That Boy Next Door

Chapter 7

"Call it a sixth sense," Dannie muttered under her breath.

"Look, I was just having some girlfriend issues. Please forgive me," he begged giving her the puppy dog eyes like he had earlier today. Dannie rolled her eyes at him. It wasn't going to work a second time. Not when the first time had been only a few hours earlier today.

"Nope. I gave you a second chance already," she said holding firm to her decision.

"Please understand. I was only upset and I'll do my best to never let you down again," he said. Dannie sighed and shook her head. Maybe she would understand him better if she had had a boyfriend before. But she had never felt emotionally attached to anybody that way and so the thought was beyond her.

"I don't know Seth. You're a pretty lousy excuse of a friend."

"Please forgive me. I know I make a lot of mistakes but we're all human right? We make mistakes don't we?" he asked searching her face for a crack in her tough facade.

At the word 'mistake', Dannie froze up slightly. People make mistakes right? she asked herself. Humans make mistakes don't they? Not as big a mistake as you made, she thought harshly to herself.

Dannie's mouth was pressed into a thin line as horrid thoughts from That Night bombarded her. Seth's concerned gaze seemed to snap her out of it though as her teeth grinded in frustration, trying to not think of what happened that night.

She took a long breath and looked at him once more. "I'll only forgive you under one condition."

"Anything," he said eagerly.

Dannie grinned devilishly, forgetting about her troubling thoughts from earlier. "Go to that stand," she pointed to the Chinese food parlor on the boardwalk, "and eat a cockroach on a stick."

Seth's face visibly paled as he processed Dannie's words. One cockroach was bad enough, but the stick had four of them on it. He couldn't even look at it for more than a few second before bile would rise up in his throat. "I think I might be allergic to those things," he said nervously, trying to get his way out of this trap.

Dannie shrugged nonchalantly. "I guess you not forgiven then." She had to hide that grin that threatened to spill onto her face at Seth's facial expression. It was a rather strange mix between determination and dread while his face turned slightly green at the sides.

"Okay, okay. I'll do it," Seth said with a confident facade. He marched up to the stand with Dannie right behind him. "One stick with...cockroaches please," he gulped as the salesman swapped Seth's money for the stick. You have to do this, he told himself encouragingly. It was for Dannie, because after all the mistakes he had made, he knew he was lucky that she would forgive him.

Seth examined the hairy cockroaches. The nasty creatures gave off a musty scent that made him sick to his stomach. The legs had been removed but the shell of the roach looked inedible. Was it possible to die because you ate a cockroach?

"I don't have all day," Dannie said tauntingly, purposely keeping her gaze away from the dead bugs on a stick.

Seth tentatively opened his mouth and Dannie watched in fascination. As his teeth hit the shell, an audible crunching sound could be heard, followed by the simultaneous puckering of his face. He chewed slowly with closed eyes until he swallowed the rest of the bug down.

Dannie couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out into laughter. Seth, who still had the aftertaste of the bug in his mouth, scowled at her. After silently laughing while clapping like a seal, Dannie finally settled down and looked at him with a "sorry not sorry" expression.