It All Started With An Apple

Chapter 27

“Dannon Barone, you are forbidden to come to church with me ever again!”

Saying that that was the worst church session ever would be a complete understatement.  All of the teenage girls—and frankly, there were a lot—swarmed around him like bees to a flower, offering to do very not Christian-like things to him.  Dannon stuck close to me when we went down to the teen room (we learned in a separate classroom from the others), but that only seemed to make the girls try harder.  Apparently, even though it was pretty damn obvious that Dannon wasn’t interested, they had to crawl all over him and coo gooey things into his ear.  Long story short?  I was fuming through the whole service.

Was I jealous? 

Maybe.

Yeah, I would admit it.  I wanted to punch all the girls in the face.  And it wasn’t just because they were disrespecting the teacher, Riley. 

“Well, I was having a lovely time,” Dannon drawled sarcastically, opening the passenger door for me.

I slipped inside, shooting him a disbelieving glare.  “Seriously?  You enjoy people pining over you?”

Dannon chuckled, shutting the passenger door and walking around the front of the car.  I watched him through narrowed slits, so irritated that I could scream.  I was disgusted with every single girl in my class.  How was that even allowed in church?  It shouldn’t have been.  They were a lot of perverts, they were!

I blinked as Dannon pried open his door and plopped inside.  I willed myself to calm down, not to bring out my annoyance on him.  It wasn’t his fault that the girls in my church were complete idiots and made me want to rip my hair out.  Though, maybe it was.  You know, he was the one who decided to be stunningly attractive.

Wait.  Did I just call Dannon stunningly attractive?

Dammit.  I did.

“No,” Dannon said teasingly, pulling me—thankfully—out of my reverie, “I enjoyed seeing you jealous like that.”

“You enjoy seeing people jealous?” I cocked an eyebrow at him, not at all feeling the need to deny the obvious truth.  “That’s kind of sadistic, don’t you think?”

Dannon pulled out of the parking lot, shaking his head solemnly as a group of girls giggled and waved to him.  “Do you think if I quit football they’d stop looking at me like that?” he muttered, sounding completely disturbed.

I scoffed, leaning back in my seat.  “Dude, they’ve always looked at you like that.  When you came to return the apple to me, I thought they were going to rip Kyla and me to shreds.”

“Oh.  Well, that’s awkward.”

I smiled, not saying anything.  I stared out the car window, not at all recognizing where we were going.  After church my family and I would always turn the opposite way.  At first I was confused—I mean, my house was the other way—but then I remembered that we were going to Dannon’s house.  My sour mood immediately turned alight with excitement.  I was finally going to meet Dannon’s dad!  Mystery Man was going to become known!

“So, what’s your dad’s name?” I asked, feigning nonchalance.

“I’m sure he’s going to introduce himself,” Dannon mused, glancing at me from the corner of his eye with a small smile pricked on the tips of his lips, “but his name is Tom.”

Tom and Dannon.  Ha!  That didn’t really flow at all.  You’re not making a couple name, Bri, I thought, mentally shaking my head, so it doesn’t really matter if it flows or not.