Of Thieves And Do Gooders

Okay, time for a pep talk. You can do this Raven, you are a mountain, a mountain among hillsides, every hillside cowers at the very sight of you. Because you are a mountain, and mountains are large and obviously something worth fearing.

…

Alright, not working, I thought with a small grimace. Pep talks were for the weak and mentally challenged (much like breaks during The Impossible Quiz 2). I let out the breath I had taken in and took a silent step forward, putting my hand on the doorknob. Then I stopped and retracted my hand again. Damn it! Why was this so hard to do? The directions were easy for an infant to follow.

1. Put hand on doorknob
2. Turn doorknob with hand
3. Push door open while turning doorknob

And yet I still couldn’t force myself to do it. I needed a game plan. What sort of game plan could I possibly cook up for this? “Hey Hayden, I kissed you because I like you, ta-da! Surprised?”

Yeah, not what I wanted to come in with. Then another doubt sunk in. Good God, what if he didn’t like me, like I liked him? What if he didn’t like me at all? He didn’t see that I liked him because he didn’t like me so he didn’t want to see it.

More importantly, what if I really didn’t like Hayden as much as I thought I did? Maybe it was just the cold getting to my head. Maybe I didn’t feel the same about him when I looked at him now compared to when we were both dying. Maybe I just didn’t want to die alone and loveless like some withered hag living in a swamp with nothing but cats and swamp rats for company.

I swallowed hard and sifted idly through my thoughts. Okay, this was how it was going to go. I needed to ask Hayden a question, and then I would find out what I would tell him.

Okay, game time, I thought absently and began to turn the doorknob, but came to a halt. I was forgetting something. I lifted my other hand and gingerly knocked on the door, some distant part of me hoping he wouldn’t hear me so I would have an excuse to leave.

There was shuffling from inside the room before I heard Hayden call out, “Come in?”

I scowled to myself, damn, no such luck. Wiping the scowl from my face, I entered the room, there was no way I couldn’t now, I had knocked, made my presence known and now I had to enter that accursed room. It was a perfect plan on myself, I had to trap myself to actually get myself in there. Then again I could have just ding-dong ditched…in a sense anyway. Nevertheless I walked purposefully into the room and closed the door carefully behind me.

Hayden was sitting on his bed with his hands in his lap and a shirt clenched beneath his fingertips, apparently he had been contemplating putting it on or not. Well I had to admit, at least it was better than walking in on him with his pants off, because in that case I knew what all that shuffling was about. I shuddered at the thought.

He cocked his head to the side, his eyes narrowed in serious contemplation. Either he was trying to figure out what to say to me, or he had completely forgotten who I was.

So I spoke first. And the first thing out of my mouth was, “I’m not going to apologize, you know, so, don’t hold your breath. I don’t think blue is really your color.”

Hayden frowned now, looking more annoyed than confused. “Neither am I,” he said stubbornly, fiddling with the shirt in his hands.

“Looks like we’ve got a problem with the conversation already then,” I countered, my fingers itching to rip the bedroom door back open and leave again.

“Look, Raven, if you didn’t come here to apologize, then why are you here?” Hayden asked, sounding irritated.

I flushed, thinking of what I had come to talk about. “Why are you so pissy?” I asked instead and mentally smacked myself. Why did I keep doing that? I needed to just ask what I wanted to know and then get the answer, give a reply and leave. Easy. And yet I was making it so much more complicated.

Hayden’s eyes burned with obvious anger. “I don’t know Raven, let me think about it,” he turned his head to the side as if thinking hard then continued, “Hmm, maybe I’m pissy because you are acting like a fucking lunatic! One minute you’re sarcastic, the next your pissed, one moment later and you’re happy, what is wrong? You aren’t like this all the time, so go ahead and tell me what the hell it is that is sending you off the charts!”

I clenched my teeth to keep my mouth shut, and to keep myself from coming back with some smartass remark. I needed to focus on my main objective. “I…I’m…” I trailed off, God damn it, I was just about to contradict myself.

“Y-you?” Hayden mocked, still clearly angry with me. He was not helping.

