Agony

17

"Oh my God, you're the famous Ellie." Hayley greeted, as the four of us entered the apartment.

"You look just like how Cher should look," Ellie gaped.

I shoved her, turning to Hayley. "Where's Stacy?"

Hayley shrugged. "After you left, she told me she couldn't handle living with me alone and decided to stay at her parents' place for a week."

I couldn't blame Stacy. The apartment was a pigsty in comparison to how I'd left it.

"When will you learn to pick up after yourself?" I protested.

"Hush, now is not the time. I didn't think the guys would go with you," Hayley nodded at Ace and Dallas who threw her glares.

"We have a lot to talk about." I motioned for her to take a seat on the couch which was the only part of the apartment without clothes or trash covering it.

* * *

Everything had been quiet on the way back.

Too quiet.

No men in black had been in sight, security clearance at the airport had all gone smooth.

Knowing my luck, something was bound to go wrong, soon.

The four of us had enjoyed the pizza and spent the rest of the day flipping through the remaining journals, before we packed our bags and made a move for the airport. Neither one of us came across anything worth a second glance. We still packed all the journals, as well as my diary which I was too embarrassed to open in front of the boys, in case I had some secrets in it that I didn't want them knowing.

I'd promised Ellie we'd go it together at another time though.

On the airplane, we weren't able to get seats for the four of us to sit together. Instead, we were able to pair off.

At first, I was going to sit with Ellie, but Ace suggested that we each sit with one of the guys in case something happened. He didn't have to spell anything out. The possibilities of things going wrong were endless. And, though I had been taking self-defence classes, I had no idea how to shoot a gun nor truly defend myself.

The boys argued about who would sit with who, Ellie ended up grabbing Dallas's arm and making him sit with her, claiming they needed to have a talk to bridge over any awkwardness. It seemed a bit too mature of her to do, but then she sent me a cheeky grin, looking between Ace and me.

She had been trying to play wing-woman.

Unfortunately, things didn't flow the way Ellie wanted them to. I barely spoke to Ace because, once again, I spent the majority of the flight napping. I woke up, thankfully not leaning on Ace, and before any flight attendant was forced to warn me.

* * *

"I'll go with Hayley to the store to grab the snacks," Ellie suggested. "No one is after me, and Venom knows Cher is a brunette, right?"

After spending the past two hours bringing Hayley up to speed, we began planning our journey to the island. Hayley was on board immediately. Freeing ourselves from Venom was a common interest. Ellie had spent most of that time staring between Hayley and me, shocked by how similar we looked. Hayley had listened intently, acting surprisingly mature.

Ellie had a point. I nodded, "Fine, I guess I'll pack our bags."

"Ace is going to do that." Dallas countered.

"What?" I frowned. "Why? What will I do to kill the time then?"

Dallas sent me a soft smile. "I'm taking you target practicing."