Past

Jen

My eyes flutter open and come in contact with gray eyes. His eyes closed quickly to pretend like he wasn't just watching me but I caught him. "I caught you," I say with a groggy voice. He opens his eyes and he gives me a small grin.

"You snore so cutely." He says and then leans in and nuzzles his nose against mine.

"That's not how my foster sister put it. It drove her crazy. She would throw things at me in the middle of the night." I frown at the thought.

He laughs pats the hair back from my face and tucks it behind my ear. His hand lingers for a few moments and then he pulls it back. I wish he kept his hand there. I liked the feeling of it. Just like last night. That was the most intense and hottest moment of my life. I take his hand into mine and hold it. The smile that he gives me from this one simple action is priceless. His whole face lights up and he has a smile from ear to ear.

I get up first and get ready for the day. Lucas and Stan follow suit dressing in their disguises. Lucas takes my hand and we leave the room and go down to the lobby. Stan goes ahead of us to look outside. There are paparazzi outside and the tension between all three of us is strong. The car is waiting for us so we all get in with no problems. "Where are we headed?" I ask Lucas.

"The mall." He gives me a grin. I grin back but I'm nervous I don't want him spending money on me. I'm not sure how I can get the money to pay him back. I'll just have to fight my foster parents to let me keep my pay. I hope he realizes I'm parsimonious.

The ride doesn't take so long and the driver pulls us up to the entrance. "Make sure you go get some food Brandon, don't just sit here waiting for us. We can always call you if we are here and you're not. I know you don't like leaving your post." Lucas tells the driver. He is so considerate it makes my heart swell.

"Okay," Is all Brandon says sounding like he wont. I watch as Lucas shakes his head.

"So stubborn." He says under his breath but I could hear him.

"I've never actually been in a mall so this is exciting." I laugh as he grabs my hand and helps me out of the car. He is looking at me with both eyebrows raised. "You need money to shop, what's the point of coming here if you have none." I roll my eyes at him. We head inside and he takes me over to the map of the mall.

"Take a picture of this Stan. My phone is cracked my phone company store is just around the corner." Stan walks over and does just what Lucas asked. "Stan get me a new phone." Lucas hands over his old one.

"How about we go to the arcade?" Lucas asks with excitement.

"Sure, I would love that!" I say and Stan grumbles.

"I'm not leaving you two. It's not safe." Stan insists.

"We will be fine." Lucas groans and he takes my hand and walks us off. He pulls me over to the escalator and we hop on. It takes a few minutes but we are on the next floor now. I can hear the game noises from here. To the right is a gigantic arcade full of tons and tons of games.

We walk inside and all the noises and the flashing lights always overwhelm me at first. I look around to see which games I would want to play. I noticed the zombie shooter game I love that I'm good at. That will be fun.

"Lucas there's a photo booth I want to do that so I can have a memento of you. Something I can keep to remember you by."

"I love that idea." His whole body changes and he looks depressed.

"Come on it will be fun." I smile at him brightly. This seems to shake him out of his own head a little bit. He puts his card in and it makes a noise that it's accepted. He moves the curtain steps inside and sits down. I follow behind him and close the curtain. "Alright let's start I press the button place my hand on the opposite side of his face and rest my forehead at the side of his head nudging it softly with my eyes closed. The flash goes off.

I press the button for the next one. I keep my hand where it is and kiss the side of his face. I want to show him how I feel through these photos. How much I care and how much I'll miss him. The flash happens again.

I press the button and Lucas turns me to him and locks his eyes with mine. He's staring at me longingly and I can feel myself looking at him the same way back. Our eyes are locked together and the flash happens. "I want my own set of photos with the disguise off."

"Okay," I say as he begins pulling the beard off. There's some residue on his face so I take my thumb and brush it off him gently. I run my thumb over his top lip to get some off where the mustache part of the beard sits.

He gasps and his eyes convey that he is turned on by me touching his lips. So I run my thumb over his top and bottom lip gradually and softly like the barest of touches. I remove his hat and fake hair and place them in between us. He goes to lean to kiss me but I'm not ready so I turn my head. He is going to be leaving in a few days.

I'm not sure we should cross more lines than we have it will just make it harder when we have to separate. Although I would like my first kiss to be with him. Maybe if we have a special perfect moment I will plant one on him. Just one kiss wouldn't hurt, right? I can feel my heart cracking inside my chest.

