Page 45 of The Game
MILA
We draw names from a hat to pick the teams. Roman, by default, gets me first pick. Walker’s the leader for the other team and pulls Cadence from the hat.
She smiles over at me shyly. Emerson see’s this and if looks could kill. I think he might be a little jealous that she's on Walker's team.
“Quick, Roman. Pull the next name.” Emerson shifts the weight on his feet. I cross my fingers, hoping that they can be on the same team together.
Roman grunts at Em’s impatience and pulls out, “Emerson.”
Em’s face falls slightly, but then he claps Roman on the shoulder as he stands beside me. He gives me a small side hug. Alessandro’s eyes are on me and Em. I don't like the way he watches me. Not every guy around me wants to date me.
Alessandro’s lips tilt on one side. The way he looks at me under his lashes has me feeling a little flushed. I look away just as Walker pulls out a name.
“Grady.”
Roman draws, “Alessandro.”
I look over to him again and he smirks. Oh, god. Walker draws again.
“Hunter.” I'm a little crestfallen he's not on our team. But he winks over at me as he high fives Walker. Oh, actually this is gonna be fun with us on different teams.
I watch as the two left… Jace and Asher stare at the hat. They eye each other. Fuck, I don’t want them to fight on who Roman draws out next. It’s at random. It’s not like he’s doing it on purpose. But it's awkward that they are the two left. Jace smiles over at me, and I hold my breath. Asher tilts his head at me and gives a small smile.
Ugh, be still my heart. Seeing them both there is hard. I have feelings for them both and now I feel like this is going to leave one out if we don’t pick him. Even though it’s just a game.
Emerson notices the stand-off. Even Walker’s watching Roman as he puts his hand in the hat to draw the next name, but he’s taking a painfully long time to do so. Em takes my hand and pulls me in close and whispers.
“This is a little tense, and I don’t even know why.” I snort, holding my hand to my mouth as I try to hold in the laughter. He doesn’t know about Asher. About my butterflies for them all.
“So, who is this guy and the suit?” he nods over at Alessandro, then to the guy in the suit standing nearby, who's talking into an earpiece. He's a bodyguard for a mobster son… there has to be a reason he has three of them. And I don't wanna know.
“Someone you would want to forget after tonight.” I whisper back. The puzzled expression he gives me makes me laugh a little. I purse my lips as I press my finger to his forehead and he relaxes.
“He's the son of a powerful mafia boss.”
He looks to Alessandro, then to me, and back to him. I raise my brows when he burst out laughing. Why’s he laughing?
“Nice play, Mila.” He turns to Alessandro.
“Hey, I’m Emerson. I’m over at Ridgecrest.” Holding his hand out for Alessandro. Who takes it and shakes it.
“Alessandro, I’m over at Royale Academy.”
Em looks to me as if to say, you think you're funny. No, I'm just sick of lying.
“Mila just said your dad’s a mafia boss.” Then chuckled. “She likes to mess with me a lot. But I’m not falling for that.” Em looks down at me. “And I’m the king of England.”
“Oh, but he is.” Alessandro smirks.
Emerson just laughs and clasps his hand on Alessandro’s shoulder.
“Oh, you’re a funny too. We are gonna get along just fine.” Alessandro raises his brow at me, and I shrug. What can I say? Emerson is… well, he's Emerson. He's never claimed to be smart.
“Jace.” Roman calls out and I turn, almost forgetting what had been happening. Roman holds up the piece of paper with Jace’s name on it and he whoops loudly before joining us.
Asher looks a little deflated, but when he sees me, he smiles. But it’s not an innocent smile. It’s a worrying one… what does he have planned?
We all get suited up, and the owner—Jake—gives us our laser guns and the rules. Showing us how to aim and shoot the chest pieces and how it all works. How the points are tallied for the game Walker chose. It’s pretty simple. First team to fifty kills is the winner. So we just have to not be killed and kill the other team to win… yeah, that seems easy. Once we are shot, we go back to the start and Jake will be there to count us down until we can get back into the game.
