Just a Bite
Author's Note: Attention readers. I'm going to attempt to pick up the pace a little more on this story and hopefully I succeed with that. This chapter should be a little easier to read I'd say because it gets a little further into the storyline and isn't only a long conversation. Also, if anyone's worried about an M rated chapter, I'll give you a warning prematurely so you know. But we won't get there for a little while. Also, I can't switch characters yet. Maurecia isn't done yet.
Maurecia's POV
After getting that explanation off of my chest, Todd seems more attracted to me than ever. And that's surprising even for me. The Maurecia he first met two years ago could only dream of getting this close to him as a girlfriend. But that Maurecia is gone now. She's evolved, not back into the harmless and childish person she was back when Fluffy was a little pink porcupine, but into a stronger person, physically, mentally, and emotionally. And guess what? Todd has evolved in those categories as well. Closer to the end of the day he's showing me his 'secret lab' if you will in the basement.
"So this is a generator." He says as he points out large machine.
"Ooh. That's cool, what does it do?" I ask, even though I already know what it's for.
"It's made so a certain device or piece of equipment can run when the power is out. I began building this in case we lose power this week due to bad weather." He says sounding confident. I find his intellect pretty sexy sometimes.
"That's fascinating." I say. "Is that your greatest creation?"
"Well… it's not my favorite creation yet."
"Then what is?" He grins and opens a box containing two small metal poles.
"These things." He says in a humble voice. I'm a little confused though; they look just like two iron sticks.
"What makes these rods so fascinating?" His grin widens a little.
"These are my magnets. They're not done cooling yet, but when they are ready, they should have the strongest magnetic force physically possible." This is interesting.
"How do magnets work?" I ask.
"I'm glad you asked." I am to. Learning things from Todd is more satisfying than learning from Mrs. Jewls. "Every magnet is made of small domains and each domain has a pole, or a direction they point to either the North or South Pole. When a magnetic field energizes a magnet, all the domains point to the same direction and that empowers their magnetic force. The north poles create a positive charge and the south poles create a negative charge. And when the opposite force is near the area, the positives and negatives will pull together." I grab Todd and hug him closely.
"Like this?" He smiles and blushes.
"Yeah, a lot like that." He wraps his arm around my neck.
"Do they do this to?" I pull our faces together and kiss him on the lips, he eagerly participates. Then we stop.
"They do often have a strong reaction and I guess they're kind of similar." I giggle as cutely as possible. "Sometimes there's even an explosion involved during an atomic separation." I lower my eyelids a little.
"An explosion you say? Sounds kinky."
"Ha! That is sort kinky isn't it." He says as he puts the metal poles back into the box. "Anything else you want to see?" I shake my head.
"We're not in school anymore. I think that's enough learning for one day." He nods.
"Fair enough. Let's go back upstairs and spend some time together." I take his hand and we walk up together. When we get close to the top, I misstep on my rollerblades.
"Whoa!" I'm almost fall over before Todd catches my wrist and pulls me back to balance.
"Careful babe. Stairs aren't a particularly enjoyable object to slip on." He says looking concerned. I hug him.
"Okay dear." I say as I kiss him on the cheek. "Thank you."
"No problem, it's my pleasure to keep you on your feet." I chuckle a couple of times. A couple minutes later I'm sitting down on his couch while he heads toward the kitchen.
"Well, I should probably get some supper started. Anything you want me to make?" I shrug.
"I don't know Todd. What are my options?"
"I've got some breaded chicken, or a frozen pizza, or if you just want a can of soup, I think that's easy to make." I lower my eyelids seductively.
"I trust you Todd, you won't disappoint me no matter what you make." He grins.
"Chicken it is." He says as he turns on the oven. Then he walks out and takes a seat beside me. "So Maurecia, it'll be about twenty five minutes before its ready. So we have a little social time right now." I immediately remember something.
"Oh, before we sit down we should probably check on Fluffy." He nods.
"That's probably not a bad idea. He's probably still in my room." We both get up and walk upstairs. When we open the door Fluffy isn't in sight.
"Fluffy?" I call out. There is no response.
"Is he good at hide and seek?" Todd asks.
"Regrettably. He's really good at it." I say.
"I've got this. Hey Fluffy, you want some peanut butter crackers?"
"Wait!" I intend to stop him before I see my seaweed colored pet leap out from behind Todd's bed. He stands at Todd's feet holding his tongue out.
"Are you hungry?" Todd asks as Fluffy nods. I lower my eyebrows.
"Fluffy, you know the rules." He glares at me then gives Todd a desperate look. I sigh and turn towards Todd. "He can't have peanut butter during winter." Fluffy growls at me. I know it's his favorite snack but he's often easily full after that and hibernation is a thing, a thing I really want to avoid. He turns back to Todd.
"I'm sorry Fluffy, but I'm not the one in charge here." He frowns. I pick him up gently.
"Awe, you think of Todd as your daddy now? That's cute!" I say as I hug him tightly. He whines rather audibly.
"Uh Maurecia, I think you should put him down." I face Todd.
"Why? Sometimes he needs a little love to help endure his winter." He shakes his head.
