Off Limits (Christoffer Schistad - Skam)

Part 3

People could say whatever they wanted about Chris, but he knew how to be a gentleman when he wanted or needed to. When he was courting someone, or when he was in presence of someone he appreciated and respected, he behaved properly. He had always treated Mara right, because she deserved it and also because William wouldn't permit Chris to treat Mara any less than like a princess.

But as of lately he was a little uneasy about the girl, she was up to something and his guts told him that he wouldn't like it. Since her stunt this morning in the hallway, Chris knew that the boys she was flirting with weren't an end, but means to an end. But Mara was a mystery to everyone even herself, she had a twisted mind and she was smart and cunning, she could be scheming for world domination for all he knew. Although he was quite certain world domination did not involve laughing at a guy's every joke so loudly everyone in her vicinity could hear how fake her laugh was. She wanted someone to hear her, or see her. She had a secret agenda and Chris tortured his mind with far-fetched theories about it.

It was why he didn't get out of his car and come to her door. He parked in front of her and William's building and waited there. He came right on time although he knew she was always ten minutes late. Not because she could never get ready on time, but just because she enjoyed letting him stew for a bit, most likely looking through the window and smirking to herself. That was who she was.

Chris was startled when he heard a knock on the car's window. Mara's face was on the other side, her breath steaming up the window.

"Hey!" She said, her voice barely audible.

Chris unlocked the door and gave a quick glance to the clock. It was 9:02pm, was her clock running ahead? She opened the door and sat down next to him, rubbing her hands together to warm them up. Her smile lit up the interior of the car in an strange way, or maybe it was just Christoffer who missed being at the other end of it.

"I haven't made you wait too long, have I?" She asked. "What's with that face you're making Chris, do I have something on my chin?"

Mara's hand covered her mouth, like she feared her lipstick smudged over her chin. Chris hadn't realised he was staring at her lips, but he shook his head and started the engine.

"You're perfect Mara," Chris reassured her, wishing he could have said it in another way. But there really wasn't any other word to qualify her right now. "I just arrived, don't worry."

"Ooh, you're awfully serious," she noticed. "What happened?"

One thing that only Mara could accomplish was to simultaneously make fun of someone and show concern. She might tease the hell out of her friends, but she cared deeply about them and she was a good listener.

"What makes you think something happened? Maybe I'm just grumpy for no reason," he shot back, feeling like punching himself for being such a grump with her. "Sorry," he apologized. "It's complicated."

"Is it a girl?" She asked. It was terribly cliché to associate 'complicated' with 'girls', but she was a girl herself and she shouldered her complexity.

"Yes," Chris answered, gritting his teeth. He didn't mind sharing what was on his mind with her, except when she was the thing on his mind.

"Can I help?" Mara asked, turning down the volume of the music.

It took Chris a fair amount of time to ponder on the question, and it was only when the car came to a stop at a red light that Chris turned toward her and answered.

"You could. But I'm not asking you to, I'll figure it out myself. If I don't then-" he shrugged. "-it'll be my loss."

"Or hers," she pointed out, raising one of her neatly done eyebrows. She knew the devil was in the details, she lives by that rule.

"Can't we talk about something else? It's getting depressing," Chris said, not answering to Mara's comment.

He wasn't sure if it would be her loss though, the girl truly had everything going for her, and Chris would consider himself lucky if she graced him with her attention. He wasn't talking about the friendly attention he already had from her. He wanted to be more.

"We can talk about anything you want Chris," she simply replied. "I've never seen you so stern before a party, is it because William ditched you for Noora?"

Chris let a laugh that was tainted with bitterness.

"Heartbroken, yeah," he replied. "I don't know what to do to get his attention anymore. What do you think, should I write him a poem? Serenade him?"

"Oh I bet he'd like that!" Mara laughed when she finally spotted a genuine smile on Chris' face. "You should definitely give it a try. At the break of dawn, right under his window."

Both of them knew how much William hated getting up before ten.

"Are you trying to get me killed?" Chris asked in bewilderment. "I'm too handsome to die," he objected.

"I can't disagree with that," Mara said. "I'm sure you'll find a way to win him back. True love fins a way," she assured him.

"Okay, can we just stop the romantic metaphors here? It's confusing the heck out of me," Chris said in a more joyful tone then before. "What about your love affairs? Business seems to be going well these days."

"Is that supposed to be insulting or did I miss something?" Mara's brows knitted together in confusion. "Why do you ask anyway, do you wanna be one?" She then asked just to tease him.

It worked. Chris was thoroughly dazzled and confused upon hearing her words.

"You see right through me," he shot her back with a smirk. "Your friends are terrible flirts by the way, if I hear one more sexist joke I have to laugh at, I'll kill a man."

"Nobody forces you to laugh at them. It'd be much more entertaining to watch you kick some ass than to see you coo with another Penetrator."

"Been watching me, eh?" She bit her lip. "I'm not doing it out of pleasure, let me tell you..."

"Then why?" Chris had to ask since she didn't say anything more than that.

"I'm trying to elicit a reaction.."

She shrugged dismissively in a way that suggested that she didn't want to linger on the subject. Chris didn't care, he needed to know.

"Whose reaction?"

Mara kept silent a couple minutes and when they arrived, Chris thought he was not getting an answer after all. The music was already loud enough here, luckily for them the house was fairly isolated therefore the party shouldn't get busted by the cops.

A thousand different answers had crossed Mara's mind within the two minutes that passed between the moment Chris asked and the moment they reached the house. She couldn't decide. Mara always knew what she wanted to say, being hesitant was not one of her personality traits. But it did take her a certain amount of time to decide what to say to this. A split second decision cut the deal for her. She opened the door and before getting out and getting drunk, she said the words that would once again wreck Chris' world and put it upside down.

"Yours."