“I am trying to keep myself from snapping on you, so can you shut the fuck up for a second so I can contradict myself?” I said and realized that I had actually just snapped at him while telling him that I was trying to refrain from doing so. Ironic. Hayden glared at me, but stayed quiet. I took a deep breath and looked at him. He looked right back, eyes still narrowed. “I’m…mrrym…” I muttered inaudibly.

Hayden paused and his glare turned into confusion. “What?”

I looked up from the ground and glared at him as if it were completely his fault that I couldn’t talk to him. “I said, ‘I’m sorry’, alright? I’m sorry that I’m acting crazy, it’s just that…that…” I scrambled for a different sentence than the one that I wanted to say and came up with, “I’m just on my period alright? And it sucks.” Oh, yes that was much less embarrassing then telling him that I liked him.

Hayden’s mouth dropped open and he cringed back, closing his eyes and shaking his head slightly. “Ahh, God damn it you didn’t have to tell me that! What the fuck is wrong with you?” He touched his forehead with his hand as if trying to wipe his memory clean, “Fuck, now I have a mental picture and everything, holy shit that is gross--”

“You asked!” I protested, flushing slightly, but glad for the change in topic. “And why the hell are you getting a mental picture of a bleeding vag--”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Hayden covered his ears and squeezed his eyes shut. “I don’t want to hear about…about…your anatomy,” he finally added, opening his eyes to see that I had rose my eyebrows at him. “Are you done talking about your girl parts?” he asked, and I rolled my eyes. The fool took my response as a “yes” and uncovered his ears.

“Vagina!” I launched verbally in his direction.

Hayden cringed and glared at me, I, on the other hand smiled triumphantly. “Bitch,” he called me firmly, but remained quiet otherwise.

“Thank you, I’ll be a bitch and you can be an asshole, sounds fair to me,” I retorted nonchalantly and crossed my arms over my chest.

“Whatever, so…so…you’re moody because…well, you know, that girl thing,” Hayden stumbled the words out of his mouth.

I wanted to point out to him that even if I was on my period I wasn’t this moody, I wasn’t pregnant, just annoyed because I had to bleed for a week. But that would have blown my cover, so, I allowed his misconception of moodiness to slide, he was just a guy anyway, he wouldn’t understand in the least.

“Yes, I’m moody because of ‘that girl thing’,” I mocked and rolled my eyes, he was so immature. “So, I’m sorry, alright? I’ll try to simmer down as best I can, I’ve only got two days left anyway,” I lied easily. This was turning out rather nicely, aside from the fact that I was chickening out.

Hayden scratched his head and looked at the floor as if debating with himself and then turned to me. “Two days left until…umm…what? Do you chicks explode or something…?”

“Do you want all the gory details?” I threatened, and he shook his head vigorously. “No we don’t ‘explode’ you moron, I’ve never heard of ‘death by menstruation’,” I answered, shaking my head at his male ignorance, living in his guy world where girl problems didn’t exist. Bastard.

“Alright, alright, I was just wondering…but…umm…what exactly happens after two days…?” he sounded like he was very skeptical about the answer he might hear. He was a masochist and was bent on torturing himself.

I sighed and shook my head, “Seriously? You want to know? Well, I’ll be nice and tell you the truth rather than mock you further. In two days, I stop bleeding, ta-da, now you know the secret, take it with you to your grave.”

Hayden scowled. “You still mocked me,” he pointed out and suddenly remembered the shirt in his hands. Quickly, he pulled it over his hand as if I might jump on him like a rabid animal if he did otherwise.

I felt my eye twitch at that and struggled with myself before I replied by saying, “Just because my hormones are kicking in doesn’t mean I’ll freaking rape you because you have your shirt off you dipshit.”

Looking offended, Hayden tried to right himself by standing up. Then, he swallowed hard and said to me, “I guess, I’m sorry too, for, you know, I guess not taking your…condition into consideration.”

“Condition?” I repeated and saw him stir visibly, then decided to leave it alone. “Never mind, forget it. There was something I wanted to clear up with you.” I leaned against the door, to get more comfortable and to take away the temptation of darting out that same door.

“Go ahead,” Hayden nodded at me and leaned against his bed slightly.

