Both Astrix and I back up slowly, not so much as letting a pebble shift until we’re both back around the corner in the main drag of the hallway. Astrix looks to me, a frown back on her beautiful features.
“You’re doomed,” she whispers.
“Oh. Thanks.”
“Unless…” her face starts to light up at something over my shoulder, giving me hope for a fraction of a second. “We go up.”
“Up?”
“The roof—c’mon,” she hisses, striding past me, eyes on her feet over to a door across the hall. It’s an access door to the stairwell to the roof. The sign is barely holding on by a screw. If we took that with us, they’d have no reason to check the room. It looks like any other office door in the hall.
Astrix opens the door and by some miracle, it glides open effortlessly showing off a dark narrow spiral staircase. It’s more befitting of a horror movie than anything else, and the little bitch in me wants to put off going inside, so I pause at the doorway and start unscrewing the sign.
Rusted metal bites into my fingers. I wince, happy I’m up to date on all shots for the tour coming up, and double down—the screw needs more effort than I expected.
“Ghost!”
Looking past the threshold, I see Astrix is already up one flight of stairs and is having to bend to glare daggers at me. Her white cropped top is giving me an ‘A+’ view of her cleavage. I guess I got locked on because a moment later, she’s clearing her throat.
With her eyes now slits, she motions for me to continue only a couple of seconds before the door around the corner opens, pushing random crap out of the way. I draw in a huge breath, my thumb and forefinger now feeling the effects of pinching the pitted metal for so long.
If I’m going to end up getting caught? I’m not going to make it easy. This guy’s going to have to earn it.
Finally, the screw comes free. I end up almost dropping the sign onto the floor, but manage to catch it the last second between my palms. The sound of wobbling metal calls out to the officer down the hall, who immediately radios for backup.
Shit.
I slip through the doorway into the stairwell to Hell and shut the thick plank of wood behind me just as quietly as Astrix had opened it. I see the glow of a flashlight through the crack under the door. If I don’t move—I’m going to get caught.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry,” Astrix chants as I book it up the first flight of stairs as quietly as I can without sacrificing speed. My heavy boots ‘thunk’ with every step I take, no matter how badly I try to take it light. I’m convinced for the first three flights of stairs I run, passing Astrix in the process, that the door behind us will open…but it never does.
When I finally burst out onto the roof, the sky is a dark foreboding gray paired with a chilly wind. Rain. It’s going to happen—it’s just a matter of when…and there’s little to keep us dry up here, except for the small landing at the top of the stairs.
However, it’s nowhere near the edge of the roof—which is a bonus. We don’t have to worry about being seen…we just need to worry about someone finding the stairs.
Astrix finally walks out into the gloomy gray, looking a little worse for wear. Her side is now a deep purple. It looks painful, and she’s not even trying to cover it anymore. Her lips are a grim line as she looks around the roof and then up to the clouds.
“Fuck,” she mutters, flapping her free arm at her side. “The fucking day keeps getting better.”
I see a shudder wrack her slender frame as the cold bites into her. Until the cops and fire marshal leave, we’re stuck. I am at least wearing pants and sleeves under my jacket—Astrix is clad all in white for what little clothes she had on.
“Here,” I grunt and shrug my backpack off my shoulders so I can remove my studded black denim jacket. As much as getting a wet T-shirt show would be awesome, I also would be a dick for letting her get sick.
As soon as I get my jacket off and hold it out for her to take, Astrix scrutinizes the offered garment like taking it is akin to signing an agreement. Her cheek pops in and out as she works her jaw, putting way too much thought into the gesture.
“Do you want to be warm, or not?” I finally asked, a little put out that she’s being this stubborn.
With no move to take the jacket, I start to pull it away only to have her change her mind and snatch the jacket from my hand. Astrix takes a big step back so I can’t reach her.
When she gets the denim over her arms and settled on her shoulders, Astrix looks like a little kid playing dress up. It’s baggy on me, but for her, she’s swimming in the fabric. Amused, I grin wide:
“You look good,” I assure her.
