To Skin A Lamb

5

TERRANCE

I was terribly wrong. She was a menace for no reason. (9)

While we were waiting for the truck to arrive, she didn't say a single word to me as if I did something to her. For the first five minutes, I stood there a little confused because there was no way she was upset with me about anything.

After the last frustrated sigh she released I asked her, "Did I do something wrong?"

She looked at me with surprise.

"Do you always insert yourself into other people's business?" She asked with irritation leaking off her tone.

"Excuse me?" I questioned, turning to look at her.

"Your behavior is not." She retorted with raised brows. "I understand that your intentions were to help, but it didn't. It made me seem ungrateful."

I snorted. "Because you are."

"Excuse you?" She looked at me with disbelief. Her eyebrows lifted and she looked so cute that I almost smiled at her indignation. "I-"

"My behavior isn't excused, remember?" I interrupted her. "I have only been kind to you and in return you have treated me like crap. So since you wanna bring up the topic of behavior, let's discuss yours."

She looked at me for a long time. Charity took a deep breath. She bit her bottom lip as she thought about her next words. Instinctively, my eyes looked down at her lips, but then quickly popped back to her thoughtful eyes.

"I told you I wasn't friendly." She looked at me for a very long time before continuing. "But I'm gonna try to be better."

Slowly, a grin crept onto my face. "You are gonna try?" I questioned with a small smirk.

She nodded her head.

"After all... we are gonna be stuck with each other all summer."

"Don't think of it as being stuck and more like being situated with each other." I looked at the road.

"Like a situationship?" She asked and I could hear the slight humor in her voice.

"I was thinking more like a friendship." I corrected her, looking over at her for a moment.

"Friendship bracelets type of friends or secret book club type of friends?"

This time I found myself laughing, nodding my head. "Both." I answered.

"Oh so we are moving fast. Straight to best friend status." She joked and I looked over at her, even more enamored with her ability to correct her behavior in seconds.

"Straight to best friend status." I agreed, smiling down at her as she wiped away a bead of sweat from her forehead. "I don't believe in taking things slow. Slow is boring."

"Slow is safe." She said quietly more to herself than me.

Finally the truck turned the corner and started rolling down the unpaved road to the small town that sat in the back of the city.

As soon as it parked, the driver hopped out the truck and started speaking in Spanish. I didn't understand a lick of it, but Charity seemed to translate it perfectly fine.

"¡Eh! Tenéis unos 30 minutos para vaciarlo antes de que me vaya." He told her. She nodded her head and gave him a charming smile that I wish was directed at me.

"¡La tengo! Te lo agradezco." She replied with ease. The man walked away a couple of feet and then started smoking a cigarette. I grimaced a bit.

Next, she looked at me and said, "We have 30 minutes to get this stuff off the truck before he leaves. Let's get started because it looks like it's gonna take us at least three or four trips to fully empty it."