The Boy Who Blackmailed Me.

Pink-Cheeked Spidey?

Derrick's Point of View

I couldn't stop thinking about it . . . That night her an I danced -- together. The way she stared through my eyes. Those calming, green ones. I needed that feeling again. That feeling I'd never even thought I would have felt -- at least not with her. And through these weeks -- after the night of my birthday bash -- I'd been putting her through rough cracks, it seemed the only way she acted herself was when she danced with me. So, my determination was to get her to act herself again. Someway, somehow.

Kristen's Point of View

After that night, Derrick seemed to be less of the control-freak/ delinquent and showed more of his sweet side. Of course a bit of his self stuck: All loud and obnoxious-- yet, he wasn't as rude. His persistent attempts to force me to kiss him in public was no more. And to add to "the charade", he brought me a white rose every Monday for the past five weeks. Believe it or not, our friendship seemed to improve rather than our "relationship". And soon after, our pretend-relationship didn't seem so much fake anymore.

(Flashback)

"If A is six," Derrick said as we plopped on the soft green grass outside of our school. "And B is eight, and C is fourteen, then what's X?"

"Depends." I blurted while shading a simple sketch on the sheet of college-ruled paper.

"Depends on what?" he questioned, looking up from his homework sheet.

"Is it a quadratic equation?" I guessed, continuing the shade on sketch.

"Yeah... how'd you know?"

I looked over from my sketching to his homework page labeled Algebra Review at the top. "I've been through the course already... You're, like, a grade above me. Why are you reviewing Algebra?" I asked. You couldn't blame me-- I was curious.

"Um, that doesn't matter -- can you just help me with this problem?" he asked nervously, fiddling with the cream-yellow pencil in his hand. I noted the new timidness that took over his expression. I had a gut feeling he was probably horrible and terrified at these Algebraic topics. So I let my curiosity drop and focused on helping him. One glance in his eyes told me not to ask about it.

 [*]

After almost thirty long minutes of showing and walking through the entire equation and steps with him, he claimed to have it down without a sweat.

"Well, that was easy." Derrick laughed with amusement. He turned to my side and I grinned.

"Simple as that." I blinked and went back to my sketch. But before I could return back, he held my gaze for a long moment, lost in his thoughts, and then smiled greatly, revealing his big pearly whites. He had me lost in the brilliant gleam the sun's rays reflected off of. All I did was smile in return . . . all I could do was smile in return -- which turned out to be a crooked grin . . .

"T-thanks," was all he said.

"F-for w-what?" I stuttered sheepishly. Goodness, when did I let one grin get the best of me? His deep voice and slight country accent brought me back to reality and I was lost for words of what he was talking about . . .I had that gut feeling that wasn't supposed to happen . . . It wasn't supposed to happen.

When his smile faltered and he didn't reply, I felt so . . . dumb. He probably thought I was going nuts or loosing it all at once. But, when his smile came back, he leaned over quickly and peck me on the cheek. My cheeks flamed and I felt my heart literally stop in it's place. I took the dangerous risk of taking a quick glance out of the corner of my eye. And when I did, I felt a spark of happiness go through me. He had the slightest shade of pink on the very tips of his cheeks and his lips threatened to twitch. It reminded me of . . . when we danced together. It reminded me of the sweet Derrick.