Chapter 6
Kiss of Death.
*******Johnny's Point Of View*******
"Johnny, are you trying to get us killed?!" Her eyes are wide with fright as I speed through the streets of Stilwater. I can't help but laugh, "Don't worry, I've done this plenty of times before, just sit back and enjoy the ride." I say with my usual nonchalant attitude. "Johnny, I know you are trying to make me feel better, but scaring the living hell out of me isn't going to help!" She complains as she holds on to my arm for dear life. "Trust me it's going to be fun." I turn to her and flash her a smile. "Keep your eyes on the road!" She scolds. I take hold of her left hand to calm her down some and focus on the road for her.
"Are you at least going to tell me where we are going?" She asks impatiently after just a couple more minutes of driving. I shake my head no. "I hope it's not one of those porn theaters we passed by when you drove me home the first night. I'm don't feel like having boobs assault my eyes tonight." She states bluntly. "So another night then?" I suggest jokingly. "Maybe." She jokes right back.
I drive her into Chinatown for her surprise. Paper lanterns, lion statues, and wooden arches decorate the streets; red and gold paint make the buildings come to life."Who would have a crying panda as a sign on their building?" She thinks out loud as she spots the blue neon sign. "Well I don't know Green, maybe the place called The Sad Panda?" I answer sarcastically. "Smartass." She mutters under her breath. "You know I have pretty good hearing for a guy that shoots off bullets all day." I explain to her. "I'm glad you heard it then." She sticks her tongue out at me. "I'll cut it off." I warn as I swiftly pull out the switch blade from my pocket. Green quickly retracts her tongue. "I was kidding." I reassure her as I place the knife back into my pocket. " I know, but it doesn't mean I want to risk it." She tells me. Out of the corner of my eye I see her bite her lip, she's a little apprehensive about what she is going to say next. "How many weapons do you have on you?" She questions. "Enough," I shrug "can't be too careful since I piss off a lot of people." "I almost forgot about the whole gang thing." She says quietly thinking to herself. We both grow quiet, I really wish I knew what she was thinking about. We are almost there and I hope this gets her talking again. I pull up in front of Adam's Arcade and her eyes gleam like a kid in a candy store. I guess I made the right choice in taking her here, because before I could say anything else she flies out the door and into the arcade.
I get out and follow at her heels. "I've never seen you move so fast, Green." I remark, finally catching up to her. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She exclaims as she jump towards me hugging me real tight. She smells so good. "Is it really that obvious how nerdy I am?" She asks pulling back a little. Honestly, I was hoping to god she wouldn't scoff and diss this place like most girls would. "No, this was just the first thing that came to mind." I answer still holding on to her. This place has always helped me take my mind off the shit I deal with, maybe it could do the same for her. I hear someone clear their throat behind us and we let go of each other. I turn to see a familiar old man. "Adam, I see you're doing well." I greet him. "Good to see you again, Johnny." The short bald man smiles. "And who is this lovely young lady?" His eyes shift towards Green and he raises his eyebrows. "I'm Rubi." She introduces, herself offering a hand to the Hawaiian shirt clad man. Adam shakes her hand "Nice to meet you, and it's no surprise that my name is Adam." "The big sign outside gave it away." She smiled. Adam chuckles, "I like you." "What's a sweet girl like you doing with this guy, did he kidnap you?" He questions. Green tries to stifle her laughter. "Really, Adam? I don't have to kidnap people to make friends." I state. "I was just making sure." Adam shrugs. I see Green's eyes start to wonder around, she's itching to scope out the place. "I'm going to catch up with Adam for a bit. Why don't you go and see if they have anything you like?" I tell her. She nods yes and waves goodbye to us. When she is out of sight Adam begins, "You are the one who's looking well, Johnny. I haven't seen you this happy in over a year." The old man teases."She's just a friend." I assure him. " What a shame, if I were twenty years younger I'd make a move. You should snatch her up while you can, she's obviously doing you some good." "You know I can't do that..." I protest. Adam places a hand on my shoulder,"She would want you to move on and be happy, Johnny. You're a good kid, you deserve it." He says with sympathetic eyes. "I can't, the guilt kills me inside." I look away, no one else has come close to making me try and move on. "Maybe the right person hasn't come along yet." He offers. "Yeah right, crazy old bastard."
