Girl Crush

Chapter 17

 Dani was charging through the woods as if she could outrun all of the raging emotions pulsing through her at the moment. She didn't even know how it was possible for one person to feel this many things at one time without exploding. Confusion, anger, lust, love, misery, mortification...all of them pulsing through her at once, like a pressure cooker about to blow at any second.

"Shit," she heard Eddie mutter behind her, the sound of his feet crunching through the leaves as he came running, trying to catch up with her. "Dani! Damn it! Can you slow down?! Dani! Wait up!"

She couldn't stop. She couldn't stop because if she did then all of that desire, all of that love, all of that shit she kept pushing farther away was going to catch up with her. Dani was convinced if she could just get out of these woods, back to school, then everything would be okay. Her and Eddie would just be her and Eddie. She wouldn't be thinking about kissing him and holding him and running her hands over every single inch of...no, no, no!

Dani slapped her hands against her head. Son of a bitch! Why couldn't she get past this? Was she going to spend the rest of her life being tortured by what could have been, what should have been? No. She refused to do this. She would not spend forever pining for Eddie. They were just friends and the sooner her heart accepted that, the better. She couldn't keep living like this.

He just made it so goddamn hard with all of his infuriating contradictions. Three times now she has been sure he was going to kiss her. But was he? That was what had her head so muddled. Maybe she was just seeing what she wanted to see. Was she such a disaster, so desperate for him to want her, that she was imagining things? She had to get a grip on all of this. She was absolutely losing all rationality.

A hand grabbed her arm, spinning her around and how was she supposed to get away from this with him right there all the time? She just needed space but he never gave her room to breathe because he was always fucking there. Dani snatched her arm back, jumping away from him. She couldn't handle him touching her right now. She didn't trust herself to not do or say something stupid, something she could never take back.

"Shit Dani, are you okay?" Eddie stood there, one hand on his chest, gasping for breath.

"I'm fine!" she screamed, which was completely unwarranted and she knew it but she had absolutely no control over herself right now.

"Why are you yelling at me?" Eddie questioned, his eyes full of confusion and concern. "What did I do?"

"Nothing," she sighed, shaking her head. "Nothing. You did nothing."

Obviously she was just imagining things. Eddie was clearly bewildered by her behavior right now. He obviously didn't have any idea that she was currently in a state of extreme sexual and amorous frustration right now because of him. This was definitely all in her head. It was official. She was losing her sanity along with her heart. Shit. Why couldn't she just get the hell over this?

"Why are you running? School's over. What's the rush?" he asked. "I told you, smoker. I don't like to run."

"Sorry. I uh...I forgot to tell you, Steve is picking me up today and I didn't want to be late. You know, he could be sitting there waiting and wondering where I am. I don't want him to worry and think I got kidnapped or something," she rambled, taking another step back as if distance was going to make all of this go away. "We have plans tonight. We're going to dinner and a haunted house."

"Oh, well okay," Eddie replied slowly, suspicion clear on his face, "you could have just said that instead of running away, you know."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Dani said, turning and heading back through the woods briskly.