Page 50 of Bad Habit
“Rules are simple. You each have a nerf gun with bullets dipped in your designated color. The goal is to get all cards, which will result in a royal flush. Max, you’re ten of spades and color yellow. Eli, you’re jack of spades and color blue. Ollie, you're the ace of spades and orange. Rory, you’re the king of spades and purple. The girls are going to be interchangeable since there are six of you. Both are queen of spades. Mia is red and AJ is green.” Dad pulls out an extra queen of spades card and hands it to Mia. “One shot.”
He holds up his index finger. “That’s all it takes to be taken out. No shots to the head or sensitive areas. Play respectfully. The winner will get to pick out the loser to clean the equipment for a month.” We all nod in agreement. “Eyes closed and heads down. When I tap your shoulder, you are free to start playing. Cameras are disabled, so you can’t use themto cheat. All rooms are fair play. When you are killed, report back here and stay silent.” We all pull our masks down and wait.
I barely hear feet hit the ground as they leave and I know it’s AJ. A few seconds later and more steps get further away but I recognize them too, Mia. Dad would pick them both first.Dirty cheater.I’m next. I lift my head and glance around quickly to find the girls nowhere to insight. I head to the back lockers near the shower, that’s where Eli instructed for me to go and wait for him for us to switch masks before spreading back out. That’s the whole plan, to keep switching masks so that they don't get who they think they are hitting out. It takes Eli no time at all to meet me.
“Rory and Max are meeting up in the office like I told them to.” He rushes out as we switch masks. AJ is going to move fast. She likes to strike before anyone has a chance to figure out what she’s doing. “I think the girls are going to go high and get a vantage point since they’re outnumbered. I’ll head up the stairs to the storage room, you continue to work the floor and the back rooms. Max and Rory are going to stay put for ten minutes and then patrol.” He is whispering so we hopefully don’t make too much noise.
“You got it.” I nod my head at him before he moves swiftly back out and I make my way down the hallway. The old office is the first room I check. We keep extra equipment in here and it's probably a perfect place for a small framed girl to be hiding. I check behind every standing bag but no one is in this room. I quietly make my way back to the door where a red lifesaver is laying on the ground that definitely wasn’t there before. Bending over to pick it up I notice a flash of blonde turn into the room with the showers. It’s her first time playing. I should take it easy on her but she would hate me if I did. I decide to follow her instead. The showers are a dead end and if I follow her in then it should be a controlled shot.
When I round the corner though, she isn’t hiding. She’s standing out in the open, no one else around and we both draw our guns at the same time. “I’m betting I have better aim than you.” I grin.
“You and Eli switched masks. Smart.” She points her gun at my head and then back to my chest. I originally picked the red mask because it’s her favorite color but I couldn’t argue with Eli’s plan to try and switch things up and trick the girls. “I figured I could show you my costume before you killed me.” She tilts her head and holds up one hand and nods to where I’m holding my gun up. “Momentary cease fire?” Curiosity wins out because I am dying to know what her costume really is. We both lower our guns at the same time and her smile turns wicked.
“You better have actual clothes on under that jacket.” I warn her. I won’t be able to be as controlled tonight if she is naked right now.
“Newsflash!” She opens the jacket at the same time something stings the side of my neck. I reach up, touch the spot and pull away green colored chalk.Son of a bitch.AJ moves in the shadows behind me and then is gone out the door. I look up at Mia and she is standing closer now with her hand over her lips laughing silently.
She’s wearing two strips of paper under the jacket. One over her pussy and one over her breasts. Newspaper. “Like I said, Newsflash.” She closes and opens the jacket again for full effect. This crazy girl would pick something like this for her costume. I reach out and pull her closer to me by the collar of her jacket. I run a finger over the strips of paper. It truly is newspaper, folded and taped together. How the fuck is she wearing this and it not ripping. “Don’t flash my brothers.” I beg, knowing she will do what she wants anyway. Which is why I rip the paper that is wrapped around her tits. Now she will have to keep the jacket tied together. She might have thought about flashing them before with the paper covering her, but she wouldn’t dare do it fully bare. Not with my brothers anyways.
She shrugs, completely unbothered by me ripping part of her costume. “Fine. I’ll flash your dad instead.” She doesn’t even try to cover herself up while she speaks to me. Her threat to flash my dad holds no weight, she only says that shit to work me up. “Better go to the loser's circle.” She pecks my cheek as she reaches into the front pocket of my sweats and pulls my card out. And I give in to the only thing I want to do right now.
