* SeVeNtEeN * This is War

Going Crazy

All five of us sat at our eight-chair table. I had Koki to my left and Eeris on my right, while Tai and Shylo were across from us. Tai was chattering away with Shylo. Eeris was eating her food calmly, obviously thinking, and through the corner of my eye, I could see Koki staring me down while eating. I calmly acted like I didn't notice and resumed eating and listening to the conversation. It didn't help though, I could feel his stare boring through me. Tai eventually looked over to Koki asking him a question. Noticing what Koki was doing, he furrowed his eyebrows at him.
"Why are you glaring at Taryn?" Tai asked, alerting the other two to look toward them.
Koki glanced toward him also and replied, "I am not glaring . . . "
"Well, what else do you call it then?" Tai asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Adoring her..." Koki replied with obvious sarcasm. He must have been the "Kei" that annoyed Tai purposefully all the time.
"Psh, I don't want you adoring her anyway, Mr. Sardonic."
"Maybe I actually am adoring her then," Koki said calmly.
"Whatever," Tai said, picking his cup up to take a sip.
I silently scooped the last of my rice into my chopsticks, ate it, and watched the conversation carefully. Koki just glared at Tai. I set my chopsticks down and waited to see if Koki would try to do something else to annoy Tai. They were just looking at each other, so everyone went back to their plates. In a minute, Koki gave a smirk with an idea obviously in mind. "Hey, look here, Tai!" he called, and everyone looked back to him. Suddenly, he grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me toward him. He connected my lips to his, and I froze in a state of shock. Still smirking, Koki allowed me to pull away and looked at Tai expectantly.
Tai was just as shocked as I was, even Shylo and Eeris were shocked. Finally, Tai exploded, "HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO MY SISTER!!" He climbed onto the table and picked Koki up by the collar. By the time he was about to punch him, someone came in and yelled, "What on Earth is going on?!"
Everyone turned their heads to the door to see Dan, Kei, and a bandaged Steve walking in. The atmosphere was frozen and awkward.
"Well?" Kei pushed the question.
"Nothing," all five of us said at the same time, while Tai put Koki down and went back to his seat.
"I'm pretty sure it looked like Tai was about to punch Koki," Steve chimed in. "Did he give him apple juice?" Steve winked at Tai teasingly.
Tai glared, "No, much worse." Tai looked at me calmly as if asking, "Are you okay?"
I nodded slightly.
Kei chuckled, "Any food left? I'm famished!"
"Yeah, on the stove," Shylo replied.
"Wait a minute!" Everyone froze at Dan's outburst. "Why is SHE here?" he pointed at Eeris.
I came to and chuckled. "She's with us now, don't worry." I looked at Eeris who was looking at Dan bashfully.
Dan stared at her calmly. Then he retreated to the kitchen for food with Steve and Kei.

