Page 56 of Love Unwritten
“See? Lily will have most of the guys begging for mercy in ten minutes or less.”
“Um…”
“Please.” Lily helps load my gun. “We need another girl for our team and you’re our first draft pick.”
“Great.” If I’m lucky, someone will shoot me within the first minute.
A bell goes off in the distance. “It’s starting! Let’s go!” Lily rushes toward the field filled with a hundred different inflatable obstacles, and we quickly lose sight of her as she disappears behind one.
“The guys are wearing neon-orange breastplates. You can hit them anywhere but the eyes.” Dahlia takes off running in the opposite direction to her sister.
Despite my reluctance, I run down the middle of the obstacle course maze and crawl beneath one of the small inflatable arches. I keep my toy gun drawn and focus on keeping my lunch down as I wait for someone to put me out of my misery.
“Come on out, Ellie.”
I can hardly hear Rafael calling my name over the rapid beat of my heart.
“The sooner you surrender, the faster we can get this all over with and cut Nico’s cake.”
After spending the last thirty minutes wedged under a small archway built into one of the hot inflatables, convincing myself that I didn’t really need to pee, I refuse to give up now. Dahlia and Lily are counting on me to bring home the win since everyone but Rafael and me have been ejected from the game, so I’ll be damned if Rafael tricks me into surrendering.
Exploding bladder or future UTI be damned because I won’t lose.
A small twig snaps underneath his sneaker as he gets closer to my hiding spot. My finger hovers over the trigger, one millisecond away from ending the match.
“I was surprised to find out you’re the last one standing,” he says from a distance this time.
Maybe if I wait until he moves on, I can crawl out and sneak up behind him.
“I’ll even be a nice guy and pretend to shoot you.” His voice drifts as he walks away from me.
I release the smallest exhale.
Rafael stops walking.
Shit.
“Gotcha.” This time, he speaks from behind me.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! I push forward on my elbows and army crawl toward the light at the end of the archway, only to be dragged out through the opposite end. My chest slides against grass and dirt as Rafael pulls me out from under the inflatable.
“Roll over.”
“No!” I reach for my gun, only to have Rafael kick it away.
“Shooting you in the back is less fun.”
“Why—” My question is cut off by Rafael flipping me over.
My self-defense training kicks in, and I use the element of surprise to bring him down with my legs. He lands on top of me at an odd angle, knocking the air from my lungs as his knees slam into the ground on either side of me.
“Well, that did not go according to plan,” I wheeze.
“No shit.” The hard planes of his body rub against my soft parts as he rises onto his elbows. “What the hell were you thinking?” He pokes at the scrape on his arm, completely unaware of how he is depriving me of oxygen.
My exhale sounds strained. “I’m not sure I was.”
“Where did you even learn to do that?” He stares at me in utter shock, completely unaware of the way his body presses mine deeper into the ground.