"Ready?" I turn my head to him and he's looking at me with sadness in his eyes. "Kiss me on the cheek." I press the button. I feel his lips on my skin and I feel my body tremble. I widen my eyes like I'm shocked and put my hand long over my mouth. The flash goes off and it's disorienting I see spots for a few seconds.

"Smile big for the camera," I say while placing our cheeks together and pressing the button. The flash goes off again.

I press the button quickly and place my hand behind Lucas's head giving him the bunny ears. I see in my periphery him looking over at me with a small grin. As soon as the flash happens Lucas immediately pushes the button then stars tickling my sides. I'm squirming and laughing like a loon. The camera flashes and he doesn't stop. "Lucas have mercy!" I say in between gasps.

"Never," He says and keeps up his relentless assault. I'm laughing louder now.

"Please," I gasp out. He stops tickling but leaves his hands where they are gripping my sides.

"You don't want to kiss me?" He says in a small voice. I turn my head and catch his eyes and he is looking at me like he is crushed.

"Of course, I do," I say sadly taking his hand into mine. "If we do it will just be harder when you have to leave." My voice cracks and I feel my throat swell. I place his wig and hat back on him. He takes the glue out of his pocket and hands it to me. I place it on the line of the beard and then push it onto his face. I align it and crane my neck to make sure it looks right. Satisfied I turn back around and press the print button.

I place the photo reels next to each other. "Which one is your favorite?" He leans over to look at them.

"This one." Lucas points to his strip at the one where we are gazing into each other's eyes. "Which one is yours?" I point to the first one we took. Where my nose is placed on the side of his temple nuzzling him with my eyes closed. In this picture, his eyes are closed and he looks at peace.

"What do you want to do now?" Lucas asks while pocketing our photos.

"Have you ever played this before?" I point to the co-op zombie game.

"I have, they got this in almost every hotel arcade. I'm pretty good at it." He looks at me with a smirk.

"So confident. Let's see who's better." I challenge.

"We're on the same team." He laughs.

I look him up and down playfully and shrug one shoulder. He pulls me by my waist and kisses my temple. Once he pulls away I feel a bit faint and my body sways a little. "Are you okay?" He asks concerned.

"Not if you keep doing that it might kill me." I laugh move out of his grasp and go to the machine. Loud sounds of zombies groaning and shots being fired assault my ears. Lucas swipes the game card with our money on it that he just got into the machine. I grab the red gun on the right and he picks up the blue out of its holder.

I loosen my shoulders, shake out my hands, and crack my knuckles. "You're so adorable." He says his eyes gleaming at me. I grin at him and hold my gun like a cop does in the movies believe it or not it does help with this game. I slam the start button and get ready.

The cut scene is happening when a woman is being devoured by a horde of zombies. Then the screen goes black and... My finger is on the trigger and starting to shoot. I count every shot and on the sixth, I tilt the gun harshly to reload.

"Watch your nine," I calmly say to him. Lucas is starting to get overwhelmed so I shoot a bunch of his to relieve the pressure off of him. 5..6.. I tilt the gun. The zombies are cleared and there's a new cutscene.

It's a huge disgusting abomination of a zombie with its guts hanging out, multiple arms and it's mouth wide dripping blood. "Boss time, I'll shoot his hands you shoot his guts. Shoot the little zombies if you can. We will do every other little zombie. You start first and then I'll shoot the one after."

The boss zombie will try to grab one of us and if it does it shakes the screen and both of us lose our vision. The little zombies jump at the screen and if you don't head shot before they land you also lose vision and a crap ton of health. I'm not telling Lucas this because he already knows he played the game.

Every hand that has popped up I haven't missed. One hand pops up when it's supposed to be my little zombie's turn. I shot the zombie as soon as I tried to shoot the hand Lucas already got it. "Nice, save," I say while clicking the trigger quickly shooting the hands.

"Thank you, baby," He says smoothly while he head shots his little zombie. Him easily calling me baby makes my stomach flip in the most pleasurable way. It has me taken off guard for a minute. The boss zombie yells out a guttural cry and then topples over onto the ground.

