Courage
"Come on Nosebleed, leave me alone! I ain't goin' to do the damn assignment!" Butch throws at me while I walk on his heels. Mr. Brotch gave us a singing assignment and the big surprise for me is; Butch is my partner. Vault 101 biggest jerk. My enemy, bully, and my favorite person to get under the skin of. "Please Butch, we have too! It counts as half our grade. This is the last major assignment before the 'Infamous G.O.A.T.'" I imitate Mr. Brotch's voice. Butch slowed down enough so that he was walking side-by-side with me, he looks down at me, his face scrunched up to what looked liked to me a mix between confusion and pride? I'm not sure on the pride, I've seen it so many times on dads face, so I must of looked shocked. Butch put on his award winning smirk and got closer. "You like what you see Doll?" He pushes against the metal wall, his arms resting by the sides of my head, blocking my of any escape. "No, I was thinking about how big of a scaredy cat you are. You don't want to do the project because you can't sing, huh?" I bark out a laugh. The thought of Butch being scared of something so minuscule is making me feel like I stuck gold. I freaking love it. Butch's face turns a very vivid color of red, his mouth hangs open, like he's trying to process what I just said. "That's n-not it!" He stutters.
I roll my eyes. At the last second, I catch view of a button for a door. I smirk up at him, "I'm sure that's what it is Butch." I punch the button and as predicted the door behind me opens up, stepping through it. At what I thought was a way to the clinic, turns out to be a dusty old storage room. 'Did we go too far into the west wing of the Vault?' Thinking, Butch walks in and closes the door behind us. "I don't think we're suppose to be here." I tell Butch, turning to the door. "Grow a pair Goody-two-shoes, we're exploring." He grabs my hand tightly and drags me across the room to a very large trunk with a padlock bigger than the palm of my hand, keeping it shut. Butch looks at me and let's go of my hand, my right brow raises into the usual arch of confusion. Then suddenly, Butch's hands go to my hair and pulls out the one bobby pin that I found in the reactor level. My hair tumbles out of the bun and cascades around my shoulders and down to the middle of my back. "What the hell Butch?" I ask, making a grab for my pin, "Calm down Pipsqueak, I won't break it." He smiles triumphantly, kneeling down in front of the trunk trying to pick the lock. What felt like an hour, which really was five minutes, a very audible snap echoing throughout the room. My brows furrow together. "You did not just break my only bobby pin?!" I yell at him. "Get over it toots." Butch throws the broken pin at me. It hits me in the chest and falls to the floor
My foot comes up to kick his back, his Tunnel Snakes logo glares at me. I hear myself make some kind of animalistic growl, bringing my foot down, only to have Butch move out of the way in time to miss it. Instead, my foot comes down onto the padlock of the trunk, efficiently snapping the lock bar off. A blindingly white pain shoots through my foot and up my leg, screaming, I fall back and cradle my ankle. "Son of a FUCK!" I scream out. I hear him snicker, I made a point of flipping him off. "Wow pipsqueak, where have you been hiding that language?" He says, looking down on me. Suddenly I'm hauled up into the air, I yelp both in pain and surprise, my eyes fly to Butch's face. "What are you doing?" My voice cracks, he ignore me and set me down on a nearby crate and pulls the trunk forward, sitting down next to me turning away, his back to me again. After a couple of minutes, I go to lean back on my elbows and end up leaning on Butch's back. 'I'm really stretching my luck today aren't I?' I think to myself. I start to play the Red Menace.
