The Dating Department

3- Auditions

The piece of paper blew with the slight breeze, fluttering this way and that, doing twists and back-flips before finally whacking me in the face.

I peeled it off my face and looked at it only to see…well, me.

Amber had put up posters of me all around town, each of them with a picture of me posing like an idiot with makeup coating my face.

I frowned, crumpled the paper, and tossed it into a nearby trash-can. Spotting another one, I crossed the street and tore it down from its telephone pole perch. I crushed as many posters as I could find and tossed them all into the city’s wastebasket.

I grinned maliciously as I twisted the latest poster in my hands. I pretended it was the whole Dating Department in my hands. Crush. Tear. Twist. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

“Wow, Flirt, I knew you were weird, but I never pinned you as maniacal.”

I whirled around to see Aiden standing behind me, brown hair falling into his eyes and hands stuffed into his pockets, a smug expression plastered across his face.

“You, er, heard the laughing?” I asked as I felt heat rush up my neck and face.

“I think the whole block did, Flirt.” He grinned and ruffled my hair. “What are you hiding behind your back?”

“Nothing.” I tried to surreptitiously slip the paper into my pocket but failed miserably. He snatched the mangled paper from my hands and carefully unfolded it.

He started to laugh. “So this is what the photoshoot was for? ‘The Dating Department presents its latest available bachelorette: Riley Noble.’ “ He snorted. “Wow, I certainly hope you’re doing this against your will.”

“Oh believe me, I am.” I narrowed my eyes and grabbed at the paper, but he easily held it out of my reach.

Stupid tall person.

Aiden smirked as I continued to jump for the paper, “You’re so short.”

“Shut up.”

“Touchy and short, nice.”

“I am not touchy!” I protested, pausing momentarily from my hopping to glare at him.

“They should put ‘effective death glare’ under attributes. That’s a real plus.”

“If it’s so effective, why aren’t you dead?”

He grinned and gestured to himself. “Immunity. I’ve got two little sisters, Flirt, think I don’t know how to survive a death glare by now?”

“…yes?”

“Then you’ve got a lot to learn, grasshopper.”

“You’re talking to the headmaster of Hogwarts here, buddy, you really want to call me ‘grasshopper’?” I raised an eyebrow, challenging him.

“You are obviously forgetting who you are addressing, oh powerful Dumbledore, sir.”

“And who might that be?”

He grinned and bent down, put his mouth near my ear, and said, with perfect seriousness, “Batman.”

As he pulled back, I did my very best to keep a straight face, but the urge to giggle was nearly over-powering.

I could feel the giggle building in my throat and threatening to escape my lips. I had to bite down on my cheek to help me keep a straight face, but even that couldn’t hold in the powerful giggle inside of me. Aiden looked at me, face perfectly straight, no trace of amusement visible.