Behind Her Smile

Chapter Two

Chapter Two: 1123

“Please.”

“No.”

“PLEASE!”

“NO!”

“Pretty please!” Dex continues not deterred.

Ro huffs in annoyance, “For the hundredth time no!” For the past twenty minutes, Dex had been pestering him non-stop to play Beyoncé on the Aux cord.

“But it’s Beyoncé. She’s bae”

“I don’t care. I don’t even like her.”

Dex gasps as a look of horror took place on her face, like he just told her he burns bibles in his spare time. “You take that back right now!”

Ro rolls his eyes. They go through this every time she goes in his car. “Why should I?”

She gasps again, “Because...because I’m the guest. And you have to appease the guests.” A triumphant smile comes on her face for thinking of a valid reason.

“Or what? You wont tip?” Ro smirks.

Ro glances over Dex sitting in the passenger seat, expecting to see an angry pout, but he sees a mischievous smile on her face. “I know you secretly love her."

"What? No I don't." Ro refutes. 

"Then why do I have a video of you dancing to single ladies.”

Ro slams on the brake in shock abruptly at the red light as he returns a look of horror in her direction, “You have a video of what?”

Dex smiles wider. “The light is green.”

The car jumps as Ro slams on the gas. His mind whirling. ‘Don’t panic, Ro. She’s just bluffing. You have never even heard of that song before in your life!’ He thinks to himself. 

The song Single Ladies by Beyoncé fills the car. The source of that being Dex’s phone. Taking advantage of another red light, he snatches her phone right out of her hands. “Hey!”

Ro ignores her as he watches himself indeed dancing to single ladies. Also singing the lyrics badly off-key using a beer bottle as a makeshift microphone. He was shirtless, showing his flabby stomach and a hot pink feather boa around his shoulders. Ro watches as he twirls around drunkenly before crashing into a light stand before throwing up. He cringes at himself an embarrassed blush adorning his cheeks, nearly matching his red hair.

Dex laughs evilly and snatches her phone back before he thinks of deleting it. “Dex! You know very well that was part of a dare. And I remember specifically telling you to erase that!”

Dex starts giggling. “You honestly think I would erase something as priceless as that?”

If only looks could kill, then Dex would have been in big trouble. “Give.me.your.phone.”

Dex clutches the phone to her chest. “No.” She pouts like a child in the most adorable. It almost made Ro forgive her for being such a brat. Almost. “My phone, my videos.”

Trying to ignore how cute she sounded right now made blurt out, “Well my dance”, like an idiot. Dex laughs at him and he thought, he would gladly embarrass himself a thousand times over if he could keep hearing that beautiful sound.

Loud honking snaps him out of his haze as he starts driving again.

Her smile turns smug. “Well my password and you won’t figure it out.”

“Let me guess.” Ro thinks about it, “How about 11211.”

Dex furrows her eyebrows. “Why 11211?”

“January 12, 2011.”

Dex raises her eyebrows. “Is that date supposed to mean something?”

“The day we first met.” Dex eyes turn wide. He remembered the day they met? She turns her head away from him as an unexpected blush rushes to her face.

Little did she know, Ro is doing the same.

“You remember the day we first met.” For some reason that had Dex smiling giddy at that. It made her feel special. "That's actually is kinda sweet" 

Ro frowns and clears his throat, “Yeah why wouldn’t I remember the brat who painted my car pink and made me late for orientation.”

Dex smiles, reminiscing back to two years ago. Good times. “You found me out pretty easily.” 

“Just had to follow the trail of pink footprints and the sound of your evil laugh.”

“Hey! You didn’t even know it was me, until you saw my hands.”

Ro scoffs. “I knew all along," he denies. 

“Yeah sure. You don’t know everything.” She opens her phone when she saw she had a new message.

“Sure I do. Like your password is 5555.”

Dex snaps her head up. “How did you know? Are you some kind of mind reader or something?”

“No.” Ro deadpans. “I saw it right now. One of the advantages of you being so short.” He smirks when Dex slaps his arm.

She glares at him, “Well I’m sorry not everyone can be the size of a skyscraper. And I’m totally changing my password to one of those fingerprint ones. So there.”

“You and I both know you will never do that.” He said while giving her a pointed look.

Dex grumbles something under her breath, knowing she couldn’t really say anything considering it was true. She perks up only when she sees they are close to her intended destination. She had told Ro to just take her to a friend house after they had had a shopping spree, without telling him her true intentions. He had asked what they were really doing, but she hadn't said a word. 

To prank their professor, so they won’t have a test tomorrow.

He’ll thank her later.

“So this is it?” Ro looks at the strip of houses to see which House he is supposed to drop her off. “Where’s your friend?”

Dex shrugs, “Don’t know. Can you escort me to the door?”

“Can you tell me which house it is?”

“No. It’s a surprise!” When Dex jumps out of the car, Ro rolls her eyes at her dramatic flare and follows her out of the car, trailing behind. To his surprise, they pass all the houses on the curb. To his utter annoyance, she ignores all his probing questions.

After a few minutes of walking, Ro had to ask again. “Where are we going?”

And the response is “Be patient” again. Like Dex couldn’t be the spokesperson for impatience.

Ro shrugs and stuffs his hands in his pockets. He frowns when he sees the street signs. ‘Wait! I know this area. This is the road I use to get to…’ He stops as his eyes narrow. “Dex! What are we doing going to our college when it’s closed?!”

She whirls around glaring at him. “You ruined the surprise!”

Ro just crosses his arms waiting for an explanation.

10/28/17