“Simmer down, Romeo. I don’t typically entertain advances while hiding from the cops.”
Astrix begins to inch over to the nearest edge of the roof. My eyes pop open wide as adrenaline hits me. I scramble to grab my jacket and pull her back, but she dances back out of my reach.
“Don’t you dare,” my harsh whisper falls on deaf ears.
She’s going to get us caught.
Before Astrix gets too close, I manage to take a few quick steps and get her wrist to pull her back to me. She struggles, trying to pull away, her face pinched in annoyance. Thankfully I’m stronger than her.
Astrix ends up losing balance after I yank her back near the door. Her mouth is a small ‘o’ as she nears the floor, her face scrunched. She’s expecting an impact, but it never comes.
Instead, I yank her arm again and bring her to me into a sort of awkward embrace. I’ve only been in this position a handful of times. I can feel her chest against mine, and how still she is now that she’s in my arms.
“You can’t do that shit,” I scold, worried I sound like my mother talking to my youngest brother, Walker. “Someone could have seen you!”
“So? I don’t want to be stuck up here. It’s freezing.”
“So because you don’t want to deal with a little rain, you’re fine with me getting caught?”
“No—I…agh,” Astrix presses her hands to her cheeks a couple times trying to quell the blush in them as she gathers her feet. I help to steady her so she can stand on her own. With that achieved, she backs off a safe distance away from me.
I try to catch her eyes so I can see where she’s at mentally—see if it’s different from what she’s voiced, but she refuses to make it easy to see them. Instead Astrix hugs herself gently and huffs:
“I just…hate this. My dad is going to kill me for being out so late, and now tack on some hours because of what? The cops making a point about trespassing?
“Not to mention that Tanner fucking ditched me,” Astrix swears. “I swear I’m dumping him.”
“Wait,” I snort, “Hold up—your dad? What are you? Sixteen?”
“Eighteen,” comes her distracted answer. She’s still staring at her feet.
“Uh huh. Well, great, I was making eyes at a high school student.”
“’Making eyes’?” Her head whips to me, confusion present. “What are you, Eighty?”
“Fuck you, ‘eighty’ …I’m twenty-three.”
“Ah, near death, got it,” Astrix giggles. It’s light and breezy. Despite my irritation at being called geriatric, her laugh makes me want to join in the moment with her.
“Oh…fuck you,” I manage not to laugh, but there’s no denying that I’m smiling ear to ear because of her.
“You’ve said that a couple times, now,” she purrs, her gaze flitting to my feet and back up, blatantly giving me a once over.
“I’m…what does my sister call it…’manifesting’?”
Astrix dissolves into a harder rendition of the giggles from earlier—but all too soon, her hand flies to her ribs.
“Shit—laughing hurts,” I can tell she’s trying to control her breathing to calm the pain. As much as I don’t want her to hurt, I’m proud of myself for getting that kind of laugh from her.
“Sorry, won’t happen again.”
“I don’t doubt it. Probably a freak occurrence,” she smirks.
“Heh,” I roll my eyes at the playful dig and shrug my backpack back up onto my shoulders. I’m craving the feel of the cold breeze on my face, to be free of Ghost for a while. But, no. As long as i’m in Astrix’ company, I’m confined to my alternate personality.
“Look, I guess being stuck up here for the morning with you...isn’t the worst thing in the world,” Astrix finally admits.
“Yeah, things could be worse,” I say trying to play it cool.
A flash of lightening and crack of thunder hit, like it was waiting for a fucking cue and bring an instantaneous downpour with it. The raindrops are fat and cold, not the most comfortable to deal with, especially since they’re hitting hard.
Astrix lets out a strangled yelp and clasps her hand over her mouth to cut down on noise.
Fuck.
The glare she shoots me over her covered mouth screams ‘you really had to go there, didn’t you?’
“Sorry!” I whisper loudly.
Slowly Astrix slides her hand down over her lips, her lipstick not so much as smearing.
“Fix it. Now.”
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