This Side Up - Chapter II

The wind ripped at my skin like a vulture at a carcass, and I stared blankly at Delilah. She, on the other hand, was very talkative at the moment as she stared down at her shoes. I listened as intently as I could whilst I looked her over. And I had no clue what she was talking about. All I thought about was accompanying the girl later on tonight when she visited her ‘friend’ Shaggy.

“ … And I think that’s why the seagulls live in the mall’s parking lot. Maybe they wanna be mall rats, too,” she chuckled quietly, looking at me. Quirking a brow, she gave another little laugh. “Jeez, man. What’ve you been smoking?”

“Weed,” I replied simply, looking into those deep green eyes of hers. It was like looking into a rainforest, so many colors put into one area. She began to laugh her ass off, clutching her bony ribs as tears formed at the corners of her eyes.

“Holy shit, you said that madd seriously!” It was nice hearing her speak up, as she rarely did it unless she was pissed off. Doing one of her usual habits, she gently lifted up my arm, and rested her head on my chest. I instinctively wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her a little closer. I took this as a friendly gesture, nothing more than that -- despite the fact that I wanted it to be more than that. At this moment in time, I realized just how much her company meant to me. At this moment I realized just how beautiful she was. At this moment I realized I had a crush on, of all people … Delilah?! My face flushed a deep red, eyebrows raised. And she shot me a confused look, frowning a little. “Are you okay,” she asked monotonously.

I nodded, smiling. I could still feel the heat on my cheeks. “Never been better.” She furrowed her brows and pursed her lips in reply, adding a little something else.

“Alright,” she murmured, wrapping her arms around my waist and cuddling a bit closer. I could understand why she would, though. The cold September rain fell on us as if our very God was crying. As it hit me, it felt like minute razors making tiny slits in my skin. She and I were soaked to the bone, and people would think us crazy to be in such hateful weather. But the fact was, we loved rain -- which is why we were sitting on the curb and not under the protection of one of the entrances’ coverings.

She shivered a little, and I stood up, gently pushing her arms down off of me. “I’ll be right back,” I murmured, beginning to walk off. Delilah stood as well, however, and called after me like a child whose parent is leaving for good.

“Where you going, RJ?” I looked back and her expression was still seemingly careless. The tone of her voice was in spite of that.

“To my car, I’ll be righ--” she’d done the odd swagger of a beautifully drenched young woman, making her way up to me slowly. I paused my speaking to look at her the clueless gaze of restless blue eyes. She simply wrapped her arms around me and looked up, brows furrowed again. Her lower lip stuck out in a pout. I wrapped my arms around her waist as well, and we stared at each other like that for a moment … then we smiled. Our grins grew bigger with every second, and …

We began to laugh wildly, throwing our heads back; I almost fell backwards and I would have dragged her down with me. After a few minutes of just pure laughter, and a few minutes more of a little giggles, we saw four familiar faces pop out of the arcade’s entrance. Beelz and Shotty raced up to us, B and Bytez straying behind. They all finally found their way to us, after following their own little paths through the lines of cars.

“Hey RJ!” Bytez greeted me with a perky smile on her twice-pierced lips. I let go of Delilah to hug her, and Delilah released me to do the same. I bent down -- man does it suck to be 6’ 1” -- and gave her a kiss on each cheek as well as one of my signature rib-crushing hugs. She pushed away from me, squeaking out words to try and tell me to let go. Eventually I did, and she stared me down with face flushed from a lack of oxygen. “Ass,” she snapped playfully.

“Yeah, I know,” I murmured. Looking up at the sky, I mused, “Does anyone else realize we’re standing here in the pouring rain?” Everyone chattered about this for a few minutes, trying to decide on what to do, Delilah remaining quiet as per usual. “What do you guys think about piling in my car and busting out of here?”

“Fuck yeah!” Beelz and Shotty began to punch each other over saying that in unison. B and Bytez looked at one another, then dragged them off towards my crappy, old Mustang.

I looked down at Delilah, who’d been looking curiously at me this whole time, as if she were about to speak for a few moments. “So are you going to tell me what’s wrong with your life, or not,” she chuckled solemnly, giving a tiny, but still coy, smirk.

“Yeah, I’ll tell you once we get to wherever those freaks in my car wanna go, sound good?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “Race you to the car,” she murmured softly, bolting off without so much as another word or glance in my direction. I took off after her, yelling about how the race wasn’t a fair one.