"I really don't think he wants that right now." Fluffy whines again but I squeeze him a little tighter to calm him down.
"Well I know how to comfort him and right now he-"
"Maurecia, please put him down!" Todd says assertively. I really didn't see that coming.
"Okay." I set Fluffy back on the floor.
"Thank you." Todd says. I look back down at Fluffy.
"But what am I doing wrong here?" Todd rolls his eyes and then picks Fluffy up and cradles him in his arms.
"Look at this little guy." He says as he strokes Fluffy's head. "He's a poor, tired, hungry, and desperate rodent. He's overwhelmed by the amount of attention you're giving him and he's feels the need for a break." He tickles the bottom of Fluffy's chin with his pointer finger. Fluffy purrs contently as he does. "Animals are a mystery Maurecia, and some of them are tough to understand. But if you look a little deeper, he's just another person." Fluffy looks up at Todd and cries a tear. "So maybe you should look at him a little more like another human being than just a pet." I sigh.
"Todd…" I can't even keep my head up while I say this. "I badly want you to understand why I'm doing this, but I don't think you will. Please understand that I'm giving Fluffy these restrictions for his own good." Todd sets him down. "I just don't want him to end up falling asleep because he's too passive during winter. He needs to remain awake until it's over." Fluffy looks back up at Todd.
"I see." He mumbles. Fluffy whines again. "But at a bare minimum, I think we owe him some alone time." I hold my arms up.
"But we've already been ignoring him for most of the day. What more does he want from us?" Todd and Fluffy make eye contact; I can tell they're both thinking the same thing.
"Well I'm sure he wants some peanut butter." Fluffy smiles and nods again. I only face palm.
"Todd, I already told him no." Fluffy stops and continues looking sad. "Please don't mention peanut butter again because it's off the table."
"Fine, let's at least give him some space." He puts his hand around my neck and faces the door.
"Why can't we take him with us?" I ask.
"He doesn't want us to do that." Todd walks me out and closes his room door. "Now would probably be a good time to get that chicken started." He steps into the kitchen while I sit down on the couch and withdraw my scrapbook. I look at some of the photos we've taken together. And not more than a minute later Todd joins me.
"Okay our food has started." I smile at him.
"Thank you sweetie. I admire how hard you work to manage the house while your parents are gone." He shrugs.
"It's pretty easy when you're an only child." I chuckle.
"Well I wouldn't know that with six brothers at my house." Todd laughs.
"I'd imagine you wouldn't. What is that like by the way?" He asks.
"Having six older siblings?" He nods. "It can be annoying sometimes. They often tease me for having a crush on you since the seventh grade."
"I suppose that makes sense. But can they really say anything about it? We're actually in a relationship now." I smile.
"I know, and I'm really proud of you for that. For the longest time Caleb told me I'd never succeed with you."
"Is Caleb the youngest brother?" Todd asks. I shake my head.
"Caleb and Elijah are twins and they're both only one year older than us. Eli told me I'd probably date you but not keep you for very long." Todd shrugs.
"So bottom line, your brothers doubted you." I nod.
"You know Jonas?"
"Is he the one who tried to tell me all your deepest secrets when we were at your house?" I nod timidly.
"Yeah, they never believed I'd get you as a boyfriend and now that I have they want to make me feel bad about it." He wraps his right arm around my neck.
"Who cares what they think? We're together now and there isn't a single thing they can do about it." My content smile reappears.
"Thank you Todd. I'm so glad you're involved in my life now." He snuggles a little closer.
"So am I." He says.
"It's a really good thing that you didn't leave Wayside."
"I agree." I glance at my scrapbook again, and then I turn back to Todd. "Todd, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure." I clear my throat.
"If I hadn't ever punched you, would we have gotten together a lot sooner?" He shrugs.
"I don't really know. I was only twelve when we first met and it took me a while to get used to you." I roll my eyes.
"That's fair." I admit. "But would you have considered dating me at the time?" He shakes his head.
"I don't think so. We were only in seventh grade at the time and I didn't have any intentions on dating. Let alone from a school I just got to." I sigh.
"So, before you punched me there wasn't any hope of us ever being together?" I ask.
"I really don't know for sure." He responds. "But I do know even if you didn't ever punch me it'd take longer for us to get together."
"Why is that?"
"Well, it was all just a little pain here and there for me for a while until I knocked you out." He says in a rather ashamed tone. "As you could see, you didn't handle it well." I snuggle up much closer to him.
"It's okay Todd, I'm a tough girl." He giggles a couple of times.
"I know." He says as I kiss his right cheek.
"But I want to know one more thing."
"Alright shoot."
"Why were you suddenly very confident and accepting to be my boyfriend once I woke up?" He makes a seductive grin. I find this face pretty sexy sometimes.
"Well Maurecia, I actually didn't think we'd get together even after you woke up." That's a little surprising. "But like I said, I've always found you extremely cute myself." I blush at that. "But the way you came off at me every day was unattractive." I readjust.
"You mean when I punched you?" He nods.
"Yeah, that side of you actually intimidated me most of the time. You remember when we were at that campfire for the night and I didn't want to sit close to you?" I nod.
"I do."
