She's Just That Kind of Girl

Four | Violet

I stumbled forward, tripping over giant tree roots slithering through the earth's surface. A man walked by, eyeing me from head to toe. He whistled at me and a shiver crept throughout my body as I kept walking.

"Hey, where are you going, sexy?" the stranger said.

Just keep walking.

"Hey, I asked you a question," he said.

Something in me snapped. "I'm not interested, leave me alone," I said.

His expression changed quickly. "What did you say to me?" he approached me fast. Fast enough for me to only have a head start of backing up slowly.

The man grabbed my arm and gripped my chin with his other hand. "You want to say that again?"

Okay, Violet. You can kick him in the groin in three, two. . . I spotted a familiar figure emerging from out of focus in the corner of my eye and heading toward us. Tanner McGrey. Greaaaat, what does he want?

"Is there a problem here?" Tanner said, glancing at me.

"Well, well. Tanner McGrey," the man said, releasing my chin and arm. "Nope, there's no problem."

My eyes widened in anger at his lies. I clenched my jaw and swung my leg as hard as I could into his groin. He fell to his knees, clinging to his privates, moaning.

"Stay down, escoria," I said, shaking my head in disbelief, muttering, "unbelievable," before moving on.

"Touch the lady again, and I'll do a whole lot worse than that to you." Tanner threatened him before I found Tanner at my side.

"Are you okay?" Tanner asked, spinning the football between his hands.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You can run along now." I said, motioning him to shoo like a good puppy.

"Sorry, didn't mean to be nice," his tone didn't seem sarcastic, which was strange. "Nice kick back there though, you really have him losing his nuts."

I fought back a laugh, almost breaking into a hinting smile, but I kept my composure.

"C'mon, that was pretty good and you know it," Tanner said, smiling with a gorgeous pair of pearl-white teeth.

It was a smile that would catch anyone's attention. Many would lust when seeing it, but it held a glimmer of innocence to it I felt. The corner of one side would sneak up higher than the other, a roguish-boy smile.

I gazed around as if I were alone, not that I was necessarily ignoring Tanner, but there was peace in taking time to admire the trees, the chirping birds, the baby blue atmosphere free of milky clouds.

"You're much different than I expected," Tanner said, after a moment of observing me.

I gave notice of his existence and looked at him. "Expected?"

"Yeah. You are Violet Adair, no?" Tanner said.

"Yes. . . expectancies are often a letdown," I said, my hair whipped behind me as I fought against the wind, feeling my hot breath hit against my cold nose.

"Right," Tanner kept up with me for a few moments, keeping himself busy with the ball.

"Don't you have somewhere to be or . . ." I said.

"Yes. We're actually heading in the direction of where my dorm is," Tanner said.

I nodded.

"Are you heading anywhere specific?"

"Wherever I feel like," I said.

"You don't know where you're going, do you?"

"Not a damn clue," I said admittingly, "but I'll figure it out. I'm just trying to get lost somewhere."