Covered Correspondence

Chapter 23 Alone With Reed (Naturally)

Happy Thanksgiving fellow Wattys!!!! Have a great weekend and enjoy this chapter!!!! Your Faithful Writers- Steve~Lewis- 

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I watched Reed as he rolled on the floor in pain. Other than the fact that he was drugged up on sugar and was crying like a baby, he was looking more normal than ever. A girl my age approached wearing a light grey sweatshirt and blue jeans. Her light brown hair was pulled back in a pony tail and she wore a blank expression on her face as she glanced a few times at Reed. 

"He got...kicked..." I attempted to explain to the girl. I had a feeling that she was somehow  close to Reed.  

"You must be Mark." The girls lifeless expresion turned into a warm smile. 

 "Uh, yeah. That's me!" I returned her smile with a grin.

"I'm Lauren Mellrow, Reed's girlfriend." She extended her hand over Reed's, now motionless, body. 

"Oh, yeah, Reed has told me a little abou you." I recalled a night back or so, when I had over heard Reed stuttering about a date at eight. 

"Lauren...?" Reed's voice came from below us, he sounded like a frog with a head cold.

"Hi, Reedsy." Lauren smiled down at Reed who was staring back at her with confusion.

"Reed, what's going on?" I inquired, staring at one of the piñatas hanging from the ceiling. The one I was staring at looked vaguely familiar. I soon realized that it was supposed to be Chase's face, in a mutated, melting, sort of way.

 "I forgot to tell you that we always have a goodbye party for agent's...go...ing...o-o-n...mission...," Reed tried to explain. He started fidgeting and cramped up.

 "He's probably going into a sugar comma so just go dance or something and then when you're ready to go, just carry him back," Lauren said as she sat down on the nearest chair.

 "Thanks," I started toward the dance floor where I saw Piper and Chase dancing.

 "Hey," I stepped awkwardly up to them.

 "What?" Chase stepped in front of me, blocking Piper from my view.

 "What is this about?" I asked.

 "It's a party dismissing Piper, Fynn and I," Chase explained. His hands were on his hips and Piper slid her arm through his.

 "And Mark," Piper exclaimed, elbowing Chase with a laugh.

"Sure," Chase fake smiled. The night never became less stiff. I was starting to rethink going on the mission when Chase commented. "You look great tonight, Piper."

 "Thanks," Piper laughed. She looked amazing wearing a red dress that extended down to her knees. Her feet were adorned with black flats. It kept getting more and MORE uncomfortable until the DJ turned on a slow song and Piper and Chase began to slow dance. At that point, I was BEYOND UNCOMFORTABLE! They started having a conversation while dancing and blocking me out even worse. Every comment Chase made forced me to focus even harder on what I was doing: counting the dance floor's tiles.

 "You're so good at this," Piper said when she had stepped on Chase's foot at least three times.

 "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't even know how," Chase smirked. Suddenly (and thankfully) a fast paced song came up.

 "Oh whatever!" Piper smiled.

 We all began dancing to the beat of the song, and the strobe lights made it seem like Piper and Chase were blinking in and out of existence.  

Then, sadly, once again a slow song came up, and after that another. Each one more awkward then the last.

 The third slow song finally ended with a kiss which made me feel like I was intruding on something extremley private. Piper's blonde hair was French braided back and her blue eyes sparkled. I couldn't help notice her bright red lipstick and apparently Chase couldn't either because he kissed her at lease two more times.

 Soon everyone started to leave.

 "What should I do with Reed?" I solicited, interrupting a dorky discussion between the two love birds.

 "Just wait a few minutes and we'll help you," Piper assured me as the last people besides Chase, Piper, Reed and I left.

I looked around for something to do while I was waiting and came across the karaoke machine. After checking to make sure Piper and Chase were busy talking by the snack bar that was on the other side of the room, I crept up the the machine and switched on the first song and began to sing (Or croaked) until the song ended, and then I took a bow and turned around to see Piper standing next to Chase laughing while he held up his iPod, video taping me.

 "That was the famous Mark," Chase announced in (unfortunately) the best announcer voice EVER! I was steaming mad and the fact that I was tired didn't help a whole lot.

 "Did you get it?" Piper asked.

 "Yeah," Chase said. "Should I post it to the agent web page?"

 "Yeah," Piper snorted.

 "Alright," Chase stared down at his phone for a few seconds before watching my video about five more times.

 "Did you need help carrying Reed?" Piper eventually asked me.

 "Yeah," I exclaimed. Just then, Piper's roommate walked into the room: "Come on Piper!" Then I knew I was done.

 "Sorry Mark!" Piper glanced over her shoulder as she was walking out of the room. "I'll be back in an hour or so if you still need help, this is really important!"

"I'll walk with you," Chase said. He went with Piper and her roommate and I was left alone with Reed who was much taller than me, and weighed about one hundred and seventy  pounds.