A/N: Yes, I'm still alive, lol. Ironically, the work of being an English major with the hopes of becoming a writer have left me with no time to write. Please don't give up on me or my stories! I promise to try my best to finish them!
The song playing on the stereo ended, and must have been the last one on the CD, because an oppressive and awkward silence then overtook the room once more.
"So, did you find a lot of information?" Max asked me.
"What? Oh, yeah. I found some."
"Why don't you come over here and we can take a look at what we've got." he said, motioning the spot beside him on the bed with his hand.
"Okay." I nearly squeaked. Obediently I rose from his desk chair and sat a fairly good distance away from him on the bed. He immediately scooted closer to me, spreading out a few sheets of paper on his lap.
"I've got some statistics here that I thought were interesting, they should be pretty useful. I noticed that . . ." He continued talking about his research while I contemplated how strange it felt to hear such intelligent words coming out of the mouth of someone who looked like he belonged out getting drunk and setting fires and spraypainting buildings. I wonder if he did those sort of things. As I was half-listening to Max, half-wondering what exactly he did in his spare time, I felt something brush up against my ankle. Instantly I shot up and found myself standing on top of Max's bed.
"What the hell was that!?!?" I screeched.
"What are you talking about?" Max asked. I looked down to see the confused expression on his face, and then I saw a large furry head poke out from underneath his bed.
"RAT!" I shrieked and pointed. "Rat, rat, rat!"
To my surprise, Max jumped up on top of the bed and clapped one of his large hands over my mouth. "Shhhh . . ." he whispered. "Calm down. Just calm down. It's not a rat." He took his hand off of me, jumped off the bed, then offered me his hand to help me get down. I ignored it, jumping off in the same fashion. "Jeez, I hope no one heard you. That's not a rat. It's my ferret, Lucky. I'm not supposed to keep her here."
"Ferret?" I asked. I'd never seen one before. I thought they were illegal or something. Max got down on all fours to look under the bed and coax the animal out. I watched him for a moment, then looked back down at the floor when I found myself thinking rather disturbing thoughts about his ass.
"Here she is." Max said, settling into a kneeling position. He was cuddling a grey creature which, although to me still bore a significant resemblance to a giant rat, was still pretty cute. I tentatively reached out a finger to pet her. "Do you want to hold her?" he asked. I nodded nervously, and he handed the squirming ferret over to me. I took her in my hands, but she soon began to wriggle out of them, and so I lowered her to the floor. She backed away from me, teeth bared, back arched.
"I don't think she likes me." I said somewhat sadly.
"Sure she does. That's what ferrets do when they're happy. I heard someone call it the Dance of Ferret Joy." I giggled.
"You have a really cute smile." Max said suddenly.
"I - uh - thanks." I replied. "We should probably get back to working on the project" I added quickly.
"Yeah, you're right." he said. "Back to the grind."
We got most of the report done that night, working in awkward silence. Every once in a while I would look up from a paper to see Max looking at me. I'd blush and avert my eyes. I didn't know what to do or say. I'd never met a guy so persistent in all my life. I never really considered myself attractive, and that sentiment was validated by the fact that I never had guys chasing me around and asking me out. I couldn't help but shake the feeling that Max only felt sorry for me, or only wanted to go out with me because I was the only one who talked to him. I didn't know how to tell him that I wasn't interested, and that even if I was interested, I knew that deep down inside he really didn't like me as much as he seemed to.
We arranged to meet back in his room the next night to finish the project. Max started to ask me out again, but I cut him off, saying I had some other homework to do. I felt bad that I was being rude to him, but what else could I do?