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With the psychotic probation workers, random murderous super-powered people and random chaotic bullshit, eventually Kelly did have to get them a gun.
It didn’t do any good, mind.
“Oh, that’s fantastic!” Despite the loud volume of his voice, Nathan’s sarcasm didn’t waver. “He has telekinesis and you have a bloody gun!”
“Shut up Nathan!” Kelly shouted, aiming the weapon at the weird freak of the week beside him. “And you, let him go!”
The strange young man, Davey, folded his arms and glared at her. He was near the edge of the Community Centre roof. Nathan was a little further away, a couple of meters past the roof and a couple of meters above it, suspended in mid-air by their new acquaintance.
Kelly kept trying to listen for Davey’s thoughts, but she was catching Nathan’s instead.
He’s going to fucking drop me. If I land on that bloody metal fence again I swear I’m gonna… well, die. That’s all I’ll be able to bloody do, really.
Davey didn’t look particularly intimidated. “If you shoot me, he falls to his death. Just so you understand.”
“He has a point,” says Simon, his nervous voice coming from somewhere behind Kelly to her left. She doesn’t look. She’s not taking her eyes off of this son of a bitch.
“What you’re forgetting, you posh twat, is that if you drop ‘im I’ve got no reason not to shoot you.”
Nathan’s thoughts broadcast again. Oh, she’ll do it too. You drop her boyfriend off a building she’ll shoot you good. God, I hope she’s a good shot. Has she ever fired a gun before?
“But he’ll still be dead,” said Davey. “Given how he’s spoken to me, I’m having a hard time seeing why I shouldn’t drop him.”
“He dies a lot,” replied Alisha. “I say go for it, then Kelly can put a bullet between your eyes ‘cause I know I’m sick of your shit.”
“Hey!” Nathan shouted. For a moment after Kelly thought he was still shouting, but his lips were pressed together in a pout when she couldn’t help but glance his way. Just because it happens a lot doesn’t mean it isn’t a big deal! It hurts, you know! Fuck you anyway Alisha, Kelly’s my girlfriend now and she’s got a gun and she’s not calling this bastard’s bluff like that.
“Just put him down, yeah?” Kelly tried again. Davey could only concentrate on one target at a time with his power. She could have shot him then and there while he was defenceless, but he’d definitely drop Nathan.
“If you don’t get him first,” Curtis muttered near to her right, “he could drop Nathan then blast us off the roof. I say shoot him.”
“He might drop Nathan,” Kelly reminded him in a harsh whisper.
“So? He’s immortal.”
The worst thing was she couldn’t get into Davey’s head. It was like whenever she looked at him her attention snagged on Nathan behind him, dangling above nothing like some sort of pretty puppet about to get his strings cut. At that point her power kicked in, giving her nothing but don’t let me fall Kelly, get him to put me back, I don’t want to die on that fucking fence again, aw shit I’m right above it as well. I know you won’t let him drop me.
Although she wasn’t reading Davey’s mind, she saw him look between them all stood on the roof and saw him look past them. Like he was preparing.
Fuck it.
First thing, guns were bloody loud. Second thing, they hurt your arm like a bitch.
She didn’t get Davey between the eyes like Alisha suggested and the bullet ripped through his throat with a disgusting spray of blood. He stumbled back and collapsed at the edge of the roof.
Nathan cried out then plummeted. Kelly cried out too, involuntarily, remembering the first time he’d died this way. She rushed back to the stairs and dashed down them, the others hot on her heels.
Knowing he would be back didn’t make it easier to see him. He hadn’t hit the fence, like he had expected. He was bloody and sprawled on the concrete, a pool of blood spreading beneath his head.
“Let’s get him inside and cleaned up,” said Simon, ever the pragmatic one in the face of carnage.
“You did the right thing,” Curtis said, squeezing Kelly’s shoulder. “That maniac wasn’t gonna stop with just Nathan.”
“Though it would’ve helped if he hadn’t kept mouthing off at the guy,” Alisha pointed out.
Kelly didn’t bother pointing out that you might as well have asked Nathan to stop being Nathan. Mouthing off was very much his thing.
What really bothered her, as they brought his corpse inside and cleaned the blood off of him, was how quiet it felt. She kept catching snippets of thoughts from the others…
...we’ll need to deal with Davey’s corpse too...
...god, I’ll never get used to the blood we see...
...better him than us...
...but she missed Nathan’s brash thoughts. She had thought the same the first time he died, when they had buried him. When he came back, she found herself tuning in more and more. It wasn’t intentional. More like a habit. Like when she zoned out, rather than her eyes losing focus or her leg jiggling, her brain tuned into Nathan’s.
“We’ll leave you with him, yeah?” Alisha asked eventually.
“Yeah. Thanks. You guys dealing with Davey?”
They nodded and wandered off to go bury a corpse.
“Ought to be a soddin’ graveyard out back at this point,” Kelly said to Nathan’s body.
No response yet. She held his hand for a little while and played with her phone.
When he woke up, it was no different to how he woke up when he stayed the night at her place. Pretty eyes blinked awake slowly, looking up at the ceiling with a vague confusion. Then he saw her and beamed, which was interrupted by a yawn.
“Hey you,” he said.
“Hiya.” She squeezed his hand. “You alright?”
“Yeah, I don’t… that bastard dropped me!” His eyes widened with outrage. “What a prick!” Then he frowned as he revisited it. He dragged his hand out of hers and pointed a finger at her. “You let him!”
“Oi, I didn’t let him do anything, okay, he’s the one who dropped you.”
“But you let him! You shot him knowing I’d fall!”
“You’re immortal!”
