Danger Days; the True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.

I changed into my clothes, the ones I had worn when the Killjoys picked me up, since they had now been clean. I didn’t even bother running my fingers through my hair, since it was pointless. I joined the boys, to see Jet and Fun on the ground, wrestling, Party also on the ground, but instead, he was laughing until his face was red. Kobra was just sitting down, shaking his head at the relentless antics of the two. I joined him, to see him looking up at me.

“What the hell is going on,” I asked with a slight laugh, my eyebrows already furrowed in curiosity. He kept shaking his head, his eyes going back to the two boys.

“Fun was making fun of Jet’s eye patch again,” he informed me, and I nodded as an “ah” escaped my lips.

“And this happens a lot,” I asked, clearing everything up, to see him resort to nodding his head instead of shaking it.

“Every day, just about,” he answered, and I leaned on the side of the boot, watching the two brawl, and Party started coughing heavily because he was laughing so hard. I looked at him, with a worried expression on my face until he stopped, took a deep breath, looked at Jet and Fun, and started laughing again. I smiled as I watched him, not noticing I was staring until Kobra was snapping his fingers in front of me, immediately gaining my attention as I turned to look at him.

“Yeah,” I asked, turning to look at him, and he handed out a white can of Power Up to me, along with a spoon, which I thankfully took.

“Thought you’d be hungry. You’ve been out since we got back yesterday,” he informed me, and I nodded.

“Yesterday, that was…tough,” I said, looking down at the can, which still went untouched.

“Yeah, you went kind of white when he was there. I wasn’t even next to you, and it was obvious how tense you were,” he pointed out, and I started playing with the ends of my sleeves.

“It’s just that…the last time I saw him…he was taking my mom, trying to catch me,” I admitted, and a pained expression flashed across his face before he moved to the booth I was on, and sat next to me.

“I know it’s probably really tough, but we won’t let him get you. We’re already talking about fleeing the state,” he told me under his breath as if I weren’t supposed to know, “it’s not final yet, because we’ve been doing so well, here, but it’s for your safety basically,” he told me, and I started playing with the label on the can, slowly ripping at it.

“If he caught me…what would he do with me?” I asked, squinting at the can, then looking at it normally again.

“Well, we don’t know,” he admitted, and I truly looked into his eyes.

“I’m scared,” I said, “I haven’t been scared since I got away.”

“It’s understandable that you would be right now. We’re basically right under his nose, and I’m sure he’s suspicious already,” he said, and my eyes went back to the can.

“What are we talking about,” Party asked, sliding in the booth in front of me and Kobra.

“I was trying to help her get a better understanding of what’s going on,” Kobra said, and Party nodded, before grabbing one of the many unopened cans on the table, opening it, and digging into it with a spoon.

“Well that’s good,” he said between bites, “What’s on the schedule for today?” He asked, looking at both of us.

“Well, first I think we need to pry those two off of one another,” I pointed out, causing the three of us to look over at Fun and Ghoul, who were still going at it, then looked back at each other, and I noticed a smile on Party’s face.

“Do we have to,” he asked, causing me to giggle, and nod like an idiot.

“Yeah, they’re going to kill one another,” Kobra pointed out.

“Well, on the bright side, there will be more room in the back of the car,” Party explained, and Kobra’s face fell to the table in disappointment, and Party just shook his head momentarily at him, then back at me, “is there anything you’d like to do?” he asked me, and I slowly shook my head.

“We could always just hang around here. I could get to know you guys better,” I suggested, and he nodded with a smile, looking out the window that was next to us.

“I guess that would be a good idea. Not to mention, it’s really sunny out there,” he sighed, then closed the curtain swiftly.

“It’s always sunny out there,” I laughed, and he looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

“Well aren’t we the next Einstein,” he said jokingly, and Kobra looked up at him.

“I thought that was me,” he said, a twinge of false hurt in his voice, causing me to laugh harder.

“Well,” Party started, unsure of how to go about it, “I mean, sometimes you…you don’t have the smartest ideas,” he said with an apologetic look, and it was obvious Kobra was fighting hard to hold back a smile.

“That’ll teach him to make fun of my eye patch,” Jet said, sitting down next to Party. I examined his brown leather eye patch for a second before saying anything.

“Why do you need that, anyways?” I asked, slightly curious now that the topic had been brought up.

“Party poked his eye out with his penis,” Fun said, shoving me and Kobra down the boot so he could join as well.

“NO,” Jet said defensively towards Fun, then looked back at me, and lifted up the patch to reveal there was nothing wrong, “I don’t really have a reason to wear it,” he said, putting the patch back in place, “it just looks cool,” he informed me, and I shook my head.

“Boys are weird,” I muttered, finally starting on my own food.

“HEY,” they all said towards me, once again adopting a defensive tone. I couldn’t help my laughter as it escaped my throat, and I leaned back in the booth.

“What am I going to do with you guys,” I asked jokingly, shaking my head.

“Whatever you want,” Fun looked over at me, sending me a wink, which made me laugh a little harder.

“Wait until she realizes he’s serious,” Party said to Jet. It was obvious that these guys were growing on me, some more than others. I had only been here for two and a half days, and I had a sudden strong connection with each of them, like they had always been family to me. They cared about me, they looked after me, and they were risking their lives to protect me. I was almost under the impression that something had to be up, and all of this was just too good to be true. I couldn’t help but have that nagging feeling as I sat there in the booth with them, mindlessly laughing along with everybody else, not quite listening to what they had been saying. Was what they had been telling me the actual truth about what was going on? Or were they trying to build up my trust, waiting for my guard to be down? I knew that all of this was completely preposterous, and the heat was getting to my head, and frying my brain. It was just subconscious paranoia, that’s it. I’d have to be completely insane to not trust these guys with my life, which they were doing all they could to preserve.

