Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 123(@200wpm)___ 98(@250wpm)___ 82(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 123(@200wpm)___ 98(@250wpm)___ 82(@300wpm)
Gunnar aims away from us at the bushes and presses down, and a stream that looks like a dog peeing comes out at very high speed. He only holds it down for a second at most before letting go and handing it to me.
“See? Now you try.”
“Oh gosh,” I mutter as I take it and aim it.
“Don’t be nervous. You had a gun in your hand earlier. This is nothing compared to that.”
I glance over at him, and although I really want to be mad at him still, there’s something so comforting about this interaction between us. I like him teaching me things, just like I liked him teaching me how to shoot at the gun range. I don’t know how to just ignore that feeling.
“I’m surprised you even came here. Wouldn’t you like to be back at the range, shooting with Jess?”
“What was that?” Gunnar asks.
“Oh, nothing.”
I take aim at the bushes and press the top of the pepper spray.
Gunnar made it look so easy, but of course I end up doing something wrong, and the spray catches the breeze or bounces back off my finger or something and wafts back slightly into my face, and I immediately drop the spray and start coughing my brains out.
My eyes start stinging, my mouth starts burning and my lungs feel like they’re on fire.
“Uh-oh,” Gunnar says behind me. “Yeah, you had your thumb too far forward. It bounced back on you. We gotta get you inside.”
Hacking and coughing, I instantly reach out for something to grab on to, which ends up being Gunnar as he takes my arm and starts to help me in the direction of the dorm.
“You got your key?”
“Y-yes,” I cough, handing it to him. He takes it and swipes it at the door. “Second floor. 204.”
My lips feel like they’re on fire, and I cannot open my eyes as Gunnar basically carries me up the steps. I can hear the voices of other students as we pass them, who must be wondering what in the world is going on and what Gunnar Jones is doing in their dormitory.
Hopefully no one ends up taking a TikTok of this.
“We need to get you some soap and water real fast,” he says, still using his strong arm to carry me over to the bathroom.
“I can’t…believe you…talked me into this…” I’m sputtering as he stops at the door.
“Hey, it’s not my fault you can aim a Glock but not a pepper spray canister!” He laughs. “Now get in there and wash off! Soap and water until it stops stinging!”
I stagger into the bathroom, go over to a sink, quickly tie my hair back, and immediately run the water and douse my hands with soap and start lathering them up until they’re covered with suds. Then I start to wash my face as quickly as possible–wash, rinse, repeat–over and over again until I feel the stinging start to fade away. I even rinse my mouth out with soapy water.
It honestly doesn’t take as long as I thought it would before I’m starting to recover.
“You doing all right in there?” Gunnar calls after me.
“Well, I’m not dead!” I yell back in reply.
“Yeah, you only got a tiny bit. Could have been way worse.”
“That’s comforting!” I shout, grabbing a handful of napkins.
I dry off and finally look at myself in the mirror. My face is very red, but the burning is mostly gone. My lips are swollen, but looking kind of nice actually–like I’ve had temporary lip-filler injections or whatever.
I wonder if Gunnar will notice or comment on them.
I dry off and go back out into the hallway, and he instantly glances at them and smirks.
“Oh, hey there, Khloe Kardashian!”
“Would you shut up?” I reply, brushing past him toward my room. “This is your fault!”
“My fault? Hey, I tried to show you how to use that stuff. It’s not my fault you’re a girl and you ignored my advice and ended up blasting yourself in the face.”
I twist the key in my lock and open the door to my room and step inside. “Yeah, well, maybe you should just go hang out with Jessica then. She’ll be happy to do everything exactly how you say it, I’m sure.”
I go to slam the door in his face, but he stops it with his forearm.
“What was that?” he asks, cocking his head to the side. “Jessica? Why would I want to hang out with Jessica instead of you, Nina?”
“I dunno, you tell me.”
From the way Gunnar is frowning at me, it really looks like he has no idea what I’m insinuating, which really seems odd based on the way he was flirting with her only a few hours ago.
An awkward moment hangs between us while he processes what I’m getting at, and then he raises an index finger and points at me as a smile comes across his lips.