This chapter is brought to you by my hardworking beta, carmensandiego1, and my wonderful reviewers, Rose Red2, Saturniia, and especially my best girl alienated lycanthrope. You guys rock - thank you so much for all your feedback and support. I'll keep writing if you keep reading (and reviewing):P
Oh yeah - it has come to my attention that some people aren't sure how 'Aerinah' is supposed to be pronounced. It's meant to sound like 'Erin-a' (or even 'Air-na' if you're in a hurry). Hope this clears up any potential confusion.
A Better Fate Than Wisdom
Chapter 9: Snowballs and Handkerchiefs
So I'm in the little courtyard behind Maclean House, throwing snowballs at the building and trying to convince myself to stop being such a chickenshit. I'm bored, right, and I should probably be studying for my paleo final, which is on Monday, but I'm thinking what I'd really like to do is go knock on Aerinah's door and see if maybe she'd like to go to a movie or something. And you'd think since we seem to be friends again now, and we saw that movie together a few weeks ago, I ought to be able to just go up to her and say, "Hey, you want to hang out?" Sure, no problem.
Only I'm chickenshit, like I said. And just because she's spent some time with me doesn't mean she'd say yes to this. Yeah, we really seem to be friends now, and she seemed pretty happy to see me when I got back from Thanksgiving. Not half as happy as I was to see her – I didn't realize till I saw her again how much I had missed her. Which I guess is dumb since I don't even know her all that well, but I don't know, that's just how it felt. So yeah, we're getting to be friends, I guess, but this is not just sitting together in class or the dining hall. We haven't ever done anything together that wasn't totally school-related. There was that movie a few weeks ago, okay, but we only just happened to run into each other at the theater; it's not like we went together.
And another thing, it's Friday night, so that would pretty much mean I'd be asking her on a date. And even if it didn't have to be a date, I'd want it to be a date. But there's a problem with that. See, Frankenstein's monster doesn't ask girls on dates. And if he ever did, they'd laugh in his face. Or run away screaming.
So instead I'm out here trying to make a face on the back door with snowballs. The snow is nice and sticky because it's not all that cold, so it's actually working pretty well.
I'm just throwing the snowball for the left eye when the door opens. Aerinah steps out, and before I can say anything the snowball hits her right in the forehead.
"Hey!" she splutters. I'm trying to apologize but she's already bent over digging around on the ground, and before I figure out what she's doing this big clump of snow explodes in my face.
I can hear her giggling as I wipe my eyes, and when I can finally see again I'm just in time to duck her next throw. We both keep scooping up more snowballs and pelting them at each other, usually missing but sometimes making some good hits. (I'm careful not to throw very hard.) This is fun; I've never had a snowball fight with anybody before.
We've used up most of the snow in the little courtyard and have to move closer and closer to each other as we use the snow between us. I wait till she's bent down reaching for a big handful before I fire my next shot, and it hits her shoulder and explodes, filling her orange hair with sparkling drops.
"That's it, Kane, you're DEAD!" she shouts, still laughing, but instead of standing up and throwing a snowball at me like I expect, she lunges forward, grabs my bootlaces with both hands, and yanks. Next thing I know I'm flat on my back, gasping because I got the wind knocked out of me, and then she drops an armful of snow right in my face.
Pretty slick move, I'm thinking as I'm spluttering, but she made a mistake standing so close to me after she knocked me over. I grab the front of her sweater with one hand and sweep her feet out from under her with the other.
She makes this 'Oof!' sound when she hits the ground beside me, but she's still giggling, so I toss my last handful of snow at her. She's trying to crawl away, so I grab her by the ankle with one hand and try to find some snow with the other, but we've pretty much used it all up. So I tickle her side instead.
Now she's actually shrieking with laughter, and I'm laughing so hard myself I can barely hold onto her. Then, she squirms over onto her side, knocks my hand away, and tackles me. I'm totally not expecting it, and it's my turn to go 'Oof!' as I land flat on my back for the second time in a row.
