Jagged Edges

The phrase "Mad as a March Hare" has come to mind a lot lately. Whenever Gian is around, or even when I think about him, it's like all my reasonable thinking goes out the window.

I don't understand what it is about him that makes me like that but I don't exactly hate it. I mean, I don't particularly like it either but I enjoy it more than I don't. If that makes sense, which it probably doesn't.

Mad as a March Hare.

The March Hare was that little dude in Alice in Wonderland who threw the teacups. Yeah, I feel like him. Jumpy in that excited way and not making any sense. At least, not any sense to me. 

"Treason," Gian starts, effectively pulling me out of my thoughts. "Are you headed to the library or are you spending study hall in the music room again?"

"Uhm. Well, I was gonna go to see Mr. Rexroth but you're welcome to come."

I watch as he touches his tongue to the silver ring encircling his upper lip once . . . twice . . . three times, something I noticed that he likes to do when he's thinking or just happy in general.

"Are you sure? I don't wanna intrude if it's something personal . . ."

"No, it's nothing like that. I just wanted to talk to him about guitar strings. It'll probably only take three minutes." 

"Oh, okay." He smiles, falling into step with me. Well, not exactly because his legs are significantly shorter than mine.

We reach the music wing of the building and the conversation with Mr. Rexroth takes toughly three minutes, resulting in him giving me a pack of really expensive guitar strings that I definitely wouldn't have been able to afford with a wink.

"If anyone asks, I didn't give these to you." He laughs, I beam and thank him three times over before leading Gian back out of the room, a look of confusion written on his face.

"You look like you've been presented with a problem." I say finally, halfway down the hallway. 

"Huh? Oh! No, sorry. It's just that you two seem very close." He observes.

"Well, not really close but we understand each other. He wants me to do the showcase because he thinks I'm talented but I'm not comfortable with that. I explained it to you. He doesn't push me into it like almost everyone else would."

A slight blush covers his cheeks as he nods. "Yeah, I can understand that."

We reach the library and I pull the door open, waiting for him to enter before following. A quick scan of the room shows that our usual table is occupied by just one girl. A freshman I think.

Gian briefly suggests sitting with Skipper and Bradley but he quickly disregards that idea when he sees the look on my face. Instead I lead the way to our table and arrange a polite smile on my face.

"Excuse me," I start, waiting for her to look up at me with wide eyes before continuing. "Do you mind if we sit here?"

She quickly shakes her head and returns to her book almost desperately. We sit and Gian immediately turns to me with a smile.

"I don't understand why your name is Treason. You're really insanely sweet."

I smile at the compliment and ignore the fact that my heart is beating double time. "It was my dads idea. They had me when they were fresh out of college and dad was a rebel of sorts. He thought it was cool and at that time mom went along with anything he said."

"Well," Gian sighs, chewing over this new information. "I think you deserve a nicer name. Or a nickname at least! Will you let me come up with a nickname?" He asks excitedly.

"Go for it." I smile, unable to deny him what he seems to so desperately want.

"Huh, let's see. It has to be nice, really nice, and it should have something to do with your name. Treason . . . Tree-Son . . . Son . . . Sunny!"

"Sunny?" I laugh, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, it's perfect! You're nice and sweet and I think Sunny is better than Treason. I mean, it's nothing against your name! I love your name! It's just that Treason sounds so negative and malicious and you're not like that at all." He protests, hands flying around in a weird kind of desperate attempt to make me understand.

"Gian, it's okay. I get what you're saying. Sunny is fine." I explain, holding up my hands to stop him. His face is flushed pink and he looks absolutely adorable exasperated.

He calms down considerably and relaxes, smiling. "Really?"

"Yeah, really."

Gian touches his tongue to his lip ring a few times and beams at me after a minute or two of silence. "So, Sunny, I was wondering if you had plans on Saturday?"

I rack my brain, only coming up with the fact that it's my weekend at dads. Other than that, no, and I eagerly tell him this.

"Do you think you'd maybe wanna come over? This is the first official weekend that the heaters in the pool are up so we could go swimming and test it out?"

The hopeful gleam in his eye and tone of voice is what has me nodding, smiling, and saying, "I can't wait." 

Mad as a March Hare.