The Rookie

by A J Kent

  Why does she keep touching him?

  What is she trying to do?

  He’s been shot, he’s injured. Unless he gets medical assistance, he is not going to wake up. Unless he gets help, he is going to die within the next hour.

  “You need to help him or he’s going to die. I thought you loved him. Why would you want him to die?”

  I know I shouldn’t be engaging in conversation. I know I shouldn’t be taunting her with his death but I’m trying to bide our time. Henley has to be coming. There’s no way that he’s not coming.

  “Theo doesn’t deserve a happy ending unless that happy ending is with me,” this woman has really lost her fucking mind. “I gave him a chance. I gave him several chances to be with me, but every time he pushed me away. Every time he continued to pick you, to choose you. Even though you left him. Even though you ran away he still refused to give his heart to any other woman. You broke him. You ruined him. You ruined his life and you did not care. I’ve never seen a man so broken, so hurt. You hurt him Rory, you hurt him, and you didn’t even care. You don’t deserve to be with him. You don’t deserve a man like The---.”

  The whole room goes black and the loud bang rings in my ears. An explosion or something. The noise causes my ears to pop and my whole body to flinch. I pinch my eyes together so tightly I think they might pop out my head. I can’t die. We can’t die here. I hold my breath and wait for the contact. I hold my breath and wait for the hit. I must be next. The room is silent. Still. The room is silent apart from some whimpering. It can’t be Theodore as he is out cold and it definitely isn’t me. I open my eyes and my pupils instantly react and focus on the darkness.

  My eyes fall to the outlines of bodies in front of me, the bodies slumped on the floor and they instantly lock on the several red dots moving up and down on the floor. They’re here. Help. The lights turn back on and I’ve never been relieved to see the person who is stood in front of me with a gun in hand and a black protective vest on his chest.

  “Henley,” I cry out, “Get Theodore. Sort him out first. Get him to safety. Make sure he’s alive. Please, make sure he’s alive.”

  My whole body starts to shake as tears erupt from my eyes. Henley’s body drops and his skin turns sickly green as he collapses next to his best friend, his gun crashing to the floor next to him. He quickly inspects his wounds before he scoops Theodore up in his arms, picking his gun up along with him.

  “I’ve got him,” he says as he walks through the door, he turns his head and shouts over his shoulder, “Get her out of there, untie her. She’s hurt as well but talking.” His body moves fast, and he disappears out of eyeline as a familiar redhead and two medics run into the room.

  “Oh my god, Rory,” Lottie cries as she cuts the restraints from my wrists, neck and ankles. “I’m sorry it took so long and we didn’t get here quicker. We ran into some trouble with some boobytraps. They put explosives on every door and window, so it took us a while to get in. I’m so sorry, Rory. You’re safe now.”

  I sigh in relief as my wrists, neck and feet are cut free. My body is hoisted from the chair and I slump down onto the stretcher, ignoring the pain that radiates through my body. The medics quickly manoeuvre me throughout the building, my eyes falling on the limp and bloody bodies in the background. They’re dead. I’m free. We’re safe.

  We are finally safe.

  They no longer have a hold on us. They no longer have control over me, my life.

  Theodore is safe. He is safe.

  I just hope he lives. I just hope they can save him.

  He can’t die. I can’t lose him. He needs to hear that I love him, that I want to be with him.

  That he’s my past, my present and my future.

  He’s where he needs to be. Safe. He’s being taken care of by the right people.

  I can finally rest.

  My eyes close and all I can see is darkness.

  The good kind of darkness.

  The kind of darkness that I have been longing for the last few days.

  The darkness I need.

  Sleep.

  23

  Theodore

  Senior Year Graduation…

  “I can’t believe we are graduates,” Rory squeals as she snaps another selfie with her iPhone.

  I moaned to high heaven about wearing this godforsaken cap and gown for hours in the scorching D.C. heat, but having Rory’s face planted against my cheek for the fiftieth selfie has changed my whole outlook on the mortarboard sitting on my head and the black robes on my back.

  “Those words sound so sweet on your tongue,” I say as I snap my own picture with my phone savouring the memory of this day. We’ve been looking forward to this day since we started High School. We can’t wait for the freedom to do whatever we want. No parents, no teachers, no rules. Just Rory and Me.

  Against the world for a whole summer.

  I wasn’t lying when I said that those words sounded sweet on Rory’s tongue because they did. Everything that girl, I mean woman says, drive my absolutely crazy. That’s exactly the type of woman Rory Holmes is. Crazy with a capital C. She is insanely beautiful and psychotically intelligent. She’s been the bane of my life or the apple of my eye since we were toddlers and tonight at our favourite spot, our special place, I am going to tell her how I feel. I am going to tell her that I have been in love with her my entire life.

  I may not know where she’s going to college or even if she is going to go as she has a few offers on the table, one of which I don’t even want to think about seeing as that particular offer would take her three thousand miles away, across the Atlantic Ocean and to another continent, but I don’t care. Whatever the distance, whatever the path she chooses, I am going to tell her tonight. We may end up having some distance between us but that doesn’t change my feelings towards her, and I need her to know how much I’m in love with her.