Ten minutes of playing a game and feeling Butch's shoulders shuffle as he moved things around in the trunk. "Butch?" I say, his response is some kind of grunt, "Are you scared that if you do sing in class that the other students will laugh at you?" I feel his shoulders stiffen, and sits up straight and turns around. I sit up and turn also, afraid he will hit me or do something equally as bad. His eyes search mine holding his glare. He then suddenly stands and makes his way behind me, pulling my hair up and into a bun, feeling the coldness of a metal pin touching my scalp. After he's done, he sits down next to me again, a loud sigh escaped his mouth. He rests his elbows on his knees, hanging his head. "Promise you won't blab?" He looks at me his eyes pleading. We stare at each other for a while until I finally spoke. "I promise." My voice lower than a whisper that only he can hear, even though no one else is in the room. "I am scared, when Brotch first mentioned the assignment, my first thought was that someone was going to laugh at someone else's voice. That's the one thing I'm afraid of, that no one will like my voice-" "I like it." I blurt out. "What?" He looks at me, his voice wavering. 'Did I just say that?' I feel my cheeks catch fire, I need to fix this. "I mean, it's not as annoying as anyone's else's voice. I'm sure you're good at singing like everything else." 'I need to stop talking.' "That came out wrong." I confess. Butch's mouth turns up into a smile, a genuine smile. His laugh fills the room. "If I didn't know any better Pipsqueak, I'd say you have a crush on me." He smile grows bigger.
I let out a breathy laugh, my mind going a million miles a minute. The only word going through my mind is; Busted. He's already going out with Susie Mack; Vault 101's biggest, my mind drifts away as I see Butch's mouth moving. "What?" I ask him. "I said, can I try singing in front of you? To see if it's bad or not, you already promised that you wouldn't tell. If you do this for me, I won't tell about your heart crushing all over me." He snicker's, but for some reason I trust him, which is a bad thing. I make a mental note not to do it again. "Okay." I tell him, "But you have to get over the fear of being laugh at. Just beat the shit out of them." I smile, he laughs. "I made a song and everything. I just hope it's good enough. He hops up and takes out a wad of paper out of his inner pocket of his jacket, repeatedly clearing his voice. He looks at me behind his paper, "Promise you won't laugh?" He asks in a serious tone, I smile and made the notion of putting an 'X' over my heart. He clears his voice once again and starts to sing.
I'm addic dic dic dic dicted to you
I'm addic dic dicted
You're addicted to me
So ridiculously
I'm addic dic dicted to you
'He's actually pretty good.' I think. He winks at me and smirks.
I'm addic dic dic dic dicted to you
You're addic dic dicted to me
I'm a slave for your kicks
Come and give me a fix
I'm addic dic dicted to you
Cocaine can't do it like you do it to me
My brain can't take it when you push it on me
And I stick like glue
When I'm sniffing you
He does drumming motions with his hands. 'Cute.' I bite my lip to hold back a smile.
I'm addic dic dic dic dicted to you
I'm addic dic dicted
You're addicted to me
So ridiculously
I'm addic dic dicted to you
I'm addic dic dic dic dicted to you
You're addic dic dicted to me
I'm a slave for your kicks
Come and give me a fix
I'm addic dic dicted to you
Cocaine can't do it like you do it to me
My brain can't take it when you push it on me
And I stick like glue
When I'm sniffing you
I'm addic dic dic dic dic dic dic
Cause I'll always be a sucker for your dress
And I will always be a sucker for your meth
So what are we?
You and me
She said baby save me you could be the he-hero-in me
At the end of the song, he's out of breath, smiling weakly at me. I stand up leaning on my good leg more, clapping. "See that wasn't so hard. And your an awesome singer." I tell him, his smile grows bigger. "That actually wasn't so terrifying. Kinda' fun." He laughs. "You'll do fine. Now get me to my dad so I can see if I broke my foot trying to kick your ass." He lifts me up, "Please, you couldn't reach my handsome face even if you tried." Butch smiles. I make a fist and gently hit him on his jaw. "I can if you hold me." I laugh. He looks down at me again and takes off running to the clinic. Running out of there before my dad questions him. He looks at me, "Did he do this to you, sweetheart?" "No, I helped him with homework and he brought me here. Fell down the stairs." I lie, giving him my best smile.
As it turns out, it was only a sprain. Butch got a 'B' on the project and I blew everyone away with mine. Butch got over his fear, and I'm glad I helped him.