“What were you guys thinking?” Dahlia pounded her fist on the table. “Because of your arrogance, I got into trouble with the higher-ups. Never in my thirty years of being a manager has this happened. Explain yourselves.”
“Seriously? In thirty years this has never happened? Hard to believe,” I muttered.
Lucas stood in front of her, “It was my poor judgment. I thought that if we defeated her then the Agency would be safe.”
“You of all people should know the rules. As the captain of your team, it’s your responsibility to keep them in check. If you can’t keep them in check then we’re going to have to let you go.” Dahlia crossed her arms.
“Yes, ma’am you are absolutely right.”
Carter stepped forward, “It wasn't his fault, it was-”
“-It was my fault. I should have been more responsible,” Lucas gave Carter a stern look. Carter stood back with the rest of us.
“As punishment for the negligence of your captain, you are all being punished. You are prohibited from leaving the Agency for a month and are required to attend an extra day of training. Do you understand?”
My freedom was already restricted and now we had an extra day of training on top of it? This job wasn’t as exciting as I thought it was going to be. I’m not even sure what she expected from us. We weren’t just going to stand there and do nothing. We were training for events just like this. To do nothing was going against everything we learned in training. We were finally allowed to do something, make a change and it was taken from us.
We all begrudgingly agreed. She was treating us like children, it was ridiculous. We’re all adults here who can make our own decisions. For her to punish us for doing what was right was stupid.
“Good, if you’ll excuse me, I have other matters to attend to.” She glared at us before walking out of the room. If other matters meant continuing to be a nuisance to society then I felt bad for society.
Carter walked up to Lucas, “I’m really sorry. I didn’t think something like this would happen.”
Lucas smiled, “Don’t worry about it, man. I’m not afraid of Dahlia and her threats.”
“Still, what I did was terrible,” Carter looked upset.
“You did what any of us would’ve done,” Clarisse wrapped her arms around him.
“I would’ve done it sooner if it meant she was going to get peeved off,” I shrugged.
“But-”
“She needs to get that stick out of her butt. Not our problem that we tried to help,” I said.
“I guess,” he still looked upset.
All the way back to the apartments he was incessantly apologizing. Technically it was his fault but we all joined in. I was even the one who tried to attack her. If she didn’t dodge I could’ve left enough of a mark on her that she wouldn’t bother us again.
That stupid girl with stretchy arms was definitely behind the attack. Why she’d attack the Agency I had no clue. Evil organizations usually have no reason to attack good people except to be annoying. Only this time they were starting to affect me and I wasn’t going to stand for it.
When I got to my place I slammed the door shut and plopped on the couch. It was an exhausting, useless day. Not only was my peace and quiet interrupted but now I was basically grounded. The last thing I wanted to do was listen to what she had to say.
Annoyed, I grabbed my notebook off the table. I started jotting down ideas for my next project. Another animal for Alexandra. She was probably getting sick of bears by now. It was time I tried a different animal. They were exactly easy though, the internet was going to have to be my guide.
I had just pressed the search button when my phone rang. I looked at the number for a couple seconds. It wasn’t from my contacts list but it wasn’t spam either. It almost looked familiar to me, I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Usually, I would’ve just let it ring through to voicemail, but something compelled me to answer it.
He didn’t even have to say who it was, I recognized his voice immediately. “Hey, Lydia. It’s Johnny.”
“Hi. Not going to lie, I wasn’t expecting to hear from you,” I laughed nervously. Why was he calling me?
“I drove by Foxes Herald today and it made me think of you.”
“I didn’t think you remembered that place, it’s been so long since we were there together.” My pulse quickened. He remembered our spot.
“Of course, I remember. It was the spot where we had our first kiss,” his voice sounded so sweet.
I smiled to myself, “Yeah it was.”
I didn’t want to bring up what happened the last time we were together. I desperately wanted to hang onto this moment. I wanted to pretend that we had never broken up in the first place. The Agency was starting to help me forget, but he was always in the back of my mind.
That day he told me that we were never going to be together forever. It rang in my head every single day. I promised myself that I deserved better, that I would never fall for him, and here I was right now falling for him again. How could I not though? He was perfect for me.
“I really want to see you. I’ve been dying to see you ever since.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“I want to see you too.” My head kept telling me to fight it, but my heart said that we belonged together.
“Perfect. I’m coming to get you.”
“Wait, are you sure? Last time you told me that you never want to see me again.”
“I was wrong,” his voice quivered. “I do want to see you. I miss you so much. I want to settle down with you. You’re the only one for me.”
I’d never heard him say anything like that to me. “I don’t know if I can deal with rejection again.”
“I’ll be outside the Agency in one hour. You better be there,” he said and hung up the phone.
I didn’t feel like I had any choice. I did want to see him, but a part of me also didn’t want to see him. Was he going to let me down again? Has he changed after all this time? After much deliberation with myself, I decided to join the date anyway. The only way I could find out was to meet up with him.
I rummaged through my closet. Pretty much everything at this point was workout gear. I had left most of my nice clothes at my parents' place. I had no reason to have them here, not when every day of my life I was doing something that made me sweaty.
Somehow, I managed to find a date outfit. It consisted of black skinny jeans, a flowy tan shirt, a dark denim jacket, and a pair of heels. My past self somehow managed to bring a cute outfit.
Once I was dressed, I put on minimal makeup. Usually, I would go with a lot more makeup but I only had a small amount on me.
By the time I was ready, Johnny was here. I went to my hall closet and pulled out a rope ladder used for an emergency fire escape. There wasn’t going to be a fire, but this was an emergency.
As soon as I placed it out the window I heard a knock at my door. It was pretty late at night so no one from my team should be there. For a brief moment, I considered not answering the door and pretending to be asleep. My stupidity got the best of me and I answered the door, It was Clarisse.
I raced to the door and pulled her inside, I quickly shut the door behind us. I looked through the peephole of the door to make sure no one else was there.
“You look cute! What’re you dressed up for?” Clarisse asked with the most innocent smile.
For some reason I trusted Clarisse. Maybe it was because she was so nice and innocent that she could never tell anyone my dirty secrets. I knew a lot of girls like her and they were always the most trustworthy.
“I’m going to tell you, but you can’t breathe a word of this to anyone,” I warned.
“Oh my gosh of course. What is it?” She smiled, her eyes big.
“I’m going on a date.”
“Really?” She sounded excited. “Is it with that guy I saw in the picture?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll always be supportive of any decision you make, but we’re kinda grounded to our rooms,” she explained.
“That’s why I’m sneaking out.”
“Hmmm, ok if that’s what you want. Don’t worry, I’ll cover for you,” she gave me a hug.
“Thanks so much,” I hugged her back.
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