“When I…kissed you in that hole…I wasn’t exactly ‘all there’, if you know what I mean and, well, I thought we were both going to die down there and…well…I guess what I’m trying to say is…” I bit the inside of my cheek and looked at Hayden when I said the next part of my sentence, “It didn’t really…mean anything to me, so, you don’t have to, you know, humor me or anything like that.”

Hayden stared at me, clearly trying to figure out what it was that he wanted to say. “I…I wasn’t trying to humor you, I was just trying to figure out…” he trailed off and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand.

“Well, forget about it, if you were trying to figure out how I felt about it, well, now you know. Congratulations.” I was trying to wipe some of the bitterness from my voice, but I just as soon found that I had failed to do so. If anything, I sounded more bitter. I saw Hayden flinch slightly and he pursed his lips, looking deep in thought. I hesitated and then asked, “What?”

Hayden looked up at me and only looked confused, as if I had imagined the flinch. I knew that I hadn’t. “What are you talking about?”

I sighed in frustration. “Never mind.” He must have just flinched at my tone alone.

“Okay…”

“So, I’m going back to Shadowstep Academy after Christmas break,” I announced, glad to change the topic before I had to elaborate more on how I “felt”.

Hayden looked curious at this, and equally glad for the topic change. “Really? I’d ask you how, but I think I already know the answer. Do you know what classes you’ll be taking?” he asked, now seeming more relaxed.

I shrugged and replied, “Hell if I know, all I know is what room I’m in and that I’m going back.”

“Your room? How do you know that already?” Hayden asked curiously.

“Well your dad was kind enough to see to my ‘living arrangements’,” I drawled sarcastically.

Hayden scowled at my lack of details and asked in a deliberately slow tone, “Meaning…?”

“‘Meaning’,” I mocked, “that I’m in the same exact room that I had been in when I left.”

Hayden almost choked on his own spit--which really was an amusing thing to see--and widened his eyes in my direction. “My room?” he sputtered.

“Our room,” I corrected with a grin, just due to the incredulous look on his face. “Looks like we’re going back to the good ‘ol days.” I feigned a look of nostalgia.

“B-but there aren’t co-ed dorms! There have never been co-ed dorms!” Hayden protested.

“Hey, I dunno why you’re yelling at me, I didn’t make the arrangements and if you’re gonna be like this the whole time I might complain myself,” I told him sharply.

“I’m not yelling at you,” Hayden said defensively, and then significantly lowered his voice as he said, “I’m just…surprised, that’s all.”

“Yeah, I yell when I’m surprised too, just not nice words…” I concurred and pushed myself away from the door. “Did all of your family members leave already?” I inquired nonchalantly and for the sake of maintaining a conversation.

Hayden shrugged and then answered wryly, “Hell if I know, I’ve been out of it since yesterday, I didn’t wake up any sooner than you did.”

“Thank you Captain Sarcasm, nice to see you around,” I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Well I saw one of your little family members wandering around outside, erm, the little one?” I looked at him as if that were supposed to help him identify the family member.

“I’m gonna need a bit more detail then that,” Hayden replied, looking at me as if I were an idiot.

“God I don’t know, the little one with the arms and the legs? Walks around, breathes air, I didn’t exactly take a mini profile of her,” I shot back, sticking my tongue out at him childishly.

“So, from that crappy description I’ve concluded that there’s a little girl wandering around, and she both has her arms and legs and breathes, that narrows it down so much,” he retorted with a slight snort. “Don’t you have a photographic memory or some shit like that? Why don’t you try using it?” Hayden suggested.

I sighed and glared at him. “Well, honestly since you’re being so snarky about it, I don’t think I’m going to use my photographic memory. However, I don’t need that advanced of a memory to tell you that her name is Amber,” I said with a sneer in his direction.

Hayden’s face lit up in obvious realization. “Oh, Amber? That’s my Aunt Stacy’s daughter,” he explained.

Of course. “Somehow, I’m not surprised,” I muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing,” I piped up with a sickly sweet smile on my face.

Hayden frowned. “Okay…”

“So your aunt Stacy is still around here somewhere?” I asked on a swift topic readjustment.

