Books and Kisses

Chapter Three - Noah

Forty five minutes and a dozen of questions later, the police let us go.

Ginger were taken to custody, apparently was a known criminal for that typa shit, and Michael and I walked in silence towards the metro station on the next street. Most people would've been freaked out that they were a victim of a mugging attempt, but this weirdo acted like he just went to tescos.

"Tell me why everytime I run into trouble, your always involved." I said through gritted teeth as the metro station came into the view.

"It's not my fault you chose to walk down the street and you chose to stay for a merry interlude instead of going on with your fake ass life." Michael retorted

"I had it handled."

I snorted, my shoes pounding a furious rhythm on the steps. I could've taken the escalator, but I needed to work off my aggravation. Michael must've felt the same way, because he was right next to me, pissing me off.

"Merry interlude? Who talks like that? And there was nothing merry about it, I promise." I reached the turnstiles and yanked out my wallet

"Too bad the police didn't take you into custody, your a menace to society."

"According to who? You?" He looked me over with disdain.

"Yes." I gave him a cold smile

"Me and every person who's had te misfortune of knowing you."

It was a horrible thing to say, but I really didn't have the time to feel bad.

"God, you. Are." Michael slammed his metro card on the reader with unnecessary force.

"The. Worst."

I passed through the turnstile behind him.

"No, that would be your sense of self preservation. It's common sense to give muggers what they want." The more I thought about it, the more his actions infuriated me.

"What if you couldn't disarm him? What if he had another weapon you didn't know about? You could've fucking died!"

"Stop. Telling at me. You're not my father." Michael's face flushed

"I'm not yelling!"

We stopped beneath the schedule board announcing arrival of the next training eight minutes. The station was empty save for a couple making out on one of the benches and suited business type at the far end of the platform, and it was quiet enough for me to hear the furious flush of blood in my ears.

We glared at each other, our chests heaving with emotion. I wanted to shake him for being so stupid to be putting his life at risk over a fucking phone and a wallet.

Just because I didn't like him didn't mean I wanted him dead.

Not all the time, but anyways.

I expected another snarky retort, but Michael turned away and lapsed into silence.

It was completely out of character and goddamn unnerving. I couldn't remember the last time Michael let me have the last word.

I exhaled sharply through my nose, forcing myself to calm down and think clearly about the situation.

No matter how I felt about him, Michael was my childhood best friend who became enemies with me over academics, and he'd just survived an armed mugging attempt. Unless he was a robot, which I doubt it the crybaby, he couldn't be unaffected by what happened as he appeared.

I examined him out of the corner of my eye, taking in his tight jaw and ramrod straight back. His expression was black a little too much so.

My anger cooled, and I rubbed a hand over my jaw, torn. Michael and I didn't comfort each other. We didn't even say bless you when we sneezed. But.

Fucks sake.

"You okay?" I asked gruffly.

I couldn't just not check on someone after they had just almost died, no matter who they were.

"I'm fine." Michael tucked his hair behind his ear, his voice flat but I detached a shaky hand.

Adrenaline rushes were crazy. They made you stronger, more focused. They made you feel invincible. But once the high disappears and you crash back into earth. You have to deal with yeh aftermath, over thinking, shaky hands, the weak legs.

"Are you hurt?"

"No. I got the gun away from him before he could do anything." Michael stared ahead, so intense I half expected him to burn down a hole in the station wall.

"Didn't realize you were a secret super soldier." I attempted to lighten the air, though I was curious as hell as to what happened. We'd talked to police separately, so I didn't know how he manages to disarm ginger.

"You don't have to be a super soldier to disarm someone." He wrinkled his nose.

Finally. A sign of normality.

"My dad taught me on how to defend myself in these types of situations."
Michael didn't say much about his family. They were a happy family, but he didn't say much.

"You sure your okay?"

I was almost about to offer Michael a walk home. But that would've been too much. We'd reached our limits of civility with each other, as evidenced by the next words out of his mouth.

"Yes." He rubbed his thumb and forefinger over the opposite sleeve of his coat.