The Road Trip

Chapter 15
Lying on the ground, I saw an extremely cute boy that I have NEVER seen before. Why helloooo there… I thought, smirking mentally. And of course after that thought, I knew the ‘NO BOYS, NO BOYS’ one would come next. But… it didn’t. What did come next was an image of Eric in my head, which immediately halted my smirking. Well that is certainly not the usual after-thought… And just like that, I had no interest in the boy, besides comparing him to Eric.

Different hair, Eric is dark brown with blonde highlights that is medium length, whereas this... unknown guy who shall be known as (for now) C.J. (for cute jogger, of course) has strawberry blonde hair that’s cropped close (not shaved, enough that it can be spiked, which it is). Plus Eric has gorge… I mean nice… I mean turquoise eyes and C.J. has green ones similar to mine but more pure green rather than being mostly light brown with green mixed in. Different skin tone, C.J.’s a bit paler than Eric’s beach tan (definitely paler than my tan skin tone). I think C.J.’s a bit shorter than Eric and more lean than muscular. C.J. has a cute, round boyish face to Eric’s sharper more mature face. I mentally slapped myself. What are you doing, Denny? STOP IT! How long have you even been standing there, gaping at him? Help him up already! I did what the logical part of my mind told me to, exactly. Luckily, I hadn’t been standing there with these thoughts for more than 30 seconds (thank goodness my mind was going at a fast-pace, rather than a slower one).

I reached down to give C.J. a hand for getting up, being he was still lying there with a bewildered look on his face. I gave him an apologetic look as he got back on his feet.

“Sorry bout that.” I told him, still having an apologetic look on my face. C.J. smiled at me though, and gestured toward the puppy.

“No problem, if there was a puppy as cute as that just sitting around, I would have crouched down in the middle of the sidewalk to comfort it too.” He replied sweetly, accepting my apology. I had almost forgotten about the cute puppy. With its big doe brown eyes and chocolate brown fur. It was obviously a Chocolate lab, possibly mixed with a golden retriever being as it has a few golden highlights. I fell in love with it instantly. I reached over to him/her (still unsure of the gender, but don’t fret I’m about to check) and gave him/her a nice rub down causing him/her to lick me and roll all around. Once he/she was rolling on his/her back, I saw that it was a he/him.

“He sure does seem to like you, doesn’t he?” C.J. said with a whistle. He must’ve seen the gender too.

“Sure seems like it, C.J.” Then I clapped a hand over my smiling mouth. Well… this is awkward. He looked up at me, surprised.

“Uhm my name’s not C.J. Well I guess it could be but that’s not what I go by.”

“Well, I don’t actually know your name, that’s kind of just what I’ve been calling you in my head..” Hmm why isn’t he running away screaming ‘there’s a weird girl over there! Someone save me!’ I was glad he wasn’t, but still.

“Really? Well my name’s actually Corbin.” It begins with a ‘C’? How weird..

“So how could you have the nickname of C.J. then?” I asked cautiously, still unsure of his reaction, he’s pretty laidback, but you can’t be too sure.

“Well as long as you’re not some crazy stalker, I can tell you.” Corbin said with a wink to show he was joking, so I decided to joke back.

“Well lucky you, my stalking days are over, especially after that last… unfortunate time.” I said faking some chills before ‘unfortunate’ and winking back at him.

“Glad to hear it. Well, my middle name is Jason, so it’s Corbin Jason Bradley.” He said with a smile.

“Oh, and if you didn’t realize, I decided to put in my last name too, being as I am now fully assured of your non-stalker status.” Cute, funny, and laidback. What does this remind me of…

Just as I was about to tell him that I did notice and say my name, I heard yelling.

“DENELLE ALLEN WHAT IN THE WORLD IS TAKING YOU SO LONG TO GET BACK TO THE CAR, DID I NOT TELL YOU THAT WE ARE ON A SCHEDULE?!?” Hmm where have I heard words similar to this before? Oh yeah. From my own mouth towards Levi. Ironic how now Levi yelling them at me. At least I heard her the first time. I sent a wave in her direction and rolled my eyes at Corbin.

“Well now you know my name in the most obnoxious form it can come in, Denelle Allen at your service, but call me Denny. Oh, and that chica over yonder that is walking angrily toward us is my best friend Levi Gregory. And I would love if you would join me in this plan I have.” I told him cheekily, and started explaining my idea to Corbin. While explaining it, a light bulb went off in my head. I remembered why ‘Cute, funny, and laidback’ were so familiar sounding. They were on Levi’s list of ‘Boy Must-Haves’ that we each made for ourselves and then showed each other in junior year. In fact, those were the top 3 things on her list. Intriguing…

“You ready for this?” I asked him, completely serious… well I sounded completely serious.

“Never been more ready in my life, I love me some pranks.” He replied with a Cheshire cat grin. I’m pretty sure that prankster was on the list too…

“Alrighty then.”

Levi was finally over here, coming from the direction that Corbin’s back was turned to. I ran toward her with a scared look on my face, but didn’t get far as Corbin, doing his part well, pulled me back with his back still turned. I mouthed ‘Help me’ at her and she sprinted the rest of the way looking alarmed. As soon as she was just a mere 2 steps away, Corbin turned around with an evil grin on his face.

“I’ve been waiting for you, Levi Gregory.” I knew he wasn’t serious, and his voice still creeped me out. He’s good. While saying these words he pulled me closer into his lap and began stroking my head as though I were a fluffy kitten.

“Well you should… wait, how do you know my name?” Levi started out strong, then looked confused and reproachful.

“Like I said, I’ve been waiting for you. I have your friend, as you can see, and you won’t get her back until you do one thing.”

“What’s that one thing?”

“You must… tickle her.”

“Tickle her?” Levi replied, surprise written all over her face. Corbin kept his face neutral, even as he said his next words.

“Yes, show no mercy.” I nearly burst out laughing but managed to keep it in.

“Well… if I must, but you should know that you really need to come up with some worse consequences.” Levi said coming towards me with her hands outstretched.

“Worse consequences? I hate being tickled, you know that!” I exclaimed, Corbin still petting me.

“I know Twix, but it’s better than some other things, that I won’t mention so as not to give this guy any ideas.” Then she began to tickle me, no mercy, causing me to squirm around laughing, nearly crying with all the tickling going on.

“No… stop...please… Kit-Kat… help….me…. someone….” I choked out.

“Okay, okay that’s enough.” Corbin said, returning his voice to normal and relaxing his face.

“Enough of what?” Levi asked looking confused, again.

“Enough of tickling Denny, I think she’s learned her lesson, that was fun though, eh?”

“Sure…?” Levi said, still unsure of the situation.

“And Denny, great idea, hilarious!” He exclaimed, giving me a high five.

“I know right! Levi’s pretty easy if you ask me Corbin!” I replied happily.

“You were in on this? You are sooo full of poodle doodle!” Levi said using the phrase I made up in 8th grade. ‘full of poodle doodle’ instead of ‘full of it’ or ‘full of poop’.

“If you had done it, you know you would have been laughing harder than I am right now Lev!” I told her, and she just gave me a sheepish look that told me she knew that I was right. Therefore I smirked and introduced her to Corbin, who gave her a cute smile which made her blush. Wait… made her blush? Guess I’ll have to ask her about that later.