“Evidently.”

“What about Leon and Damion?” Okay, so I knew that Damion was around, but I asked anyway. Don’t ask me why, because I’m not quite sure myself.

“Umm…I’m not sure, it’s Christmas Eve so Lee’s gotta go home soon--if he isn’t gone already, anyway.” Hayden looked thoughtful and then stole a glance up at me when he thought I wasn’t looking, and then added, “Dame’s probably somewhere around here, unless he went back to the school early.” He snorted, which told me how unlikely that event was.

“Well I hope Leon’s still here,” I said, more to myself, “I have to give him his presents still.” Suddenly a grin fell onto my face. “Speaking of presents,” I drawled out my last word while Hayden quirked an eyebrow in my direction.

“What about them? No I haven’t found mine yet, but that’s only because I wasn’t looking that hard…really…” he mumbled the last half of his sentence.

“Whatever, you fail!” I sneered at him with a slight upturn at the corner of my lips. “However, that wasn’t what I was going to say. I got my present from your dad early.” My smirk turned into a grin when Hayden glared at me.

“No you didn’t…?” he stated skeptically, making the statement a question at the last second. It must have been the smug look on my face.

“Oh, I did.”

“Well? What’d you get? A book?” Hayden snickered at his prediction.

“No that’s his gift to you. Obviously, he loves me more, because I got means of transportation,” I answered, sticking my tongue out at him.

The look on Hayden’s face was so amazingly replenishing to my mood that I’m going to go through this in slow motion with you. First: his eyes bugged out of his head, his pupils dilated like he’d seen something horrific. Second: his mouth fell open ever so slightly so that I could see the inside of his mouth--not a pretty sight, mind you, despite perfectly straight teeth. Ah, and the best and last part, he spluttered, “H-he got you a…a…car? I don’t even have a car yet!”

The outrage in his voice was music to my ears. “No, I don’t have a car, he bought me something more along the lines of two-wheel transportation,” I retorted smugly.

Hayden’s face relaxed a bit more, and he controlled his reaction better, composing himself with a thin line to replace his slack-jawed shock. “Oh, a bicycle? Erm…” he chuckled, “congratulations?” He laughed more, probably at the thought of me finally receiving that bike that the little kid is supposed to wake up and find on Christmas morning. Except I wasn’t a little kid and my bike was much more appropriate for my age.

I sneered at him. “You would like that wouldn’t you? Unfortunately for you and your little feminine giggle-fest, no, I didn’t get a ‘bicycle’. The transportation device that your father bought for me--and not for you--was an ’08 Kawasaki Ninja, so,” I made a raspberry sound at him again, “on you.”

That wonderful look of shock crept onto Hayden’s face again. And, I’m not exactly certain, but I think he forgot to respond. After a good two minutes I lifted my eyebrow at him. “Hayden? You still breathing over there?” I inquired, not-so-secretly getting far too much joy from his expression.

Seeing this, Hayden wiped his face of all expression aside from a scowl and said, “Right, well…”

I snickered. “What happened to ‘congratulations’? Now suddenly you’re gonna skimp on them since I have something worth having?”

“No…con…gratula…tions…” he said the word as if it were causing him physical harm, and only by breaking up the word could he say it without spontaneously combusting.

I rolled my eyes at him. “If it’s going to keep your head from exploding with jealousy, you can open one of my presents to you early, if you want,” I offered, suddenly in high spirits at the fact that Jack hadn’t gotten Hayden a car, yet I had a motorcycle. I would have to buy him flowers or something like that, just to make up for--

“Oh, fuck!” I gasped and leapt away from the door.

Hayden jumped up from his bed, startled. “What? What is it?” Hastily, he fell back against his bed, blinking away what I imagined was dizziness.

“I didn’t get your dad anything!” I exclaimed, hitting myself in the head softly with my closed fist. “Stupid, stupid, stupid!”

It was Hayden’s turn to roll his eyes at me. “Jesus, is that it? Well don’t worry about it, you really don’t have to get my dad anything, he’s practically got everything he’s ever wanted. Even if he doesn’t, he can buy anything whenever he wants it.”

