VICIOUS

26.

Thomas' eyes widen when he sees Brandon and me. The door leans against his shoulder and you can see the disbelief in his eyes. 

''Excuse me,'' He quickly says and he closes the door. Brandon doesn't pay attention to me anymore and I push him away from me. 

''I have to explain this to him,'' I say. I run past him, to the door. 

Brandon suddenly grabs my hand and he pulls me back. As a reaction, I turn around and grab my gun. I aim the weapon at him, but he does the exact same. 

''I hate you,'' I whisper. ''Now lower the gun, so I can go and explain to my colleague that this is all a misunderstanding and that nothing is going on between us.'' 

Two minutes pass and we're still standing in front of each other, ready to kill the other. Eventually I lower the gun a bit and Brandon does the same. I give him one last glance before I turn around again and run after Thomas. 

................................................................................................................................................................

I have no idea where Thomas went. His room is my first shot and I pray that he will be there. I push the button for the elevator to come multiple times. 

Hurry up.

After what feels like an hour, the doors finally open and I walk in. I finally arrive at the floor where Thomas' room is. I run to his room and throw the door open. I walk in, searching for him in his bathroom and in his bedroom. 

Empty.

The whole room is empty.

I run my hands through my hair and let out a trembling breath. Please, not the person that I actually liked, not the person that I trusted. I run back to the hallway and shut the door. I'm going to look into my room now. I don't know why he would be there, but that doesn't matter. For fucks sake, just let him be there. 

I decide to take the staircase this time. It's a lot faster than those stupid fucking elevators. 

Out of breath, I walk into my own room. Once again, it's empty. 

I've fucked it up. 

The one thing I promised myself not to do. 

But I still did it. 

Why do I keep losing the people I like and trust? 

I fall onto my bed and look at the ceiling. Where could he be? He never told me about any special places he has here. 

But he does have one outside...

I think back, back to the one time that he trusted me enough and that he let me follow him to his own special place. It was a big deal for him, since we weren't in a relationship or anything. It was 2 weeks after we first came to Oblivion. 

''Listen, I know you're stressed,'' I say. I walk behind him, following him to one of the cars. ''But where the fuck are we going?'' 

He looks at me and opens the car doors. ''Somewhere peaceful, somewhere quiet.'' We get in the car and I close the door. ''Somewhere I can think.'' He starts the car and closes his own door. 

''Okay,'' I say. ''And why do I have to come with you?'' I look at Thomas. His hands are on the steering wheel and he looks concentrated. 

''Since you and I are the ones doing the whole undercover mission, I figured it might be a good thing to share some thoughts with you,'' he explains. ''We need to figure out what to do. We obviously need to gather information about their plans. And we have to do it fast, since I don't want to stay at Oblivion for too long.''

He spits out the name Oblivion like it's something disgusting. And it is. 

We drive for almost an hour. We arrive at a place in the middle of nowhere. No houses, no people, nothing. Just trees and grass. We get out of the car and I look around. 

''This is the place you like to go to?''  I ask him and I look at him. Thomas leans against the car, staring at the nature that surrounds us. He looks at me and nods. 

''It's quiet,'' He explains. ''Nothing can bother me here. And I like to be alone.'' 

I walk over to him and lean against the car. ''You wanted to share some thoughts with me?'' 

''Yeah,'' He says. He looks at the ground and sighs. ''We need to agree on what lies we are going to tell everyone. They are definitely going to ask questions, not only about Vicious, but also about us and why we came here.'' 

''It's surprising they haven't done that yet,'' I say. ''It's like they knew we were coming.'' 

''That would have been weird,'' Thomas quickly says. I frown and look at him. 

''Is there something wrong?'' I ask. He seems nervous. 

''No, it's just weird to take someone here with me.'' 

We stand next to each other in silence. 

''I think we should tell them that Vicious moved to the other side of the state,'' I say. ''We have been receiving new threats, but we all found them in the place we used to live.'' 

''Okay,'' He says. ''They will never know that we moved underground. Let's tell them that the only reason we joined Oblivion, is because we want revenge for Vicious kicking us out. I believe you said something like that when we first came there.'' 

I nod and sigh. I take out my phone. 

''It's been two hours, we should go,'' I say. ''Otherwise they might think we are hiding something.''

I get back in the car and close the door. Thomas sits down and chuckles. 

''Well, we actually are hiding something,'' he says. ''But they can't know.''

I snap back to reality and get up from the bed. I know where I should go. Thomas must be there. 

I rush back downstairs. My leg protests, but I keep going. I have no idea what the fuck he will do if I don't explain this whole situation. My keys are in the pocket of my jacket and I take them out. I search for my own car in the parking lot. 

When I finally found it, I get in and start the car. I don't bother to put on my seatbelt and drive away immediately. 

................................................................................................................................................................

I'm halfway when rain starts pouring from the sky. I drive way too fast, but the roads are empty. I arrive at Thomas' special place after driving for another 40 minutes. I stop the car and get out. 

Another car stands in front of mine. I recognize the license plate. When I look back up, I see Thomas standing in the middle of the field. It starts to rain even harder and I feel that I'm going to be soaked if I stay outside for another minute. I hesitate at first, but eventually start to walk towards Thomas. He seems to not have heard me or my car, because he keeps standing there. 

After I came closer, I see that he's looking at the sky. Head in his neck. Water drips from his hair and his clothes are soaked. When we're only a few feet apart, I stop walking. Thomas seemed to have heard me this time. He stands back up normally again, but doesn't turn around. 

''You remembered,'' he says. His deep voice sounds hurt. 

''How could I forget,'' I say. ''It was the first time you opened up to me.'' 

He turns around and looks at me. His eyes are red, meaning that he either did some drugs or that he cried. The white shirt he's wearing is soaked, revealing his abs and some of his tattoos. 

''You promised,'' he says. He looks broken and the only thing I want to do is hold him. Telling him that everything is going to be alright. But he's right. Even though it's not completely my fault, I still listened to Brandon. I made a promise but I broke it. 

And now I broke him.