Love's A Prick

I Bunk

** Felix Herald **

Gosh, she was defiant. Refusing to answer me and asking for the beaker like it was her favorite teddy bear.

She made me mad. And I had more than a slight hint that I made her mad too.

"Okay, Ms. Whitley," I called behind me, still holding her wrist. "I will now introduce you to one of the finest joys known to high school life - bunking."

"Let. Me. Go. You. Stupid. Peacock!"

She was struggling to get her hand out of my iron grip, but it helped that he worked out every day.

"Ah, calling names, are we? Tsk tsk tsk, this is not done. Let us be a bit formal, Mousey."

I started running, dragging her behind me, heading for Clearwater park.

Already, she'd started gasping for air, and we'd only been running for a minute.

"Won't stop running till you say please!" I taunted.

She set her jaw. "I won't."

"Okay then." I started picking up his pace, not realizing how fast I was going till I could hear her, barely audible through her gasps, saying "Stop. Please. Please!"

I slowed down to a walk before realizing that she was about to faint behind me.

I hadn't realized she was that tired, and I was barely winded.

She stumbled, and I instinctively reached out to catch her. I know, I'm a gallant gentleman, right?

"Don't touch me!" she rasped, pulling her hand free of my slackened grip. "I can take care of myself, thank you very much."

"What do I do if you fall? Because you look like you're about to fall."

"Yeah, and who do I have to thank for that?"

We had reached the park, and she sank down on one of the benches that lined the playground.

Obviously, she didn't run a lot. Or at all. Dammit, I felt guilty now.

She was still panting, staring up at me reproachfully. Maybe she was trying to look fierce. Need I say that it didn't work?

"What did you mean by that, huh? Yanking me out of school? Right before Algebra? On the first day of school?"

"You needed to live a little. You looked too innocent over there, I had to loosen you up."

"Loosen up, my head. Stupid Peacock," I heard her mutter. So far the only "bad" word I'd heard her say was stupid. Out loud, she said,"And forcing me to run?"

"Hey! How was I supposed to know you had the stamina of a koala? Besides, if we didn't run, they would have caught us."

" There wouldn't have been any reason to play Tag if, oh, I dunno, we hadn't bunked."

"Cool it, okay? I do it all the time."

"Must be easy, seeing that your dad is the Principal."

"That doesn't have anything to do with it."

"So you think," she snorted.

What was that supposed to mean?

"So...", she continued. " I didn't get my answer. Why, again, am I not in school?"

"Because Aidan."

"Aidan?"

"Aidan."

"What about him?"

"He kinda wants Courtney back."

She snorted again (she was doing that a lot). "Typical men. Objectifying women at the drop of a hat."

"You do just realize that you're being sexist, right?"

She didn't blush, per se, but she frowned. Hah! Score one, Felix.

"Well, if he wanted her-"

"Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah," I interrupted. I wasn't about to let this slip so easily. "You hypocrite! Accusing me of-"

"If he 'wanted her back'," she powered through, "maybe he shouldn't have been sitting in the computer lab getting a lap dance from his ex- girlfriend!"