I glared at him. Did he really not get it? “That’s not the point, gifts are supposed to say a few things. One: I like you, will you possibly acknowledge that and go out with me? Two: I know that you like this gift so you should be suspicious about me breaking up with you. Three: we’re friends and this is a special occasion, therefore you get a gift that acknowledges both this occasion and our friendship. In this case, I’m referring to the third situation,” I explained in a rush of breath.

“Oh, this is one of those ‘it’s the thought that counts’ things, right?” Hayden spoke knowledgeably.

“Thank you for realizing this after I force fed the information to you,” I spat a little harshly, the feeling mostly being fueled by my frantic thoughts--what could I get him? A thought occurred to me and I turned to face a rather insulted looking Hayden. I rethought what I had said and smiled sweetly before saying in a sickly sweet tone, “Hayden, my dear, dear friend.”

His expression instantly changed from “insulted” to “confused”, then an instant later and it became “haughty”. “Oh, now you want help?” he turned a mock-thoughtful eye from side to side as if considering something.

“Come on, you know I didn’t mean to be…well…mean.”

“Right, well, I think my feelings are far too hurt to come up with anything that my dad might want…” Hayden said with a fake waver to his voice. As if he were about to break out into tears.

“Oh suck it u--” I stopped myself and bit my lower lip, plastering that sickly sweet smile back onto my face. Fine, I would play his little game, as long as I benefited from it. “I mean…Hayden mi amigo, will you…puh-lease, give me some suggestions?” I put on the saddest face I could muster, although I think I choked over the word “please” my voice hitching over the seemingly foreign word, proving my inexperience with sentimental words or phrases.

Hayden stared at me for a long moment and then burst into laughter. Bruising my ego and stinging my pride in the process. “That was…” he said between fits of laughter, “the worst…sad face I’ve ever seen since…ever!” he exclaimed, still laughing at the memory of my expression. That expression was long gone now, however, firmly replaced by a scowl. And here I had thought that I had put on a convincing front.

“Never mind then! I don’t need this shit,” I grumbled and turned toward the door. A moment later I heard the satisfying sound of Hayden stumbling his way toward me, swearing when he almost landed on his face. That was the desired effect.

“No, wait, Raven, just a second, I’ll help you,” he huffed, trying to catch his breath from all of his laughing. “Just because you gave me a nice laugh and even groveled a little bit,” Hayden grinned at me when I rolled my eyes. I was not groveling, just asking nicely…

Which might as well have been “groveling” for me. First I demanded, then if that didn’t work, I asked, and when asking didn’t work, I took what it was that I wanted. Never before had I sunken so low as to “ask nicely”. I was getting soft, I realized with a painful wince at the thought alone.

“Whatever,” was my murmured response.

“Aww, don’t be so ruffled about it Raven, you begged quite nicely,” he pointed out as he stepped in front of me to open the door for me. “Do you want a cookie? Huh, do you? Let’s go get a cookie!” Hayden said emphatically, stepping out into the hall and stopping to pat his thighs like he was talking to a dog.

I glowered at him and stayed exactly where I was when I spoke softly, “I’m going to give you until the count of five before I tackle you to the ground and hit you repeatedly in the face.”

Hayden grinned and cocked an eyebrow in my direction, clearly not believing me, or just waiting until I started counting.

“One…”

“Alright Raven, let’s say I believe you--”

“Two…”

“I don’t really think it’s physically possible for you--”

“Three…” I said more sharply.

“Now you’re just being unreasonable--”

“Four…”

“Okay, umm, what’s with that crazy look--?”

“Five!” I shouted and lurched toward him without warning.

Hayden yelped and turned to run down the hallway. But he was much too slow. He really should have heeded my warning, rather than ignoring it. The little fool.

My fingertips were mere inches away from his shirt collar when he ripped around the corner in the hall, sending me crashing into the wall instead. Unfortunately for him, I just used it as leverage and bounced off of it, chasing him down again.

