The silence is killing me. The sound of my blood pumping through my ears is getting on my nerves and I try focusing on my breathing.
It's been almost ten minutes and no one has said a word. Everyone is ahead of me except Sawyer. I don't think he wants to deal with anyone.
"Oh great, rats. It's not enough that there's poop." Avery complains, breaking the silence.
"Stop it, it's just a storm drain." Jospeh cuts in.
It is kind of gross. I'm trying not to think about, but now that Avery has brought it up, chills run along my arm.
"What do you call a rat that lost its leg?" I whisper to myself.
When silence follows I continue. " A pi-rat."
I quietly laugh to myself when I hear a snort beside me.
I turn to see Sawyer looking at me, an amused look on his face. He half smiles when he sees I'm looking at him.
Everyone is too far ahead to hear me.
"Clever. How long did it take you to come up with that one?" He mocks, he quietly laughs and my face heats up.
I clear my throat before I speak.
"Like you have better ones..." I roll my eyes. I'm still angry he didn't believe me and wanted to save Lauren, giving her another chance.
Now he quietly clears his throat, and he walks beside me now and leans down.
"Where do you go to replace a rats tail?" He whispers into my ear. His feverish breath worries me and I frown a little.
He takes my frown as an answer and continues,
"A re-tail store." A cocky smile graces his lips and he raises an eyebrow. He folds his arms across his chest waiting for me to answer.
"Cute. I'll give you that one." I tell him. His face falls when I don't smile at his joke.
He squints his eyes at me,
"What?" I question.
"What is a rats favorite game?"
I look up at him and shrug.
"Hide and squeak." He whispers into my ear, he chuckles to himself.
I can't help but smile, not matter how hard I try to keep a straight face.
"Crappy joke. But the way you said it was funny. Your voice squeaked when you said squeak." I can't help but laugh.
"Didn't realize." Sawyer says, laughing with me. Our laughter dies down and it's agonizingly quiet again.
"You have to tell them." I whisper. Sawyers head snaps to me. I feel like Sawyer thinks they didn't hear Lauren tell everyone he's sick, but we all hears and she even pointed it out.
"They already know. What's the point?" His features harden.
"They're going to want to hear it from you."
"They haven't said anything." He shrugs.
"Because they know you, Sawyer. They know they can't just come at you with questions. They'll..."
I'm interrupted,
"I'm not ready." Sawyer lowly rumbles.
"I know." I give him a sad smile.
"How much longer?" Avery complains.
Sawyer walks a head of me and in front of everyone, leading the way and leaving me behind. I breath out.
