A Different Kind of Animal

Chapter Six

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Chapter Six

Arabelle lay sprawled across her bed, unable to think about anything or anyone other than Leo. Sure, he was a little weird—okay, really weird—but at least it was in an innocent, childlike way. He wasn’t some perverted creep or something, as far as she could tell.

Then again, I hardly know him at all, do I?

Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was almost noon. Immediately, as they had been doing all morning, her thoughts raced back to her strange new acquaintance. Was it too early to find an excuse to visit again? Should she invite him out to enjoy the sunny day?

Worrying her bottom lip with her teeth, she slid out of bed and went to stand in front of the mirror over her dresser top. Boys had asked her out plenty of times, but she could never find anyone even remotely interesting enough to capture her undivided attention. But now…

It’s because he’s a really nice weirdo. Now that’s an interesting combination.

Smiling at her reflection, she reapplied more lip gloss so that her lips shined, surrounding straight, white teeth. Well, almost straight.

Frowning, she studied her right incisor, the one tooth in her entire mouth which wasn’t perfectly aligned. It had begun to grow out more horizontally than vertically when it had first started coming in, and as she got older, it had remained permanently crooked, poking into her lower lip when she smiled. She wondered if Leo had noticed.

“What’re you up to, hun?”

Arabelle started at the sound of her mom’s voice from her bedroom doorway.

“Nothing,” she replied, straightening up and running her fingers through her hair.

“You going somewhere?”

From habit, Arabelle had been about to answer No when she changed her mind and said, “Maybe.”

Her mother’s eyes gleamed. “With that boy?”

“Mom,” she groaned. “Get rid of that smile. Besides, I don’t know. I haven’t talked with him yet.”

“I’ll call Thom,” her mom said excitedly, already rushing towards the phone hanging on the kitchen wall.

“No you will not!” Arabelle shrieked, chasing after her and reaching the phone before her mother could.

“Aw, sweetie, you take all my fun away,” her mother whined, pretending to pout as if she were hurt.

Arabelle rolled her eyes, and then she spontaneously turned around to take up the phone herself. Breathing deeply, she asked in a small voice, “So…you really think I should call?”

Like a giddy schoolgirl, her mother clapped her hands together and grinned like crazy. “Yes!”

Biting her lip again so hard that she thought it might bleed, she slowly—very slowly—dialed Thom’s number. She knew that she was only giving herself time to change her mind, and when it rang the first time, she very nearly hung up. But her hand seemed frozen to the receiver, and so all she could do was wait for the terrifying “hello” on the other end.

Maybe he won’t pick up, she thought hopefully, wondering how she’d cornered herself into this situation just because she couldn’t resist her mother’s long-missed teasing games.