Page 12 of Loathing Ryan
Ryan clutched a hand over his heart and staggered back as if I had shot him. I wish I had. “Oh, you wound me!”
Juliet rolled her eyes and grabbed my hand. “Whatever. Let’s move up there so he’ll leave you alone.”
“Sounds great to me. Lead the way,” I announced, still glaring at Ryan. He watched me go with a smug look on his face, and I fought down the urge to hit him.
Once the teams were selected, we were divided into two groups. I was on the blue team this year. Thankfully, Juliet had been assigned to blue too. As I looked around my group, I tried to memorize the faces of everyone on my team. I noticed with glee that a certain blond-haired Bennett boy was nowhere to be found. This was the best news I had received all day.
Our counselor gathered us all around and assigned roles. Juliet got appointed as a front-runner. She would go back and forth to the other team’s side as needed to find their flag. I got the assignment as a tagger. I would stand just behind our line and catch anyone crossing over onto our territory. If all of our front runners got tagged out and stuck in jail, I would be next to try to find the opposing team’s flag.
We all got set up for the game, the whistle blew, and everyone charged. Juliet flew over the line, jumped, and swerved every time one of the other team members tried to lunge at her. She disappeared into the enemy lines as she went for the flag.
I jabbed my arm out at those who ran across our line, tagging left and right. Once I tapped someone, they would stop running, sigh dejectedly, and walk over to the sidelines. In jail, they would wait until someone was valiant enough to get past me and tag them out. Then they would walk hand in hand back to their home side and do it all over again.
My eyes darted this way and that as I tried to tag my opponents. In my peripheral vision, I saw someone dart over the line and run straight into the woods where we had hidden our flag.
Not today!I said to myself as I took off after them.
I wasn’t nearly as athletic as Juliet, but I could hold my own. Taking a deep breath, I paced myself as I ran after the enemy. My feet pounded on the ground with every step. I took great care of watching for divots in the grass. With my luck, my toes would get stuck in one, and I would go flying across the field, snapping an ankle in the process. I didn’t need that kind of attention today.
I ran into the woods, breathing harder, trying to see the brave soul who was in search of our flag. Honestly, I didn’t even know where they had hidden the flag. Usually, it was back in the woods, hidden in some bush or under a rock. Typically, the teams had a few members stationed close to the actual hiding place of the flag, so that it could always be protected.
That meant a good strategy—if it could be pulled off—was to have a bunch of people charge the area where the flag was kept so that the guys protecting the flag would have to go chase them. Then a scout could be sent in to snatch the flag while it was unprotected.
I lost track of the person I was chasing, so I slowed down to walk instead. No reason to wear myself out when I didn’t even know who I was running after. Placing my hands on my hips, I kept walking, trying to catch my breath.
“Heya, Bells!” someone said to me, nearly scaring me shitless. I must’ve jumped a mile in the sky as I whipped around to look at him.
“What do you want?” I groaned.
Ryan was leaning against a tree with his arms crossed, looking at me, amused. Slowly, like an animal stalking his prey, he walked toward me. Whatever he was up to, I suspected it wouldn’t be good, so I braced myself for the worst.
6
RYAN
I thoughtI was going to lose my ever-loving shit when I saw Izabel hanging around with that loser, Mark Snyder. It took everything in me to keep myself from grabbing his collar and yanking him away from her.
I hadn’t outright staked any kind of claim over Izabel—officially—but there was just somethingoffabout Mark, and I didn’t like the idea of him sniffing around her. I would’ve given an arm and a leg to know what Izabel was thinking through that whole encounter.
She was so hard for me to read sometimes. Sure, I knew she was annoyed at me for interrupting, but was she interested in Mark?
I had no idea. But the way her blue eyes widened and lit up in interest when he approached her made me see red. For whatever reason, the thought of the two of them together was enough to push me over the edge. I knew I was being irrational; I had no reason to feel jealous, yet here we were.
After the capture-the-flag game set off, I went searching for her again, feeling a desperate need to see her. She unintentionally found me before I had the chance to locate her.
I watched her run into the clearing I was stationed at. Then she slowed, trying to catch her breath. She took a few steps closer to me when I announced myself.
“Heya, Bells.”
Her head whipped around to face me, and she gave me a scowl worthy of no one but her. “What do you want?”
I pushed myself off the tree trunk I was leaning against and walked toward her, making a big show of circling her. She watched me warily, as if afraid I was going to jump and attack her.
“Just letting my presence be known. Gotta say, I’m impressed. You’re not in too bad of shape, you know?”
“Ha, right,” she fired back. “That’s why I feel like I’m about to throw up a lung.”
I shrugged. “Still, not too bad.” I watched her for another second as she tried to get better control of her breathing. Finally, I grinned at her. “Aren’t you going to tag me?”
