The Fox and The Hare

He taught me how to play video games. How sweet.

I guess I should start with how normal this day had started out. It was a Tuesday, a cold Tuesday since it was still winter, but a pretty normal Tuesday. I had gotten up, showered, dressed, ate breakfast and managed to slip on my jacket so I wouldn’t freeze to death before starting towards school, or really, just down my driveway. Just like every other school day since that morning when he had given me chicken noodle soup from his Power Ranger cup he picked me up. He had been waiting patiently outside my house and even turned down his deafening music when he saw me close the front door. How sweet.

Without even a second of hesitation, I climbed into the passenger seat of his car just like I had done the previous days.

“So, erm, mom keeps asking me when she’s going to meet you,” I had rambled off, nearly absently, trying to put it off as not a big deal. It wasn’t like we were together. He was just Michael and I was just Delilah, and we hung out, quite a bit it seemed. Of course, just saying that made my cheeks flush lightly. It made it seem like all I do at home is talk about Michael, and that wasn’t the case. My parents paid attention, and if they saw me getting picked up every school morning, dropped off after school and work, then they want to know who it was and when they were going to meet them.

Michael glanced over to me, chuckling. “You talk about me to your parents, Delilah?” he asked, his stupid grin on his face as he finally looked away from me, back onto the road where his eyes should be. My cheeks reddened even more, to a point where I didn’t know they could get this red.

“Oh - no, no, I don’t.”

He laughed, an actual laugh, the kind that I loved. “It’s fine, Delilah. And maybe next week; I’ve got plans this weekend.” And just him saying he had plans had me intrigued. He always seemed to have plans, doing this or doing that, and I was always told that it was best for me not to come along. Maybe this time I could go, I could see what these plans of his dealt with. “And yes, you can come along this time, if you want. Josh is just coming over, play a couple games, drink a little. It might be boring for you, though, so I don’t know if you really want to come along.”

I had wanted to go along, of course. I could finally meet people he called friends, and hope that they were good people. But really, Michael wasn’t the best of people, so I shouldn’t have expected his friends to be like angels. “What time?” I had asked, tearing my eyes away from the window to look to him, hoping that the heat in my cheeks had died down a considerable bit. But I could still feel it, how hot they were, which only made me look away once more. He told me noon just as he pulled into a parking space at school.

I saw him in class, and then again during lunch, but after that I didn’t see him until the end of the school day, which he picked me up, dropped me off at work. He took me home after that, refusing to let me walk home from that late at night. Michael says that I didn’t know about all the dangers that looms around in the middle of the night, that he couldn’t stand if I could manage to get hurt by crazy people taking bath salts or something of the such.

And then the weekend came.

“Oi, Fox, some girl’s here,” was the first thing that the tall boy I had immediately assumed was “Josh”. He didn’t seem very nice at first, but neither did Michael, and look at us now.

“It’s Delilah, let her in!” I heard Michael call from wherever he was inside the house. Josh let me I n and introduced himself, going ahead and saying something along the lines of ‘so you’re Hare’, as if he assumed I’d be something more. Was I supposed to be something more? And what was with being called Hare? I wasn’t an animal, I shouldn’t have been compared with an animal, period. But my lips stayed shut, and I just slipped into Michaels house and took my spot on the couch.

I watched them play until Michael found it fitting to move so I was sitting in his lap, my hands on the controller, and his hands overtop of mine. “Just press the buttons, I’ll help you,” Michael murmured into my ear, sending shivers down my spine. It felt wonderful, I wouldn’t lie. It had me lean back into him a little more.

“M-Michael! I don’t play video games,” I said, trying to wiggle out of his lap.

Josh busted out laughing, “She calls you Michael? And you let her?” I was starting to not really like him, to be honest. He just didn’t give me the same vibe that Michael did. He didn’t’ give me warmth, or security. It wasn’t anything like that. It wasn’t a moment later that one of Michael’s hands shot out and punched Josh in his bicep. Josh had yelped and shot a glare to Michael.

After that, Josh kept his tongue in his cheek, for the rest of the night; he didn’t make any more rude comments.

And I learned that I didn’t like some of Michael’s friends. But I did like playing video games with Michael. I really did.