Metal Kingdom

27. Not Strong Enough

Not Strong Enough-Apocalyptica

Hunter and Frankie spent the next couple of hours playing video games and listening to music as her high wore off. They were sitting on the floor with their legs crossed, in front of her basement tv.

"Boom!! Suck it Bowser!" Frankie cheered as she won another round of Mario Kart.

"How the hell do you even keep getting that many red shells? You're cheating!" Hunter fought back. Annoyed over how many times he's lost to her.

"How can you cheat in this game? You're just a sore loser when getting your ass kicked by a pretty little Princess in a pink dress." Frankie gloated over her winning again. Taunting him by shaking her head in his face as she spoke.

"Sore loser, incorrect. A pretty little princess is right." Hunter leaned in closer and placed a soft peck on Frankie's lips. Turning his attention back to the video game after like it was an ordinary thing to do.

Frankie's eye went wide at the feeling on her lips. Freezing in her place at how normal he acted that action was. She didn't know what to do or say. Feeling her chest beat faster as her mind raced.

"C'mon Peach, I want another rematch." Hunter said as he picked a different race track. Unaware of her trying not to panic next to him. He barely realized his own action, only knowing that it felt right in the moment to kiss her.

"Oh great another princesses name for you to call me." She remarked. Trying not to overthink too much about the simple kiss. 

They returned to the game and played for another hour until Hunter finally won a round. Stopping while he was ahead for once. Frankie was placing the controllers back up near the console as Hunter's eyes looked around the room. Turning his attention to a box tucked away in a corner that he didn't notice last time. Overfilling with what looked like medals, plaques and trophy's shoved into it. He assumed what it had to be.

"Let me ask you something next. Why don't you dance anymore?"

"You remember that?" She spun back around to face him. His question coming out of the blue and catching Frankie off guard.

"Yeah. I remember you bringing in your ballet shoes to school for the talent show in junior high. I know I heard about you going to shows or something at the start of high school too. Didn't hear much about it since then." Hunter thought back to that time in their lives. They despised each other and he would start fights with her for being a 'poser'. Saying ballerina's don't listen to metal nor know what it is.

"Ah yes. I believe you told me once to 'take my pointy pink shoes and stuff them up my ass'." Frankie air quoted with a fake smile. Making Hunter grimace at the memory.

"Not one of my finest insults. Hopefully that didn't deter you from dancing." He suddenly felt guilty if he played a part in her no longer taking part in the activity.

"I probably would've stuck with it longer just to annoy you, so no. You didn't.  One, it sucks wasting every weekend at competitions. Two, it's stupidly expensive. Three, the music you have to dance to sucks. Four, when my mom started to travel all the time for work and wasn't here I kind of lost passion for it. Not that my dad wasn't willing to go, he's always been my biggest supporter. But we had more fun going fishing or to the music store and playing songs together. He's the one that taught me how to play guitar actually. Once I picked that up I didn't really care about anything else honestly."