4 - Deal

She stared at the empty table in front of her, then at the hands she had folded on her lap, then fidgeted slightly in the uncomfortable chair, but stopped immediately, feeling it was an improper thing to do.

Footsteps echoed from behind her, but she didn't turn to see who they belonged to. An arm extended above her shoulder and placed a gun on the tabletop – she knew the model, she had fired an old Ruger before. She stared at it, then her gaze followed the owner of the footsteps as he crossed the distance to the other end of the table. In the dim light that fell from a hole in the ceiling, all she could distinguish were the outline of his body, his gleaming glasses, and the two tattooed fists he was resting on the table.

She stared at the gun again.

'Go on,' said the man in a thick Russian accent. 'It's your turn.'

She looked up at him again, and thought she saw him smirk.

Her right hand moved slowly towards the gun, grabbed it, and lifted it off the table. The weight was something she wasn't accustomed to, and she had to make an extra effort to handle the heavy gun with a single hand. Slowly, but without hesitating, she lifted it to her head and pressed it against her temple. The barrel was still hot, a sign that the gun had been fired not too long ago. One bullet gone, who knew how many more to go...

Her throat was suddenly very dry. It would soon be over. Soon. Her eyes closed for a brief moment, then opened again. Her blazing blue gaze fixed the point where the man's eyes must have been, then her finger twitched on the trigger, and-

She woke up with a jolt and sat up, hand pressed against her mouth to muffle a scream she wasn't sure she'd stop from emerging. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest and icy cold beads of sweat ran down her face and body.

It had been a dream, nothing more. She curled up into a ball, hugging her knees. The scream, she could stop, but the tears were different. The dream had to materialise into something, all of them did, be it into tears, screams, or worse. She let herself cry silently for a minute, while the tension left her body.

Looking around, she noticed the other five sleepers hadn't even stirred. That evening's performance had taken its toll on all of them, and she briefly wondered if they would have woken, had she screamed. She extracted herself from her sleeping bag, and tiptoed around Chelsea and her new favourite pillow – Craig's stomach, hopped over Martin's sleeping form, nearly tripped on Jacob's feet, and stopped herself in good time from stepping on Melissa's face. Their slumber parties always resulted in the host's living room – Martin's, this time – turning into a mine field of limbs, food, and other random objects.

Managing to reach the kitchen without incident, she checked on her five sleeping friends again, and closed the door behind her.

Martin's mother's laptop was sitting on the counter, and she woke it from sleep mode. A Facebook home page greeted her, and she couldn't suppress a giggle.

Catherine Ive has the Six Pack over tonight!
Martin Ive likes your status.
Maurey Nichols may the lord have mercy on your soul.

'What's up Jay?'

She jumped at the unexpected intrusion.

'Sorry,' apologized Martin. 'Didn't mean to scare you.'

'It's ok,' she replied, sinking into a chair.

He walked over to the fridge and pulled out a tub of ice cream.

'Bad dream, no?'

She hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

'Get two bowls out of that cupboard, will you?'

She obliged, and he proceeded to spoon chocolate ice cream into the two bowls.

'Did I wake you?'

He finished filling the bowls with ice cream and stuffed the spoon in his mouth before he put the ice cream back in the fridge.

'Hm?'

'When I walked out of the living room,' she clarified. 'Did I wake you?'

The blond pulled the spoon out of his mouth and nudged her shoulder before sitting down.

'You know me, Jay, I'm a light sleeper, especially with you guys around. I don't want any repeats of last year's post-Regionals party.'

She gave a guilty smile and suddenly found her ice cream very interesting.

'Yeah... sorry about that.'

He pushed his ice cream around a bit.

'Well, you did pay your debt... you helped repaint the living room, so it's all forgiven.'

She grinned, and he grinned back.

'So, how about you tell me what the nightmare was about?'

She stuffed ice cream in her mouth and shook her head no.

'You know what they say, if you don't tell somebody about your nightmares, they may come true.'

She choked and started to cough. He patted her back sympathetically.

'Just messing with you,' he smiled. She shot him a glare, then began pushing a piece of chocolate around the bowl.

'Don't ever say that,' she grumbled. 'You have no idea how bad it was.'

'Yeah, it usually is,' he agreed.

She sighed, set her spoon down, and fluffed his short curly hair.

'Thanks, Marty. Yanno, for being here.'

He grinned.

'Don't mention it, Jay. Even with your nightmares, you're the least weird of you girls. That makes you pretty easy to be with.'

She raised an eyebrow.

'Least weird? My eyes all but glow in the dark, and my ears look as if I just stepped out of freaking Lord of the Rings. How does that make me less weird than Chel or Mel?'

'Chel has so many ducks on her, she's a maniac. And Mel's nails glow in the dark, and she talks in her sleep about the most insane things ever. You at least have the decency to not drive us nuts with your “perfect recipe of raisin almond vinegar cookies” at 2.45am.'

She had to laugh at that.

'Yeah, I just scream you all awake instead, and get it over with.'

It was his turn to laugh.

'Sorry... your nightmares are no laughing matter.'

She shrugged.

'They've been going on for so long, I sometimes don't care.'

'Yeah, and sometimes you sit in my kitchen eating the exact thing you were supposed to stay away from, no?'

'It's not like you're not doing the same thing,' she said with a giggle. 'I won't tell if you don't.'

'Deal.'

He grinned, and she grinned back, then shoved a spoonful of ice cream in his mouth.

'I wush fhinking...' he mumbled, his mouth full.

'Didn't your mama teach you not to speak with your mouth full?' she mock-chided. He swallowed and stuck his tongue out at her.

'So I was thinking,' he spoke again, this time clearly.

'About what?' she inquired.

'Hold still and close your eyes.' he instructed. She shrugged and did as told. He leaned slowly and brushed his lips against hers, then pulled back. She waited a few more moments with her eyes squeezed shut, then opened one eye, and then the other. He was biting his lip, eyebrows knitted together in thought.

'That was...' he began.

'...weird. Let's...'

'...never do it again.'

'Definitely.'

'So... I won't talk about it if you don't?

'Deal.'