The Right Kind of Wrong

Taking a walk.

It was a thing Emily was sure guys didn’t do if it didn’t involve getting something from the store or at least getting somewhere. Or of course, it involved trying to get into a girl’s pants, the whole taking a walk in the moonlight thing guys were so sure that girls loved so much.

Yet, talking a walk, was exactly what they were currently doing, just because they felt like it and didn’t have anything better to do.

Chris had called her during lunch and suggested they do something, agreeing with no real ideas Emily had met up with him at his house and they’d lounged around, doing absolutely nothing for a while, even playing some car-game on the Playstation before they both grew so utterly bored they just had to do something else.

So they took a walk…

Her hands pushed deep into the pockets of her warm jacket, Emily scrunched her nose up at the cold winds that blew her hair in whichever direction, that was one thing she wouldn’t miss when she would leave Minnesota/North Dakota behind after graduation.

They’d walked for quite some time and covered a lot of ground before they decided to turn around, heading back towards the house he shared with two of his teammates.

“I heard about Bella’s party,” Chris said suddenly, causing Emily to look over at him.

“Yeah, she’s really excited about it,” Emily smiled softly, almost hearing the way her friend was raving about the party she was planning. “She’s really looking forwards to it, especially since its Friday the 13th and all.”

“She expecting some kind of craziness just because of that?” he asked skeptically.

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “Probably,” she added as they walked along the bare walkway in the park area.

“It’s just another day, nothing really bad happens just because Friday coincides with the thirteenth,” he stated frankly.

“You sure about that?” she asked skeptically, glancing up at him from the corner of her eye.

“Yeah, of course,” he confirmed. “Why? Do you believe in the whole Friday the 13th crap?” he asked surprised.

“I don’t think its crap,” she replied evenly, not really sure she wanted to get into that whole can of worms.

“You do,” he stated. “You do believe in it,” he continued as he watched her closely, seeing the slight tinge of red in her cheeks, but that could have been from the biting cold air that blew around them.

“I haven't been proven wrong,” she said frankly as they continued walking towards the edge of Grand Forks.

“What?” he frowned slightly.

“Things always happen on Friday the 13th,” she stated simply. “I've had friends break up, get into car accidents, have freak things happen to them,” she ticked off. “It might just be a coincidence that it happens on that day, but I can’t write it off as not being because it’s Friday the 13th,” she explained, glancing up at him as they walked.

“No wonder you're superstitious,” he commented, a smirk tugging on the corner of his mouth.

“Shut up,” she exclaimed, shoving him in the side which only managed to move him a few inches to the side, but it was more than some would manage. “I'm not overly superstitious, I'm healthy superstitious,” she insisted, pushing her hands deeper into the pockets of her jacket.

“Whatever you say,” he nodded, humoring her as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side as he did. “I heard from Jordan that you turned him down for a date,” he threw out there, not giving off any indication of how disturbed he’d actually been when his friend had first told him.

“Yeah…” she said slowly as she looked straight ahead. She’d met the tall, dark-haired football player as they sat next to each other at a class in business law and she’d early found that he was a genuinely nice guy, but something had told her to stay away from him, at least on the dating scene and she was currently following that gut feeling to the fullest.

“Why?” he asked, ignoring the slight pitch that appeared in his voice as he did.

“I don’t know,” she replied evenly. “I just…I just didn’t feel like it,” she settled on as she decided that telling a guy about a gut-feeling was a bit like getting him to see the difference between a lip liner and an eyeliner, almost impossible.

“Oh,” he nodded slightly, consciously not letting his arm fall from her shoulders as they slowly got closer to the area he was staying in.

A sort of strained, somewhat uncomfortable silence spreading between them, neither of them knew what to say. Things between them had been easy and lighthearted from the moment they first met and anything but that was new and unknown, causing them both to feel a bit uncomfortable around the other.

“We play St Cloud this weekend,” he threw out there, almost desperate to break the tension that was spreading between them.

“I know,” she nodded slowly as they stopped at a traffic light and waited for it to turn green.

“Are you coming to the game?” he asked curiously, glancing down at her as he still didn’t move his arm from around her shoulders, keeping her close to himself.

“I wasn't planning on it,” she admitted sheepishly. “I was thinking of getting some extra studying in, I'm behind on a few things actually.”

“You have to come,” he insisted, pulling her even closer. “You can’t not go.”

“But I have…” she tried, knowing that she was fighting a losing battle.

“Please,” he said, working his eyes to a T, he really had the puppy-dog look down. “Pretty please with sugar on top,” he blushed slightly.

“Fine,” she surrendered, for a moment wondering why she had absolutely no backbone when it came to standing up to him, or rather stand up for herself when he asked something of her.