Fearless (Bellamy Blake - Book 1)

Chapter 16.

A good thing about being in charge means I get my own tent.

Although I still have to sleep on the ground, I get privacy. Bellamy's tent is larger than mine, of course, but I let that slide since he likes to have company with him in his tent--if you get what I mean--whereas mine is just for me. 

Plus, I like to think our tents resemble the sizes of our ego's. 

But of course, receiving my own tent also means having to put it up, something I'm currently doing by myself, and severely failing at.

"ARGH!" 

I drop everything to the ground in frustration and glare at the objects around me.

"And like that, the she loses to a tent." I look up at the sound of Finn's voice as he approaches me, eyeing up the tent with an amused smile. "Need a hand?"

"You're willing to help me?" I try not to sound surprised, although I actually am. Finn shrugs. 

"I never said that I'd help you. Get one of your monkeys to do it."

My expression falls at his words and I nod silently, for a moment I thought we could try to get passed all this. Guess I was wrong.

"I'm kidding." I look up and glare at the smile on Finn's lips.

"Asshole." I mutter and roll my eyes before smiling also.

"Look, I may not agree with your methods at the moment Chris, but you're still my friend. You're family."

Damn. 

It's been a long time since I've heard Finn call me family. He used to say it all the time.

"Well," I smile at him, "don't just stand there looking pretty, spacewalker, get to work."

"Yes ma'am." He chuckles and helps me lift the tent, both of us laughing as we try to figure out how to keep it from falling down on us.

A couple hours later, and I can successfully say that I have my own tent, and my relationship with Finn is slowly starting to heal itself.

"All right." Finn tightens the wire around one of the wooden poles and steps back, both of us standing up straight in the middle of the tent. Like I said, Bellamy's is bigger--and right next to mine--but I'm happy with the outcome.

"Thanks for your help, Finn."

"Yeah well, it's like I said, I may not like who are you at the moment, but you're still you. And...I'm sorry, for what I said about your father."

My body involuntarily tenses at the word, which unfortunately doesn't go unnoticed by Finn, but I try to remain calm.

I look down at the ground and try to think of my next words. "Do you..." I clear my throat and look up at him. "Do you think I'd be able to use some wire as a hair tie?"

Finn blinks at me before erupting with laughter, and I smile at the sound. 

It's been a long time since I made Finn laugh like that.

"I uh, I wouldn't advise it, no." He says to me when he sobered up. 

"Damn it." I mutter with a smile. "My hair is really pissing me off."

"Carter!" 

Both our heads turn to the opening of the tent where the sound of my name drifts in. 

"In here!" I reply, and not a moment later Bellamy's head pops in.

"Nice." He comments as he walks in and looks around at the bare space. "Mine's bigger, but..."

"What do you want, Blake?" I sigh and roll my eyes at him. Bellamy doesn't reply and instead eyes up Finn, both of them squaring up to each other. 

Boys.

"I'm sorry Bellamy, did you want me to leave?" Finn taunts. 

"Finn." I say, giving him a look telling him not to start. 

"Whatever, I gotta go check on Jasper anyway." Finn leaves and Bellamy turns to me and raises an eyebrow which I ignore.

"What is it?"

"Target practice. Gotta make sure you can actually use this thing if need be." He holds out a knife to me, clearly wanting me to take it but I stare down at it and clench my jaw. 

"No thanks." 

Bellamy frowns down at me, "What, you got something better than this?"

"No, I don't." I reply truthfully and Bellamy stares at me in silence, before thrusting the knife at me again.

"Take it."

"I said, no."

"I'm giving this to you, take it."

"I'm not taking that, Bellamy."

"What the hell is wrong with you, huh?" His voice begins to rise and my eyes narrow. 

"Don't you dare yell at me, Blake."

"I'm just trying to figure you out." He shakes his head. "You act like this tough, 'nobody can tell me what to do', badass, but then suddenly become hellbent on finding a kid that was dying, only to bring him back here--where he's still dying, by the way--and refuse to take a weapon that could actually help you in a life or death situation?"

I stay silent for a moment. Bellamy sure is curious about me huh.

Which means he won't let this go easily. 

"Give me something else."

"What?" He asks after a moment. 

"Something else." I repeat. "I'm not gonna use a knife, so give me something else to hunt with, or better yet I'll go make something myself."

To be honest, I kind of surprised I haven't already.

Bellamy studies me for what seems like a long time, before he reaches down to his belt and lifts his his axe I saw him making yesterday, handing it to me.  

"That's yours--"

"Take it." He says firmly, holding it out to me. 

I reach my hand out and take the axe, my arm dropping slightly from it's unexpected weight but I hold my ground firmly. I look up at Bellamy and frown slightly, before looking away.

Bellamy Blake sure is something.