Just a Dare

Chapter Five

Students quickly scattered in all different directions and disappeared after the last bell rang, which was to be expected, and I was glad; the empty hallways made for easier passage to my parking spot in the semi-vacant lot.

"Trey!" I spun around in the middle of the parking lot, lifting a hand to shield my eyes from the blinding sunlight. There she was, standing about ten feet away from me, her precariously tall stack of books teetering slightly in the wind. She peeked her head around them and flashed a smile at me, her long french braid swinging behind her with the movement.

"Hey, Melody." I called back, walking over to her. At first, I could only stare at the stuff she had in her arms, but, out of pity, I decided to lend a hand. "Here, let me take some of those." I reached for them, but she took a step back.

"No, that's okay." A strand of hair fell in her face and she looked at it in annoyance before blowing it out of the way. "I'm perfectly capable of carrying these by myself."

I took another step toward her. "Now, now, let's not be stubborn."

Melody raised an eyebrow. "You think I'm being stubborn? Well, you're wrong."

I chuckled. "Oh, I'm sorry. Then what are you being?"

She gave me a knowing look, a twinkle in her eyes, her head held high. "I'm being self-sufficient. So, I'm not going to need any help." She nodded once, as if it proved her point, before turning around and walking toward her car. I rolled my eyes and stuck my thumbs in my pockets.

"Whatever you say, Mel." I called after her.

And then, something unbelievably crazy happened.

She turned and looked at me over her shoulder, surprise on her face, before tripping over her foot and stumbling forward to the ground, books flying every which-way.

Unsure of what else to do, I ran over to check to see if she was alright.

"Are you okay?" She pushed herself up from the pavement, blinking a few times before looking up at me.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just clumsy." She sat up and rubbed her elbow, examining herself quickly to assess the damage she'd taken. "Trey, do you mind getting those books?"

"Sure," I answered. After they had all been picked up and I had them securely in my arms, I asked teasingly, "What happened to being 'self-sufficient'?"

I looked over at her and watched her stand up, brush off the front of her jeans, and then shrug at me. "I changed my mind." She strode past me, her braid swinging like a pendulum behind her, and I briefly wondered where her center of balance was in that instant that made it move that way. She spun around when she had gotten about two yards away from me, smiling warmly at me. "Are you just going to stand there all day, or are you going to follow me to put those in my car? I'd like to get that project done as soon as humanly possible."

My feet moved suddenly after her, my long, easy strides slowly but surely closing the distance between us.

--

I parked my truck on the curb in front of her two-story house, took the keys out of the ignition, and exited the vehicle, locking it behind myself. I followed her up to the door, looking out across the perfectly mowed, three-inch tall grass in her front yard to the meticulously manicured little garden directly in front of the house. There were pansies of all colors of the spectrum planted within the rectangular perameters of it, which had just reached full bloom, it seemed. I turned when she let out a nervous laugh.

"My mom likes to garden." Melody explained slowly, her eyes never leaving my face.

I shrugged, looking back at the flower bed. "She did a good job with it."