Corrupt Me

I spent the rest of the week and all of the week after being constantly driven mad by Angel Jerome and his severe disability of not being able to tell when I don’t want him around, which, I might add, is always. He seriously can’t take a hint; I even said, in plain, easy-to-understand English, to leave me alone, that I didn’t want anything to do with him, and you know what he did? He smirked (again with that incessant smirking!), grabbed me, growled “If I bit my lip would you kiss it better?” in my ear and then! Then, he tried to freaking kiss me! Luckily I was able to duck away from his mouth before his lips got anywhere near mine, but still! He honestly has no clue about personal space, or, apparently about the fact that I don’t want to kiss him. EVER. He’s a guy, for crying out loud! Can you imagine what my mother would say if she found out my first kiss was from a boy? She’d disown me or something. But then again, it’s not my fault some boy has decided he’s obsessed with me; if I could change that, I would, because Angel Jerome is just that damn annoying.

On the second Friday I had spent at Hillcrest, the day Angel had tried to kiss me, I was standing out the front of the school with Isabelle and Portia while I waited for my parents to come pick me up. Neither of the girls knew about my…encounter with Angel, and I planned to keep it that way. I didn’t know how they’d react, and I didn’t particularly want to find out. Isabelle was talking about something animatedly to Portia while I tried my very best not to look at the certain someone who had been making my life hell for two weeks straight. He was standing about fifty metres away from the girls and I, staring at me while his friends talked about who knows what. One of the guys he was with kept taking huge swigs from a large clear bottle, and the way that his face scrunched up after every sip made me think it wasn’t water in that bottle. I’d been watching Angel and his friends silently, thinking of what my mother would say if I ever became friends with them, especially if she knew what I thought was in the bottle, while the girls were talking. I was suddenly brought out of my stupor when I felt a cool hand on my arm. I glanced down to see Isabelle looking up at me with a questioning expression.

“Micah?”
“Mm?”
“Do you want to?”
I furrowed my eyebrows. “Do I want to what?”
Isabelle rolled her eyes, “Do you want to come to youth group with me? It’s at my church; they said we could bring a friend with us. So…?”
“Uh, yeah. Sure, I’d love to,” I replied, glancing over Isabelle’s shoulder to see that Angel was coming towards me. “Oh, great,” I muttered, looking down.

“Hi honey,” Angel said around a smirk when he got close enough. “The guys and I were wondering if you wanted to come out with us tonight. We’re going to –”
“He’s busy,” Isabelle informed him sharply, and I nodded quickly, confirming it.
“I’m sorry, was I talking to you?” Angel asked, quite rudely. “I believe I was talking to Micah.”

I blushed a bright red. “I-I already have plans. I’m s-sorry,” I murmured. I don’t know why, but the whole of Angel’s face dropped then. His eyes became sad, the smirk left his face and it made me feel kind of bad. After all, he treated me half normally for a change, especially compared to what he did earlier in the day.
“Oh. Fine,” he muttered, and turned to walk away.

Before I could stop myself, I reached out and grabbed his arm. “M-maybe some other time…” I said, before letting go of his arm, blushing more furiously than I already was.
I wanted to slap myself as soon as those words left my mouth, because in a nanosecond, Angel’s signature smirk was back in place, this time with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
“I’ll hold you to that.”

And with that, Angel walked away. I watched him go, wondering how the hell heck I was manipulated into kind-of agreeing to hang out with the boy who’s been driving me insane.

I was trying to figure out how I could possibly find a way out of the mess that I’d just created for myself when I was once again brought back to reality by Isabelle.

“Erm, Micah? Your mom’s there. Are you still coming to youth group with me tonight? My parents will take us.”
“Oh, yeah. I’ll just go ask,” I said, trotting over to my mother’s car and signalling for her to wind her window down.
“Hey, sweetie, what’s wrong?” my mother asked, somewhat concerned.
“Nothing,” I put a bright smile on my face, “I was just wondering if I could go to a youth group with Isabelle tonight?”
Her face broke into a huge grin. “Of course, honey. Is anyone else you know going?”
That was ‘mom’ language for “Will this be like a date?” She was always trying to set me up with girls in our church, and always seems disappointed when I don’t show any interest in them. Probably because they all annoy me…

“No, mom, no-one else that I know is going,” I sighed, and it looked like my mother was about to wet herself with joy. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, before I continued, “So I’ll be dropped off home later, okay? Isabelle’s parents will drop us off there and pick us up after. Is that alright?”

My mother looked like she was about to explode with happiness, “That is certainly alright. I’ll see you soon then. Not too late, if you can help it, okay? Have fun. Love you.”
“Bye, mom,” I said, before turning back to Izzy and giving her the thumbs up, making her smile. She waved at mom’s car as she walked over to me, and slipped her hand on my arm.
Looking up at me, she said, “Okay, you ready to go? We’re walking to mine, hanging out for a bit and then daddy will take us to the church, okay?”

I nodded, and let her lead me by the arm out of the school gates. I stole one last glance back at the group that was standing a short way away as Isabelle directed me out of the school. My eyes were once again met with a disappointed facial expression.