Where Is Your Backbone?

“Really Melanie, really?” Tania asked as she looked at herself in her mirror the next afternoon. Melanie had decided that Tania would be her dress up doll, and she wasn’t sure if she liked it or not.

“Yes, really. He said comfortable, so I gave you comfortable!” Melanie reasoned, picking the note back up off the bathroom counter. “This is so adorable.”

“Yeah, comfortable. I don’t think he’ll be comfortable if I’m wearing a boobs ahoy shirt.” She glared at her reflection once more before walking out of the bathroom and throwing herself on her bed.

“Quit your whining, you look fine. I could have put you in a dress, you big baby,” Melanie retorted, only succeeding in making Tania groan and bury her face in one of her pillows.

“Why are you so mean to me? I can’t take this,” she whined, her voice slight muffled by the pillow. Melanie rolled her eyes at her friend and made her way to Tania’s closet to find a good pair of shoes.

“I’m so mean to you because it gets you on dates with cute boys, quit your bellyaching and get out there, you have ten minutes!” Grabbing her friend by the arm, Melanie pulled her up and shoved her shoes into her grasp before pushing her toward the door.

“Hold the phone, I need to actually put my shoes on before I walk out the door!” Tania protested as she was unceremoniously shoved out the door.

“That’s a lie, get moving,” Melanie replied before shutting the door. The moment Tania heard the click of the lock, she knew it was hopeless to put it off anymore, so she pulled on her shoes and made her way out of the dorm building to meet up with the boy from the library.

When she walked up to the main square, she noticed the boy sitting by the fountain, a book bag at his feet and a nervous look on his face. Grinning to herself, she made her way over to the fountain, his nervous look being replaces with a smile when he noticed her.

“You made it!” He announced happily as he jumped up to greet her, picking up his bag in the process.

“You seem surprised.” She teased, making him laugh awkwardly and bring his hand up to rub the back of his neck.

“Yeah well… I may or may not have been worried that I creeped you out yesterday.” He admitted. His smile turned incredibly shy and Tania was in awe at how absolutely adorable he was.

“No, not at all. It was actually pretty cute.” She smacked herself mentally at her word vomit, and continued in hopes that it wouldn’t get awkward. “So what have you got planned?”

“You really wanna know?” Instantly, a devious look crossed his face as he opened his book bag.

“No, I want you to lie to me,” She answered sarcastically. He rolled his eyes at her, but proceeded to reach into his bag anyway.

“This is what’s going down.” Before she could register what was happening, he had pulled something out of the bag, pushed it into her grasp and ran away. Upon looking into the bag, she noticed a fully loaded Nerf gun and couldn’t stop herself from laughing.

“Good lord, you’ll be the death of me,” She mumbled to herself before securing the book bag strap over her shoulder and beginning to chase after him. For a while, she had no idea where he had gone, but that ended quickly when foam bullets began raining down on her. Looking up, Tania saw him run across a bridge connecting two of the science buildings and sent a few bullets his way before making her way into the building.

When she’d made it inside, she instantly noticed the door to the staircase was slowly shutting and made her way to the stairs. Footsteps echoed above her, and though she didn’t think he could be that obvious, it was definitely worth a shot. She began moving up the stairs quickly and quietly, carefully catching up to the person above. The moment she could see them, she aimed and let out a couple shots. The upset groan that resulted from the attack, however, surprised her.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” She apologized profusely when she realized it was her Biology teacher. He gave her a glare but not much more acknowledgement before continuing up the stairs, making her scoff slightly. She turned to go back down the staircase, but instantly stopped to avoid getting hit in the face.

“You’re not so great at being a ninja.” Tania looked down to see the boy on the next landing, a smirk on his lips and his gun over his shoulder.

“Hey, if that hadn’t have been a professor, I would’ve had you,” She replied. He shook his head and brought his gun down to his side.

“I really don’t think so. I’m below you, in case you hadn’t noticed.” Instantly, she covered her mouth with her free hand to stifle her laughter due to his poor word choice. Then seeing her opportunity to attack, she opened fire on him, shocking him into dropping his weapon as he ducked to take cover.

“That’s what she said,” She answered, unable to keep herself from laughing any longer. His jaw dropped in initial shock, but he soon joined her in laughing at his terribly suggestive comment.

“Not clever, not original. Minus one for you, Tania.” He gave an exaggerated sigh and shook his head at her, making her laugh even harder. “We should probably go find something to do that won’t get us in trouble with our professors, don‘t you think?”

“I think you’re right about that,” She agreed. She began walking back down the stairs to join him in a quest to find something slightly more productive, but the plan went down the drain as she tripped over her own feet and rolled the rest of the way. He attempted to catch her, but that only resulted in the both of them crashing to the ground.

Though she wanted to apologize, or to be completely honest, just disappear, but the only thing she could manage to do at the moment is blush profusely, for their legs were tangled together. She couldn’t even run away if she wanted to, because in his attempt to catch her, he only succeeded in being pulled down on top of her.

“God, Tania, I’m so sorry!” He told her, attempting to get up but not quite achieving due to how tangled their limbs were still.

“No, it’s my fault. I’m such a klutz.” She insisted.

“Maybe we should, uh… be more careful?” His voice got much quieter, and when she managed to bring herself to look at him, he realized how close he really was. Time suddenly seemed to slow down as he carefully brought his hand up to brush her bangs out of her face, letting it rest behind her neck as he began moving closer to her. Tania took a quick glance up at his bright, blue eyes before closing her own feeling her lips press against his gently.

“Wow, I’m s-sorry. I probably sh-shouldn’t have d-done that.” He began stuttering instantly, which she couldn’t help but to find absolutely adorable.

“We should stop apologizing now.” She laughed. His cheeks immediately reddened and he gave her a shy smile.

"Yeah... okay. How about we start over? Hi, I'm Chris Kamrada." He held his hand out to her, the action slightly awkward due to the fact that they were still sprawled across the landing. She took his hand in hers anyway, a grin of amusement playing on her lips.

"Hey, I'm Tania Davis."