Just then Green returns from her expedition, "Nice selection you've got here." She commends. "You just can't beat the classics." Adam smiles. "Well, this old man has to get to bed," he hands the keys over to me," you kids have fun now and don't get too crazy." He wiggles his finger in my face. The old man hobbles to the "OPEN" sign and shuts it off, "Oh I almost forgot, Johnny, don't forget to lock up. Rubi, you are welcome back anytime." He grins from ear to ear, waves goodbye, then heads to the exit in the back.
"We have the whole place to ourselves?" Green asks with a cute innocent look on her face. "Yup, did you find anything you want me to kick your ass at?" "You kick my ass? Looks like I'll have to be the one to knock you down a peg." She smirks. "You can try." I retort. We start with a motorcycle racing game. As I sit down she warns me, "Just a heads up, I can get really competitive." "Works for me, sit your cute ass down." I say. As I watch her straddle the motorcycle I can't help but to think of some provocative imagery. "Ready?" She brings me back from my thoughts. "Sure thing." We select our bikes, race track, and then wait for the count down. As soon as they say "GO", my bike zooms past hers. "What the hell?" She yells. At the end of the second lap she starts to get the hang of things and she catches up fast. Soon we are neck and neck, when she gets close enough she rams into the side on my bike trying to slow me down. "I didn't know you liked to play dirty." "To win, I'll try anything." She replies, a naughty grin on her full lips. We near the finish line; I use the last bit of boost to get ahead and win first place, she comes in a close second. "What happened to knocking me down a peg?" "Hey, I was close!" She protests.
We take turns picking out games, sometimes losing, sometimes winning, but always having fun. I was surprise at how good she was at most of the games, even the ones she mentions she doesn't care for. "What time is it?" She questions suddenly. "Twelve thirty." I answer checking my phone. "Damn, I have work in the morning." She throws her head back and sighs loudly. "It's no big deal, I'll just take you home now..." I start "I don't want to. I am having so much fun." She whines with a pout on her lips. I chuckle, she's just too cute. "One more game?" I cock an eyebrow. Her face brightens up, "I saved the best for last!" She takes hold of my hand and drags me to the furthest corner of the arcade until we stand in front of Mortal Kombat II. "This old thing?" I question. "It's one of my favorite series. This is my childhood right here." She explains, patting the side of the machine. "That's some fucked up childhood, Green." "Coming from Mr. Gangster over here." She rolls her eyes. "I would stay up late many nights trying to beat Shao Kahn, my dad even stayed up with me sometimes to try to help me. We never managed to kill him on the highest difficulty though." She reminisced. "I don't think this game was meant for children." I mention. "Eh, I think I turned out alright... mostly." She laughs. "Well if you want we can give it a shot one day. I don't like to brag but I'd say I'm pretty skilled." "Lets put that to the test shall we?" She challenges. "Best two out of three?" I offer. "Afraid I'll beat you the first time around?" She teases, batting her eyelashes at me." I was just trying to give you a fair chance. If you want we can make it more interesting with a bet." I shrug. She cocks an eyebrow, it seems that her competitive nature gets her interested and she motions for me to continue. "I was thinking the loser give the winner a congratulatory kiss." I grin when I see her eyes widen and her cheeks flush. "Johnny... We can't... I" She stammers. "Scared?" I question. "No!" She replies quickly, she bites her bottom lip and thinks about her next move. "Alright let's do this. One game, winner takes all." She agrees with a determined look on her face. Maybe she wants to kiss me just as bad as I want to kiss her too?
We pick our characters, she picks Kitana and I go with good old Scorpion. As soon as the announcer finishes yelling "FIGHT", she hits me with a fan. She isn't playing around, as soon as she lands that first hit a string of dangerous punches and kicks follow. I manage to block and knock her back with an uppercut. She recovers and charges at me; I throw a spear and Scorpion pulls Kitana towards him to land a fierce combo. Damn, I didn't figure it would be this tough. She forces me to play on the defensive as I try to block her attacks so I can land a hit, but before I know it I lose the first round. "Did I do that?" Green teases, looking up at 's it, I'm kicking her ass. I pop my neck right before the second round starts and as soon and the announcer finishes uttering his last syllable, Scorpion begins to rain punch after punch on Kitana. She soon manages to block and recover. She tries and beat me with the same strategy as before, but before Kitana can touch me, Scorpion teleports behind her. With a spear and another long string of combos, the rounds ends in my favor. "Ugh." She grunts as she facepalms. One round left, this time she doesn't attack right away but waits until I get close enough for her to jump towards me and kick Scorpion in the face. The fight goes back and forth until she has one more hit left before she's dead; I have two. Scorpion manages to get a low kick in and Kitana falls down only to recover. "What?!" I yell, she has no life left. "Its not over yet." She spam her fans until announcer yells "FINISH HIM". "The least you can do is finish me off properly right?" I joke. "You do it," she rushes me "I can never do it right." I come up behind her, place my hand over hers and perform the combination for a fatality. Kitana pulls down her mask and plants a kiss on Scorpion's cheek. He screams in pain and begins to inflate until he pops, blood and guts rain all over the screen.
