AT LAST, I COULD BREATHE | billy hargrove

we give good advice.

this chapter's song: Highway To Hell - AC/DC

we give good advice.

We three must've been walking for ages, just dropping chunks of meat on the ground, before one of us broke the silence. It seemed to be how this whole encounter was gonna go.

"All right, so let me get this straight," Steve started. "You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl...who you just met?"

"All right, that's grossly oversimplifying things," Dustin said, a few yards ahead of me and Steve.

"I mean, why would a girl like some nasty slug anyways?"

"An interdimensional slug?" The kid asked rhetorically. "Because it's awesome."

"Well, even if she thought it was cool, which she didn't, I...I just...I don't know, I just feel like you're trying way too hard."

"Well, not everyone can have your perfect hair, all right?"

"It's not about the hair, man. The key with girls is just...just acting like you don't care."

"Even if you do?"

"Yeah, exactly. It drives 'em nuts."

This sparked my attention very quickly. "He's not wrong, you know," I piped in.

Dustin turned his head to look back at me. "Really?"

"Yes, my child, listen to the ladies man. He holds the secrets." Dustin nodded and took my advice, listening intently to Steve and his words of women wisdom.

"Then what?"

"You just wait until, uh...until you feel it."

"Feel what?"

"It's like before it's gonna storm, you know? You can't see it but you can feel it, like this, uh...electricity? You know?"

"Oh, like in the electromagnetic field when the clouds in the atmosphere—"

"No, no, no, no, no. Like a...like a sexual electricity."

"Oh," Dustin responded, probably not even thinking that way at all.

"You feel that...and then you make your move," Steve suggested.

"So that's when you kiss her?" He asked innocently.

"No, whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down, Romeo."

"Sorry."

"Sure, okay, some girls, yeah, they want you to be aggressive. You know, strong, hot and heavy, like a..."

"Like a lion," I finished.

"Yes!" Steve agreed, pointing to me. "Like a lion. Wow, how did you know I was gonna say that?"

"You think you're the only master of this game, buddy? Men might be easier to...persuade, but it doesn't mean there isn't a dance involved," I told him, throwing yet another chunk on the ground.

Steve nodded and went back to his lecture. "But others, you gotta be slow, you gotta be stealthy, like a...like a ninja."

"What type is Nancy?"

"Nancy's different. She's different than the other girls."

"Yeah, she seems pretty special, I guess."

"Yeah," Steve agreed. "Yeah, she is." I could hear the sadness in his voice and it was heartbreaking.

"But this girl's special, too, you know. It's just, like, something about her—"