Price Check On Monogamy

Heartbeat. Heartbeat.

Tandem closed the space between us slowly, kissing me... gently.

I should have pulled away. I know I should have pulled away-- but God, it felt so good...

I kissed back slowly, and apparently, he took heart from that. Tandem deepened the kiss, running his hand through my short hair. Pressing me back lightly, I brought my arms around and gripped his shirt before obliging. The kiss got deeper and heavier the second my back touched the blanket. My head, however, I hit on a rock that was under the blanket.

And it brought me back to my senses.

Breaking the kiss and shoving Tandem off of me, I scrambled to sit up and put as much space between us as possible. "I think you should take me home," I said quietly, my left hand clawing furiously at my right arm. Tandem didn't respond; he was touching his lips and staring at me blankly, like he was shocked at what had just happened. After a minute or two, he blinked a couple time and the blank look on his face disappeared; a slow, disgusting smile spread across his face as he dropped his hand.

And, suddenly, my temper snapped in two.

Face bright red, I stomped my foot. "Take me home now, Tandem!" I shouted.

Tandem stood easily, smiling and looking me up and down. "Hey, hey, take it easy, Tiger. We were just getting somewhere."

"You're such a pig!" I almost screamed. "Tandem, take me home now!"

Tandem laughed, his mouth twisting back into that same horrible smirk that he always wore. Disgusted, I turned on my heel and started back toward his car. My face was still burning bright red from all the crashing feelings that kiss-- and the after math of it-- had let loose. I was shocked and pissed as hell-- but, mostly, I was... disappointed. Disappointed in myself for letting him do that, disappointed in him for taking advantage of me.

Disappointed in myself for letting him take advantage of me.

"Tiger!"

Against my better judgment, I stopped and turned slowly around to face Tandem. "Take me home now."

Tandem jogged over, everything stuffed back into the bag and slung over his shoulder. Pulling up to a stop in front of me, he rubbed the back of his neck hesitantly and refused to look anywhere but at my face. "Look... about what just happened..."

"Just take me home, you God awful pig," I hissed.

Tandem took in a deep, completely over-dramatic breath and sighed. "Tiger, I'm sorry, alright? Let me make it up to you."

"I don't want anymore of your surprises," I snapped. "I just want to go home."

Leaning against his car, Tandem crossed his arms and took another breath before looking at me, the same asshole, easy going, smirking face back on. "We're not going anywhere until you agree to let me make it up to you."

I raised an eyebrow. "Is that a threat?"

Tandem laughed. "Yeah. I guess it is. So what do you say?"

I snorted and laughed. Loudly and bitterly. And, okay, I'll admit it, a little evilly. "You really don't know anything about me, do you? I took auto-mechanics for three years, buddy. I can hotwire your car faster than you can get a drunk college girl's phone number-- and, trust me, if I have to resort to hotwiring your car, you will be spending the next two days walking your sorry ass back home."

Tandem's eyes widened a good fraction of a centimeter, making me smirk. He was finally starting to get the fact that I wasn't just another one of the snobby, stuck-up girls he was used to-- not by a long shot.

Took him long enough.

"Tiger, come on, be reasonable," Tandem said smoothly, though there was a hitch in his voice. Good; he was really getting it. "I made a mistake, alright? Just let me make it up to you. Please."

I opened my mouth to tell him to get his ass in the car and get me home, but-- once again, against my better judgment-- shut it slowly. That 'please' was just too out of place to be real. I must be hearing things. Narrowing my eyes, I asked slowly, "You'll take me straight home after this?"

Tandem's eyes lit up-- just a little. "Yes, I will take you straight home after."

"And where are we going?"

Tandem grinned. "That, my dear, will be a surprise."

I narrowed my eyes dangerously. "I swear to God, Tandem, if it's--"

"Hey, it'll be good, alright? Remember, I'm trying to make it up to you, not get you to chop my balls off."

Well, he did have a point there. Nibbling on the inside of my cheek and having a brief internal argument with myself-- an argument that ended, by the way, with both sides agreeing that I was a total and complete idiot-- I sighed. "Fine. You have five hours to do whatever the hell it is you want to do, then you're taking me back home."

"It takes almost five hours to get there!" Tandem argued.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Seven and a half hours."

"But--"

"Seven hours and twenty nine minutes. And counting."

It was Tandem's turn to roll his eyes. "Fine, fine. Get in the car, it looks like I have to get there as fast as possible."

Grinning, I slid into the car. "I thought you'd see it my way."

- - -

As it turns out, an almost five hour ride can be narrowed down to three hours and fifty minutes. How, you ask?

When you have Tandem driving like a fucking maniac.

"Dear God, how did you get your damned license?!" As soon as he pulled into the parking lot, I scrambled out of the car and grabbed the nearest tree. My balance was completely off.

Tandem laughed and got out of his car slowly-- not even he could really find his feet. "Oh, come on, it wasn't even that bad. You're overreacting."

"You never want under seventy five miles an hour! NEVER!" Starting it get my balance back, I let go of the tree slowly and pinned Tandem with an accusing glare. "I hate you so much!"

"You're overreacting!" Tandem laughed, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Besides, this is what you get for giving me a time limit."

I couldn't even respond to that; I just gave a sort of strangled groan of irritation.

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad. Cut me some slack here; you haven't even mentioned the place I brought you to."

And... that was true. Honestly, I had been so eager to get the hell out of the car, I didn't bother looking at where we were. Sighing and closing my eyes, I turned around slowly; since he'd managed to cut it down so much, I was stuck where the hell he'd brought me for an hour longer than I'd thought. Opening my eyes and expecting to see a bar of some sort...

... I bit back all comments I thought I'd have. "You brought me to a play?"

We were outside an old style stadium with people standing in line to buy tickets to a go see a play; The Lion King, according to the billboard.

Tandem grinned. "Yup, sound about right. Come on, we should go grab our seats before people start filing in." With that, he grabbed my arm and lead me straight into the stadium; instead of giving the ticket guys tickets of any sort, he just flashed his ID and walked through. We had amazing box seats, and were one of the first people in.

"How did you do that?" I asked, completely confused.

Tandem shrugged. "Ehh, the guy who owns this place is a big fan of my mom. They host concerts sometimes, and I pulled a few strings to make sure I never have to pay. Now be quiet, the play is about to start, and I need to get some sleep."

I rolled my eyes, but could help but smile as he settled into his seat.

Maybe he was a little more thoughtful than I'd thought. Maybe.

- - -

"Come on, you can't say you didn't have fun."

I rolled my eyes, but couldn't help smiling. At least a little. After the play-- which was excellent, by the way, and Tandem wasn't joking when he said he'd fall asleep-- he took me to get ice cream at a local shop. It was... nice. By the time we got back to town, it was around ten at night.

Pulling up in front of my house, he vaulted over the car door, making my raise an eyebrow as I got out.

"And where the hell do you think you're going?" I asked, walking up to the house and unlocking the door. I turned around to look up at him, and to remind myself of just how much I hated that damned smirk of his.

"Well, you could always invite me in."

I almost snorted. Instead, I just gripped the door handle a little tighter. "Hey, Tandem?"

"Yeah?" His eyes were getting brighter, and the smirk was turning into something a little more genuine. Funny, if only he were always like that.

"I still hate you."

And I slammed the door in his face and went to go take a long, well deserved shower.