  I need her to know that she is the reason why I wake up every morning. She needs to know that she’s the reason I breath, the reason I live. She’s my own personal source of oxygen. Without her by my side, without her in my life, I would die. My lungs would stop functioning and my heart would stop beating. I would be a zombie walking through life, present physically, vacant mentally. I would be alive on the outside, but empty and lifeless on the inside.

  I know it sounds extreme, I know it sounds intense but that is how she makes me feel. She is really the only reason I have to live. She is the only reason I want to live. My life hasn’t exactly been great, sure I had parents that loved me but there was an early divorce and many new people in my life every few months. When you get passed between two people whose sole purpose and sole focus is on that of someone else, you get left behind. You get forgotten. If I didn’t have Rory, I don’t know how I would have gotten by. I was never my parents first choice, but I was always hers.

  Sure, Rory has been acting really weird recently but that is understandable. She’s had a hard few years. It’s been challenging. Her father left with a younger woman, leaving Rory to look after herself and her sick Mom. He left them with nothing, no money to their name, he did leave them with a roof over their heads, but they were unable to stay there. They had to move out and downsize. It’s been agonizing to watch but I have done all that I can to help.

  Rory has finally graduated from High School and her father didn’t make an appearance. I knew he wouldn’t. I knew he would never come back after walking out on her. I knew he would disappoint her just like he has over and over again her entire life, but I was never going to tell Rory that. I was never going to crush her hopes and dreams. One of the most endearing qualities about Rory is that she has hope. So much love and so much hope. She always see’s the best in people, at least she usually does, they could do the worst thing you could ever think of, but she would try and think of the positives. She always weighs up the situation and tries to move past it if she can. She always says that everyone deserves a second chance. I love her optimism that everyone is good. I don’t a
gree with her, but I respected her outlook and I never criticised her views or belittled her for how she felt about things.

  That is just one of the many reasons why she makes my heart stop every time she walks into the room or every time, I think about her. She may stop my heart daily, but she’s also the one that makes it beat. Rory is my past, my present and she’s going to be my future. Tonight, I am going to take the final step and make my dream I reality.

  “So, are we meeting at our spot before we head to the party tonight?” I ask as we walk towards the main building of our high school to hand back our cap and gowns.

  Rory fidgets with the tassels on her cap as she focuses her attention on anything other than me. Like I said, she’s been acting strange recently. I shake the uncertainty from my mind and keep my attention focused on her.

  She shrugs, “I guess Theodore. What time did you want to meet there as I have a few things I need to sort out.”

  A crease appears between my brows as I pinch them together, she has a few things she needs to sort out. . ..

  What things and why haven’t I heard about these things before? Rory and I never keep secrets from each other. Yes, I know I’ve been keeping the secret that I love her tucked away in a safe place for the last few years but that’s not the same. I needed to make sure she was ready. I needed to make sure that she wasn’t going to freak out and run for the hills when I told her about my feelings.

  “Meet me at the Lincoln Memorial at nine and then we can head to the party together.”

  Rory nods her head and then waves goodbye after she hands over her frayed cap and gown to the volunteer behind the table who is collecting back the rentals.

  I go to say something but her petite body is out the door before any words can leave my mouth. I don’t like this. I don’t like that she is hiding something from me. She was fine when we were taking selfies, she was fine this morning when I took her for pre-graduation-ceremony pancakes but now, something is different. She has changed. Her whole mood and demeanour has changed.

  What is she hiding from me?

  Why is she so scared to tell me?

  I shake the thoughts from my mind and remove the cap and gown before handing them over to the freshman who is helping out in exchange for extra graduation tickets when they finally graduate. It must be nice to have so many family members wanting to come to your graduation. Neither of my parents came. They were too busy doing other things that they just could not get out off.

  My leg jolts up and down sending vibrations through my entire body as my foot collides with the marble floor below me. It is eight-forty-five and Rory is meant to be meeting me here at nine. I am nervous. Her face and body language earlier scared me.

  I pull my eyes from my watch and look up at the overpowering statue before me. Rory and I are both History buffs. It has always fascinated us. We’ve always been intrigued by past events. We’ve spent many nights debating what event has had the most impact on society or which person has made the most difference.

  I remember once when Rory and I were seven, we snook out of her backyard with backpacks filled with candy and juice cartons and a map in my hand. We always saw pictures of the landmarks in D.C. but for some reason, despite living here our entire lives, we never got to see what they looked like in person. There was always one monument we really wanted to see. So, one day, Rory and I came up with a masterplan to sneak out from her garden and have an adventure. Our own little tour of the major landmarks and then try to get back before any noticed that we were gone.

  We bolted through her back gate and ran down the sidewalk, sweat coating our bodies as it was August and August in D.C. is formidable. The heat is unbearable on some days. Somehow, the whitewashed marble buildings make it ten times hotter than it actually is. Or it could have been that we were always running around like headless chickens. We ran and ran and ran, weaving in and out of thousands of tourists and natives alike before the big, commanding, breath-taking structure came into view.

  The Lincoln Memorial.

