empty smile.
"Don't do that, and then you won't ever know if he feels the same way." Tereus argued.
"But I don't know if I want to know how he feels. What if he doesn't feel the same way?" I whined.
"You're such a kid." Tereus chuckled.
"I wish people would stop telling me that." I sighed. "I'm twenty one years old."
"He may feel the way you feel and, just like you, is afraid of being rejected." Tereus said. "Now you may never get the chance to tell him."
"I know, I know. I messed up." I retorted quietly. "I'm an idiot."
"Don't beat yourself up about it. You'll find a way. And if you don't, it wasn't meant to be." Tereus said sensibly.
"You're wise beyond your years, young grasshopper." I chuckled, standing and stretching with my hands over my head. I flopped them down onto the open part of my helmet and tossed it down the hall.
"You are extremely destructive." Tereus sighed, shaking his head.
"This is my house." I said quietly. "If you don't like it, get out." As I finished I heard rumbling and a couple of honks from a horn from out front.
"Sounds like Deunan's here." Tereus said. I had already started for the door. "You ready?"
"Tereus," I started with an excited smirk on my face. "I really don't know."
Yeah kind of a blah chapter. Kinda short too. I'm sorry for the delay though. I've found myself addicted to online video gaming. I won't stop writing I promise. The race is next chapter and for those waiting for the storyline to drop, that's coming too. Thanks for staying with me. Much love for you people.