Act Naturally [teotfw]

chapter two: american girl

"Wow, real corny." She remarked dryly as we walked in, finding American flags on everything. We sat across from each other in a booth, silently observing our menus.

The waitress arrived and smiled much too gleefully, making my stomach wretch.
"What'll it be for you two on this fine day?"
"A super banana split, to share."

Jasmine replied smoothly. The waitress, somewhat shocked by her accent, told us it would be coming right up and quickly left.

"You hungry?" She asked, and, as usual, I responded with a brief nod of the head.

She smiled.

"I like you. Nobody at school ever shuts the fuck up and notices anything around them. It's just pointless chatter.

You're alright, James."

She smiled again and looked out the window just as I was.
"Ok." I replied, making her chuckle softly.

It was a comfortable silence that reigned for the following minutes, one that I wouldn't mind slipping into forever.
Our dish came, and we both ate silently.

A song came on through the speakers; 'American Girl' by Tom Petty, quite out of the blue.
Jasmine laughed, "did they really put this song on? I mean, I don't object, it's a great one."
I chuckled softly and began to eat. The dessert was huge. I couldn't eat this whole thing any day.

"You've got something on your face. Lemme get it," she wiped a bit of whipped cream off my heated cheeks with her thumb and wiped it on a napkin.

"You're cute." She remarked, just as straightforward as ever, giving me a gentle smirk.

I didn't respond, just smiled slightly and kept eating my ice cream.
Well, she was definitely interested in me. But it suddenly struck me that manipulating this affection could get me close enough to kill her.

"So, is this a date?" I asked somewhat emotionlessly, taking another bite of ice cream.

"Hell yeah it is." She replied matter-of-factly, looking up and at me. I made eye contact for a brief moment and then looked away. She was smiling.

"Let's go to your place." She said as she stood up, going to the register to pay. I was by her side, nodding along to what she said.

~~~

"Nice place." She commented, flopping down on the leather couch as she gazed at the pictures on the walls, the honey-tinted, waning sunlight dripping in through the windows. "Thanks." I sat next to her, still as a statue.

"Wanna make out?"

She asked suddenly, catching me off guard. She was good at that, keeping me on the cusp of uncertainty. Someone more predictable might have been a better murder target, but surely she'll be fun to kill at least.

"Ok." I replied, and she wrapped one arm around my waist, placed her free hand on the back of my head and kissed me.

Her lips tasted like wild mint.
I didn't kiss back, and just let her do as she pleased.

She stopped. "You don't like it, do you?" She asked, noticing my lack of reaction.
I felt I could be honest with her, even though I should've responded otherwise, I just shook my head and avoided her eyes.

"That's ok, we don't have to."

She sat in silence after that. I realized that I needed to go along with her desires if I wanted to get to her.

"Wait, actually.."

I trailed off as I kissed her much harder than I expected, causing her to grip her hands onto my waist for support. My lips stopped moving as she started  to kiss back, and she just started laughing.

"You're a shit kisser." She mumbled into my frozen lips. I didn't react as she continued.

The front door creaking open shook us both.

My dad. Fuck.

"Oh shit James, sorry to disturb you." He laughed, his eyes twinkling, as Jasmine quickly detached her minty lips from mine. I just nodded, unsure what to say.
Jasmine also just looked at my father and offered a shy smile, her arm wrapped around me.

"I'm his dad, Phil."
"Jasmine. Nice to meet ya."

~~~

Jasmine, my father and I were all sitting around the kitchen table, in the midst of an awkward conversation.
My dad, as usual, was questioning her.

"You're an American, are you?"
"Yeah."
"Why'd you come here?"

"Well, we'd been living in Spain for the past few years, and my parents wanted a change in the weather I guess." She replied, offering an awkward smile. I just sat, motionless, silent, a burning hatred for my father growing inside me.

"Spain! Wow! Do you speak Spanish then?"
"Yep."
"I'm going to the bathroom." I said sharply as I got up from my seat and walked around the corner out of the room. "Alright then," My father called after me. I didn't go to the bathroom, however.

I was pressed up against the rotting flowery wallpaper, eavesdropping on their conversation.

"How's school going so far?"

"It's ok. Not as good as Spain though."

"How old are ya?"

"Seventeen."

"What're you doing for college?"

"I dunno. I wanna go to a music school I think."

"So, you play an instrument?"

"Yeah. Piano."

"So classical music, or-"

"No. I play jazz."

"Cool."

This was hard to listen to. But at least my dad was doing the hard work for me; getting to know her.

"So, you like James then?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I should warn you, he's a bit weird, y'know, always was a bit stoic too."
"I know."

Loved hearing him say things like this. Could he have any decency and say something kind about me?

I walked back into the room.
"Well, if you two wanna, y'know, get back to it," he winked, making my stomach curl,
"go ahead."

He walked out of the room.

Jasmine took my hand and led me out the back door.

"Your dad's an asshole."
"Yeah. Sometimes I wanna punch him in the face." I smiled at her brutal honesty, it amused me.
"Me too."
She replied.

"Let's go on the roof and watch the sun set."
"Ok."

We climbed the trellis adorned with shriveling brown ivy, and sat on the black shingled roof.
A cool wind tousled my hair as the dark folds of an impending storm came rolling in.
The sky was a greyish orange, and the sun hung low in the sky like a rotting peach.

"Lemme see your hand," she picked up my left hand, the burnt one. The skin was bumpy like a chicken's and blistering pink.
She stroked her long fingers over the scar, making me flinch. No one had been this gentle with me in years.

"Deep fryer burn, right?"
"How did you know?"
"Dunno. Just do."

"How'd it happen?"
"Accident."
"Ok."

Our entangled hands fell down in the space between us. I said nothing and stared straight ahead at the fading horizon, my posture rigid and unnatural, but she didn't seem to mind.

We watched the sun shrivel and die on the horizon as a cold blanket of stars smothered its weakened light.

As night settled in, Jasmine left my side and placed a soft kiss on my cheek. I didn't move from my spot for quite a while, reflecting on the day's events and feeling my cheeks tingle with a maddening blush.