Hayden stole a glance back at me, grinning stupidly as he tore around the next corner. I growled at the distance he had put between us, curse him and his significantly longer legs! I stepped it up a bit and managed to catch up just before he made a left and reached the stairs. He was already on the fourth step down, taking the stairs by twos, when I was just reaching the top. I bounded after him, taking the stairs at the traditional one-at-a-time pace when I got close enough to the bottom. Just before he was planning to clear the last three stairs and hit the tile of the observatory running, I took a desperate leap of faith and clung to his back. Hayden shouted in surprise and his legs teetered beneath him before he toppled over and down the last few stairs, me accompanying him, and just at my back struck the tile did I realize what a bad idea that was. I took a sharp intake of air and felt my spine burning with a new wave of pain. Yeah, really bad idea.

I groaned and tried to sit up, but realized at some point in our tumbling sequence, Hayden had ended up on top of me. That explained why breathing was a harder task than usual. He was sprawled on top of me with his back laying partially on my face and chest, his legs on the other hand were throw off to the side while he recuperated, blinking rapidly to emphasize his disorientation. Ignoring the heavenly smell of his shampoo when strands of his hair fell on my face, I took advantage of his disorientation and rolled him off of me and onto the ground.

“Oomph,” was his only response to that as he rolled over onto his back again, blinking at me with confusion in his eyes.

Instantly, I leapt on him and straddled his stomach before I reeled back my fist and connected it with his face. It was just a small bop on the nose at the most, but that was enough to make my point and snap Hayden out of his confusion. Tears sprang into his eyes and he yelled his disapproval as he lifted his own fist in retaliation, I sneered at the threatening gesture and was surprised when his fist connected with my face, just below my eye. It didn’t exactly hurt because he was certainly holding back on his strength, but it got the right point across. He wasn’t going to get punched in the face by a girl and take it lying down--no pun intended…and yet…

“You don’t get to hit me! I’m a girl!” I sputtered in an insulted tone and reeled back my fist to hit him again, this time however he blocked it easily with one of his significantly larger hands.

“Stop trying to hit me!” Hayden protested and held fast to my hand despite my attempts to free myself.

I reeled back my other hand, curled it into a fist and then pretended to aim for his face a second time. But he saw that all too easily and tried to grab my other hand, however, I changed my course and pounded my fist on his chest, causing him to sputter when I practically knocked the wind out of him. Shouldn’t have assumed I was so dumb as to try the same move twice. My other hand free, I grabbed his shirt collar and hauled him up beneath me so that he was sitting and I was practically in his lap, but I didn’t pay attention to that at the moment.

Hayden was gasping, trying to reestablish his normal breathing pattern when a smirk curled onto my lips. “What did I say I was going to do?” I asked cheekily, raising an eyebrow at him as he finally managed to breath a bit more normally and glare at me.

Lightning-fast, I socked him in the face again, this time putting more force behind the blow. Hayden flinched, but refrained from crying out even as my knuckles met the flesh above his eye. I think that might have hurt me more than him, considering the bone made it seem like I had punched a brick wall. I gasped and jerked my hand back, shaking it vigorously to take the sting out.

Seeing the weakness, Hayden rolled me effortlessly to the side--which was an easy feat considering he outweighed me easily--and turned the tides within seconds. Instead I took into consideration that he was now the one straddling my[.i] stomach, and just to reiterate how much control he had over the situation, he pinned my arms to the ground with bone-crushing force. Evidentially, he was aware of basic self-defense and how I could knock him off of me if he just applied less pressure and gave me the chance.

“You actually punched me!” Hayden exclaimed with a scowl adorning his almost flawless face--of course there would be an ugly bruise above his eye and possibly around his nose by tomorrow.

“You punched me!” I shouted back, just as infuriated. I always lost my temper once I took a hit, otherwise I could keep my cool and talk my way out of a situation. But once I took even the most minuscule bit of damage, I flipped.

“You hit me first!” Hayden pointed out heatedly, leaning down closer to me in exasperation as he tried to intimidate me.

It wasn’t going to work though, I wasn’t easily intimidated. “So? I warned you at least! And besides you’re forgetting the main point here: I’m a girl, you don’t get to hit girls! You’re a batterer now!” I pointed out, straining against his hold on my wrists.

He glared at me.

I narrowed my eyes back and then in a deadly whisper I said, “I’m going to tell your father!”

