Hollywood Hills and Suburban Thrills

"How can you not like Rafiki?!" William belted at me, making Jude jump and look up at him with resentful eyes. William ran a hand down his spine in response.

I shrugged and looked back at the now paused movie. "I don't know," I mumble, "He comes off as some creeper to me." William's eyes narrowed at me. "Well would you think if some monkey pops up out of no where and calmly explains to you that you're meant to be a king somewhere because your father was murdered and then proceeds to bash you on the head with his pimp cane?"

That got him thinking. William's hand rose to his chin and he stroked it in thought. "Well, first of all I would question my sanity since I was chatting with a monkey. Then, I would be overjoyed because I was going to be king. And as for the bashing, I'd use my ninja skills to dodge the blow."

I rolled my eyes. "Quite the ego you have there,"

He looked at me. "Do you doubt my ninja abilities, Dani?"

I was referring to him being 'overjoyed' to be king, but now that he mentioned it. "Yes," I say with a smug grin. "Yes, I am."

His eyes sparked and his was on his feet in the next moment, causing Jude to fall nose first into the carpet. I looked up at him in curiosity.

"Come with me," he says, reaching down to grab my wrist. He hoisted me to my feet, but before I could ask what he was getting at, he was hauling me toward the back door, Jude scuttling along at our heels.

"William, what are yo-…"

We were outside now, in the grass, and he cut me off. "I'll show you to doubt my ninja skills."
He let go of me and turned to walk to the other side of the yard, picking up Jude's favorite ball and tossing it to me with a wicked smile on his face. I didn't understand what he was implying yet.

"Throw it at me," he says after taking several paces away from me. He brought his arms up and puffed out his chest, his eyes daring and his smirk still wild.
I spluttered. "Uh, what now?"

He dropped his arms, blowing out a breath with his bottom lip; his hair blew over his eyes. "I said throw it at me," he repeats, "And I'm going to dodge it."

"William, I'm not going to throw this tennis ball at you," I explain, tossing the ball up in the air and allowing it to fall back to my open palm.

"Just do it," he prods.

I sighed. Part of me knew I wasn't going to walk away from this as easily as I may want to. So, I threw it gently, not wanting him to have to prove anything to me at this point. But instead of dodging it like I was anticipating, he caught it and looked condescendingly at me.

"That wasn't even a throw," he says with a laugh, tossing the ball back to me. "Put some muscle behind it, Dani."

I sighed as I rolled the ball around in my fist. I cocked my arm back and threw the ball again, harder this time, but once again, he caught it and threw it back—he did this the next time I threw it too. Now I was just getting frustrated; he wanted me to throw, oh then I'll throw.

I coiled up like you see those pitchers on NLB do and chucked the ball at William, losing my balance from the momentum and stumbling forward. But I wasn't expecting what I heard.

Thud. Bark. "Ow!"

I looked up to see William crouched on the crouch, a hand caressing his stomach and a pained expression on his face while Jude danced around him, yelping and wagging his tail. Shit, I thought as I climbed to my feet, I just nailed a lead singer in the gut with a tennis ball.

I clambered to kneel in front of him. "Are you okay?"

He coughed and winced before smiling at me. "Nice throw," he commented, falling back on his behind and crossing his legs; I did the same. His hand was rubbing his stomach now.

"I thought you were going to dodge it," I say to my feet, pulling grass out of the lawn absentmindedly.

"I thought you were going to throw like a sissy again," he counters, beaming when I looked up at him.

"Ha. Ha." I laugh sarcastically, shoving his shoulder gently. He winced, smiling quickly after, but I still felt a pang of guilt. "I hope that doesn't affect your singing." I mumble.

He laughed. "I use my lungs to sing, not my stomach, Dani." I glared at him and he smiled innocently.

"Well, I excuse me for worrying." I reply, turning my attention away from those brown eyes of his to Jude.

That is until I heard a car coming down the street. I stopped petting Jude mid-stroke and my ears perked up in hope that the car would pass my house. William noticed my sudden change of mood and he raised an eyebrow.

"Are you oka-…" he starts but I shush him in a desperate attempt to hear the car.

It was drawing closer, the engine purring along. It didn't sound like it was slowing down, but I had been wrong before, so I continued to listen carefully. However, the car drove right on by the house and the purring softened until it was gone.

"Apparently you worry about more than just hurting singers," William says beside me and my eyes snapped to him. I assumed the look on my face wasn't amused because the entertainment in his eye vanished as they locked with mine. "Is something wrong?" he asks, now concerned.

I swallowed and shook my head. "Uh, no," I got to my feet, looking down and holding a hand out to William. "Let's go inside, I'm hungry."

William took my hand and allowed me to help him up; it was as easy as I had expected seeing as he was such a stick. We headed for the house and soon enough, he was smiling at me again.

"You're going to have to tell me what that was all about eventually," he says out of the blue. "You know that right?"

A smile twitched at the corners of my mouth.

I did know that.