Dyson is so… so… so infuriating! Who is he to judge when I work and who I talk to? I cannot stand that kid! After I watched him leave the music store, I stomped out in the opposite direction towards anything else. I just didn’t want to see Dyson. The boy is so confusing!
I’ve read the stories about people getting stuck in stores or schools during storms or blizzards and tornados. It’s always conveniently a boy and a girl, the same age and then they magically fall in love before they get freed. I laughed to myself at the thought of Dyson falling in love. With none other than me. Yeah, like that was ever going to happen. This isn’t fairytale land, home of the happy endings. No. This is North Winchester, Maine. Home of the heartbreakers and snowstorms. Nobody falls in love here. It just doesn’t happen.
Manipulative, immature, jerk!
For the rest of the day, I found it easy to avoid Dyson by spending most of my time in the book store. I read half of some random teenager book and did a puzzle. Yes, a puzzle. A hard puzzle too. That just shows you how bored I was. But when darkness fell I made my way back to the Macy’s and fumbled towards the beds.
“You’ve been avoiding me.” Dyson said from his bed.
“Yeah, so?” I mumbled, laying down under the thick blankets of my comfy temporary bed after I took my pills.
“You’re such a baby, it was a joke.” He grunted.
“Okay.” I said shortly.
“Baby.” He teased.
I picked up a pillow and threw it to where I thought his head would be. “Shut up.”
He laughed. “Missed me.”
“Whatever.”
“Stubborn baby.” He mocked.
“Dyson.” I groaned, now getting insanely annoyed. “Just shut up.”
“Alright. Goodnight, baby.” He snorted.
“Goodnight, asshole.” I grunted, closing my eyes and drifting off into a dreamless sleep. Just like every night.
I woke up the next morning when the sun was shining in my face, but there was something else waking me up. It was the cold. I was absolutely freezing. I snapped my head up to yell at Dyson for taking my blankets when I realized I was still under all of my covers.
I sat up and realized that it was absolutely freezing inside of the room. I got out from under the blankets which was horrible idea because I was wearing shorts and a tank top and without the blankets, the air was icy and biting at every fiber of exposed skin. I slipped on some slippers and immediately made my way towards the winter clothing area of the store, noticing that Dyson wasn’t anywhere around. I pulled on a pair of sweat pants and a hoodie over my tank top with slippers on my feet. I put the hood up on the hoodie and pulled out my walky talkie.
“Dyson where are you?” I asked, trying to keep my teeth from chattering.
“The food court.” He responded quickly.
I rolled my eyes. Of course he’s in the food court. He always is.
I made my way towards the stairs, sliding across the smooth tile flooring with the slippers with a smile on my face. I trotted down the stairs and then into the food court where Dyson was sitting and eating something that looked like a donut. Once I got deeper into the food court, I was hit by a wall of warmth. Lovely, lovely warmth.
“Morning.” I mumbled, sitting in the chair across from him and putting my chin in my palm.
He looked up at me like I’d grown a second head and he stopped eating his donut.
“What?” I asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious
“Tyler, are you being... civil towards me, Dyson Becker?” He asked in a dramatic voice.
I sighed. “I’m trying but you’re making it very hard.” I mumbled.
“I am not.” He defended. “Look, I even brought out a big box of donuts so we could share.” He said, gesturing towards the box of donuts on the table.
I chuckled. “Fine.” And I took one of the donuts from the box, quickly stuffing it into the whole on my face. “So what happened to the heat?” I finally asked.
“It was only a matter of time, considering the power is out, the heat is out too.” He explained. I never realized how smart this kid was.
“But the heat in here still works because of the generator.” I finished.
He nodded. “Exactly.”
“So what are we going to do, just live in the food court?” I huffed.
“So now it’s ‘we’, huh? What happened to ‘I don’t like you!’ and ‘It’s none of your business!’” He screeched.
I chuckled. “I am not freezing to death alone.” I said matter of factly.
“Right.” He said with a small smile. “Well, the storm shouldn’t last much longer.”
“Well, that’s good.” I mumbled, finishing my breakfast and resting my elbows on the table in front of me.
“Can we play Battleship?” Dyson asked with a childish smile as he closed the lid to the donuts.
I chuckled and shrugged. “I guess so. Why?”
“I haven’t played Battleship in years. Are you any good?” He asked as we stood up from the table and started making our way towards the toy store.
“I’m okay. But I haven’t played in a while either.” I mumbled, shivering in the cold of the mall.
“Well, I have to warn you. I’m kind of sweet.” He grinned.
“But you haven’t played in years, remember?” I chuckled.
“I’m sure I still have it.” He said proudly as we turned the corner into the toy store and then into the back where there were shelves beyond shelves of colorful board games.
But before we got there, as we were passing the books, I let out a horrified gasp.
“What is it?” Dyson asked in a rush.
“What is this?!” I squealed, grabbing one of the horrifying hard back child books and nearly shoving it in his face. The cover was a dark with a gross looking green monster peering in a window with stars in the back ground. In the room, there was an octopus in the stone fireplace with the title in creepy, thick green letters.
“Goodnight Goon?” Dyson said in a confused voice as he read the title. “A petrifying parody.”
“How can they make a parody to a classic like this?!” I shrieked, still baffled. “They can’t do that!”
“They can.” Dyson said with an amused smile on his face. “And they did. It doesn’t look too bad, really.”
“This is awful! You can’t just mess up something as amazing as Goodnight Moon. You just can’t do that! What are they trying to do? Scar kids for life?!"
"I don't know, it looks kind of... cute." Dyson chirped, flipping through the pages of the traitorous book.
"It is not cute! It's... it's..."