  The sight in front of us was so monumental, so grand. The monument was fixed in its position at the foot of the reflection pool, standing there imposing its dominance over the D.C. landscape with President Lincoln himself seated in the throne of this enormous white-washed monument, dripping in American History. The grand columns and the Greek inspired architecture made me feel like I was in Athens. The building towered over us at over one hundred feet high. I don’t think I ever felt so small in my whole life and I had a pretty big ego, even as a seven-year-old.

  “Oh my gosh, Theodore. We are here. We are here,” Rory jumped up and down, squealing as I pulled juice cartons from my backpack and handed her one. All that running and all this excitement made me well and truly parched.

  Rory guzzled her juice before wrapping her fingers around my wrist and yanking me up the white steps, bypassing the very spot Dr. Martin Luther King Jr made his famous ‘I Have A Dream’ speech and marched us inside the impressive monument.

  It was heaving with people who had cameras wrapped around their necks, cameras in their hands and even cameras on sticks. The cool air prickled against my skin and sent goose bumps to cover my whole body as the cold air conditioning cooled me down. Rory gripped my arm once again and dragged me around the structure to marvel at the great man sat in front of us. We loved everything about it. That day we made it law, law that the Lincoln Memorial would forever be our special place.

  A special place that meant so much to me and her.

  The clearing of a throat snaps me out of my walk down memory lane and my eyes land on Rory.

  My heart sank.

  This is not the girl I’ve known my entire life.

  This is not my best friend.

  This is not the love of my life.

  This is someone about to crush my heart into a thousand pieces. She doesn’t have to speak, she doesn’t have to say a word. Her eyes say everything that needs to be said.

  She’s leaving.

  “So, this is it?” I ask as I stand up and move closer to her.

  Her body recoils and the rejection hurts my heart and pride as she takes a step back from me. She can’t even stand to be close to me anymore.

  “Theo,” she whispers. Theo, not Theodore.

  She never shortens my name, she’s only ever called me by my full name. A low blow before the hard stuff comes.

  I cross my arms across my chest and look down at her, her eyes failing to keep their composure as they fill with tears, “What is it you need to say Rory? You’ve never struggled with words before so hit me with them. I can take it. I am a big boy,” I hiss.

  I am such a fucking liar. I’m anything but. This small, strong-headed, blonde currently has her tiny hands gripped around my heart, squeezing it tight, dragging out the suffering and pain and heartbreak she is about to dish out to me on a plate. A plate of broken fucking dreams.

  “Theo, I am sorry,” she whispers, a lone tear trickling down her cheek. It takes all my strength not to reach out and wipe it away. Seeing her cry is heart-breaking.

  “I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and I need to go, I can’t stay here anymore. This city is too much for me. I’ve had too many heartbreaks and I can’t cope walking around these streets anymore, pretending like nothing has happened. There is nothing here for me anymore.”

  My heart drops from my chest as the knife pile drives through my ribcage.

  There’s nothing here for me anymore.

  I thought I was enough. I thought I meant more to her than this. I thought she saw a future for us. But I was wrong, so fucking wrong.

  “I’m here Rory, I’m here. Isn’t that enough?” I ask as I look at her with pleading eyes.

  I have to be enough.

  She sucks in a breath and wraps her arms around her petite frame, I want to hug her so much.

  “You won’t be here. You are going to MIT. My Mom has been put into a care facility as of two hours ago and I am going to London.”r />
  So, she’s made her choice. Hell, she made her choice a long time ago. She just chose not to tell me.

  “How long have you known?”

  “Known what?” she fires back quickly.

  “That you were going to London? That you were running away?”

  She recoils at the bite in my voice, “I’ve known for months. I’ve tried to tell you. Everyday I’ve tried to tell you why I want to go, why I need to go, but I couldn’t. I can’t. Just know this, I didn’t want to leave you. I didn’t want it to happen this way, but I had no other choice. It’s better this way. You’re better off and I’m better off.”

  She steps closer and plants a kiss on my cheek. So delicate, so soft, yet so cold and chilling.

  “Bye, Theodore,” she turns on her heels and runs. Her legs moving faster than I’ve ever seen before. My chest goes tight and I fall against the column behind me.

  She doesn’t want me. She’s better off without me. I’m not enough for her to stay. It is better off this way. She has known for months.

  Her words swish through my head as my whole body goes into shock, trying to fight for air. I feel like I am drowning. I’m numb. This cannot be happening.

  Rory Holmes doesn’t want me.

  Rory Fucking Holmes does not want me.

  She’s shredded me.

  Torn me to pieces.

  She’s mutilated my heart, she’s severed my reason for life.

  My reason to live.

  Not again, not ever again.

  I am never letting another person hold my heart.

  I am never letting Rory Holmes into my fucking heart again.

  I close my eyes and fuck Rory’s mouth as she deep throats my cock. God, this woman knows how to suck my dick just how I like it.

  Hard and fast.

  “Rory,” I moan as she squeezes my balls and licks my dick from base to tip.

  I love her mouth around my cock. Her warm breath and sensational tongue….

  Beep, beep, beep.