Hayden blanched slightly, looking taken aback and then he squared his shoulders--making sure to keep a firm hold on my wrists--and replied, “You wouldn’t…” His voice was a low whisper, warning even.

“Oh, I would, and I will.”

Hayden rolled his eyes suddenly. That was an unexpected reaction to my threatening tone. “If you’ll take into account who exactly is on top here, I think you’ll see how impossible that is,” he stated haughtily.

I stared at him for a second and then giggled once and muttered, “That’s what she said.”

Hayden frowned as that registered and then tried to hold back his smile and failed miserably. “You’re extremely dirty minded for a girl,” he informed me with a chuckle.

I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Thank you?”

“So if I let you up are you going to punch me again?” Hayden asked, ignoring my previous comment.

I considered that and frowned in thought. Hayden raised a questioning eyebrow at my hesitation. With a grimace I decided to tell the truth. “Probably, yes.”

Hayden frowned at that and then a wicked grin touched his lips when he replied, “Wrong answer.”

Before I even had time to change the expression on my face, Hayden lifted both my arms from the ground and held them in one hand briefly before trapping them against the tile yet again, now above my head. “H-hey!” I protested struggling for a second before his breath fanned out across my face, stunning me at how close he was. My face flushed and I started to thrash, only to head butt Hayden, causing him to flinch and growl in my direction, but he otherwise ignored me and began to fiddle with his belt.

I stared at him, my head throbbing and assumed the worst when he got his belt undone. What the fuck was he doing? From what it looked like to me, he was undoing his pants, and there was one thing in his pants that I knew he wouldn’t be getting anywhere remotely near me. Seeing the wild look in my eyes Hayden paused and his face flushed. Quickly he jerked his belt free of the belt loops on his pants. “Jesus Raven I’m not going to rape you!” he said heatedly, his face a steady shade of red as he flipped me over and gathered my hands behind my back.

“Well it sure as hell looks like it! Why the fuck are you getting rid of your belt?” Despite what he said, my “rape alert” was going off and I struggled to get free, feeling uncomfortable when I couldn’t see him. A moment later and I felt the leather of his belt constricting on my wrists as he secured my hands behind my back. Oh, this was all-too-familiar.

“What the fuck?” I demanded angrily and flopped around on the floor like an idiot. He had that belt tightened pretty good, I acknowledged this with a grunt of annoyance and stopped flopping. Bastard.

“You said you were going to hit me again, so I just made sure that wouldn’t happen,” Hayden said logically, dodging the kick that I had aimed at his shin. Curse his reflexes.

“So you hog tie me? Oh, very mature,” I growled, clearly disgruntled by his actions. But hey, at least he still had his pants on.

Hayden shrugged--or at least I think he did, it was sort of difficult to see him in the position I was in. “Well it worked didn’t it?” he asked, although I don’t think he was expecting an answer. Or at least not a civil one.

Which is why my response shouldn’t have surprised him in anyway. “Fuck you,” I growled and threw a scowl in his direction hoping he would see it.

“Well, how else was I going to manage a civil conversation with you?” Hayden inquired, ignoring my foul mouth. “Anyway, if you want, I’ll take you to the nearest mall and we can scope out a present for my dad. If it really means that much to you.”

So, basically, what he was saying was, if I wanted any help with getting a present, I would have to be a good girl so that he would untie me. “Just frickin’ untie me,” I grunted, casting my eyes sidelong so I didn’t have to look at him when I demanded my freedom.

Hayden grinned and shrugged his shoulders. “Alright, are you gonna be flexible?” he asked, already bending to loosen the belt around my wrists.

The second my wrists had the slightest bit of leeway, I wrenched myself free and sat up while simultaneously punching Hayden in the mouth, this time much harder than I had hit him in the nose. He made a surprised noise of outrage and stumbled away. “No,” I answered and he held his mouth and groaned--something about “the agony” I don’t know. He’s such a drama queen.

“You punched me!” Hayden stated sounding appalled.

“Don’t sound so surprised, I promised you nothing and I told you earlier that I was going to punch you if you let me go. Now, stop whining and let’s go,” I ordered turning to leave the room feeling more than a little gratified.