I woke up the next morning to find Julia and Madison sitting by the fire, chatting. I stood up, wrapped the blanket around my shoulders, and I sat beside Julia.
"Hey, sunshine." Julia said. I smiled at her.
"Hey." I said, "Where's—"
"He went with Tj to get wood." Madison said. I nodded my head.
"I thought you said you two weren't together, you and Levi." Julia said.
"We're not." I said, my face reddening again.
"Well, you two were cuddling, and he kissed you. That's what couples do." Julia said.
"It was just one kiss, and he was hugging me because I got scared last night." I said. Julia gave me a look, but didn't bring it up again.
"I'm sorry I tried to shoot you guys." Madison said. It went silent for a minute, then we all started laughing.
"That's the weirdest apology I've ever gotten." I said while laughing.
"We forgive you." Julia said, I nodded in agreement.
"One day we're gonna look back at this in laugh. I'll be like 'Hey, Madison, remember that time you tried to shoot us?'" I said. We all laughed even harder.
"What's so funny?" A voice asked. We looked over to see Levi and Tj carrying firewood in.
They came and joined us by the fire, and we all started chatting and laughing. Like normal kids would do without all the alien invasion stuff.
"I remember one night, while at a party, Heaven and I were picked to play seven minutes in heaven together." Tj said. I began laughing at the memory.
"I remember that!" I said while laughing.
"What did you guys do?" Julia asked with a smirk.
"We talked about how lame that party was." Tj said. I nodded and smiled.
"And you're the one who dragged me to it!" I exclaimed while pointing at Tj.
"It'll be sundown soon." Levi said.
"Right, we need to get food for tomorrow." Madison said, "You and Heaven can stay here."
"Alright." I said. Tj, Madison, and Julia left with that, and it was only Levi and I. We sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, before Levi spoke up.
"Are we not going to talk about what happened?" I Levi asked. I froze, I knew immediately he wanted to talk about the kiss.
"We kissed, there's not much to talk about." I said with a shrug. I was lying to myself, there was so much I wanted to talk about.
"That's not it and you know it." Levi said, "We kissed, that means you obviously feel something for me or else you wouldn't have even thought about kissing me back."
I suddenly felt a little bold, "It also means you feel something for me. Or else you wouldn't have even thought about kissing me in the first place."
"Maybe I do feel something for you." Levi shrugged. My heartbeat quickened and my face was heating up, "I've just always thought you liked Tj, so I never acted on what I was feeling."
"I feel something for you, too, Levi." I said, "I don't like Tj in the slightest, at least not like that. He's my best friend, and the brother I've never had — or wanted."
I smiled at the boy in front of me, we sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes. Then there was a loud bang — the door had been busted open. A hand slipped into mine and pulled me against the wall, out of sight. I made sure my gun was hidden behind me, tucked into my belt, which was hidden by the grey hoodie I was wearing.
"Keep quiet, stay calm, I won't let you get hurt." Levi said in whisper. I nodded my head, not trusting my mouth as my breath was shaky.
Two identical men in black glasses and strange suits were now standing in front of us, strange looking guns in their hands — Invaders.
"Hands over your head." One demanded. We stepped away from the wall with our hands in the air. I was sure fear was evident in my expression. I could feel my legs shaking, as if they would buckle any moment now.
One had this weird looking gun thing, except it wasn't a gun. I looked at Levi's taller figure next to me, flashing, green lights moved up and down his body — he was being scanned. They then moved over to me, the lights started at the top of my head, and when they reached my waist, they turned read.
"SHE HAS A WEAPON!" One of the men yelled, they forced me on my knees and pointed guns on either side of my head. I closed my eyes, awaiting death, then there was a gunshot and everything went dark.
When I opened my eyes, Tj, Julia, and Madison had their guns out, and the Invaders were on the ground, gunshot wounds in their heads and stomachs. Tears welled up in my eyes as Levi dropped down next to me. He immediately wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug, which I immediately returned.
"Everything's okay." Levi whispered. I wanted to believe him, but after coming so close to death, I couldn't.
Nightfall quickly approached, we all sat by the fire and ate. Everyone else was talking and laughing. I couldn't, not after was had happened. I felt a larger hand grip onto mine, I looked over to my right and saw Levi looking at me with worry-filled eyes. I gave him a reassuring smile and rested my head on his shoulder.
