Poison Ivy

3.

"Why'd you come?" He asked.

"Why do you even have to ask? You were so sure that I was going to come in the first place."

"No." He shook his head. "I knew you were going to come. I didn't know what your reason would be."

There was a park down the street from Leslie's house that Badge and I found ourselves walking to. The night was a little cooler, but not bad. The street was silent besides the sound of the distant party, which seemed now like it was miles and miles away. I should have felt uneasy being out in the open in the middle of the night at an abandoned playground. Especially with Badge. But I didn't. Instead, I felt the exact opposite. I felt safe in his presence. No matter how dangerous he looks, I truly-well, sort of-believe that he would never do anything to physically hurt me.

I headed straight for the swings, which surprised me because as a little girl I hated swings. Whenever my dad would take us to the park when Clark, Katarina and I were younger, he would always push them, leaving me to have to try and swing myself. His excuse was he only had two arms, and couldn't push all of us. So he settled for Katarina and Clark...every single time. After a while, I stopped going to the park with them altogether and stayed behind at home. That's when I really started focusing on my music, determined to become brilliant at something they would all be proud of. Obviously, that will never be the case.

I climbed in the swing, and lazily started kicking my legs, barely going anywhere. "I thought you knew everything." I commented.

"I never said that." He replied after a moment. I watched cautiously as he walked behind me, and caught my waist as I swung back into him, making me stop swinging all together. "I just know a lot." He joked, letting me go.

I could feel his warm hands on my lower back as he pushed me. The touch made my body tingle all over, and it was a good kind of feeling. A feeling I hadn't recognized before and was trying to figure out what it could mean. But at this point I couldn't think. I don't know if it was the back and forth motion of the swing that was making me feel dizzy, or the feel of Badge's hands on me.

"What are you thinking?" He asked, his voice softer.

"You ask that question a lot." I commented. I could hear the quietest laugh escape from him.

"Curiosity."

I was quiet for a moment. "I was thinking about my dad." It was half true and half a lie. He didn't need to know I was thinking about him too.

"What about him?" He pressed.

I shook my head. "Nothing fascinating."

"Try me."

"Just...I was thinking about all the times he would take me and my brother and sister to the park down the street from our house. I was uh...never really included in the games they played."

"What do you mean?"

I took a slow breath. "When we would play tag, I would get ignored. Hide and seek...I'd always have to seek. Jump rope...I always had to turn the rope. When we would play catch, they would never throw the ball at me." I gave a short, sad laugh. "Even if we just wanted to swing on the swings, he would never even push me." My voice faltered a little. Badge caught me when I was swinging back again. Quickly, I turned my head to the side and wiped away a small tear that had escaped. "I'm sorry." I whispered.

"Are you going to tell him?" He asked softly.

"Tell him what?"

"That you feel neglected and unwanted." He stated.