Poesy

rubber band man

We lie next to each other on my bedroom floor, our chests rising and falling, our stomachs bulging, sweat dribbling down my forehead. The evidence of what we just did lies beside us, containing only a single sliver of pineapple.

"How was it?" I ask him, finding it hard to breathe.

"Better than I had imagined," he exhales.

We both giggle a little, still having way too much fun with the innuendos, but also too stuffed to let out a real laugh. I roll over onto my stomach and prop myself up on my forearms.

"So, shall we go over the plan?"

He avoids my gaze, instead, his eyes dart around at all of the crap I have on my walls. "Is that a severed piñata head mounted on your wall?"

"Stop dodging..." I scold. "and yes, I killed it myself."

He closes his eyes and takes a few breaths before sitting up abruptly and looking at me through thick, dark lashes. "What makes you think that I could get Annika, or any girl for that matter, to fall in love with me," he asks with an incredulous tone.

I follow his lead, sitting up to face him. "What makes you think you couldn't?"

"Well, for starters, the closest I've ever come to having a girlfriend was kissing Cricket McCooney at a party sophomore year."

"Go Cricket," I whisper to myself.

"Look," I say, "this is going to be simple. I know everything there is to know about Annika, all her deepest, darkest desires. All you have to do it stand around and look pretty. I'll handle the rest."

"I don't know," he says rubbing his chin. "Isn't that kinda... I don't know... manipulative?"

"Jeez, Jude. So what... you think I'm a bad person because I don't want my best friend to move? Fine then. I'm a bad person." I say waving my hands in the air, maniacally.

He laughs at me which makes my blood begin to heat. "You know what? Never mind. I don't need your help," I snap, standing to my feet. "But when you see missing posters with Annika's face, plastered all over Lincoln, just know that she's alive... in my attic."

"Whoa, chill." He says, standing up. His tall frame now towering over me.

"Just go Jude," I tell him as I fling my door open and gesture toward the door.

"What?"

"If you're not going to help me, there's no reason for you to be here. Scram."

Not budging, he runs his fingers through his messy hair and lets out a long exhale. "Fine," he spits.

"Huh?"

"I said fine. I'll do it."

"You'll do it?" A mischievous grin slides across my face as I inch toward him.

"Yea," he sighs, "but." He puts his hand up to stop me. "If it doesn't work, you can't be mad at me."

Squealing like a pig on helium, I throw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his slim torso.  "Thank you," I whisper into his chest. He swallows, hard, before wrapping his long arms around me.

...

"I can't believe you actually got a guy to agree to that," Humphrey scoffs before taking a pull of his strawberry milkshake.