Five O' Clock Shadow

Since Mylo was in my last three classes, and I finally let go of my grudge for him, we sat next to each other the rest of the day. My mind couldn't stop tricking me. I kept imagining Mylo looking at me, Mylo breathing on me. It felt like he was too close for comfort, but that's exactly how it felt. Comfortable.

He may not have been looking at me, but I was looking at him. He didn't concentrate on the school work, but somehow got everything right. He would twiddle the pencil in between his fingers and tap the desk, tap his shoes. He didn't stop moving. It was actually kind of annoying. That's when I realized everything annoys me. If people even breathe heavy when they are running, I want to dropkick them across the atalntic ocean. Is that normal? Am I such a grouch that I won't let people breathe? I need to loosen up.

"You need to loosen up," Mylo told me on the way out of the school.

"Can you read minds?" I asked with my eyebrow raised.

"No," he answered matter of factly. "Wanna go to taco bell?"

"Yeah," I answered. I really wanted to. A part of my brain was screaming 'no! are you kidding! you idiot, your digging your own grave!' but I ignored it. For once I was going to do something for myself.

"Where are you going?"

"..My car."

"No. We are riding in mine. I'll drop you off later here later so you can drive home."

"Ok, then," I said, walking over to his passenger side door.

It reeked in his car. Of cigarettes, and the zoo. It smelled like dirty caged up animals had been living in his car for years, without him noticing. He noticed my wrinkled up nose.

"I left the windows open when it was raining. There's a bunch of air fresheners under the seat. You can put them all up," he laughed.

"Thank you," I laughed with him. I spent almost the whole car ride putting up tiny plastic trees and holding them to my nose. Mylo could not stop laughing.

"Your radio doesn't work," I told him.

"Really?" he asked, poking it. "I hadn't noticed."

"Weird."

"Listen to the music outside," I looked over to him and he was closing his eyes. We were heading steadily for the opposite lane.

"Mylo!" I screamed, grabbing his hands and pulling the steering wheel the right way.

He burst out laughing. "Oops."

I laughed too, why, I didn't know. Maybe because he was a lunatic. Maybe because I was having fun.

"Your loosening up Tea Pot."

"With effort."

"Good boy," he said, patting my head. He left his hand on my shoulder for a long time before we finally pulled in to taco bell.