Be A Pest

Chapter 12

My stomach dropped and I felt limp after hearing that. It was the one thing I was worried about. I didn't know how Wakko would react. I didn't even know how I was going to cope with it myself. Looking at him, I saw a small frown he was trying to hide from my parents.

"Ok", I whispered loudly enough for them to hear, like I had no opinion, and taking my backpack, walked towards one of the tents. I set it on one side of the mattress and sat down, sighing. I had to keep pretending there was nothing going on about my feelings. Had to keep my own secret from him. He'd never known me enough because of that, but it'd be too much for him to know one more thing apart from all those things he already knew but shouldn't have.

Wakko perked inside a little and entered. He sat next to me and tried to cheer me up, I assumed, which didn't really work. "You see these?". I turned my head to face him and recognised two fingers of his hand pointed at me. "Better watch out", he continiued, "'Cause some day...when you least expect it...". My breath hitched as I waited for his next words. "I'm going to boop you with them", he then reached the two fingers until they were at my neck.

"Boop", he pressed them on my neck and grinned. I rolled my eyes at him and all of a sudden, fell on my back. That hurt.

I...I'm done...please stop being cute...please...I...I can't take it...I'm going...to kiss you.

I sat back up straight and looked around. That thought was so surprising and intimidating, I had to stay still for a minute. I slowed my breathing down to be as quiet as possible as warmth surrounded me like it was the middle of the day. Something like that had never crossed my mind before. In the end, I inhaled and exhaled to relax from the shock. "Listen", I said, not being able to look at him, "You take one end, I take another".

Before I knew it, he was hugging and thanking me for saying that. "Oh, I shouldn't hug you", he let go of me before I could hug back and gave me a slight smile. I crawled over and curled up on my side, my emotions taking control. That was what I realised the moment he hugged me. I was facing the tent wall, thinking I didn't succeed not to look at him. It was a battle I didn't know if I could win. I was on the edge of my emotional strengh.

"You tired again?". I slowly turned around to see him on his side, staring right at me. Then I flipped on my back, "I'm always tired". "What do you mean?", I sensed he'd got a little closer. That fact made me stay still and not move an inch. "I'm giving up", I started talking nonsense. "On what?", he kept asking. My eyes closed and opened again, as I drowned in the warmth that surrounded me. "I...I can't tell you...", I whimpered.

There was a moment of silence before I spoke up again, "You...you don't know...you can't know...". I was on a verge of speechlessness. Not the kind where I had nothing to say, but the kind where all I wanted to say would hurt him. It really resembled to raising a child and knowing how harmful the world can be. "Are you sure you're ok y/n?". I sat up again and saw him sitting right in front of me.

Noo...you failed again! How dare you?! You were doing amazing...but then-

"Stop", was all I could quietly get out after looking him straight in the eyes. It sounded like I couldn't breathe, yet the message was clear enough as though I'd said it loudly. His eyes widened at that and I instantly knew what I did was a false move. "Guys". We both turned our heads towards the entrance to see mom standing there. "Dinner's ready", she continiued. We got up and went outside.

The four of us sat around the fire and had dinner. It was awkward, for a reason that Wakko and I didn't say a word to eachother. The cool air was little help against the amount of warmth I still felt. It frustrated me to the point that I started thinking how Wakko was already scared of me. Not only me, but of my parents as well, since he talked to no one the whole time. And not in the way that he could call me scary like he already had, but this time for real.

"Why are we all quiet here?", my mom asked at one moment. I stared at her, thinking what I could tell her without complaining about the current situation. However, she reacted faster than I ever could and gave me one of her usual orders before I could say anything. "You should put your hoodie on for the night, it's going to be pretty cold". "No", I spat, pouting. "Then we need to talk, in private. Come on".

I followed her to a random spot out of earshot and once we stopped, she turned to face me. "First of all", she began, "If you could possibly tell me why you would risk your own health and not provide yourself the amount of warmth you need". I sighed, "Mom, it...it's already too warm...". "Well it won't be in a few hours", she said. "B-but...you don't understand, the warmth...it's coming from within me...", I tried to get as little information out as possible, 'cause making someone guess such things felt a lot safer.

"Oh come on! Stop whimpering, why are you doing that?". Now that was the one thing that pissed me off for real. I started whisper-shouting, "Because you basicaly set me up with him! Before you called us, I got so flustered that I almost told him what was going on, and then he asked me if I was really ok so I told him to stop and-". "So that's why you're not talking?", mom cut me off. "Exactly!", I almost shouted, then spoke in a calmer yet worried tone, "I think he's scared of all of us now".

"Don't think that", mom said reassuringly, "It's ok if you don't want to sleep in a hoodie, we have warm blankets. We can go back now, shall we?". I got a feeling mom had a secret reason to set us in the same tent. Her responses were strange enough for me to assume that. The warmth never left me, it was now a mixture of frustration and this other thing I didn't want to explain to myself.

No matter how much I covered myself with blankets to prepare for the cold night, it was simlply too warm to even think of them. Maybe it won't be that cold, I thought, especially as long as I'm feeling this way. So I completely removed the blankets off of me, finaly trying to fall asleep. Little did I know my mom was utterly right and that this whole trip had a big purpose created by her. She was, step by step, making me do what I considered forbiden, yet what she considered to be the right thing.