“Huh,” I snapped out of it to see Fun next to me, waving his hand in front of my face.

“You’ve been out of it for at least ten minutes,” he informed me, a smirk crawling onto his face like a spider on a web, “I was beginning to think your mind had legs and walked away for a breath of fresh air,” he said, then grabbed my hand, “come on,” he instructed, and I followed him into a room I hadn’t been in before, to see Kobra and Jet playing an x-box, shoving each other to distraction as the other person tried to win. I wasn’t familiar with games, so whatever they were playing was unfamiliar to me. Fun seemed to notice me looking at it with confusion, “Call of Duty,” he informed me, “very popular before the planet got shit on,” he stuffed his hands into his pockets, and sat down on his bed, which he had a light brown wood frame for. He patted the seat next to him, so I walked over, sitting down by his side.

“I think I had a friend who used to play this all of the time,” I admitted, “It looks kind of familiar,” I looked at him to see him smiling.

“We have two more controllers. If you want, we can do a four player game,” he said, and I shook my head.

“I’m a sore loser,” I told him, and he chuckled.

“Trust me when I say all of us are. I mean, look at Beavus and Butthead over here. Once the game is over, they’re going to be on the floor again, fighting,” he gestured to the two, who were still roughly pushing each other around while in combat. I looked around to notice Party was absent, and my heart tugged. I really liked being around him, there was no denying that. I guess there was just something about him that made him stand out from the other three.

“Where’s Party,” I asked, and he looked around the room as if he didn’t notice he was missing as well, and shrugged.

“I don’t know. If you want, you can go look for him,” he told me, and I nodded, thinking that was a good idea.

“Yeah, I think I’m going to go do that,” I said, standing up, and it looked as if a frown wanted to tug at Fun’s lips, but he smiled instead.

“We’ll all be in here,” he told me, and I nodded as I made my way out of the room. My eyes scanned through what was basically the living area, even though I already knew he was in here. I looked in the kitchen, and the bathroom, since they were the next closest rooms, already having the idea that he wasn’t in there either. I walked into his room, to see him sitting at his desk. My heart fluttered at the sight of him.

“Hey,” I said, leaning against the door frame. He turned around to look at me, shooting me a smile.

“Hey,” he replied, quickly looking back at his desk, seemingly turning a piece of paper over, then back at me, “what’s up,” he asked, leaning his head against the back of the chair.

“We were all just hanging in Fun’s room, and I was wondering if you’d like to join us,” I said, trying not to let that pleading tone seep into my voice, and he nodded his head.

“I will, I’m just finishing this drawing up, and I’ll be right in there,” he assured me, and I nodded.

“Alright,” I said, turning to head back to Fun’s room, smiling to myself. Being here, with these guys, it made me happy. I felt like I take a few chances, and let myself open up more. I walked into the room to see Jet and Kobra on the ground, Kobra fighting that Jet had cheated, Jet fighting that he had won fair and square. Fun was still sitting on his bed, his hands in his pockets as he laughed at the two, “Kobra wasn’t kidding, this does happen a lot, doesn’t it,” I said, sitting back down next to Fun, who looked at me, a smile playing on his face.

“He definitely wasn’t exaggerating,” he said, and then his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “where’s Party, I thought you went to get him,” he asked, and I shrugged.

“He said he’ll be in here once he’s done drawing,” I informed him, and he nodded his head. As if on cue, Party walked in, smiling at me, which I took no time in returning.

“Call of Duty,” he asked Fun as if he already knew while he sat down next to me. Fun nodded, then went back to shaking his head at the two. I listened as the two talked, and watched as the other two fought. This was going to be what life was like for me. I couldn’t help but smile at the thought.

“I want to play,” I said, and all four of them looked at me, “and I want to play against the worst player,” I added. I had never personally played the game, so I knew I’d be terrible at it.

“And that would be Kobra,” Party said, Jet and Fun instantly agreeing.

“Fuck all of you,” he hissed at them, then looked at me, “I’ll play against you,” he assured me, and I went to sit in front of the television, and Jet handed me the controller he had been using.

“I want to go against the winner,” Party said, leaning forward.

“He’s just ecstatic that now he has a chance of winning,” Fun teased Kobra, and I could see Kobra flashing the finger to the three behind him. The game started…and I didn’t even know what to do.

“The fuck is this,” I said not even two minutes into the game. Kobra was destroying me, and I had already died at least ten times, not getting one kill. I set the controller down, and got up, “I’m done,” I stated, standing up. I walked out of the room, and away from the four. Curiosity had been pulling at me about what Party was drawing, but didn’t want me to see. I thought about it for a second, maybe there was a reason he didn’t want me to see it, and what would I look like if I just went through his stuff like it was my business. My curiosity got the best of me, and I turned in the direction of his room, opening the door, and I slowly walked to the desk, not so sure of what I would expect to see.

I picked up the piece of paper, turning it around to see a comic version of me, clad in my pants, combat boots, and the jacket Jet had given me. My green hair was flowing in the invisible wind, and I had my goggles on. I couldn’t help but smile down at the drawing, and then jumped in fright as somebody cleared their throat behind me. I turned around to see Party leaning on the door frame, eyeing me. I looked down at the drawing that was still in my hands with wide eyes and back up at him. Now was the time to start making excuses.

“I’m s-sorry, I was just – you have a lot of talent, and I was just looking,” I said, kind of jumpy as my heart was racing. He smirked as he walked over to where I was standing, stopping right in front of me. He took the picture from my hands, placing it on the desk that was behind me, and then he was cupping my jaw as he pulled my face to his, our lips instantly connected. After a short second, he pulled away, resting his forehead on my own, and looking into my eyes.

“It’s yours,” he said with a soft voice.

©Shannon.

Notes