Mako's Message: Sorry to keep you all waiting so "long". Funny story. I had this entire chapter written out in my head by the time I was done with work on Saturday, but when I got home and sat down to write the only thing in my head was so I had to pretty much start from scratch which was a pain and annoying as hell. It's the third longest chapter though, so that's something right? And maybe, just maybe, my harshest critic will think something happened. Knowing him though, I doubt it. ;-)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter and that you'll let me know what you think of it, even if you didn't.

This Saturday I talked Angela and Jessi into coming to Atomic Comics with me.

When they resisted I told them that if they can make me sit through discussions of Glee then they can come to the comic shop with me. They didn't really have anything to say to that.

Marcus was all too happy to see me off with a couple of girls from my school. He even gave me some extra cash. I guess he considers it encouragement to go do things that are normal for my age.

When we got there I spotted Marty and Todd at their usual booth and brought Angela and Jessi over to introduce them.

Marty and Todd tensed up as soon as they saw me, but as I slid into the booth I said, "Don't worry, your balls are safe," and they both let out a relieved sigh.

Todd said, "It's nice to have you back to normal." He hesitated before adding, "You were pretty scary there for awhile."

I just sort of chuckled at that, after all, he's never seen me when I really want to kill people, but I just said it was nice to be back to normal, and that he'd be ready to stab people too if he had to spend three days bleeding out of his dick.

Todd and Marty had these absolutely gorgeous expressions of mixed mortification and horror. Angela… Angela's eyes were the size of tennis balls and her face turned beat fucking red. Jessi was sitting on the edge of the booth with her mouth and eyes shut tight, shaking with suppressed laughter.

God I love fucking with people.

So I finally got around to introducing my friends to each other, and then I took Angela and Jessi around the store and see if we could find anything they liked.

Angela ended up sitting down with Strangers in Paradise, and Jessi picked out, of all things, fucking WATCHMEN. I sat there and asked her point blank, "Don't you think that's a little heavy for you?"

She just said "If you're going to do something, you should do it right." and dove right in.

Wasn't gonna argue with her. I mean, I was eight when I read that. I'm sure she should be able to handle it at thirteen.

As we were leaving I heard Todd say, "I liked her." I didn't hear which one he was talking about though.

On the way back, Angela admitted that hanging out at a comic store had been pretty fun. I asked her if she'd like to come with me another time and she said she would.

Jessi wanted to go back, but felt kind of guilty about it, since she wanted to finish reading Watchmen but there was no way she could afford to buy it.

Maybe I could get it for her for Christmas or something.

What's one more gift I'd have to hide from Marcus?

That night Dave called to see if I was interested in going for another Sunday morning run. I told him I'd love to, but I wouldn't be able to hang out much afterwards, since I still had a pile of homework to do before Monday.

He said he didn't mind because he had to work in the evening anyway. Yeah. I bet he didn't mind… I'll finish that thought later.

He picked me up and we went out to the same track as we did last time. I didn't wear the weights this time though, I thought of something even better to taunt him with.

I ran in circles around him.

I still made him sing though. I wasn't picky this time. I let him sing whatever he wanted so long as he sang.

After a minute or two I finally had to stop him and ask, "What the hell are you signing?"

He looked kind of sheepish for a minute before saying, "I'll Be Ready"

"What the hell made you pick that?"

"Uh…my Dad found a Baywatch marathon last night. It's been stuck in my head since."

"Baywatch?"

"Uh, yeah. It was a show about lifeguards, ran for about a decade. It ended a couple years before you were born." That's when his face turned into this disgusted expression, "You're making me feel old and I wasn't even old enough to watch it by the time it ended."

I just smirked at him and said, "Good point. Maybe we should cut the run short. Don't want to over work that old man heart."

"Shut up."

I kept laughing as I ran along with him. I kept it up after it stopped amusing me because it seemed to be motivating him to keep it moving. After awhile though, about half way, even at the pace we were moving, the running circles around Dave thing was starting to wear me out. Dave seemed to be okay, probably because he wasn't trying to keep up with me this time.

So I decided to go for a ride.

Dave was… surprised when I leapt on to his back, but he stayed on his feet, "Mindy! What the hell!"

"Just consider it part of your training." I wrapped my legs around him and then kicked my heels into his sides, "Now get moving!"

