“Stop!” I laughed, running away from Dave. I dodged in and out of mall shoppers, almost knocking into a loud middle schooler. Dave caught me as I tried to dart between to wanna be ghetto thugs. He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind and spun me in a circle. I almost kicked an old lady in the head.
“You’re It,” he panted, letting go of me.
“Can we take a break?” I said, breathing heavily.
“Sure,” he laughed.
“YOU’RE IT!” I screamed, tapping his shoulder and running away.
“That’s not fair!’ he called out.
I ran past a making-out couple and a crying child, about nine giggling girls, and someone that yelled “Hi, Dave!” as we passed. Dave caught me again, though, almost causing me to fall on my face, but he caught me at the last second.
“You cheated!”
“Like you’ve never cheated?” I laughed. He let me go, and we continued to walk.
“I can’t believe you’re leaving,” he said after a few minutes, stopping to grab my hand. “Can you please not go?”
“You don’t need me… you have your band and D.C…”
“This whole D.C. thing is really bothering you, isn’t it?” he asked, trying to force me to look him in the eye.
“Why would it?” I asked.
“I dunno,” he said suspiciously, “Why would it?”
“I dunno,” I tried to sound sure of myself.
“Do you want me?” he asked, tilting my chin up to his face so that I couldn’t look away. He didn’t sound like he was joking.
“Are you serious?” I laughed, although my palms got all sweaty.
He let go but didn’t seem quite convinced. We continued walking, but I was kind of shaken by his question. Did I want him? That was silly… I mean, I was in love with Taylor, I couldn’t want Dave at the same time…
“Holy crap,” I whispered, stopping in my tracks.
“What?”
I was frozen. I could not believe who I was seeing coming toward me. I don’t even know how I managed to stammer, “Hide me.”
“What is it?” Dave raised one eyebrow like I was a crazy person.
“That’s girl over there… What the hell is she doing here? Dude, seriously, I have to hide. Her name is Carla, and we hate each other, and… Just like, talk to me or make me look… unapproachable.”
“Okay,” he shrugged, smiling evilly. He was still holding my hand, and so he yanked me over to him, wrapped his arms tightly around my waist and dove right in. I didn’t kiss back for the first few seconds as my brain screamed about how fundamentally wrong this was. But as Dave took my arms and wrapped them around his neck, I loosened up. He kissed so strangely kind of rough, not all soft and sweetly like Taylor. Gross, how am I thinking about Taylor while Dave’s tongue was in my mouth? I cleared my head and let it be what it was… a kiss I felt in my toes.
“Is she gone?” he said, smiling wickedly as he stopped for breath.
She was indeed. He was still holding me close. Too close. “You bonehead!” I pushed him away, pretending (poorly) to be angry. “That girl hates me because she thinks I’m a boyfriend-stealing whore… Now she’s gonna tell everyone. Sh&#! Fu$^ing son of a goddamn mother fu^$er!”
Dave laughed, “Chill yo.”
People all around were staring at me. “Dude, when I went camping with Taylor and those people, she hated me because I was going out with him… and we beat each other up in the mud… Now she’s gonna tell Taylor that she saw us…doing that…”
He saw that I was about to start crying again, and so he smiled, “You mud wrestled with a girl?”
“Yea,” I couldn’t help laughing.
“How come you never mud wrestled with me?” he asked, pretending to be hurt.
“You never asked me,” I teased.
I let him draw me close and kiss me again, a little more softly and seriously this time. I started to freak out, remembering his comment about not having to be dating to screw… How was I kissing someone this dirty? Someone this manwhore-ish… someone this immoral… someone this amazingly good at kissing? chapter 6
