Fear Me P.JM

Chapter Twenty Eight: No more flying butterflies

I'm in the backseat of the most luxurious, yet comfortable car ever. Jimin sits to my left, looking intently out the window. On occasion he turns to look at me, which I immediately turn the other way. We're basically playing ping-pong with our heads. When he turns back to the window, I turn to stare at him; when he turns toward me, I turn to stare out the window.

"Why do you keep looking at me?"

I press up tighter to the door of the car. "What? Nooooo," I tell him with the weirdest laugh I have ever made. "Me? Noooooooo."

Jimin faces me. "You are. You've been doing it all through Batali's cooking lesson too."

"You sound so...silly," I tell him in some kind of high-pitched voice.

Silly? Out of all the words in the English language I could have chosen, I chose...'silly'?

"So bandaging three fingers of yours because you cut yourself, because you were staring at me, is normal?"

I look down at my hands.

Yeah. About that...

It's hard to focus when you suddenly find out your childhood best friend likes you over the weekend and then, a day later that the most beautiful boy in the entire school also does, too.

If I were actually better at math, I'd figure out the statistics and probability of it all.

But I'm not. So I'll go with the idea that the gods picked a name out of a hat and it came out Nikito Travis. The question: Who would be the most hilarious to watch in this situation?

Still...

One side of my brain is going: HELL YEAH KITO! YOU ROCK THAT! ROCK THAT LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW!

Not sure where that came from.

But another side is going: Jb is your FRIEND.

Very true.

And yet another side: Jimin initiates your gag reflex, ma'm. Not so good.

Also, very true.

And yet another: I'm soooo confused...

So true!

And one more goes, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

AHHHHH!

Man, I've got a lot of sides to my brain.

"Well," I say, looking straight ahead, "three out of ten fingers...that's only 30%. Not even half."

"Yes," Jimin says, sounding sarcastic. "Only until you cut five of your ten fingers will it really count."

"I'm glad you agree."

"Really, Nikito, what's up?" Jimin unbuckles his seatbelt and scoots over to the middle seat.

"That's against the law!" I yell out refusing to look over. "Stay in your seat until the automobile has come to a full and complete stop! Thank you!"

Jimin pretends he doesn't hear me.

"You've been cooking forever," he says. "So, for you to cut your fingers isn't normal..."

He pauses and I suddenly feel the urge to turn to him.

"...well, normal for you anyways."

I lost the urge.

"Really, what's up?"

I see my neighborhood! I'm almost home! I roll the down the window and stick my head out.

"You're not a dog," I hear and a hand pulls me roughly back in.

I tumble backward into my seat and end up staring face to face with Jimin.

Ohhhhhhhh. Ohhhhhhh. Ohhhhhh by the Greek god Zeus who placed Jimin on this planet, I utterly hate you. He's incredible. My eyes grow wider and wider and I can feel my sockets shrivel up as they dry out. Blink, Kito, blink!

But before that can happen, my gag reflex is surfacing again. I shut my lips tight, but I can feel the bile rising...

"Ah," Jimin says, looking unusually calm, "I have a remedy for that."

I'm holding back the best as I can, but it's coming-!

And suddenly I hear the sound of duct tape being pulled and Jimin swiftly cuts it and places it over my mouth.

"There," he says with a smug grin.

What the-?

"MmMMmmMMM!" I try to say to him.

"You're welcome," Jimin says. "Nothing will come out. You've been Kito-proofed. Copyrighted, all rights reserved."

I have no idea what to say.

"Yeah," Jimin says with a stunning smile. "I can be funny too."

My head drops several inches in a you've-got-to-be-kidding-me kind of awe.

"I'm not kidding you," Jimin says.

WOAH. I look right and left. Did he just?

"You're easy to read, Kito," Jimin says, still smiling. He's so obviously enjoying this.

But only Jb can-!

"Jb's not the only guy," Jimin says, his voice suddenly rougher. And when I say rough I still mean the smoothest rocks out there-those rocks run over by centuries of river water until they come out shining like diamonds.

"Maybe if you actually looked directly at me once in a while," Jimin tells me, "then I could read you more often."

I make a huge 'X' with my arms. NO READING!

"Oh, we're here."

I turn around as the car comes to a stop.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Jimin says as I step out the door. "My cousin is coming to visit the school, too."

I whip around thinking of the last time I met Jimin's male cousin.

"Not the guy," Jimin says shaking his head. "The girl."

WOW. This guy really can read me. Seriously, is there a teleprompter on my forehead that I'm not aware of?

"Bye," I hear and the door closes.

"MmmMM," I answer.