Mars? Yeah Right!

Chapter 5

5

Have you ever seen one of those weird animes where when something traumatising happens to one of the characters, you see their deeply depressed soul rising upwards from their body? Well, I'm pretty sure you would've seen the exact same thing happening to me if you'd been standing in my kitchen when Kevin dropped the proverbial bombshell.  

I mean, was the dude insane?! Hadn't he heard that it was only queerass losers and psychos that showed any interest in me whatsoever?! Smart, good-looking, seventeen-year-old guys like Kevin were not  supposed to want to go out with their not-so-smart, average-looking, fifteen-year-old neighbour, especially when said neighbour also happens to be one of the most inept people on the planet when it comes to dealing with members of the opposite sex!

I should probably mention now that as this particular moment in time I was still staring mutely at him, half-convinced I'd imagined what he had just said to me. Kevin, looking uncharacteristically serious and determined, stared right back. His unwavering gaze made the heat rise in my face. I probably looked like a skinny, blonde tomato.

I couldn't tell you exactly how long the two of us stayed like that for. To me, it seemed as if the whole thing  lasted several million years. Finally, Kevin sighed and broke the deafening silence.

"I'm such a moron".

You got that right pal,  I thought numbly to myself. How else would he have managed to create this agonising situation in the first place? Kevin lifted a hand to cover his eyes, breaking eye contact with me for the first time in ten full minutes.

"This isn't how I wanted to do this," he mumbled pathetically into his forearm. "I had it all figured out.  I really thought that if I told you how I felt, everything would be fixed- that I could finally be with you properly.  And now I've wreaked everything for both of us."

Something large and painful rose in my chest, almost choking me with its intensity. At first I thought it was pity, but then I realised that I was wrong.

 It was anger, hot and dark.

I've always had a serious problem with my temper. It's one of my very worst qualities. People like to say that red-haired people have the worst tempers, but honey I can promise you now that there ain't no ginger out there that can compete with little blonde me when it comes to really losing it.

Before I could stop myself, I leaped out of my chair and slammed both my hands down on the table in front of me. Kevin, speechless now, stared up at me, shock plain on his features.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I snarled. "Be with me properly?!  Are you mental?! Do you seriously think that after two weeks of painful, torturous isolation on your part you can just turn around and ask me out?!  I barely even  know you!!  Yet you still feel that you have the right to tell me that you like me!!  Who the hell do you think you are?!"

What little colour Kevin had retained at the start of the conversation drained from his face at this. He opened his mouth to reply, but I angrily cut him off.

"I don't need this! I already have enough going on what with the whole physics thing and trying to ward off random creepers every time I walk out the goddamn door without having to put up with you and your frigging moodswings!!!"