Shit. Shit. Shit.
I frowned at him. I did not need whatever this was going to be and I certainly did not want to be alone with him. Not ever.
“What do you want, Chuck?”
He frowned at me. “It’s Chucky, not Chuck.”
I almost laughed. Chucky’s the name of a cute little boy with pudgy cheeks and a freckled nose. A little boy with short, messy dark brown hair who wore one of those ugly horizontally stripped shirts moms, for whatever reason, always make their little boys wear. That was a Chucky. Chucky was not the name of an almost full grown boy man. At least not a self-respecting one. He should have lost the y after middle school. But, whatever, it wasn’t my name.
“Okay, Chucky, I’ll ask again, what do you want?”
“You don’t have to be a bitch, Ariel.”
He was right, I didn’t have to be a bitch, but he also didn’t deserve kindness from me either. I looked at him and decided to wait him out.
He didn’t make me wait long.
He blew out a deep breath and stared down at his tennis shoes. When he spoke, his voice was quiet, careful.
“While I was in the hospital I had a lot of time on my hands and nothing to do but think. I thought a lot about you. Actually, you’re pretty much the only thing I really think about now.”
He had a lot of time on his hands? To my knowledge, he’d been in the hospital for a whole two days. Two.
He shook his hands out at his sides then balled them into tight fists. He was nervous about something. Being alone with me? Did I make him nervous now? Why did that thought bother me so much?
I had a bad, bad feeling about where this was going.
“On the first day of school, what I did to you,” he shook his head while still looking down at his shoes. “I should never have done that, not to you of all people. And I’m so sorry, Ariel, so very sorry.”
That dreaded day was always coming back to bite me on the ass. I couldn’t escape it. Wait, had he said not to me of all people? Did that mean he’d be cool with treating other people in such a way? He was such an A-hole.
“Listen, Chuck-”
“Chucky.”
“Whatever,” I rolled my eyes. “I need to get back to class so thanks for the apology and I’ll be seeing you.”
I started walking away but stopped short when he did the most unexpected thing. He dropped to his knees in front of me. His hands came up and he placed them together, palm against palm in a prayer position. The look in his eyes confused me; he looked frantic.
What was going on?
“Uh, Chuck-”
He let that one go. Big of him. “Ariel, please, please, I need you to forgive me.”
I looked at him on his knees before me, begging me to forgive him. There were no dimples out now. He’d never looked this sincere before.
“Why do you care so much, Chuck? Why is this so important to you?”
Why are you on your knees before me? Why do you seem like a different person than you were last week? These were the questions I really wanted answers too but didn’t feel brave enough to ask.
Why? Why? Why?
“It’s important to me.” He shuffled closer to me and I had to fight off the urge to take a step back. This was too close for comfort and he was being a weirdo. “You’re important to me. So very important. They had to sedate me in the ambulance and when I woke up in the hospital you were the only thing I could think about. It’s actually kind of weird. Even though you were a freak with piercings and with the goth thing I still thought you were hot and I wanted to have sex with you but… Now it’s different. It’s so much more. Ever since waking up in the hospital all I can think about is how beautiful you are, how sweet, how perfect you are and how I’d do anything, anything for you. Ariel, I need you to forgive me. Please, please.”
He started to cry. Fat, silent tears slid down his face as he bent forward and wrapped his arms around my thighs. He held on tightly like he never wanted to let me go.
Um… No?