“It still bloody hurts!”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
He folded his arms and with a little hmph, looked away from her pointedly.
“Can ya not be a drama queen about it?”
Wrong thing to say. Nathan blinked repeatedly, theatrically, looking back at her. “Excuse me? Oh, I’m sorry, is my horrible death inconveniencing you?”
“Your horrible death’s over now, you’re back.”
“Dying’s scary, y’know,” Nathan snapped.
Now Kelly was the one blinking in surprise. “It never seems to bug ya.”
“You know me, I play it cool. Cucumber, cool as a.” He waved a hand dismissively. “But between you and me… it’s not fun.”
“If I’d had any other choice I’d have taken it. But he was gonna drop you then take out the rest of us!”
“Oh, so you read his mind and saw that, did you?” Nathan asked, still sullen.
There was a real temptation to lie, but Kelly had never fibbed to a boyfriend yet. “Nah. I couldn’t get in ‘is head.”
“Well that’s just grand. There’s me splattering my brains all over the concrete for us to clean up during community service tomorrow and you couldn’t even be bothered to read his mind to see if you even needed to shoot him in the first place!”
“I didn’t say I couldn’t be bovvered, I said I couldn’t do it!”
“Why the fuck not?! You’re always reading my mind!”
“Because I love you, you wanker!”
Would you look at that. She’d found a way to shut Nathan up. He opened and shut his mouth a few times, but clearly whatever he’d been about to say was long-gone.
They were both quiet for long enough that Kelly started to feel awkward. She picked her phone up from where she’d put it on the floor and shoved it in her pocket. Then she fidgeted with her hands.
“You don’t have to say it back or anythin’,” she said. “And that weren’t sarcasm, I mean it, you don’t have to say anything you don’t… feel.”
As much as she loved Nathan, he was the kind of bloke girls warned each other about. All talk, no job, no home, no filter, sex on the brain… though he didn’t play games to get what he wanted, unlike some lads Kelly had been with before. He was into her, he’d ask if she wanted to have a go and if she did, great, if she didn’t, he’d make some stupid comment then watch telly. He was simple.
And here she was complicating things for him. Fuck. He’d leave her.
“Hey, don’t go looking all upset,” Nathan said suddenly. “That’s not fair, I’m the one who died. Don’t be so selfish!”
Kelly stared at him in disbelief. “I just told ya I love ya.”
“So? I love you too but what the fuck’s that got to do with some telekinetic arsehole dropping me off a building?”
“Really?”
Nathan nods, curls bouncing with the rapid jiggle of his head. “Yes! But you can’t just throw that in there to get out of trouble. That’s unhealthy in a relationship. Read so in an agony aunt column.”
“It was me explainin’ why I couldn’t read his thoughts but I’m always reading yours. I was trying to read ‘im, but I was so worried about you I kept getting you instead.”
“Yeah?” Nathan looked sceptical.
“In the end I couldn’t figure out what to do so I shot the pillock because you’re immortal and we’re not.” She stood up in a huff. “But if you’re gonna be such a little bitch about it, I’ll just let the rest of us die next time, that what you want?”
“No!” Nathan sighed and pulled his knees up to under his chin. “No.”
It might have meant she was a soft touch, but she never could leave him when he looked so lost. She sat back down and put an arm around his shoulders. “I’m sorry it hurt.”
“Barely felt it. Falling deaths are like a split second of ‘holy shit is that pain?’ then you’re gone.” Nathan looked over his jeans. “Blood on the jeans though, that’s forever.”
“Your head smashed on the concrete...” Kelly said quietly. “I can’t shake it. That’s pretty much forever too. All of ‘em, all your deaths. I have nightmares about ‘em. I hate how much you die and I hate--” her voice cracked, but she sniffed and continued, pulling her arm back to wipe at her eyes with her sleeve. “I hate how this one was on me.”
“I can’t have fallen on you. You were on the roof.”
“Oh my god, you fuckin’ idiot, I mean that I caused it!”
“Nah. That was Bobby.”
“Davey.”
“Whatever.”
“Wait, so now you’re saying it’s not my fault? You’re agreeing with me?”
Nathan shrugged and stretched, popping his joints a little. “Sure. I mean, you love me, you definitely wouldn’t have let me fall to my death on purpose.” He looked contemplative for a moment. “You got enough cash for a McDonalds? It’s hungry work, coming back from the dead.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
“That’s why you love me, I guess. Is that a yes?”
“Yeah, alright.” She stood up and pulled him to his feet. “Guess I can’t let you fall to your death and starve in the same day.”
He put a hand to his heart. “God, it’s like ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in here.”
“’Cept they both did die,” Kelly reminded him as they went down the stairs and to the door of the community centre.
“Well correct me if I’m wrong because I always got kicked out of English, but Romeo didn’t have super mind-reading powers and Juliet wasn’t immortal.”
Kelly laughed as they got outside into the sunshine. “So you’re Juliet?”
“She was the one hanging off a balcony, right?”
English was one lesson Kelly had actually enjoyed. She’d got a B in it. So she cast her mind back to Romeo’s speech and dramatically said, “O, that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!”
That won her a little giggle and a wink from her very unconventional Juliet. “Play your cards right, love and who knows what the night will bring?”
They did get some strange looks in McDonalds as Nathan tried to pass off the blood on his clothes as ketchup and proceeded to ask for thirty packs of ketchup, but that was pretty much par for the course dating him.
As they sat by the window, ate their nuggets and fries and people-watched, Kelly heard, what about now? You listening now?
She looked over to where Nathan was studiously staring out of the window and she reached out and took his hand.
“Always.”