"I knew you'd punch me again and later that night when I ended up hugging you, you did it again." I sigh.
"I know, that was a time I didn't think hurting you meant anything. I didn't treat you like someone who had feelings like everyone else." I look up at him apologetically. "I'm sorry." He smiles.
"And I forgive you. But here's my point, for the longest time, I imagined you as a sweet and gentle girl but you never made any attempt to make that vision easier for me." That's very true. "But when I saw you lying in that hospital bed, you looked so defenseless and I felt real ashamed it happened. But you woke up and I was happy to see you." I give a heartwarming smile.
"Awe, and then you realized you loved me after you endured my absence?" He shakes his head.
"Not at all. A small part of me had always loved you."
"Awe. I never really knew that." He winks.
"Me neither. But every time I wanted to hear my feelings admit that, you'd punch me and that feeling wouldn't come to me. But after you woke up, I told you to punch me. Remember that?"
"Of course I do."
"I expected you to shatter my shoulders and give me arthritis in the future. But guess what?"
"What?" I ask, he pauses for a second and then continues.
"You didn't hurt me. You lied down there for a second and then pulled me into a loving hug." I giggle a couple of times.
"You didn't see that coming did you?" He chuckles.
"No I didn't. And when you made that pure move, that part of me spoke out and I learned for sure that I loved you. The moment I knew you were capable of being gentle and sweet, was the moment I learned I could love you." We both look into each other's eyes.
"Oh Todd!" I hug him really tightly. "This is why I love you." He kisses the side of my head. "You're so forgiving, you always know what people are capable of, and you fight for them to help them be the best they can be. I've gotten so much more mature in the past year and it's because you've entered a deeper level within my life." Todd smiles.
"I'm so glad I could help Maurecia. Helping is something I'm always happy to do." I pull him in and we're face to face.
"That Todd, that is what I love most about you. You love to help everyone." We both blush in unison. "May I kiss you now?" Todd puts his hands on the sides of my head and pulls our lips together. We both close our eyes and I only focus on my sense of touch. I feel the pressure of my lips touching different areas inside Todd's mouth. I can also feel the pressure of him absorbing my oxygen as I absorb his. He's got some really strong gums, I tell the truth on that. Then I insert my tongue into his mouth. He doesn't even flinch, instead he moves his tongue around in my mouth as well. We sit there for a few good minutes making out like never before, before Todd pulls away.
"That, was, fun." He says while panting. I'm trying to regain my breath as well.
"I, know. I thought so, to." He stands up.
"I should probably check on the chicken." He walks out of the room. I stand up as well.
"I better go check on Fluffy." I get up and walk into Todd's room. Though I'm not proud when I see Fluffy is fast asleep in the middle of Todd's bed lying down beneath a small blanket.
"Fluffy, it's too early to sleep." I say. He doesn't move a muscle. "Fluffy, wake up please." I say a little louder. He still doesn't even turn my direction. I skate a little closer to him and I see he's completely asleep and immovable from where he is. I feel a quick panic run through my body.
"Fluffy! Wake up!" He rolls over lightly but doesn't open his eyes. Todd walks into the room.
"The chicken is done." He says, but when I turn around his expression changes. "Is something wrong?" He asks as I point at an out cold Fluffy.
"My porcupine is sound asleep and he won't wake up!" Todd instantly looks scared.
"Oh no! That's not good."
"What do we do?" I ask both pleading and desperately.
"I'll go look it up!" Todd runs out of the room quickly and runs to his laptop. I continue to tap Fluffy, applying more and more pressure each time.
"Fluffy! Wake up now!" To my surprise he opens his eyes. Though, I'm not fond of the very agitated look he gives me. "Thank god you're awake now." I say relieved. Suddenly he screeches louder than ever before.
"EEEYYYEAAH!" He screams very long and loudly. I place my index finger over his mouth to quiet him down.
"Shh, Fluffy quiet down." I say until something very unexpected happens. "OW!" I scream as Fluffy bites down on my finger. He is glaring at me and biting firmly. "Stop that this instant!" I shout in attempt to stop him, but he only bites harder, it feels like a bear trap is pinching my finger.
"OOOWWW!" I scream out audibly. I look at my enraged pet and I hear him growling slightly. Eventually the pain is too much for me. Tears begin flooding my face. "Fluffy." I choke out through my broken voice. "Why are you doing this?" My voice is very weak and I'm struggling to enunciate. Fortunately he opens his mouth and releases my now bleeding finger. I quickly press the fingers on my other hand against it but the pain is still very agonizing. I stare at Fluffy for a few seconds. He's still got an annoyed look on his face. He suddenly sighs and turns around. I hear my boyfriend return.
"What do you have?" I ask Todd. He pauses at the sight of his girlfriend in tears, then he shows me his computer.
"It says here that porcupines do not hibernate." I'm left speechless with a dumbfounded expression.
Author's Note: Well, there you are readers. I hope you enjoyed this story and I'll try to get the next one out a little faster than this time. Also, I wanted to thank anyone who have favorited, followed, and/or reviewed on either this story or New Standards. I really appreciate it :). Next chapter coming shortly, I promise.