For a minute I just lie there, because I'm not sure what to do. I'm just looking at her, so close I can see the flecks of grey in her green eyes, and feeling her lying on top of me, her warm laughter touching my cheek and her hair fanned out over my chest. Her hair smells like apples.
Then she's tickling under my arms with both hands, and I discover to my surprise – because nobody's ever done that before – that I'm really ticklish. I start squirming around, which is a big mistake because it makes us rub together in all kinds of interesting ways I really shouldn't be thinking about right now, but I can't help it, it tickles so much; so finally I grab her hands and yank them away from my sides.
Which turns out to be a really butt-stupid thing to do, because she loses her balance and crashes face-first into my shoulder.
"Oh!" she says, sitting up and putting her hands to her face.
"Oh, shit," I say. Her nose is bleeding. Way to go, asshole, I'm yelling in my head. That was brilliant, why don't you punch her in the stomach while you're at it?
I sit up too and start rooting around in my pockets, which is kind of hard to do with a lapful of warm girl, and again, that's so not what I should be thinking about right now. With any luck I'll have a handkerchief somewhere; every chance she gets Gram is shoving them into my pockets. I take them out when I find them – I mean, gross, like I want to blow my nose on some rag and then keep it – but I'm thinking I could sure use one right now.
There aren't any in my coat pockets, but I finally find one in the left front pocket of my jeans. "Here," I say, holding it out to her.
Aerinah lets go of her nose and goes to wipe it with the handkerchief, but there's still blood dripping out. "You gotta pinch it," I say, and gently touch just below the bridge of her nose. "Here. Really tight, okay?" I guess she doesn't get conked in the nose very often. Probably doesn't know too many big Neanderthal goons like me, and good thing too.
"'Kay," she says, her voice muffled.
I'm feeling awkward that we're still so close. I mean, she's sitting on top of me, straddling my legs, her face only inches from mine. Don't get me wrong, I like it, but at the same time it's kind of too much, if you know what I mean. Not to mention my ass is getting wet from sitting on the icy ground.
So I wrap one arm around her and stand up. There's a brick wall at the eastern edge of the courtyard, so I set her down on it, then back up a bit. The wall's high enough that we're almost eye to eye.
"Can I let go now?" she asks.
"Yeah, try it," I say.
She lets go of her nose and blinks at me cautiously. "Is it still bleeding?"
"Nope." I take the handkerchief and gently wipe the blood from her chin. "I'm really sorry, Aerinah," I say. "That was pretty dumb."
"Oh, that's okay," she says. "It was an accident."
"Yeah," I say, hanging my head, "but still, I should have been more careful—"
I break off as the courtyard door opens and a couple of guys come out to smoke. They're acting casual but I can see them giving us curious glances. Which is understandable, I guess; we probably look funny together at the best of times, and now we're both soaking wet and splattered with blood as well.
Aerinah must be thinking the same thing, because she says quietly, "Maybe we should go get cleaned up." She slides carefully down from the wall, and I go open the door. As soon as the door starts to swing shut behind me I hear the two guys start whispering and laughing. I can tell from the look on her face that Aerinah heard them too, but neither of us says anything about it.
So, part of me is thinking I should just call it quits for the night – I mean, I've already given her a bloody nose, god knows what kind of damage I might do to her if we spend any more time together – but another part of me doesn't want this to be over. "So, um, what are you doing tonight?" I ask her as we head up the back stairs.
"I don't know," she says, and grins wryly. "I was just coming to see what you were up to, when I got a snowball in the face."
Now that makes my stomach feel funny, but in a good way. Definitely a good way. She was going to ask me if I wanted to hang out.
"Oh," I say happily. "Want to go to a movie?"
"Sure," she says right away. "I just need to change and stuff. Pick me up in twenty minutes?"
"Okay," I say, trying not to grin like an idiot. She heads off towards her room, and I go the opposite way to mine, and I'm thinking, snowball fights are one of my new favorite things.