The cut scene shows our characters running into an abandoned building. The characters are dashing up a flight of stairs and making their way down a hall. Just when they get to the end horde of zombies starts running the screen at full speed. This is one of the hardest parts of the game. The trick is getting as many head shots in a row while quickly loading your gun. My arms are starting to feel the burn already.

The screen goes dark and shrieking and screeching zombies start piling out of the doorway at us. We are both taking down our sides zombies with no problem. The screen starts shaking and the gun begins to vibrate so it's harder to aim and shoot. Both of us are beginning to get overwhelmed but I start shooting and reloading faster. The sound of the plastic trigger being pressed roughly and often is causing a loud clicking noise. People see us and how intense we are playing and they are starting to make a half circle behind us watching us play.

I'm really into it now and the zombies are rushing in so fast it's getting harder and harder to keep up. "Ten o clock, Ten o clock," I say with a thrill of excitement.

"EEE Shit, shit shit!" Lucas exclaims in a high-pitched tone. I annihilate the zombies in front of him and then catch up on my own. The screen goes dark and a cut scene happens. "WOO!" Lucas cheers.

"Rest your arms real quick this cut scene is longer."

"Me and Stan have never gotten this far." He says while he is flexing and loosening his arms.

The cut scene begins to play and the characters make it out of the building into the street with abandoned cars and straggler zombies shuffling in the road. Stan walks up behind us and I give him a smile. A thin zombie with elongated arms and legs appears and starts throwing cars.

"This is the last boss fight, we need to shoot the gas tanks when he is nearby to explode on him. He is very fast and zips across the screen so it makes shooting harder. Also, headshots are needed to deplete his health. He has a lot of health. If we hit the little zombies with fire in the explosion they will jump at the screen if you don't headshot them they will attack us and do a lot of damage. We still take the fire damage from them though. We are at half-health right now. You shoot the gas tanks I'll go for the boss's head. We need to shoot the little ones and try to save all the survivors. There's six total they are spread all around the zone."

"Okay, gotcha,"

The screen goes black and the level is loaded with the boss zombie zipping across the room.

I line up a shot and get a spread of gunshots straight in its eyes. I tilt the gun to reload quickly. I have to time when the boss will zoom forward towards us and he shows up and I miss one shot but spam the other five into his head.

Lucas missed the first car's gas tank but hit the second one just right. It activated two flaming zombies I got one and he got the other. Our health went down five percent.

The first hostage comes on the screen and Instantly kills all the zombies around it while Lucas has been blowing up the cars. I refocus on the boss zombie and miss two shots but hit with the next eight.

Lucas has been doing well blowing up the gas tanks without disrupting the other zombies but he's just missing the boss because the boss is fast. The other survivors come on the screen all at once and I'm rushing to try to shoot them all. "Get the survivors on your side. Careful not to hit them!" I rush out.

We got all the survivors and now we are working back on the boss. I focus on the head shots and I'm doing pretty well so far. Lucas has been doing amazing with the gas tanks. The boss lifts a car and throws it at the screen. The screen and our guns vibrate and our vision is blurred. "The hell? That's unfair." Lucas groans out.

Our health is down to thirty percent now. "That means he's almost dead we need to kill him before he throws another one," I say the words quickly. My finger is cramping and locking up and my arms are beginning to droop. I fight against the tiredness and unleash clip after clip into the boss zombie's head. Lucas is doing so well with the gas tanks.

The boss zombie starts to pick up a car but then the screen goes black. "We did it!" I exclaim happily. The cut scene shows our characters and the survivors make it to the safe house and the credits start rolling.

"That was awesome!" Lucas says ecstatic and looking full of vigor.

We watch the cut scene roll and then the high scores shoot up and we are in top place. "Oh my god, we made first place," I say shocked.

"Let me put our names in," Lucas says while starting to shoot the letters. I watch as he gets out LucasandJen. I feel butterflies. It's silly getting excited over something as our names together. The people around us started murmuring how what we did was so cool.

Lucas walks over to me and hugs me close. He leans into my ear and whispers "We make a good team."

I look up into his eyes. "We do," Is all I say, and then blush and look away.

"That was impressive," Stan says while slapping his hand on Lucas's shoulder and giving me a thumbs up.

Lucas hands the little kid his card. "Here we are leaving there's eighty bucks on here go wild." Lucas grins as the kid starts jumping up and down and freaking out.

"We're off to get you some clothes," Lucas says excitedly.