Being Shot

P h o t o #29 - Captain Connor

P h o t o #29 - Captain Connor

"Aaaaaaaaand," I dragged out as I put the finishing touches on the costume, "Done!"

Connor's creamy coffee colored eyes widened as he inspected every inch of his now heavily garbed body. The old sneakers we had found were quickly spray painted a fire hydrant red that left an oddly shaped stain on the concrete in the back yard. The helmet now sported little LED lights found and cut off a small Christmas tree folded up in the attic.

When Cooper first found the tree and began cutting the little switch activated bulbs off the tree's fakes bristles, I could only stand behind him and give him a look, which he soon took notice of.

"D-Don't worry!" He put a hand up as he still cut with the other, his voice taking on a tinge of embarrassment that it hasn't seemed to lose when speaking in my direction, "My parents haven't used this thing since I was, like, 12, I'm sure this is for a better cause."

I couldn't argue with it, so I let him continue without another word.

I crouched down next to the boy, igniting a jolt in him, which caused me to flinch. "Wh-What?!" He yelped.

I grabbed at one of the branches on the tree, looking at him as I severed the light from it's holder. "I was going to show you an easier way to pull them off, also it couldn't hurt to help a bit."

He nodded, looking quite conscious of his surroundings and his actions. I decided it would be better to not ask him about what ailed him at the moment, he didn't seem too open to speak about it. We spent the rest of the time in silence, my thoughts completely occupied.

With the mentioning of his parents, I couldn't help but wonder where they've been all this time. Most of my hours after school and on the weekends were spent at this sizable household, yet I had never even met the owners of it. I remembered Kayla speaking of them always being on business trips, but who knows where their location is now?

After a good ten minutes, we finally plucked the last bulb off its perch and moved on.

Lastly, the construction paper and tape did well in hiding the shiny metal of the pot lid and marshmallow stick. Now they both were a matching impressionable red, little cut-out blue and yellow stars made with shiny paper scattered across their surface area that Connor had done himself. He was actually quite proud of them.

After we all watched him examine his work, I spoke down towards him, "You did a really great job on those stars, were they cut free-handed?"

He looked startled at my sudden interest in him, and bashfully looked down and whispered a quiet "yeah".

I smiled, genuinely impressed with his work. I knew I couldn't even cut paper that neatly, even if I had stencils to guide me. Hopeless, I know.

I swiftly changed my demeanor, gracefully bowing down to Connor and trying to make my voice sound as high and mighty as I could, "I now dub thee Captain Connor, defender of all candy good and sugary."

And just to add icing on the cake, everyone around us broke out into an applause, laughing and snorting mixing in with the sound of hands clapping together.

"Sounds lame," Connor revoked flatly, a comment that would've before made me falter in its wake but now only made me giggle and blush, knowing that in reality it truly was.

"Yeah," I said after a few small giggles, "I guess it is."

Evidently not expecting this reaction from me, Connor once again quickly turned into his diffident manner and muttered, "But...it's okay, I guess."