Unpredictability of Love

Chocolate Can Be Eaten With Anything. ANYTHING

"Do you always get late everywhere you go?" Ethan asked me, dumping my bag in the backseat of the car and helping me into the seat almost as if it was a natural thing. I had to force myself to not act all awkward.

After school had ended, I visited Molly, who did some mumbo-jumbo-massage-thing to my ankle, wrapped it up again, and promised that it wouldn't take more than a couple of days to heal. I wasn't surprised because all the years I spent falling and breaking bones had given me the ability to recover a lot faster than should be possible. Mom said that wasn't correct, but I honestly didn't believe her, even though she was the one with a medical degree. I liked to think that all the time I broke my bones was at least paying off in some form. Molly had taken up a lot of time, and after that, I had to visit Horry - who first got mad at me for missing training in the morning, then saw my wrapped-up ankle and got red in the face and shouted at me for being a "careless girl with a loose screw in her brain", then got even redder in the face until his bald-patch was glowing brighter than Christmas lights when he found out about the one-week detention, and stormed off to the principal's office to have "words" with him about how no one was going to make his players sit around in a class room to waste time. Needless to say, I didn't have to worry about detention anymore. But then what I did have to worry about was the punishment Horry would put me through for coming late (he hated tardiness) - fifty laps around the ground for an entire month, having to run up the stairs every day for the year, eating the diet suggested by Horry my whole life until the merciful release of death. Anything. Anything was possible with Horry.

With all that, I'd made Ethan wait nearly forty-five minutes, according to him. How long he had to wait didn't bother me as much as where he chose to wait - at the end of the street, where he could hide from all the school kids coming out after the day. I had to walk all the way out of the school, and to the end of the street, just to get to him. Obviously, if he was making a girl with a bad leg walk everywhere, he should expect to have to wait at least forty-five minutes. "Not if I don't have to hop everywhere," I retorted, leaning back on the seat.

He frowned at me. "So you're telling me it took you forty-five minutes to get here after class? Or did you get side-tracked?"

I shrugged. "Had to visit the nurse for my ankle, then Horry to get out of detention. Having to hop around didn't help."

"Why did you get detention?" He was still frowning at me, sounding a little too patronizing for my liking. The only people allowed to patronize me were mom, Preston and Horry. Mom because she was mom, Horry because he could get me out of detention and Preston because he could look fierce even in a pink frock.

"They're fun, you know? I mean, who doesn't like a good old detention. And there's an added benefit of meeting Horry. His company is very enjoyable, especially when he's glowing brighter than your brains are right now."

He stared at me blankly. "Huh?"

I rolled my eyes. "I was late, remember? If only you had picked me up on time in the morning, I wouldn't have gotten a detention."

His eyes widened. "Excuse me? Did you ju-"

I cut him of before he could go all justifiably annoyed, laughing. "I'm just kidding, okay? Lighten up a little."

He snorted. "I would if I saw something bright in front of me." He glared at me pointedly.

I smiled. "Does that mean you're blind? No wonder you're terrible at driving. You should've told me before."

He groaned. "Why did I agree to act as your chauffeur, again?"

"Because you couldn't say no to a sweet little girl like me."