An hour passed, and Shylo, Eeris, and I were in my room relaxing. "How much longer are we staying here?" Shylo asked with a whining tone.
"Until Dan can figure out which base Rio went to," I answered, drawing in my sketchbook.
"What are you drawing? That moment in the dining room?" Shylo teased, walking over to me on my bed.
"No . . . " I replied.
She looked over my shoulder, "Who is that?"
I lifted a picture I printed out of a bleach blond boy, wearing a fur hat and his hand like a gun to his head.
"Ooh! Cute! I understand why you're drawing him!" she winked.
I gave a small smile. It was true.
"Drawing who?" we heard either Kei or Koki at my door.
"If that's Koki, you better just walk away," Shylo threatened suddenly.
"I'm Kei . . . " Kei walked in. "What did Koki do to get you all riled up?"
Shylo was about to say something, but I already said, "Nothing."
She looked at me like, "But I want to tell him!"
I just glared back.
She huffed angrily.
"Let me guess, Koki tried to hit on Shylo?" Kei asked.
I chuckled, "Not really."
Shylo obviously wanted to tell him so bad, she was fidgeting.
"Well, what is it then?"
"Don't worry about it," I said, waving him off, but Shylo erupted.
"Koki kissed her!"
I face-palmed. Leave it up to Shylo to gossip.
"What?" Kei asked, perplexed.
"Don't make her say it again!" I said, shaking my head in my hands.
"That's why Tai was about to punch him?" Kei questioned, putting his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
"Yes! They were arguing. Koki wanted to annoy Tai, so he grabbed Taryn and kissed her!" Shylo explained excitedly.
What does she think she's doing? Testing his anger?
Kei looked at me.
I felt awkward. "I don't think it meant anything other than to annoy Tai," I said, trying to end the conversation.
He chuckled lightly. "I think it meant even more than that. He is my twin, and he acts just like me. It wouldn't surprise me if he likes you, too."
Shylo and I looked at him with our mouths gaping open. Eeris just sat on the chair observing. He's okay with that? What?
"Tai did tell me his thoughts could become mine and the other way around."
"Tai said that?" Shylo asked, still gaping.
"He is a twin, Shylo," I replied.
"You guys think alike?" she turned to me now.
"Of course," I answered, chuckling. "Well, I am obviously smarter than him any day, but other than that we think the same."
"Hey, guys, Dan knows where Rio is!" Koki came bursting in.
Everyone looked at him quietly.
"What? Is it that surprising?" he asked, confused.
Suddenly, Kei grabbed Koki into a headlock and was ruffling his hair.
"Wha-what are you doing?!" Koki shouted with a hint of a smile.
"This is for kissing my girlfriend!" Kei yelled with a smirk.
Girlfriend and boyfriend, I thought, feeling surprised and stupid.
"How did you find that out?" Koki asked with wide-eyes and a blushing face.
"I told him!" Shylo said, raising her hand then glaring sweetly at Koki.
"It could have been an even worse punishment. Your face could have turned into a punching bag by now," Eeris said, smiling.
Everyone was silent at the fact that she spoke playfully. Then everyone started laughing.
"Nice one, Eeris!" Shylo exclaimed, asking her for a high-five.
"Thanks," she said, slapping her hand.
"All right, all right! Let go!" Koki gave in, while Kei released him. "Okay, Dan wants to show you where Rio went. Let's go!" He motioned to follow and went back out the door.

When we made it to the living room, Dan was looking at the map of the regions and the X's on it. He looked up as we approached.
"So where is he?" I asked.
"Come here and see," he replied.
We walked over and huddled around the coffee table. Once we looked down, Dan pointed at one of the X's.
"This one," he said calmly. "He's in the Tsunami Region, and it's his original region to put it more specifically."
"How did you figure that out?" Tai asked.
Dan smiled, "Eeris told me a few weeks ago about Rio planning to go to his birthplace sometime." He looked at Eeris, who looked down and blushed.
I wonder if Dan's the reason she joined us, I thought, smiling. "Okay, so that means we have to go there-"
"But wait! There are two rulers in the East over here," Dan pointed to the X in the First Region. "I heard they are important to the Rulers, and it would be best for us to send two or three people to get rid of them."
"Any volunteers?" Steve questioned.
We all looked around at each other. Soon Tai spoke up, "Shylo and I could go."
"Yeah, it's only two of them," Shylo agreed.
"All right, they would already be together, because they're a couple. They're the ones that acted like my parents," Dan explained.
"You don't care about them?" Koki asked.
"I do, that's why I don't want to kill them. They are evil though, so don't expect them to take it easy just because you're teenagers," he warned Shylo and Tai carefully.
They nodded.
"So that leaves Rio to us," Dan sighed, looking at the rest of us. "Eeris, you can just stay here, if you want to-"
"No, I'm coming," she said with her lips pursed.
"Fine, fine . . . we can leave tomorrow, if that's okay with you guys," Dan looked over questionably.
"Yeah, sounds good. Everybody pack up whatever you need and sleep well. We're going to be tourists!" I ordered with a smile.