Chapter 11

How could I be so stupid? I felt like punching a thousand things, putting my fist through a wall. You ruined it you moron, I mentally screamed at myself. Now we weren't even talking. I was no girl expert but I knew that that was not a good sign. I had failed, and now Father was going to punish me. I expected something far worse than anything I had ever received. I was calling myself profane names when Kim broke the eternity of silence. She yelled my name over the roaring wind. I snapped a short 'What?' at her, and mentally kicked myself for digging a deeper grave.

"You have to take me home."

"Right." I managed. Had I not been driving my eyes would have shut in fury at myself. My hands clenched the handlebars like I was dangling from them over a ravine. I slowed the bike so we were cruising on the residential streets, but I kept my death grip.

"Left on Sycamore, up here." She said as we neared her house, but she didn't know I knew where she lived. I passed her home on purpose. She never told me to stop or pull in.

"You missed it." She said dryly. I turned the bike around and started back up Sycamore slowly. "Here. This one." I slowed to a stop right in her driveway. She quickly dismounted the bike and threw my helmet at me. She started to storm towards her front door.

"Kim, wait!" I shouted, running up to her. Think Eric, think. Save this. Save this date or it's a world of pain. She turned on her heel to look at me. I read her body language, and it shouted "I hate you! I hate you!"

"First off, I'm sorry. I acted childish and-"

"Weird." Kim finished my sentence.

"Yes. But it's just… you drive me crazy." I said. That wasn't a lie. I was crazy for her, crazy for her demise that is.

"Thanks a lot." She said icily. I backtracked.

"No. Kim I know we just met… but… it's like I'm not myself around you. I lose my balance about myself when I see you. It's like… like something is not right." I said slowly, struggling to keep contact with her eyes. Maybe if I practiced going into her gaze I would get better at not falling in. I saw something of the mumbo jumbo I spurted out click in her head.

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"It's like… like something is not right." Eric said. There he was again, reaching into my head and finding exactly what to say. He had the sense of something off between us.

"And it scares me Kim. You scare me. I was being such an idiot back there, and by the time I realized I had lost myself in you… it was too late. And I was angry at myself. I was not mad at you. How could I be? I thought you thought I was being a freak… "

"Eric…" I started. I had nothing left to say but I felt like I should.

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"Eric." She said to me. She shouldn't stop me now. I was getting good at this bullshit. Maybe I could write romance novels in my spare time while I work for Father. Ha. That's a laugh.

"What you do to me seems bad at first. I feel like I need to just run away… but… I can't. Do you understand? I can't run from you." I said in what I imagined sounded dreamy. Kim closed her eyes for a long time. I could hear her soft breaths as she thought. She opened her eyes but they didn't focus until the last possible second, when they scorched into mine. Her cherry lips breathed one word.

"Okay." She said so softly I barely heard it. Then she ran up to her door and cart wheeled in. I suddenly felt myself gasp for air. I took a minute to steady myself and left… with a day of information to review.