13

“Yo, virgin…?” He clears his throat, voice strained, and I glance back, seeing him getting to his feet and adjusting his shorts. A little blush on the high points of his cheekbones, but he seems to recover rapidly. He locks his gaze on mine and keeps me rooted as I walk away.

“What?” I snark at him, so focused on walking while snarling his way, I walk straight into the door frame and bang my cheek, shoulder, hip, and knee simultaneously and ‘ouch’ in reaction. It’s a sharp shooting pain over the entire left side of my body that has me crumpling.

“Yeah … that…. You suck at multitasking.” He laughs at me, wanders up to where I am hopping around, rubbing various sore points on my body and face, and uses his flat palm to push my head away as he passes, covering my entire cheek. I fall on my ass because of my weird posture and holding my leg up, and it only makes me rage all the more.

“You’re a jerk. I hope your food chokes you.” I snort, knowing he intentionally distracted me because I was walking toward the wall. Angry that he always gets the upper hand. I thrust myself up and storm after him as he makes his way to the refrigerator.

Our food is all laid out at the breakfast bar, two settings facing one another, and Monique has departed to the laundry room down the hall. I can hear her singing to herself.

Dane opens the door and leans in, looking for a drink, and I push my way in front of him like a child, use my butt to scoot him back with a nudge to his groin, and bend down for my preferred brand of water. Ignoring the noise of a ‘hmmph’ and then how he steps back in, puts his hands on my hips in a suggestive manner, and props up behind me in a mock sexual pose. He doesn’t press into my butt, but he's close enough that I can feel it, and I freak out. I know I brought it on myself, being too naïve to think about what pushing him that way would ignite, but I didn’t realize he would grab me. My face burns in flame, and my stomach somersaults.

“Is that an invitation?” he lifts his knee and prods the back of mine to move me further forward into a bent-over stance, so I almost fall into the shelves, and I straighten and spin on him in a panic that he would be this revolting. Flying out like a feral kitten who has been cornered.

“What the fuc…. Dane, that’s disgusting.” I shove at him.

Dane is laughing so hard that it only adds fuel to my fire. I slap his hands on me and bat at his face with my water bottle, but it only serves to make him let go, step back out of range in a dodging motion, and trip over his foot. My arms flail as I cannot right myself, and nothing is close enough to grab as I start to fall.

Dane is quick and somehow catches me, hauls me into his arms while turning me towards him, and we end up bent over before I skull-smacked the floor. Me facing up, and him facing down, holding me two feet above the ground while clutching my water to my chest, and our noses are an inch apart. He stopped me from smashing to the ground, and the sudden pause has us both panting, eyes locked on one another.

“If you wanted me to hold you, you should have just asked.” He smirks before letting go and dropping me the last gap to the floor with an ungraceful thud that sounds worse than it feels. He straightens up, laughing to himself, steps over me to reach into the refrigerator to retrieve a bottle, and I'm left lying here under him as some half-dead conquest.

“Arghhhhhh…. Why are you like this?” I yell at him, using my legs to aim for his, but he hops away and walks off toward our food. He throws me a backward look and is beaming all over with getting the upper hand.

“You know…. I wouldn’t even if you begged. I’m not into prissy uptight virgins.” He cracks open his water and downs a mouthful before settling to eat. His facial injuries don’t seem to bother him despite getting darker in the last hour since we got back here, but I suddenly have the urge to poke at them with a long, sharp nail.

“Why is it always sex with you?” I snap. Standing and fixing my clothes before slamming the refrigerator door closed.

“I’m a guy…. If you popped your V card, it might become all about sex for you too. Pretty sure girls get just as horny as we do.” He shrugs like this is a nothing conversation, and my face flames again in embarrassment. It’s not a topic I ever willingly bring up with anyone, and here he is, so matter of fact about it.

“Stop talking.” I lift my hand and wave it his way. Mortified that this is where this went.

“Why…. Scared I put ideas in your head? Start thinking about getting propped up on the counter and shown a good time?” he laughs at how my face pales, and my eyes widen in horror, enjoying my reaction.

“I didn’t think I could dislike you more than I did …but now….” I trail off, moving to the bar and sliding my plate away from him to the end, so I don’t have to sit anywhere near the vile human trash.

“You’re too easy. It’s that pure and innocent mind that’s never been touched…… I just have to say the words cum and orgasm, and you turn red.” He tilts his head to smirk at the instant blushing on my face as warmth creeps across my cheeks, and I tilt my chin down and stare at the food instead.

“I’m seventeen, not seven….” I retort. “I am not affected by talking about sex.” Instantly squirming with how uncomfortable this is.

“Be honest….. have you never done anything with anyone? Not even first base? Maybe some back seat grinding? A heavy petting session?” He is fully enjoying the way I'm shrinking and turning crimson from head to foot, knowing fine well I have never dated anyone in our entire time as classmates. He has known me since our first year of kindergarten.

“It’s none of your business.”

“So, you really are just an untouched milky white landscape….. that’s kinda sad.” He digs in and shoves a forkful of chicken and salad in his mouth, seemingly disinterested in carrying on. Still, it’s amped up a level of indignation and mortification in me. He always measures me up with his superior know-it-all and dismissive way. As though being untouched is the most worthless thing I can be in his eyes. He’s warped. Yet it still bothers me.

