Loving The Bad Boy

Rough Around the Edges

Reed Sanders never ceased to amaze, or, furthermore, perplex me. I had not expected him to be so accepting of my mildly neurotic phobia of all things I deemed unsanitary. I had not expected him to defend me when I'd been made fun of back in the pizza parlor, proving that he was indeed his own kind of gentleman. And, without a doubt, I definitely did not expect the excuse Reed had just provided me with for the unsightly black eye he'd walked into math class with today.

"It adds character, don't you think? I mean, I've been contemplating getting another piercing, but this just seemed so much more practical, seeing as it's free and all."

I glared across my desk at Reed, not at all amused by his sarcasm. I had seen him just last afternoon when he'd rescued my from my horrendous date with Quinn, and he'd been in perfect health. If he believed I was simply going to allow him to continue on like nothing had happened without providing me with a proper explanation, then he was horribly mistaken.

"Reed, I'm serious. What in god's name happened to you?"

Reed leaned back in his seat, stretching his arms out as a nonchalant expression spread across his face. "You think my face looks bad? You should see the look on Quinn's, like he's not sure whether he wants to come over here and take a swing at me or run back out the door with his tail between his legs-"

"Stop it, Reed. I'm not going to let this go, so you might as well just tell me now."

"Is that a challenge-"

"No. It's a fact. We both know how incredibly stubborn I can be."

A devilish smile tugged at the corner's of Reed's lips as he leaned forward slightly. "And that's supposed to be a deterrent?"

I blinked up at him, my eyes narrowing slightly. "Well...yes."

Reed let out a small chuckle, shaking his head. "See, though, Liz, I like it when you get all stubborn and shit. Because then you just end up getting flustered, which is when you start to blush, and your cheeks get all red, this pretty little rosy color-"

"Stop it, Reed!" I demanded, feeling my face redden at his words even as I willed myself not to. This was, I suspected, the intended effect he had hoped his words would have on me, judging by the lazy smile that had spread across his face. Reed's words themselves had not upset me. In fact, much to my dismay, I found that I was rather pleased that Reed had taken note of such an otherwise insignificant quality of mine. I was, however, furious at the blatant disregard Reed seemed to have for the purplish black bruise covering his right eye.

"Reed, no amount of distractions or smooth talking is going to get you out of this. I want to know what happened to you. Now."

Reed's features tightened slightly as he let out a slight sigh, obviously resigning himself to the fact that I was not going to drop this topic.

"Listen, Liz. It's not important, really-"

"Yes, it is, Reed. You know very well that you would be concerned if tomorrow I walked into math class with a black eye-"

"Yeah, of course I would, but that'd be different-"

"Oh, really now. How so?" I asked, crossing my arms in front of me and pegging him with a hard stare.

"It just would be." Reed said, the look on his face telling me he had no plans of elaborating further on his response.

"Why won't you tell me?" I asked, unable to hide the hurt in my voice as I met Reed's gaze. I could not explain why I felt so troubled by the thought that Reed did not trust me enough to reveal what had happened to him, or why I felt sickened by all the possible scenarios running through my head as to how exactly Reed had come to acquire this black eye. All I knew was that Reed was hurt, and I wanted to help him, but unless I knew the source of the problem, I could only be of limited help to him.