"So the kiss of death does it for you, huh?" She says, looking up at me. "Speaking of kisses... " I lean down towards her face, but she manages to dodge me and slips away. I catch her by the wrist and pin her up against the side of the arcade machine. "I don't want your cooties." She struggles against me. "Too bad, fair is fair." I lean towards her once more, this time she doesn't try to move; but instead she presses up against me. A naughty idea forms in my head, I'm going to teach her not to tease me. Her lips are parted and her eyes flutter shut, my fingertips run over the side of her beautiful face and I entangle my fingers in her curls. My lips hover above hers and the temptation of tasting her kiss is great, but I can't bring myself to do it. Instead I plant a kiss on her cheek. She opens her eyes thinking I'm done but suddenly I tug on her hair. A small gasp escapes her lips, as she is forced to look up; she is at my mercy. Her breathing becomes jagged, it seems she isn't such a good girl after all, and it makes her even more enticing. Her face looks up and I take the chance to trail kisses down her jaw and neck with small licks at her caramel skin in between. A low, sensual moan erupts from her, and I feel myself getting even more turned on. I pull away from her even though I ache for more. She awkwardly clears her throat obviously a little flustered, "I thought it was suppose to be just one kiss?" "Technically we never specified. You didn't like it?" I asked. She shakes her head, "No that's definitely not the case. I... I just wanted to know where that came from." She says a bit timidly. I don't have a straightforward answer I can give her, "I couldn't help myself, sorry." I shrug with a grin. "Well don't do that again!" She commands waving her finger in my face. "Why not?" I lean forward to whisper in her ear, "You liked it." Her eyebrows furrow, "Okay I'll stop, but just a little more." I hold her close and pull the collar of her shirt to the side to plant kisses on her shoulder. "What did I just say?" She tries to shrug me off, "Quit complaining." I state. I hear a small mmmm as my kisses trail towards her neck. She gives up and rests her head on my shoulder. "It just feels so good." She breathes. I never would have thought that I could get so close to someone so fast without trying to play games. "I have to get you home." I say sadly. She nods her head in agreement and we let go of each other. "Go wait in the car, I'll lock up." She must be really tired because she didn't argue back.
I shut down everything quickly and lock all the doors. I head outside and notice the shadowy figure of a man approach my car. "Back the fuck up or get your head blown clean off your shoulders!" I yell as I run towards the car, which scares the hell out of the guy and he takes off running. I reach the passenger's side and tap on Green's window, she opens the door. "Please tell me you saw that fucker." "Yeah I saw the creep, that's why I locked all the doors." She replies. "Good girl." I let out a sigh. I close the door for her and walk over to my side; I start up the car and head to Green's place. "You fucking danger magnet, you're lucky I don't mind the action." "Hey! Don't blame everything on me." She argues. "Besides I can take care of myself." "Oh really, how would you manage that?" I question. "I'm smart I could figure something out." I chuckle a bit. "Do you think I'm stupid?" She sounds offended. "No, it's not that, I was just imagining you trying to take down a guy." "I can do it." She says defiantly. After some time we finally reach her apartment complex. She unbuckles her seatbelt, "I had a great time kicking your ass tonight." She wraps her arms around my neck and hugs me. Before she steps out of the car I stop her, "Here, take this." I pull out my switchblade and carefully hand it over to her. "Something to help you out when you're 'figuring out' what to do." I laugh. "I can't take that." She tries to hand it back to me but I don't let her. "Yes you can, you'll probably find it more useful that I do. Besides I have bullets. I keep it sharp so be careful." I close her fingers around the handle."You need to have something to protect yourself with, keep it with you wherever you go." She looks down at it, then up at me. "Thanks, Johnny." She kisses my cheek and scurries home.