With my hand still gripping the jacket I pull her flushed to my chest and tilt her head back with my other hand, capturing her lips. It’s just as hungry as all of our kisses are. She lets out a broken whimper as I run my tongue over hers and I feel her nails dig into my biceps. I pull away just as she reaches for me. “Don’t play a game you’re scared of winning, pretty girl.” Her eyes flash in the shadows of light. I wipe away the small smear of her lipstick from our kiss before bending over and handing her gun to her. “Go give them hell.” I tie her jacket back closed and knot it extra tight. She jogs off back through the hallway. I give her a few moments before I head back to the spot where we started.
Max is already waiting for me though and that’s concerning. That wasn’t part of the plan. We knew the girls would come after me first. We never doubted that Rory was being truthful about that because it was our guess for what they would do as well.
“What the hell happened to you?” Max rushes to me, all worked up. He hates losing.
“Mia got me.” I admit shamelessly. He groans and tosses his mask, which was the mask that Rory started off with, to the ground.
“Rory is a whipped snake.” Max pouts. “We got to the office and switched masks. Just like Eli told us to do. Waited like we were told. And when I left, he shot me in the back!” He’s whispering and shouting at the same time. His hair is all over the place and his cheeks are red. I know I shouldn’t laugh, but the fact that he truly didn’t think that Rory was going to do whatever AJ asked him to do is hilarious.
“She used him to take you out. She used Mia to take me out. Now it’s the three of them against Eli.” I recap.
“What part of silently wait do you two idiots not understand?” Dad hushes us both.
“Eli will get her. He’s done it before.”
“She didn’t have Mia before. Them two together? Deadly.” Movement in the far corner turns our heads. AJ is creeping along the ring, crouched so low you can barely see her. I look around for Eli, who I know is still upstairs. I try to not make a big show of searching for him in case she’s paying attention to us.
Eli peeps out behind the staircase downstairs though, just enough that I barely catch the red in his mask. Rory makes the mistake of accidently knocking over a box and Eli picks up on it quickly. I watch Eli climb up the back of the stairs, he has more dexterity than any of the rest of us. He is holding tight waiting for Rory to get close above him before he puts his gun through the railing and shoots him in the thigh. We all hear the mumbled curse before Eli climbs back down and waits for Rory to get down to hand over his and Max’s cards.
Eli pockets them and immediately makes his way on the ground behind the benches to try and get a clear shot for AJ. She is still crouched, looking for something. Mia is still nowhere to be found. AJ creeps to the back corner where the bags are hanging and gets behind one too fast for Eli to land a shot. A shot of blue marking the bag. And I realize she is baiting him. She would never leave herself out in the open the way she is now. She lazily moves and Eli lands a hit on her calf. And she stands out in the open and laughs. He stands and Mia comes out of one of the lockers and puts her gun between his shoulder blades and pulls the trigger.
AJ points her gun to me and smiles. “Told you I would take your ass out first!” Brilliant girls.
MIA
I’m still holding the gun between his shoulders when Eli slowly turns around and is smiling so brightly that his brown eyes almost look like honey. Before I can register what he’s doing, he drops his gun and sweeps me up in his arms and laughs. I expected him to complain or be pissed that he lost. This is almost more unsettling.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” He shouts over to where AJ is grinning proudly.
He squeezes me a little extra close before putting me down. I don’t think I flashed anyone, thankfully. My jacket is still tied too tightly for me to even budge the knot loose. Eli kisses my forehead before saying, “that was genius!” Then he turns to AJ and glares. “Next year, your ass is mine though. Be prepared.” He hands me his card, completing the royal flush.
AJ comes over and wraps her arms around me, paralyzing me. “That was badass.” She pulls away like she didn’t just initiate a hug and smile and laugh all at the same time.
“Who came up with that?” Max asks us as we meet the group in the middle of the mats.
“She’s the brains, I’m the muscle.” AJ gives me the credit, but it was a joint planning session over margs this past Monday. It’s scary how calculated her brain can be, she took in every detail of what she knew the boys would do. She saw Eli buying the masks a few weeks ago andsomehow came up with this mastermind assumption they would pull triplet antics and switch them out. I was only slightly surprised when Oliver was standing in front of me with a different mask on. Triplet or not, I knew him as soon as he walked into the storage room. AJ was my lethal shadow, I was the pretty distraction.
