Bruises in Miniature Form

Daryl snorted as I finished describing the eventful morning I had had with Max as my victim.
He seemed really amused with the position I had taken on, or he was just amazed.
As Daryl got up to refill my drink Omar entered in from the front door, swinging a pair of car keys around his finger as he jumped in the seat beside me.
Slinging an arm over my shoulder he tugged me into his side and greeted me with a kiss on the cheek, making sure to leave a bit of slobber in his path.

“Why thank you for the cunning greet” I remarked with a pleasant tone.
Omar laughed under his bangs and eyed Daryl who held two glasses for us, “I was thinking about us all hitting the malls, doing some tourist shit?”
“Sounds like a fun time” Daryl agreed then tapped his chin, “Ohh your Papi will want to know what we’re up to though!”
“Dad will be fine with it though” I batted my lashes, jutting out my bottom lip as Daryl shook his head teasingly.
“Now now you’ve had enough for one day, let me call him up”
“Had enough of what?” Omar spoke up obviously feeling left out.
“I..er.. got back at Max a bit this morning” I nervously spat out, avoiding eye contact.
“How’d you do that?”
“Spilled his orange juice all over him, claimed it an accident, took his chips and favourite soda and took off”
Omar blinked a few times at me, mind mulling over what I had told him before chuckling under his breath, “That’s it?”
“What do you mean ‘that’s it?’, there something I’m missing?”
“Oh I’ve got so much to teach you!” Omar squeaked in a high pitched voice.
“Alright you two let’s get our cute little patooties out of here!” Daryl sang leading the way out of the hotel room.

On the way out Omar and Daryl started singing Divinyls as loudly as possible, each making matching crude gestures at all the right parts.
‘I touch myself’ certainly was a song one grown man and teenage boy shouldn’t be singing and dancing to beside each other.
Besides they were doing it all wrong.
Teasing them all the way to the mall I instructed them in the actual moves Christina Amphlett had done, I mean if you’re going to do something do it right.
Omar laughed the whole time, almost tripping over his shoelaces on the way, his arms grasping onto Daryl’s shoulder to keep himself upright.

“Alright so New-T let’s figure out your next plan of attack, and this time something not so lame”
“Okay before I go any deeper onto that sentence, New-T?”
“Yeah, like a new T-shirt. New little nickname, live it, learn it, love it” Omar brushed me off, acting a lot more like Daryl then I thought possible.
“Wow you two act more alike as the days go by” I teased, “Now what about my new plan of attack? What do you mean by that?”
“I mean Max is good at revenge, he knows how to push buttons and pull strings. Sure he’s a nice guy but when you get on his bad side you don’t have much of a chance. That little orange juice and theft trick on him isn’t going to help knock him out of the runnings”
“Runnings?”
“Think of this as a... Daryl what do you call those things people vote in?”
At the mention of his name Daryl spun around from looking at a passing store, “Democracy? Polls? Politic bastards?”
“Poll! Sure lets go with that. Now Max is definitely ahead of you and the only way to kick him out of the poll is to outdo him”
“I don’t like where this is going... Look Omar I just want him to lighten up and stop acting like such a jerk, not piss him off any more”
“Hunny, he’s going to get revenge on you” Daryl laughed, looking amused.
“Maybe not...” I shrugged.
“Look you don’t have to piss him off to push him down, just... kind of... squash his ego? You know put him in his place so he knows your equal and need to be treated as such”
“You’re both old” I scowled walking ahead to look at the odd stores.

Although I shrugged and denied it all, Omar had a point.
I mean I should get it by now that Max isn’t going to lighten up on me and since Omar has been his friend for years he would know what to do.
Maybe pushing Max a little bit more was the answer?
Like prodding a lion, I mean what bad ever happened from prodding a lion?

“I feel like a caribou” I sighed running into a random store that Daryl would find interesting.
It did after all have big balloons, glittery cards and flashing snow globes.
Shuffling by a few stands

Walking through the aisles I found odd objects that held no real value to me, none that even caught my interest enough to stop me from bumping into a skinny figure and crash on the ground.
I heard their pained grunt and before I had a chance to act out an apology I heard one being delivered instead.
As I opened my eyes I could see none other than Jennifer freaking out about killing me.
Smiling up at her I allowed her to help me to my feet, informing her no damage was done and it was my fault for not looking where I was going.
She gave me a cheesy half grin that I could only describe as a ‘Jennifer look’.

“Hey are you free right now?”
“Um actually I’m hanging out with Daryl and Omar” Thinking back and looking around I couldn’t find the two missing men.
“Oh, well then maybe tomorrow we can go see that movie together?”
“Sounds perfect Je-je” I giggled, finding it a bit odd with how I had suddenly given her a nickname out of the blue.
“Je-je? I like it, I think that’s my favourite nickname!” She giggled back, her face flushing.
“Favourite nickname? I’m sure it’s not as good as any others” I replied.
Jennifer laughed into her hand, eyes crinkling up together in a half moon shape, “Well you gave it to me which makes it my favourite”
I couldn’t help the grin from spreading across my face as she flushed red again and rubbed at the back of her head, looking from side to side, “Well I suppose I should let you go catch your friends”
“Yeah... I probably should go find them” I mumbled looking curiously around behind me.
I felt a rush of air as she attempted to run past me, “Hey Je-je wait a sec!” I called out reaching to grab her wrist.

What happened next had completely shocked me or rather knocked me off my feet; Jennifer had spun back around to connect her lips with mine.
I stumbled backwards a few paces as she cupped my cheeks before pulling away with an embarrassed look all over her features.
Now there were many ways to react in this situation none that sounded too good for me, so instead I smiled politely and held my hands firmly in front of me.

“What was that for Jennifer?”
“I read the signals wrong didn’t I?” She sighed giving me a disappointed face.
Had I made her think I liked her that way? “Oh! I’m sorry Je-je I... I didn’t mean to lead you on at all if that’s what you got”
“So you don’t like me like that?”
“I -um want to answer this without hurting your feelings and making you hate me”
“If you answer honestly I promise not to” She laughed lightly trying to make the best of our situation.
“I like you as a friend; I didn’t know you thought of me as more actually”
Jennifer suddenly broke into a pleasant smile before tapping my chin in a friendly gesture, “Alright that’s fair enough, you win some, you lose some”
“You sure have a quick recovery personality don’t you Je-je”
Shrugging she waved a hand lazily in the air, “Well you might not feel the same about me but I still like you and maybe one day you’ll feel the same, maybe you won’t. Won’t stop us from being friends!”
“Thank you”
“Don’t thank me, I’m still going to try and win you from Max” She winked before running off in the opposite direction, out the doors of the strange store.

If I hadn’t learned this stuff from Daryl I think I would have reacted differently... and if I hadn’t heard her say that about winning me from Max I don’t think I would’ve fell over into a pile of scented candles.