Chequered Nettle

I sat there with a stupid grin on my face. Danny was sitting on the lounge, his headphones blaring so loud I could hear them from where I stood. Books were scattered on the coffee table and Danny furiously wrote in his notebook. An older woman sat on the sofa opposite to him and give him an unbelieving stare. Then when he noticed her, he flashed her the brightest smile he could muster. The old woman looked at him with an offended look before storming off. His music must've could scare anyone away.

"Tell that boy to go sit somewhere else!" she told me as she came to complain. I had to do as she asked of me because 'the customer is always right.' It didn't look like this old woman had any sense anyway. It looked like she was headed for a horse race, or coming from one.

"Right away ma'am." I told her and smiled at the fact the she was sending me to Danny.

Lately, we've been hanging out more. He makes me wait for him to come to my house, since says he worries about me walking around in the street alone. I know that's bull, but it's nice he takes the time to lie to me to make me think better of him. I know for a fact, that Danny is more afraid of our neighborhood than I am. In fact, he's almost paranoid when we're walking home. It's for this very reason that he choose to hang around Delane on a regular basis.

"How many times do I have to say this!" I screamed very loudly. "You're not supposed to be here if you're not renting a room!" I continued to shout making sure to make a scene. Truth was people weren't too happy taking up their coffee place and doing homework. I had to make it look like I was actually protecting the guest's interests by pretending to kick him out over and over again.

"You know you're going to get me fired." I told him in almost a whisper when I saw him press pause on his mp3 player and put aside what looked like an essay.

"Wouldn't that be awesome? I could actually take you out for dinner." he said removing his headphones. Danny placed his pencil on the page on the textbook he was on before he closed it.

"Is that your way of saying you wanna go on a real date?" I asked putting my hand on my waist. Danny was always easy to read. Though he could be blunt at times, I admired his sincerity.

"Well yeah."

"We're both busy. Me with work and you with your. . . school." I drifted noticing how disorganized the lounge looked. Maybe it was a bad idea to have him sit there. He wasn't really bothering anyone, but maybe that was because no one really got near the messy area.

"When then, am I supposed to ask you to be my girlfriend?" he said and his face became grave. He swallowed a large up in his throat. Again, blunt, but sincere. "I, well, uh." he fumbled for his words. "Be my girl?" he asked meekly with a cheeky grin, and he made me smile.

"I've told you again and again! Listen to your music somewhere else!" I yelled in mock anger loud enough for the old woman to hear as she passed by again. I waited until the sound of her crooked footsteps faded before I continued.

"I'll be your girl if you be my boy." I replied and his smile changed from cheeky to confidant.

"Of course I'll be your man. I'm always your man. Lady! I heard you the first time! I'm leaving already!" He shouted as the old woman returned for her inspection of lounge. Danny began collecting his books. This exchange would be weirder if it wasn't the first time we had resorted to this. By now, we were both pro.

"Did you just call me lady?!" I answered. "If you don't leave in the next minute, I'm calling the cops!" the old woman gained a stratified smirk before leaving again. I knew she wouldn't return another time. She was convinced, I knew it.

I turned to Danny, happy for the first time in a long time. We both laughed. I was his girl, and he my man. My first boyfriend in, well, forever. I couldn't stop laughing, until, "You're not really, are you?" he asked.

"Come on." I had said before helping him with a few of his books. I took his hand in mine. His was so much bigger than mine I felt like it his hand could hold mine so perfectly. "Terra said I could use her room when I needed it. She should be off scrubbing toilets on the second floor around this time, so you can study there."

I lead him up the stairs and into the third hallway. I went the way Terra had shown me to take with Danny not letting go of my hand the whole way. When we got to their door I used the maid's key to open the door. I heard a very loud shuffling when I inserted the key. I gave Danny a curious look as if he somehow knew what was going on. He shrugged his shoulders wiping away any blame.

Turning the handle, slowly, I made sure to be careful. If Kara was in there, I was sure she wouldn't be happy with me taking a boy into her room. If anything she would be extremely pissed. She wouldn't fire me cause she knew I had something over her. I didn't know what exactly, but she didn't know that.