“I’ve done plenty….. I’m not as pure as you think; I just don’t broadcast it to the world.” I lie, gritting my teeth and hating him for making me dishonest like this. I don’t even know why I care, and I catch his fork stop midway to his mouth for a second bite. He pauses, stays still, and is silent for a second before swallowing his first mouthful and looking up at me.

“Why are you lying right now?” there’s a seriousness in his tone that has me feeling weird, and I put my chin back down and shove my food in so I don’t need to answer

“Hmmm,” I try to sound flat and bored. Done with this topic and blanking him.

“Who was your first kiss, then?” He asks in a strained way, poised and waiting… “First proper date?”

“I told you it’s none of your business.” I scoff, choking on my half-swallowed and not well-chewed food, and cannot look him in the eye. I don’t even know why I am being this pathetic and immature.

“You can lie about it if it makes you feel better but don’t do anything stupid… don’t go with guys alone anywhere. Girls have to be more aware….. don't let a guy disrespect you either. Don’t take any shit from any guy.” His whole manner and take-the-piss attitude have dropped; instead, there's a serious and strange huskiness. His words have me pause and gawp at him like he has two heads.

“What?” it was not the response I expected, and I blink at him, forgetting all about bickering and focusing on the mood change. His smug aura is gone; instead, he seems pensive and rigid, losing even that casual slouch he always has going on. It entirely confuses me.

“You’re not like other girls in our class… I know you haven’t dated anyone or done anything. I’m just saying …. Don’t do anything because you feel like you have to because of pressure or idiots making fun of you. Don’t let guys mess with you. It’s not a sin to be a virgin.” He exhales heavily, stares at his food, and then leans back and stretches out, avoiding looking at me.

“I don’t get what you’re saying.” I stammer, knowing he has seen through my deception and not getting what he’s trying to communicate. Even more puzzled as Dane is literally the only person in school who teases me about being a virgin. He knows I haven’t done a damn thing with anyone. Dane stares at his fork for what seems like a long minute, frowning at nothing in particular, and then heaves a heavy sigh.

“Forget it. I have a headache… I’m taking this to my room. Tell Monique I’m taking aspirin and having a nap.” He moves off the stool and dumps his cutlery on his plate before picking it up with one hand and his water with the other. He can’t look me in the eye anymore, and I’m sitting here confused about what just went down between us.

I don’t know what to say, and as he walks around to pass me, he stops right at my stool with a downward appraisal of me with his eyes.

“If a guy ever fucks with you…. You know I’d have your back, right? You can come to me.” It startles me, as does his uber-serious mood and expression as he menacingly towers over me. I don’t know whether to feel comforted or intimidated.

“You’re the only guy who fucks with me.” I point out, avoiding his gaze as it finally travels back to my blue eyes. My heart is hammering through my chest, and I don’t even know what this is. We have never had a relationship where we look out for each other. We’re sworn enemies.

“This isn’t fucking with you… I play with you, but you should know that’s all it ever is. I wouldn’t do a thing to you.”

“Why are you being this way? It’s creeping me out. I think you have a concussion.” I slide away from him, feeling his proximity hemming me in, and he lays his plate and water down on the bar and stares at me.

“We’re not little kids anymore…. You’re naïve and oblivious to the bigger world out there. Your mom has you blinkered and sheltered…… you’re an easy target for guys like me. Casual fuck boys looking for fun and good times…..you’re worth more, Kalya…. Just don’t feel you have to do anything for anyone to conform to what’s expected at our age.”

I think I get what he’s saying. He’s mad I lied and tried to make out I wasn't inexperienced, and he’s telling me not to be ashamed of being untouched even though he teases me about it constantly.

I really don’t get him at all.

“I’m not like that. I won’t be pushed into something to fit in….okay, so I lied…, but that’s only to you because you drive me crazy with this. Always calling me a virgin and telling me how frigid I am. We’re like chalk and cheese, and I hate how you rile me.” I fold my arms across my chest and lift my chin to meet his taller height. Feeling like I have never met this version of him before, and it makes me uneasy.

He stares at me for what feels like an eternity, and I have no idea what he is doing. It’s like he is trying to crawl inside my brain and figure out my thoughts. He doesn’t say a damn word.

“This all feels very ….. ‘it’s fine for boys but not for girls’, and I’m not sure I like the subtle misogyny in it. Especially coming from a grade-A man whore who sleeps with every skirt he meets. You are the last person who should ever lecture me on whether I have sex or not.” I break the silence with my scratchy sassy self showing face.

Dane shakes his head at me and sighs before rolling his eyes and bending toward me slightly. Whatever had been going through his brain a moment ago seems to have evacuated the building, and his eyes are back to blank.

“These…” He lifts his hands and pinches my ear lobes simultaneously “seemingly, they are just for decoration. You only hear what you wanna hear.” He pats me on the head as if I am some puppy or misplaced toddler and then returns to his food and picks it up. “Eat and go study….. you're safer within the page of your textbooks, kiddo.” He wanders off, leaving me with a confused frown as I watch him walk off, yet that last remark enrages a yelled reply after him.

“I am only three weeks younger than you, jerk.”