Rude

11

I freeze, my eyes flicking up to Reed's and he signals for me to keep quiet, shuffling against me a little. I expect for the door to open and someone to come in screaming at us, but nothing happens.

"They must've left." I hear a soft voice announce directly outside the door, letting me know it was a woman. One of my hands curls into a fist, nervously digging my long nails into my palm until I hear her footsteps depart and then the sound of a door opening and closing.

I exhale softly, leaning my head back against the wall in relief. "Thank god." I breathe, practically trembling beneath Reed from the nerves I had built up in me. "I thought we were gonna get caught." I laugh softly, relaxing significantly.

Reed struggles a little to turn around in the tight closet, his wide frame looking only larger in this small space. "I'll get the door. One second." I mumble, reaching in-between the spaces of his arms until my fingers touch the cold metal doorknob. I lean forward a little, our chests pressing together firmly as I twist the knob and then push the door open.

I push Reed out by the chest, making him stumble a little before I leave the closet, turning off the light and shutting the door quietly.

The two of us search the first room for files and I pause, "God, this is going to take forever." I realize, shaking my head. Reed takes a seat at the computer and I crouch beside him on my knees. "I want a Danimals." I mumble to myself, leaning my forehead against the desk.

"Isn't that a kids yogurt?" He asks, his fingers clacking against the computer keys. I pause, "Maybe. I meant the yogurt smoothies, though." I shrug. Reed stared at me, waiting for something to load on the search engine. "You're literally five." He mutters, shaking his head. I frown, "I'm not. I just like the smoothies by danimals. They're good and they're portable." I defend.

"God, you're weird. Normal people just buy regular sized smoothies. Those bottles are like, the size of my pinkie." He scoffed. I lift my head, "Stop judging me." I huff, rolling my eyes. He continues back to the computer, where he'd searched the street name in the search bar of files.

He tried the street names of the ones around her street, but only one person came up who lived close to Ms. Scott. It was a girl, one named Emma Johnson. I didn't know her, so I shrugged and stood up after writing her name and address on the paper.

We went to the next office, where Reed again took the chair in front of the computer and searched for someone who lived near Ms. Scott. There were ten people who showed up this time, six guys and four girls. I wrote their names and addresses and we went to the third office.

There were four counselors in total, and I honestly didn't even know which one was mine. I'd never needed to speak to a counselor, only because I was a good student. Ironic that I'm saying this in a building which I broke into.

I bend over beside Reed while he sits in the chair, placing my elbows onto the desk as I groan, "I hate all of the kids who live close to her." I whine, resting my head in my palms. "Shut up." He mumbles in response. "Write the names down." He commands. I take the pen sitting on the corner of the desk, leaning over and in front of Reed a little to see the screen.

"Luis Garcia." I mutter to myself, quickly scribbling down his name and address. I peek back up at the screen, scooting the paper more in front of the monitor so the light is on the paper. "Marcel Franklin." I continue, biting my lip as I write his address. "And Penelope Henderson." I finish, arching my back a little as I stand.

"You have to announce everyone you write down?" Reed rolls his eyes at me as he leaves the room and I shrug, following him into the last office. "Kinda."

"Well, you should kinda not unless you want me to remove your tongue." He snaps, plopping into the rolling chair. "And I think you should kinda quit telling me what to do but you still do it." I retort, shooting him a glare. "Funny how that works, huh?" I scoff.

He clenches his hands into fists and reaches up, pulling me onto my knees in front of him. His hand tightly grips onto my arm, yanking me until my chin brushed against his mask. "I don't want to hear anymore shit from you." He hisses. "You're getting on my last fucking nerve. Just shut up and write the names like you were told to." His voice is low and threatening, fingers digging into my arm before he shoved me back.

My back hits the desk painfully hard and it teeters a little as if it'll topple over, but Reed grips the edge of the desk on either side of my body and pulls himself towards the desk, steadying it. His knees brush against my thighs, dark eyes peering up at me intently.

"Move." He mutters, dropping his hands and I obey, awkwardly scooting out of his way so he can search the computer. I crouch down beside him and after he types in the address, he reaches out and shoved my head, pushing me down. My legs buckle underneath me and I gasp, landing on my ass as I look up at him. "Why'd you do that?" I huff, standing up instead of crouching.

He doesn't answer my question but says, "Write them down." He leans back in his chair and I bend down a little, looking up at the screen as I grip my pen. There's only four names this time, one guy and three girls. I quickly write their names and addresses before standing again and sticking the pen into the trash.

"Okay. We need to go, my mom will be home in like forty minutes." I say, and Reed rolls his eyes but stands up. I hurry back to the classroom we broke into, room 246. We weren't even halfway there when there were footsteps echoing behind us and I gasped, panicking. "Why are these old people here so late?!" I hiss, dragging Reed into one of the supply closets. I close the door, noticing something.

"Reed." I whisper urgently. "What?" He mutters. I hear the footsteps, closer by this time and bite my lip. "There's more than one person out there." I say quietly.