He didn't manage to run much after that, but damnit he tried. We ended up just talking about school and comics and shit for the rest of the course. Every once and while I'd spur him on with a kick to the ribs and a reminder of, "You stopped running"

I think I enjoyed it a little too much though. I kept having to fight the urge to lean over and nibble on his ear. Towards the end of the course I asked him, "How are you at taking a fall?"

He said, "Uh… probably not too good. Why?"

"Just thinking about what to train you in next."

When we got back to where we left the car and Dave said it was time for me to let go, I said, "Okay, going down," before I hooked my legs up over his shoulders and around his neck. He had just enough time so say, "Shit!" before I flipped him.

We landed with my legs still around his neck and his head on my stomach. He gasped out, "Fuck Mindy! What the hell?"

"Like I said, just think of it as training," I reached out and patted him on the head, "You did very good. You didn't even get the wind knocked out of you."

I really didn't want to let go of him. This was another of those things I was enjoying more than I should have. I liked having him so close, it sent these shivers through me that I haven't had since I put the costume away. I kind of had to at that point though.

Besides, having his head that close to my crotch was starting to be more awkward than thrilling.

We stopped for lunch before he took me home and then it was straight to the books for me. I did take a break for My Little Pony though.

At school on Monday I ate lunch with Angela, Jessi and… this other girl whose name I should probably learn but until then I'll call her "Snooki". I usually zone out when they start talking about boys, but this time I had some interest in what they were talking about. I kept my eyes on my comic though, no need to let them know I suddenly care. Well, I don't care. I'm just curious about what their thoughts on guys are.

And they are all over the map.

There wasn't a single guy that any one of them were focused on. They thought some of the same boys were cute, and the liked most of the same celebrities, but as far as I could tell there wasn't one person that any of them liked above all the rest. I mean, I can look at other guys and think they're cute, and there are some movie stars I like, but for some reason any time I start having those sorts of thoughts my mind always seems to turn to Dave. Yeah, he's a pretty good looking guy, but he's not some god among men. There are definitely better looking guys out there. So why do I keep thinking about Dave?

Well, at least I know it's not just me. Katie is totally into him and it couldn't be more obvious that Riley wants to jump him.

I guess now is a good time to talk about that.

Marcus, apparently, has a sweet tooth, and has been wanting to get back to NYBC to try some more of their sundaes. So after school on Wednesday, Marcus asked if I wanted to go and get some ice cream. And I guess I have a bit of one too, because I couldn't pass that up. When we got there, it was maybe an hour after Dave's shift started. But I still heard her voice coming from the back

Marcus stopped to look at the menu bored, but I went right up to the counter and when Dave came out I practically climbed onto the counter to get in his face to ask, "What is she doing here, I thought you were certified."

He said, "Well, she works the shift before me, and when she doesn't have any other plans she likes to just hang out here."

How often does this happen? Does she really just stay after work to see him? Does Katie know about this? What is she doing with him in that back room?

According the Dave the answers are "A couple times a week", "I guess", "Yes", and "Homework, mostly."

Yeah. Mostly my ass. If I ever find out he's cheating on Katie I'll make him regret it. I wont tell Katie though. Mostly because I don't want her to rip Dave's balls off.

My night out with Dave was mostly gun cleaning, since we had a lot of that to catch up on. But we squeezed in some exercises and a quick spar. I think he's starting to plateau. Which is kind of disappointing. I was kind of excited to see just how good he'd get and how quickly he'd get that good. All I really have to go on is how well he does against me though, so it may just be that I'm getting better against him so he's not doing as well against me. Either way I guess I don't have to worry about him catching up to me anytime soon.

I think that's pretty much it for this wee oh my god how could I forget that!

I got a notification that my gift for Dave arrived, I was worried that they'd need a signature, or that they couldn't leave it at a box in a P.O. Box. Apparently they didn't (or they accepted the signature of a post office employee) and they can leave a package. I'm so glad this worked out. Well, it has so far at least. This was always something Daddy handled, and we never needed to have things shipped to a P..

Now I just need to get to the post office soon and without Marcus noticing.

Mako's Message the 2nd: My Harshest Critic started posting stuff on this site again. His name is Xantar. Go see if anything he's written interests you.