Halfway There | COMPLETE ✔ + Sequel

HWT Sequel - 02

"What do you think they're saying?" Will tilted his head as he stared intently at some japanese game show that played on the TV.

"Who knows." Bella shrugged as she looked up from painting her toes just in time to see a woman hanging upside down on a wire as she swung back and forth to avoid being hit with what I hoped to God was very bright red paint. "But I know that if it were me I would be yelling, Crap! Crap! Crap!"

"Right?" Will chuckled.

This was the closest we would get to any kind of entertain for a very long time. Life on the road your nights were long and your days were even longer so you had to learn to take any form of amusement where you could find it.

I smiled as they both burst out laughing at something that happened to the woman who was now on the ground. It was these little moments that reminded me of our life back before everything happened. It reminded me of the time where we all sat in our dorm room and carelessly watched something that would make us all laugh. It's these moments that take me back to places that no longer exist. They take me back to a time that almost seems had been so far away that I have to constantly remind myself that it wasn't some kind of dream. For a moment it makes me forget where we are and why we are here... for only a moment though.

My smile slowly fades away as I look over and notice Nova staring out the window as his thoughts carry him to some other place entirely. I sigh when I notice that the sandwich I brought back sat in front of him untouched. I almost always had to remind him to eat, especially since his appetite was almost non existence nowadays. Not that I could blame him.

In the last several weeks I tried not to look at him when I could help it. He looked like a completely different person then when I had first met him. Aside from the constant stress he was under for always being on his guard and the frustratingly constant complaints and doubt from Bella and Will, the sleepless nights were what really was taking a toll on him. He says that he doesn't sleep because he doesn't want to ever be caught off guard if Bradley or one of his men show up but I know the real reason.

He must have sensed me looking at him. I felt my heart throb as he looked at me and our eyes locked onto each other as I carefully examined his dull eyes and dark bags under them. The same dullness and darkness that was put there by the nightmares that followed him anytime he laid his head on a pillow.

Bella and Will sleep through his tossing, turning and whimpering in the middle night. I used to be able to ignore it too but the night that he screamed out his little sister's name out in the dead of night, the same sister he left behind to protect us while we aimlessly ran away from a man that we weren't even sure was following us... it was hard for me to ignore after that.

I sigh again and pushed the sandwich closer to him, reminding him to eat. He turns his gaze back out the window as he says, "I don't like bologna."

I scoff at the lie. At one point Nova and I were closer than I can describe. We were beyond friends. I loved him far more than I care to try to explain. I grew to learn his likes and dislikes, his past, the dreams for his future and the truth of his secrets that he held in his closet for so long that they had not seen the light of day for a very long time. Trust me that I know when he says he doesn't like bologna he's really saying "I'm a grumpy, stubborn man who wants to prove a point that I'm big and strong but really I'll just eat it when everyone else is asleep."

"Since when?" I ask irritated.

"Since a long time." He says without looking at me.

"That's not true. Nova, you have to eat. You haven't eaten since yesterday afternoon and it's nearly 5:30."