Slipping into the unknown

Beanpole

To those that read the rant from earlier and will try to help me out with any chapters that don't have a note at the end, thank you so much; to those that ignored it or will do nothing, just read the story but don't complain if it's out of whack

Trying to slip $5 into Pete's apartment as a way to say thank you, seemed to become a difficult task. The first time slipping it in through the mail-slot, it was pushed out immediately afterwards. After the third time of attempting to slip the money in, of course with varying time differences, a note slipped out with it.

The note read, 'Spending days with Duke is as much as a thank you that is needed. Anything else is purely overkill. Don't bother slipping it in again, because we taped the slot shut, and If I do recall, you did state to get back to what we were doing beforehand, and as fun as this is slipping the money back and forth, I'd rather be slipping something else back and forth if you don't mind.'

I started laughing my head off, grinning and blushing, not wanting to imagine what was going on behind the door. As cute as it was, with Duke being in my arms, he looked up at me confusedly as I laughed, and tilted his head to the side. I cooed while still chuckling.

Shifting Duke into a comfortable position so I could hold him without dropping him, I used my free hand to pull the keys from my back pocket, unlocking the apartment door, Duke started to squirm in my arms.

Setting Duke on the ground, I quickly and smoothly attached his leash to his collar. Once I made sure he wasn't going to bolt off, as he was still a puppy, I began he task of unlocking my door.

The whole escapade involves trying to shove the key in as hard as possible, jiggling the handle so many times, and body checking the door. After what felt like 10 minutes of trying, I turned from the door, exhausted, and leaned my back against it.

Looking down at Duke, who sat patiently with a somehow amused look on his adorable face, I almost forgot I was struggling to get inside my house.

Feeling as if I was almost out of options to get in, I remembered that Frank and Gee we're home.

Shuffling over to their door, Duke following close behind me, I timidly knocked in the door. I could hear conversation behind the door, which seemed odd to me. Maybe they were talking as a faster than normal pace, or had their TV on pretty loud. Surely they couldn't have that much company over- could they?

As soon as my knock seemed to register through their minds, the hum of muffled conversation died down to near silence. All I heard then was steps to the door.

As the door opened, I smiled, assuming it would've been Frank or Gee to open the door. My assumption was quickly proven wrong. There was a man, I've never seen before that stood there.

He was tall, very tall:legs of a beanpole and the body figure if a noodle. Despite looking like a noodle though, he seemed to have a little bit of muscle beneath his shirt.

On his head, there was a mop of curly blond hair, reaching mid ear length, with the curls inter-tangling with each other. He had piercing blue eyes that almost left me in a daze.

Man! What is it with people and their eyes in this town! I swear everyone here has eyes that just pop! Why can't my eyes pop like that?? All I have is a boring dull hazel, that doesn't sparkle even %5 of what people here have.

Pushing my thoughts aside, I realized I wasn't talking and his would get awkward. "Uhh, hey. Is Frankie or Gee here?" I was silently hoping they would. If I kept craning my neck to look up at this 1000 foot tall person, I'd get a cramp.

He seemed to sense my uncomfortableness and bent his knees slightly. My eyebrows began to furrow, sending this small action that tree people do. Sure, they could be doing it to be nice, but to the other end of the stick, it doesn't feel very nice; even slightly degrading as if they're mocking your height.

Preventing this degrading feeling of mine to turn into rage, I stepped back slightly and kept a very determined look on my face. He just smirked at my actions.

"They were here a while back, but I'm here now. Need something darling?" He had a slight Australian accent, and a very strong cocky one. Not confident, cocky and flirty.

I chuckled out loud at this. Duke, oddly enough seemed to feel my anger start to rise. "Ok, first of all, it's not darling, I have a name. A name which you will not get until I get some respect from you, or some kind of answer as to when Frankie or Gee will be back here. In their apartment. I assumed they would be here considering I'm going on a date with them tonight." I crossed my arms and glared while talking, hoping to show how riled up I was.

Upon hearing me say date, he stood up immediately. I kept myself from laughing as I saw all the color from his face drain away. Almost as if I could see it, I felt the cocky-arrogant-flirty jackass being float away. I kept from laughing from his priceless reaction.

"Oh um, well I do apologize sincerely. I didn't know you were going-"

"As happy as I am that you apologized, half-assedly but that's beside the point, I know what you're going to say now and that is not alright. Just because you didn't know something doesn't mean it's ok to stand in a demeaning way and flirt as if I'm some innocent little doll that needs a trees help." I tried to keep up the whole I'm angry facade, but that started to slip away as I saw how worried he looked.

I began laughing at his face, unable to contain the laughter anymore. He looked even more shocked if possible.

"Ha! Relax I'm only joking with you. You're face though was priceless. Am I that scary or something? Surely I'm not that scary."

He only hummed before speaking, and cleared his throat. "Ha. Did you call me a tree?