Death is My BFF Rewritten (Book 1 of the Rewritten Death Chronicles)

Chapter 8: Clamor and Chaos

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      NO SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS. REWRITE PLOT IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE ORIGINAL.

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             "Faith, I don't see any clowns..."

            I wanted to leave the carnival right then and there. I knew what I saw. I saw a clown, staring at me, and if David hadn't seen it as well, that was anything but good.

             I also wanted to run home and hide under my covers for an eternity.

            "Faith?" David said my name gently, lightly touching my shoulder. My heart was pounding so hard in my ears that for a moment, it sounded as if he was underwater and it was difficult to understand him.

            I leaned into him. "What did you say?"

             "I said, are you alright? Do you want me to take you home?"

            I looked up at the handsome man in front of me with a dazed look in my eyes. I force a smile onto my face. "I'm fine. I--I just watched a really scary movie last night. Must be a little jumpy or something."

            David watched me carefully. "Makes sense. We could always reschedule, you know. You seem pretty shaken up."

            Was I just another girl being penciled into his schedule?

            "The last thing anyone who's shaken up wants is an arrogant bastard trying to make some moves on her," David continued, lowering his voice playfully.

            I shook my head, laughing. "I need to face my fears more often, I'm a scaredy cat when it comes to just about everything. Doesn't surprise me that I'm scaring myself right now." I don't want to be an easy target, especially when there's nothing really there. "I'm absolutely positive that I want to go on a date with you right here, right now. Plus, you drove 30 miles out here to see me, and for an arrogant bastard, that's pretty impressive."

            "I'm impressing you? Good." For a moment, David leaned so far over the counter into my booth that I thought he was going to kiss me goodbye. "I'll come back for you when your shift is over," he said softly in my ear. Then, in a mischievous, yet slightly hostile way, he added, "Don't keep me waiting, Miss Williams."

            You never want to see me again, but you still think I'm really hot.

            Out of the blue, I found myself so unbearably physically attracted to David that I wanted to rip his shirt right down the middle and spread my hands along his muscular torso. A small part of myself fought against that strange urge, but a much larger part of myself won. Before David leaned back away from the counter and walked away, I gripped him by the collar of his t-shirt and held him firmly in front of me. He stiffened significantly under my grip and moved his hands to my waist, and as if his first instinct was to defend himself, he squeezed my waist so hard I thought his hands were metal clamps.

            I yelped, letting go of his collar.

            "What are you doing?" David unclenched his hands as quickly as he had grabbed me, but kept me close. "You caught me off guard. I guess I'm a little bit jumpy today too." He gently probed my sides where my shirt was bunched up. "I hurt you, didn't I? I didn't even realize..."

            "Didn't hurt." I lied, once I had found my voice. "It's fine, I don't know what I was thinking either." I had clearly done the last thing David had expected from me and held onto him like he was my lifeline.