Strange Desire

6

Soul To Squeeze - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Love Me Harder - Ariana Grande

Clouds - One Direction

It was cool that day. I had forgotten my water at home, which was unfortunate because I was parched. On the school’s field, there was a water fountain. The water was clean enough to drink and no one had ever gotten sick from drinking it, so I decided to throw caution into the wind and drink it after all if I didn’t drink anything I would have died anyways.

My head had been under the tap for a good minute when I noticed that I was not alone.

Katherine Pringle was there.

She had had a crush on me since grade eight when she first laid eyes on me. Every year she asked me to the Valentines Dance and every year I said no, because I wanted to go with my friends and not with her.

This year when she asked me and I turned her down, again, she started crying. Not crying really, she was sobbing and loudly at that. I had no idea what to do, so I comforted her with my body and by that I mean I embraced her. Her frail body shook in my care and I didn’t know what to do with her.

“W-w-w-why do y-you always s-s-s-say no?” she had sobbed

“Cat, I’m honestly just not interested. You’re a great girl and any guy would be happy to have you, but I am not one of those guys.” This only made her cry harder. And she was inconsolable.

So I made her a deal. If I didn’t have a date for the Grade Ten Dance, I would take her. She agreed and left me in peace. It has been seven months and I should have seen this coming.

“Hey Terence!”

“Hey Katherine!”

“It’s Cat, but whatever. So the Grade Ten Dance is coming up soon. Is there anyone you would like to go with?” I still could not believe how long this girl had been pursuing me. Literally, whenever I think of her, Mariah Carey’s “Obsessed” comes to mind.

I think of Mean Girls. I think of stalkers. I could not let her know that I had no one in mind she had to believe that I had a date. She had to believe that there was some who “tooted my fancy”.

“Yeah, I actually have been thinking about someone, but she doesn’t go to this school.” That’s when her face changed. She looked angry, but only for about a second. I’d never seen her angry.

We sometimes call her Mr Pringle, not just because of her surname, but also because she’s think and tall like a Pringles container. She’s also pale like Mr Pringle.

“Oh, well who is she?” she had asked the dreaded question.

I know a lot of people, but I’m only really close to about half a hand full of them. The majority of them are guys and I like girls. Catherine and I both went to the same Primary School: St Michaels Primary. It was a small school and all the girls there who didn’t go to Morgan High, Catherine would have known who they were anyways.

I racked my brain. Who didn’t she know, who had she possibly never met before that’s when it came to me.

“Oh I don’t think you’ll know her. Her name is Jasmine, Jasmine Kenward.” I just prayed that she hadn’t a clue who Jasmine was. She looked confused and angry.

“Well, you’re right, I don’t know her, but I will meet her when you bring her over for the dance.” she then smiled sadistically, almost as if she knew that Jasmine had no plans of attending the dance.

She turned around, her long, blonde hair following her as she walked away. I have to hand it to her, she’s gorgeous, but she’s crazy.

 

Jasmine wanted a boxmaster, I had more than enough money to cover everything, but I feel like she ordered smaller portions so that I could save money.

She’s always thinking. We spent the majority of our “outing” just talking and I found out more and more about her.

The more I learned, the harder I fell. I wonder how she feels, oh yeah, she feels nothing. I still remember that day clearly. She sounded relieved to have gotten over me. It kind of hurt my ego. She made it sound easy, like she had just toyed with the idea of us and like a bored child; she had easily found a new toy to take up her attention and had thrown me aside.

Oh, but I was going to make sure that she would pick up this toy again and that she plays with it so much, that the toy becomes imprinted in her, forever. That’s how long I want to be in her life; for the rest of my life and hopefully hers as well.

We all have one or a few toys we remember from our childhood. I was going to be the most important toy she had ever had.

I had to ask. Katherine was expecting me to show up with a girl and Jasmine was perfect. I still remember that day. I knew I’d told her.

“So, over there at Tommy High, do the grade tens do anything special?” I asked her. Maybe they have a dance too.

She was chewing away, so she shook her head.

“The only special thing that we have is the fact that we can chose our own subjects. We don’t really do anything special for the other grades besides the matrics. In the past they tried, but people just lacked interest.” She took another bite. I wondered if she had eaten today.

“Sorry that I’m eating like such a caveman, I skipped breakfast today, I was really late.’’ She took another bite. How had she read my mind?

“Do you guys do anything special?” she asked.

“We have a Grade Ten Dance. It’s a cross between a matric dance and a regular dance. It’s semi-formal I guess, but unlike regular dances, you need a date. Well you don’t, but it’s always nice to have one.” I was trying to be subtle, but I could see her eying me suspiciously. She was onto me. I had to confess.

“Okay, I’m just going to come out and say it. I don’t have a date. There, I said it! And I can’t take any of the other girls in my grade because, there’s this girl, Katherine. Katherine is crazy… about me. But the feelings are not reciprocated, at all. She’s a nice girl, but it’s never going to happen. I really want to take you because I told Katherine I would, because she doesn’t know you, you’re not really a threat, and because I think that you would have fun.”

She was silent the entire time. She does that a lot. She listens and doesn’t interrupt. It makes me feel like she cares, like she’s actually listening to me. She kept looking at me, I could tell from the look in her eyes that she was strongly thinking about it.

She finished chewing and swallowed, then she said,

“Is that why you’re paying for my meal? To butter me up for this? Is this a bribe? Chicken? Because if it is, it totally worked. Anything would have worked, really, but I’d be happy to attend this dance with you. It sounds fun, but you do need to tell me what to wear and if we should match. I don’t want to wear an evening gown if everyone else is going to wear shorts!”

And it was settled. We spent the rest of that evening discussing what our plans were for that evening. It was all starting to come together. Jasmine was going to be my date and maybe when Katherine sees Jasmine, she will realize that I’m unavailable.

I couldn’t wait to show off my date.

Sorry for the late update, but today is when it all ends. This book at least. I'm think about writing a sequeul: Lost Desire. The name kind of ives away what happens I guess,  but if you enjoyed this book, I think you'll enjoy the sequel just as much. It should be posted earliest next week, but thats still quite unlikely.