Touch Me (boyxboy)

11. Are you in or are you out?

Lyla

I paced round nervously.

"Should we go back, and see if he needs any help?" I directed at Mark, who was casually sat on a large rock peeling the bark off a stick.

"There's not really much we can do now," replied Mark, "he's probably already out of the game, and the last thing he would want is for us to go and get caught after he sacrificed himself so we could get away."

Mark had a good point, but that didn't make me feel any better.

I stared at him, wondering how on earth he could look so calm. How could he not care that we'd just left poor Joel facing that beast of a wolf?

Mark sighed. "It's because I have faith in him. Don't you?"

It took me a few seconds to realise that he must have been able to tell what I was thinking, by the scowl that was directed his way.

"Of course I have faith in him" I replied, although there was uncertainty in my voice.

Mark just smirked and went back to his stick.

"I can worry as well you know," I said, getting increasingly annoyed by Mark. "He's our friend. You're supposed to care."

The smile left Mark's face and he looked over at me.

I lowered my eyes as I felt his gaze scan over me, like he was analysing everything about me.

Suddenly he was next to me, and had thrown his arm around me.

"I promise you, he'll be fine," he said, and then he leaned in close to my ear and whispered, "and don't forget that his new best buddy was also there to keep an eye on our Cub."

I sniggered at Mark's use of the name "Cub."

"We should totally start calling him that!" I said, imagining the look of pure annoyance on Joel's face.

Mark smiled and walked back to his rock.

"Oy you two!"

I turned round to see Eric looking rather weather worn. I suddenly felt a little guilty that I hadn't really been pulling my weight on the team.

"Don't just stand there," he said, "go and get some flags! There's only about 8 of us left!"

I was about to shift back into my wolf form when a brown wolf came hurtling out of the trees in front of us.

"JOEL!" I shouted, running over to greet him.

He turned back into his human form and strode right past us and over to the base with purpose, his eyebrows furrowed together.

I looked back at Mark, who shrugged in response to my silent question.

We both cautiously followed him into the tent.

Inside the tent Joel was busy emptying the bucket that contained all the flags that our team had collected.

I was starting to worry that he might have gone a little mad.

Suddenly I was pushed to one side by a large grey wolf, that quickly changed into his human form.

"Oy, what the fuck do you think you're doing?!" he shouted at Joel.

I recognised the guy as one of the Guards, but he was young and only recently recruited.

"Saving your backside Drew, is what." Joel replied.

There was a bit of a scuffle while Drew and Joel snatched flags off each other.

"STOP!!" shouted Mark gruffly, surprising them both enough to actually make them stop for a second.