Nefertiti

The next week and a half go by in a blur. I’ve had lots of intense training—like usual—and lots of meetings as well to finalize the plan to take down Mors Navis. I haven’t told Zane yet what we are planning, but I probably should. We’ve been seeing each other almost every night at the pond and we’ve been texting a lot too. It’s gotten to the point where I check my phone for messages from him.

Kade and Talen are bickering over who has the better abs. They are flexing in my mirror while I lay on my bed texting Zane.

Zane: They are still arguing over their abs?

Me: Yep. They’ve been doing this for 20 mins now.

Zane: Oh gosh. Just know that mine are better ;)

I blush.

Me: Okay, whatever you say Loser.

“Beatrix, stop looking at your phone and pay attention to us,” Kade says.

“What do you want me to do? You guys won’t stop arguing.”

“Umm, you’re supposed to tell us who has the better abs,” Talen says.

“What? No. I’m not doing that.”

“Oh come on, Beatrix. Just tell us,” Kade begs and then lifts up his shirt. Talen lifts his shirt up too, and they both flex.

“Beatrix, if you don’t decide right now I’m going to poop myself because of how hard I’m flexing. It feels like I’m constipated,” Kade painfully says.

I burst out in laughter.

“Okay, umm, Talen has better abs.”

Talen jumps up and down with joy. “Yes! I told you mine are better!”

Now Kade is furious and Talen is bragging in Kade’s face.

“You guys,” I get their attention. “Stop fighting. Both of you are giving me a headache. You both have nice abs, now just stop.”

They completely ignore what I just said and continue their argument. I roll my eyes and then my phone goes off.

Zane: Wanna go to the pond tonight?

Me: Of course. I’ll take any chance I can get to bully you.

Zane: Don’t even.

Me: I have to tell you something anyways.

Zane: Me too.

Me: Okay, see you at 8:00.

Zane: Sounds good.

I’m going to tell him about our plan. He needs to know and I don’t want him getting hurt. We’ve grown close over this past week and I actually like him. He always makes me smile and the feeling he makes me feel is so addictive. It’s different from how Kade and Talen make me feel because they are just my friends. With Zane though, I feel more alive, and more understood. He gets me and I get him.

He always talks about his fantasy life by the beach and how he always wants to run away from the life he’s living now. When I think about him leaving, my heart feels like I just drilled a hole in it. A part of me is scared of what will happen to me and my feelings if he leaves. I would only want that kind of life if I could live it with him, and that’s what scares me the most.

***

“Hey Dummy.” Zane sits down next to me in the grass. We’ve sat here so many times for so long that the grass has our butt marks imprinted on it.

“Hey Loser.”

“So, how was your day? Eventful huh?” He knows I was so annoyed all day but still decides to ask that question. I give him a look that makes him break out in laughter.

“They were arguing about it for another twenty minutes after I told them who won.”

“And who won?”

“Talen.”

“Ohh, not me?” He lifts up his shirt and my mouth drops to the ground.

“Umm—well y-you know—you weren’t really an option,” I stutter out.

He laughs while I blush.

“So, what did you want to tell me?” he asks.

“You go first.”

He clears his throat. “Umm, well I want to tell you something.”

“Yeah, I know.” I giggle.

“Umm, so you know how we’ve been hanging out for the past week?”

“Mhm.”

“Umm, well I just wanted to say that I’ve gotten to know you a lot better and I think you’re really cool. That sounds stupid but you know what I mean. I just like your personality and I don’t know. I just like you.”

He looks deep into my eyes and I almost stop breathing.

“I love your eyes, and the way you laugh. Your smile makes me smile and I love when you’re happy. I think about you all of the time, and when we talk about our futures, I always think about what it would be like if you weren’t a part of mine. I want to be with you because Beatrix, over this past week I’ve developed new feelings that I never knew I could have. I like you. I’ve liked you since our first fight.”

I smile so wide that it feels like the corners of my mouth are touching my eyes.

“Zane, it’s your lucky day because guess what?”

“What?” he smiles.

“I like you too. But, I only liked your eyes the first time I saw you, otherwise I hated you.”

He bursts out in laughter and so do I.

“Fair enough. I did kidnap you.”

“Yes, yes you did.”

Our laughter diminishes and we look at each other. He looks down at my mouth and starts to lean in. I meet him halfway and his lips crash onto mine. He tastes sweet; like honey, and warm; like the sun on a fall afternoon. I pull away first and we are both smiling.

“So, what did you want to tell me?” he asks.

Well, I’m going to ruin the mood by telling him how my family is trying to take down his family.

“Well, it’s not as happy as what you told me but you need to hear this.”

“Okay, what’s up?” His brows furrow.

“So, since you kidnapped me my dad has been hellbent on taking down your family.”

His eyes widen and his face twists. “Oh, not what I was expecting but continue.”

“He made this plan all by himself and it seems like it’s going to work so this past week we’ve had meetings after meetings about the plan. I know every detail and I’m going to tell you so that you can prepare yourself and get the hell out of there.”

“Yep, that sounds like a good plan. I don’t really plan on dying anytime soon.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t planning on that either. We are going to attack on Friday. That gives you three days to prepare. We are going to surround your property and our tech guy is going to hack into your security system and shut that down first. Then we are going to take out any of the guards or wanderers on the outside of the property. Are you following so far?”

“Yep.”

“Okay. Then we are going to light the south side of the property on fire since there are more trees in that area. After we wait for people to rush out to the fire we are going to throw grenades. Lots of them. After those go off we are going to storm your whole property, guns blazing.”

“Wow, that’s…intense. Okay well, what do I do?”

“I don’t know. You could leave early Friday morning or Thursday night.”

“What time is this happening?”

“We planned for seven o’ clock.”

“Okay. I can leave friday.”

“Okay, sounds good. I’ll keep you posted if anything changes.”

“Sounds good. What are you going to do?”

“I am going to go like normal and then when everything is chaotic I’m going to take a car. It’ll be the closest car I find and I’ll meet you in Galveston.” I smile at him and his eyes light up.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, I thought we could have that beach house and play with our kids together someday.”

He comes in and gives me another long and deep kiss.

“I like the way you think, Beatrix Black.”

We lay together until I fall asleep. He nudges me awake and makes me go home. On the way home I pray that everything goes smoothly and that I can live my own life with Zane after this is all over.