Friendly Dating - Kira

Chapter 18 - Be Myself

"You're bleeding," Ethan exclaims when we leave the water, and I climb onto the flat rocks where the others are still sitting.

Those are words no girl wants to hear! Ever! Especially not when they come from someone behind her, climbing onto a rock. I'm sure it's about a week too early for my period, but still, I'm on my knees and try to turn over and sit down quickly. It goes impressively wrong because Ethan grabs my foot, pulling it into the air to inspect the back of my heel.

I frown up at him from my uncomfortable reclining position, and then I see the little trickle of blood near his fingers.

"Oh!" It's only my foot! "I thought I felt a little sting when I fell from the big rock earlier. It's nothing."

He is still frowning at the blood as if it showed up specifically to offend him, and then...

"Dude! Did you just kiss her foot?!" Barn laughs his rowdy laugh, the others joining in with exclamations of surprise and some good-natured mocking of their own.

"N-no..." Ethan says, and if I didn't know better, I'd think he was blushing.

"No," I inform the guys, frowning at Ethan. "It's the blood. He was going for the blood. It channelled his inner vampire; he meant to bite me."

"Yeah, she's yummy," he grins, and then he's gathering our clothes together. "Here, get dressed; I'll carry you home."

"What?"

"Dude!" Jet complains. "We called you because we want to go jump from the waterfall and now you want to go home because of a stupid scratch!"

"He's right," I cannot remember another occasion when I've agreed with Jet before, ever. It feels weird. "It's nothing; go jump with them."

Ethan is looking at my face as if he is trying to read subliminal messages tattooed with invisible ink there.

"You're hurt; we should go."

"Oh, my word, Ethy! Like Jet said, it's a scratch. Go jump. If it starts to hurt a lot and a vein bursts and I'm haemorrhaging, I'll... just walk home. I know where it is."

Why is he hesitating? He loves jumping from the waterfall.

"Go on," I say, laughing uncomfortably under his scrutiny.

"Don't do it," Jet says. "It's a trick. Now she's all 'go ahead, Honey, have fun. I'm fine,' and later, when you get home, she's gonna be like, 'no sugar for you tonight, you bastard.'"

"Seriously?" I ask the idiot. He even used weird little voices to represent me. If he's going to try to imitate me, he should at least do a sexy voice. "What would be the point of doing that?"

"Control, dominance. Show him who's the boss," and he isn't even joking. Then I remember that last year he dated Elana Boxer, and that description suddenly sounds about right.

I look up at Ethan, still hesitating on his knees next to my legs.

"Ethy," I give a soft laugh, narrowing my eyes at him, and then, raising my eyebrows, I nod in the direction of the falls, smiling at him. Surely, he doesn't think that I'll do things like that. Besides, he's not getting any sugar... ever.

Does he really think this is some kind of test? He must know me better than that! Besides, the deal is ideal girlfriend and boyfriend, not who's the boss!

"Jet," I ask, in the hope of clarifying to Ethan how stupid this idea is, "if it's all about control, why won't I tell him to take me home right now and deprive him of the fun of trying to kill himself by jumping into deep water from a high rock? That would be the ultimate control."