On the other side of the door, I saw to my relief, Terra. Only a lot of things were wrong. To begin with, she was supposed to be off scrubbing toilets. Second, she was out of breath. Third and lastly, she had a look of utter horror on her face.

"What are you doing?" I asked suspiciously.

"Nothing!" Terra sound, but a sound of scratching in the bathroom betrayed her.

"What was that?" I said moving towards the bathroom

"Nothing! Nothing!" She yelled in a panic as I opened the bathroom door. Out popped a sleek gray thing that began leap around the room. It charged towards Danny and he let out a quick shout of surprise.

"What is that!" He shouted backing up into a corner after dropping the books he was carrying. It stopped and stared at him. It's head turning ever so slightly to the side before bowing before him. "It's Satan!" Danny declared pointing a finger him.

"Are you crazy?! You can't keep a dog here! Kara's going to put us both in the graveyard shift again, or get us fired, or murder us!" I panicked. Surely, Kara would find out, then when she knew I knew about it, all hell would break loose.

"Okay, so I figure, that I can take feed him some of the food people return at the dinner and if I take it out before Kara gets back then bring it in before Sue leaves, I'll be able to hide him forever."

"A dog attacked me once, and it looked just like that one!" Danny said still backed into the corner of the room. The small steel puppy growled, a high pitched sound more similar to that of a whine.

"Are you kidding me right now." I said putting my mind on overdrive. What to do with this? I couldn't think of a situation where this much stress was involved without being physically dangerous to my health.

Outside in the hallway, a door was heard being shut with the distinct metal clank that came with the stair well. Terra moved faster than I had ever seen anyone move and she shut the room door that had been left open. Then she looked at me, her face a perfect expression of fear and terror. "It's Kara."

"It is not." I replied with skepticism. It couldn't be Kara. Her shift had just started and she would never arrive late to her own shift. Would she?

"Now Nell, I'm not supposed to have Solomon here." Terra started. Outside the footsteps sounded closer, and closer. It couldn't be Kara. She had to be working the receptionist desk. That's what the schedule said, so that's what she would be doing. Right? "But you're not supposed to have a guy here!" The door knob began fumble with someone on the other side.

"Hide the evidence!" I panicked. Terra picked up the dog and I grabbed Danny and led him after Terra. We shoved them both into the hallway closet, before looking at each other unsure what to do next. The lock on the door turned and we both bolted to the sofa in a silent and unanimous decision.

I sat way too upright. Terra, having jumped over the armrest landed slightly on her side. I could tell it looked unnatural, for both of us. Before we could even adjust our poses the door opened in stormed Kara. I froze staring straight at the television. The whole world went blank.

"Can you believe the nerve of some people? Making me late." Kara said angrily as she went straight into the bathroom. She was heard fumbling with some things before reemerging. Her hair looked neater, and her clothing was completely color. I didn't notice anything else. I couldn't look at her, and continued staring forward. I told myself, that if I looked her in the eye, she would figure me out. "Now I'm late! I'm never late! I've gotta go." And she was gone. We could breathe. One single breath for us both that expressed a single fear and a single solidarity.

"I can come out right? This thing is trying to eat me!" Danny said opening the closet door. The dog was gnawing on his shoelace tip while Danny attempted to gently kick him off.

Just then, the front door opened and Kara was there again. Danny froze, too late to do anything about it. "Terra, get to the third floor today." she said. The opened door hid the view to the closet perfectly. Now if only that dog didn't do something stupid. Just as I thought that the dog started roaming. Danny was quick to lure it back into the closet by jingling his shoe lace in front of it. "They really need you up there." Kara continued.

Once the puppy was back into the closet, comfortably chewing on his shoes, he slowly closed the door. "Nell." My heart was beating so loudly in my ears I almost didn't hear it. I was forced to turn away from the television screen to look at Kara. "You should go up there too." Was all she said before leaving again.

This time, we didn't move for a while just in case. I stared at the television again, though both our minds was elsewhere. Trying desperately not to get caught, hoping for her not to see through our sham. It had been close. Maybe it wold have helped if we had bothered to actually turn on the television screen.