Runaway Man

Chapter 33: Me or him?

Chapter 33: Me or him?

"Yeah, I've been dating Pete for like two weeks now," Diana rambled on, "He's just so dreamy and amazing and smexy. Hey Flo, I was thinking, should I have another house party soon?"

Rubbing my eyes, I yawned, "Why do you want another party?" Of course, I'd hated parties since forever. I knew that if she were to host another one, there was no way I was getting out of going. My name would be written on the top of the guest list in red pen and in bold. If I didn't show up, she would go get someone to hunt me down and pull me out of my house.

I shivered at the thought.

"There hasn't been a party in ages, plus I want to get socializing." Her eyes were twinkling and I sighed, turning past the woods that Joey had kissed me in.

"There's other ways than that-"

Diana joked, "What like pairing up with Linda in P.E?" Rolling my eyes, I pretended that I didn't hear her comment. That was different and it was far from socializing. Guilty consciences were annoying. Plus, it was all part of my plan to investigate the new Linda. It made things a bit fun, to see her new behaviour and I wanted to know what was up with her exactly. Knowing her, it was because of the incident where she strangled me. She must have wanted a new start or she was rehabilitated by her parents.

In fact, her parents. Weirdly, I didn't know too many about them or her family at all really. Dirk did date her sister a few years back and I wasn't sure whether or not his heartache had stopped since they'd broken up. To my knowledge, he hadn't dated anyone after her. If he got married to her sister or something and Linda married Joey then we would be kind of related. That was really cringy to think about actually. Never going to happen though, not in this lifetime anyway. 

I waved to Diana, "I'll see you tomorrow." She nodded and continued her route home. I admired the scenery: the tall blossom trees, the clean pavements and the blooming flowers. A dog nearby barked and someone jumped out of a bush in front of me.

"Joey!" I screamed. He was covered in leaves and mud and he burst out laughing, "What are you doing here?" Wiping some dirt from his face, he clutched his stomach to calm himself down.

"We didn't finish our conversation from the other day," he shrugged his shoulders carelessly, "Do you think your parents would mind if I came over for a bit?" My eyes popped out of their sockets. WHAT?! There was no way they would allow him to be in my house. Me and him... alone in my bedroom... Dirk home too. NO FRICKIN' WAY!

"Forget it." I tried push past him but his huge body took up the entire path. Sighing, I gave up and glared up at him. There was an annoying smile on his face and I wondered why his mood was a lot happier than it had been last time.

With a pout, he grumbled in a high pitched voice, "But I let you into my house before... I think it's fair if you let me come to yours just once." Just to exaggerate it even more, he held up his index finger to indicate. Well, my parents were definitely still working but I wasn't sure about Dirk. If he caught Joey, we'd both be dead. Seeing as what happened between them last time wasn’t exactly pleasant.

"Fine." The words rolled off my tongue artificially. Joey cheered, linked his arm onto mine and started skipping like he was skipping through flowers. The serious Joey stage was rare however, I preferred it when he was a pansy like this. 

Once we reached my house, I fumbled with the lock, praying that my older brother had a shift or went out. Thankfully, he wasn't downstairs at least so we snuck upstairs together, taking off our shoes and placing them onto the shoe rack.

But I heard talking from his bedroom, which was rather weird. It wasn't just his voice but a female's too. Not wanting to interrupt everything, I gently grabbed hold of Joey's wrist and pulled him into my bedroom and shut the door. Dirk was obviously too distracted by his guest to notice, and even if he did, it was a matter of "If you tell, I tell."