vandrophobia

Age is No Matter in Love

"Thanks for helping me," I say to Jeff. The two of us are walking to school together.

Jeff yawns. "No problem. I mean with you screaming in the phone to come over right away, I didn't have much of a choice did I?" He grins. "Oh, that's right. You didn't actually call. You just screamed until I heard you from next door."

I grab my face. "It was horrible, though!" I shudder. "Everywhere…beautiful men…"

"Well, I got all the posters down, changed your screensaver, and the wallpaper of your cell phone." Jeff rubs his hands together as if very proud of his work.

"Oh yeah," I say taking out my cell phone. "What did you replace my wallpaper with?" I open it and cry out in disgust.

Jeff laughs. "Me."

I push him off the sidewalk. "More like a part of you." I change my wallpaper. "Mooning my cell phone camera is just wrong."

"It's better than a beautiful man, isn't?" Jeff argues.

"I don't know…" I put my cell phone away. "They kind of rank the same level."

The two of us begin fighting, slapping each other this way and that. I guess in the end, the two of us are really like grade school students. All that's left is our cootie shots. And maybe a carton of milk.

"HEY! STOP HURTING HIM!" a girl yells as we reach the school's gates.

"Huh?" I stop. My arms are tangled with Jeff's.

"You just want to get close to him, we get it," says another girl. She crosses her arms and stares at me angrily.

I laugh.

Not a smart idea.

The several girls around us now look they are about to kill me. Will this ever end? Ah well, might as well have some fun with it.

"Hurting him?" I say. "He's the one who started it!" I point to Jeff.

Jeff looks at me heatedly.

"It's just how I flirt," I say with a smile. The girls look astounded. Some are about to burst out laughing at the stupidity of my "flirting" methods.

"If I really wanted to hurt him," I say and I lean against Jeff causing the girls to gawk, "I'd do something like this!"

And I pull my hand back and slap Jeff on the arm as hard as I possibly can.

"OWWWWW!" Jeff yells. "YOU!" he cries out reaching for me.

"Oh Jeff!" the girls cry out and I duck under them and run away.

"Sorry!" I yell to him. I can't help but laugh again.

I walk to into my homeroom feeling pretty good about myself. "Good stuff…good stuff…"

"Talking to yourself again?" Tanya says coming up to me.

"Again?" I don't talk to myself! Unless I see my shadow. But the last time I did that was ages ago.

Like last Sunday, for example.

"So, are you back to normal today?" Tanya says, her eyes examining my face.

"Yeah," I say nodding. "Yesterday was just…weird. I don't remember much."

"Well that's a shame…" I hear a voice that chills me to the bone.

I turn around. Wintar. I take one very large step backward.

"Shame?" I say.

Tanya leans over my shoulder. "Shame?"