"It's marketing." Dyson finished for me. "They just want to make their money. It doesn't matter if they have to make a parody to some children's book. They just want money. That's life. Get over it."
"That's so messed up." I bit back. "How could they do that? They basically just made my whole entire childhood a big fat lie."
"No, they didn't. You're totally over reacting. They are just ruining the childhood of the current children."
"Whatever." I mumbled, pushing past the horrifying display of books and through to the board games.
"A little touchy, are we?" Dyson teased behind me.
"No." I snapped. "Just irritated."
"It's just a book, Tyler. I promise, you'll be fine."
"Yeah, yeah." I mumbled, grabbing the first Battleship that I saw and turning back around, handing it to Dyson.
"Why do I have to carry it?" Dyson whined.
"Because I don't want to." I said simply. "And it was your idea."
"Whatever." He sang. "I'll win anyway."
"In your dreams." I muttered as we turned around and we started on our way towards the food court once again.
We had this argument all the way to the food court and as we set up the white and red pegs and placed our little gray ships around on the Battleship board.
"Ready?" Dyson asked once we both had set up all of our ships and placed all of our red and white pegs into the small compartments on the right side of the flippy boards.
I nodded. "Ready. You go first. You know, since you're going to lose." I said with a playful smirk.
"Cheap shot." He muttered, looking down at his board. "A1- Wait!"
"What?" I asked, looking up at him.
"We need to make a bet." He said like it was the most important thing in the world.
I rolled my eyes with a smile tugging at my lips. "Okay, what's the bet?"
We sat in silence for the longest time until his face brightened up and he smiled. "Loser has to give a confession."
I sighed and nodded. "Alright, fine."
He smirked before looking back down at his board. "Right, okay. A1."
"Miss." I chirped after breifly looking down at my board. "D7"
"Miss." He said proudly.
We went on for a while like this until I got the first hit and sank his Battleship before Dyson got a hit and eventually sank my Carrier. After a while of back and forth misses, I hit Dyson's Submarine and then sank it right before Dyson got my Destroyer. I hit Dyson's Carrier and then he sank my Patrol Boat.
It finally came down to me needing to hit Dyson's Patrol Boat and Dyson needing to find my Battleship.
"Get ready to lose. I have you figured out." Dyson said with a smirk. "H6"
I grinned. "Miss." And watched in satisfaction as his facial expression dropped.
"You're lying!"
"No I'm not!" I defended. "You're just wrong."
"Whatever." He muttered.
I chuckled once more. "A9"
His proud smile was back again. "Miss. Ha!"
I rolled my eyes. "You're so into this game."
"Because I'm going to win." He said smugly. "F3"
I let out an aggrivated sigh and put my face in my hands. "Hit."
"Yes!" He cheered, shoving his fists into the air in success.
"Don't freak yet. You still have to sink the whole thing." I nearly snapped. "J9"
"Miss." He nearly sang as I practically shoved the peg irratably into the board. "F4"
"Hit." I growled. "D4"
And again, his face fell into a shocked expression. "Hit." He grumbled.
My sprits suddenly lifted a little and I let a smile play on my lips. "I can still win!" I cheered.
"No you can't!" He snapped. "F5"
"Hit." I said quickly before staring down at the board. The Patrol Boat was the two peg boat so if I get this one right, I win. But if I get this one wrong, Dyson wins because he knows exactly which peg to choose to sink my Battleship. It's either E4 or D5 because C4 and D3 were already cleared as misses. So, I did the only thing I could do. I held my breath and hoped for the best. "E4?" I squeaked.
His face hardened and he looked down. "No. Miss." He said shortly.
"You're lying!" I shrieked.
"No I'm not." He said, attmepting to put a smirk on his face but failing with great measure.
"Liar, liar, liar!" I sang. "Loser, loser, loser!"
"And I'm the childish one?" He asked with raised eyebrows.
I smiled sheepishly at him and started putting away my Battleship board. "Okay, I'll be quiet." I said, continuing to smile widely.
We put away our boards in a comfortable silence and then sat there in another comfortable silence.
"Well...?" I finally drew out.
"Well what?" Dyson asked with a short shrug of his buff shoulder.
"Well what's your confession thingy?" I asked with raised eyebrows, waiting for him to speak.
"I don't know yet." He said, standing to his feet and walking away, towards the Italian place.
I stood up and followed behind him, quickly and around the counter. "It was your bet. You have to do it."
"I'll do it." He nearly snapped. "I just need to think."
"Somebody's a sore loser." I sang as he pulled out a raw pizza crust. I realized that he was going to make a pizza so I hurried to the back fridges and pulled out a bag of freshly shredded mozzerella and a jar of pizza sauce with mushrooms and pepperoni.
"No I'm not, I'm just competitive." He defended.
"Poor wittle baby." I cooed, reaching up to pinch his cheek. He quickly reacted by turned, grabbing my wrist that was just inches from his face and pulling back, pulling my body close to his so that our faces were inches away from each other.
"Okay, here." He nearly whispered, his eyes peircing into mine. The second night, you were all hyped up on your drugs, after you kissed me. You said that the kiss wasn't just a joke. That you liked it. That you like me. That's what you said. That's not the confession though. The confession part is that I think I might like you back. Maybe." He let my limp wrist go and then walked away, leaving me stunned, paralyzed, and gaping behind the counter with my mind racing a bazillion hours a minute.
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I know it's late, but it's still Sunday! :D
I wanted to make it longer, but I'm in an awful mood right now, so I'd probably end up killing somebody and that wouldn't really make much of a story since there's only two characters.
So, yeah. I hope you enjoyed (:
Vote-Commet-Fan <3