First Time For Everything: ON HOLD

Chapter Six

"But Momma! All's fair in hide-and-go-seek!" I protested.

"There are rules in the game that must be abided by, dear. How would you like it if Kyle went and hid in the holly bushes, where you wouldn't be able to get him?" she asked. I opened my mouth to retort, but I found that I had no comeback. I despised going into the holly bushes; the leaves were always so prickly and sharp. Momma had won yet again. I nodded my head in surrender. Kyle beamed with sheer adoration at my mother and triumph. "Now go on and clean up; dinner will be ready in a few." I stalked out of the kitchen, with Kyle proudly walking behind me.

"I still won today," I told him before I shut the bathroom door on his face.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Ronnie, why do you climb up this tree?" Kyle asked as his head appeared among the long limbs of the magnolia tree.

I looked up from my book and smiled. "Looks like your rock climbing lessons have finally paid off, Kylie," I teased. The wind stirred up another breeze which blew my hair around my face. I brushed the strands back into place and continued reading.

He rolled his eyes and settled on the limb next to mine. "Why do you call me that?" he asked.

"Call you what? Kylie?" I asked in return. He nodded. "Oh. Well, because you call me Ronnie. I figured that if you called me a guy name, I'd call you a girl name."

"Oh," he said simply.

"Why? Is your fifteen-year-old manly pride suffering, Kylie?" I teased, poking my tongue out and winking.

"Not at all, Ronnie," he replied as he ran his fingers through his flaxen hair. I laughed and shook my head as I reopened my book to begin reading again.

He shifted so he was closer to me. My breath caught in my chest and my heart began to pound as a tingly sensation spread through me. What the crap? I thought in bewilderment. "What are you reading anyway?" he asked softly, drawing me back out of the book.

I huffed in frustration at the constant breezes that kept blowing the pages of my book, and at the tingles that racked through me. "Pride and Prejudice," I answered, trying to find my page.

"That is such a chick book!" he exclaimed in disbelief.

I closed my book, leveling my stare at him as I sarcastically noted, "Believe it or not, but I do happen to be a girl."

"Well dang. Don't be so touchy feely about it," he said returning my stare in equal measure with his deep honey colored eyes.

I felt my temper rise at his remark. I tried to reason with myself that Kyle was my best friend, not any of the snotty-nosed girls at school that constantly followed me around like harpies, delivering cruel comments at anything and everything about me. I shifted on my limb and said, "No one's being touchy feely about anything. You asked, I answered. Simple as that." I tucked the book safely in my jacket's inner pocket and I descended out of the tree.

"She's running out again!" Kyle sang after me. I stopped in my tracks and turned to see him leisurely reclining against the trunk, a smug smile on his face. He'd used some of my favorite lyrics against me. Not to mention that said lyrics belonged to the song that basically described me. I had half a mind to kick his rear end all the way to the stratosphere but I decided against it. I squared my shoulders and continued walking away. "Ah! See how she flees!" he mocked.

My temper began to boil, but I kept on walking. Oh no, he wouldn't get the satisfaction of seeing my composure crack. If there was one thing about me that people found so irritating, it'd be my stubbornness. Momma and Daddy always remarked that I could make even an old, cantankerous donkey look patient. I heard his footsteps behind me, which made me walk faster. I knew that he'd be able to easily catch up with me, seeing as how his strides were longer than mine.