Your Loyal Servant

(10) Riding Tandem?

Without thinking, I approached him, stomping my feet, and shot him a harsh glare. I informed him through clenched teeth, "We need to talk."

He tilted his head downward, which I assumed was the substitute for bowing when in public places. He replied almost reverently, "Of course, ma'am."

As compliant as ever.

My murderous glare cut over to a group of gossip-hungry girls who were hoping to overhear our conversation. But once they made eye contact with me, they scattered like a herd of zebras that had just caught sight of a lioness.

As the people around me turned in our direction, I realized everyone would try to listen in. I looked at him with the intention of dragging him to an empty classroom to talk in private, but that was such a horrible idea I recoiled at the thought. I was stuck. Either I let everyone listen to me scream at The Freak and validate everything they'd said, or I spoke to him alone, only to spark a million more rumors, each one worse than the one before it.

My eyes darted from his strange silver eyes to the faces of bystanders to the window as the gears in my head worked to find a solution. As I looked at the street below, the perfect plan formulated: talk to him without the crowd but in an open place. It would work.

"Follow me," I ordered, walking past him. I didn't bother to glance over my shoulder to make sure he was following me, because I knew whatever order I barked at him, he'd obey without a second thought.

Once we were outside, I made a bee-line for the basketball courts, and when there, I whipped around to continue glowering at him and crossed my arms over my chest.

He gave me that soft smile of his, the one he used when he knew he'd have to exercise patience—he was catching on quickly. He inquired with his usual innocence, "Is something the matter, mistress?"

I let out a bark of an incredulous laugh and rolled my eyes towards the sky. "Yes, there is something monstrously wrong. Because of you, there are a bunch of rumors about us spreading like wildfire throughout the school!"

He wasn't so sheltered he didn't know what a rumor was or what it entailed. His smile faded, but he didn't look too concerned. He just looked curious as he asked, "What sort of rumors?"

"The ones that say I'm paying you and we're living together and . . ." My voice trailed off. I wasn't quite willing to tell him all the others had to do with certain activities between us.

For a second, he just stared at me, but I could tell he was shuffling through everything he'd heard today. When the light bulb turned on, he nodded and added, "Not to mention the rumors regarding sexual encounters between us."

My jaw dropped. How could he say it so casually? I shook my head. "Yes, those rumors. Because of you, I now have rumors about me. Thanks."

He didn't appear as angry about this as I was. He assured me, "Most of those are false. The only one that has any validity to it is we, in fact, live together."

I threw my hands up in the air and exclaimed, "Exactly! That's bound to raise a few eyebrows and start some rumors."

His eyes muddled in confusion, as he noted, "Forgive me for assuming, but you don't seem like someone who would care about what people said about her."

I said matter-of-factly, "We can pretend like it doesn't get to us, but in all honesty, we're bothered at least a little bit by it. And this very seriously bothers me."