All Your Fates (Currently editing/updating)

Chapter 14: Fastest Shooter (Part 1)

David's POV

So... sleeping with Pepper... that probably was a mistake.

No, David, it was the very definition of a mistake. When you die and the blooper reel of your life is being played up in heaven, St. Peter will turn his head away from the screen in horror rather than endure watching that train wreck moment in your life played out in slow motion. To a laugh track.

But how do you know?! How can you be so sure that screwing Pepper will lead to an epic disaster? What did your shrink say about catastrophizing? Maybe, underneath all that snark and bitterness, she is really a lovely person inside. Maybe you will even grow to like her!

Sure, that's what mom said about Brussels sprouts, Sunday Mass, and learning to play the harpsichord.

You did learn to like playing the harpsichord!

There you go again, taking mom's side like you always do.

I don't normally talk to myself. Well, occasionally I do, but usually only to amuse myself while passing the time. And right now I was bored to tears. We had showed up early at the lecture hall and had to wait as the seats slowly filled up. Our "tryst" had taken less time than I think Pepper expected. Who knew eight months without a sexual partner would blow up in my face? At least she had been...understanding... about the whole situation.

Anyways... who else was I going to talk to, if not myself? I couldn't talk to Pepper even though she was seated right beside me, staring out into space and chewing her gum like it was her cud. We had already exhausted all that we could possibly say to each other. This night was never going to end!

"So, why did you want to come here anyway?" I said to relieve the boredom. I tapped my now faded indigo jeans (she just had to go wash them in hot water!) with the can of Red Bull I had bought... just in case... for later.

Pepper narrowed her eyes as she looked towards the stage and asked, "You mean to the lecture?"

"Yeah," I said with a shrug. "You don't seem that much into science."

"Ew! Gross, of course not," Pepper replied, her gaze fixed in a daze at the two stagehands fiddling with the podium.

Well, that explains everything. "And...?" I prompted her.

Pepper finally threw a hot glance in my direction. "If you're so smart, why don't you figure it out," she challenged me with arched eyebrows.

"If I was so smart...?" I repeated after her. Really, are we twelve? I sat back in my seat and pressed the tips of my fingers together, which is my "pensive" look. I tried to think of a reason, but I was completely stumped. I couldn't imagine going to a NASCAR race if I didn't care for cars...which I don't so I never have. "I have no idea. Why?" I said finally, shrugging. 

Pepper hung her head towards me with a wicked smile and said in a singsong voice, "Not until you admit you aren't so smart!"

I resisted rolling my eyes and letting them fall back down into my skull where they could rattle around inside my hollow tin innards.

Pepper must have sensed I wasn't about to give up because she finally heaved a dramatic sigh. "Fine, if you must know: Dr. Rath is a hottie."

It took me a moment to compute this. What's that got to do with the price of cheese?

"So....?" I asked.

"Wellll..." Pepper drawled, her tongue darting out of her mouth and curling up over her lip in what I had to admit was a rather cute way, "I'm going hit him up afterwards."