Chapter 7

I take my usual seat, trying my hardest to pretend that nothing just happened. I pull out my books and pencil and begin my work that is written on the board.

The door opens, revealing Ray. He walks over to the seat next to me and falls into it. I hold my breath and don't move a muscle.

Ray goes about his business as usual. I don't want to actually look him in the eye because I don't want to seem phased by this. I mean, really. Pathetic! It was a stupid little hug.

Ray clears his throat, putting his pen down. I can see, out of the corner of my eye that his focus is on me.

"Martha. She was my best friend last year. We went out for about a month. It didn't go anywhere," Ray says quietly.

I flip my head to look at him for the first time. I'm shocked by his words. Why, I don't know. I guess, just the idea of Ray dating seems... Impossible to me. As bad as that sounds.

I just picture him being the lonely weirdo he is.

"Are you alright?" Ray asks. I guess I'm doing a bad job of not coming across as the stereotypical teenage girl.

"Yeah, I uh... Yeah I'm fine. Totally completely fine. Absolutely. Like... wow. Splendid. Superb. Stupendous. Wait, is that bad? It sounds sort of like stupid... I don't feel stupid though. I feel fantabulous. Don't worry about me," I blurt out like an idiot.

But Ray still just looks at me. He seems concerned. Which I don't want him to be.

"There's nothing between us," Ray says. I'm startled for a moment before he says,"Me and Martha. Nothing between me and Martha."

I look down at my desk and nod slightly. I get back to doing my study sheet, since I really don't want to be the stupid little girl who got her feelings hurt over one hug.

"Can you come over tonight?" Ray asks.

I debate whether or not to go, since he might just be doing this because he knows I am not in the best of moods. But I can't help myself from wanting to go.

"Yes," I say. "I can come."

***********************************

"So, I walk home on Mondays. If that's alright with you," Ray says, guiding me out to the school parking lot.

"That's fine." I really would rather get over the whole stupid day and get back to being normal with him.

"Shall we, then?" Ray asked, gesturing to the sidewalk leading away from the school.

"Lets."

While walking, we spot some random guy following us around in his car. I look back about a minute later and the man is still there in his truck just following us.

"I shalt protect you from this creep-o," Ray declares, placing a hand over his heart.

"I'm touched. Really. That was a deep moment."

"What can I say? I'm an inspirational person," Ray says, grinning at me.

The guy in the truck pulls up by us. He rolls down his window. He looks at us for a moment before frowning.

I start to get quite freaked out. I just stand there, all stiff, waiting for him to either attack or leave. Neither is happening at the moment.

"Ay, I thought you were my daughter and her boyfriend. I was trying to follow her and see who that guy thinks he is, walking with her without my permission. But no, I'm here stalking some poor random couple," the man says, chuckling.

"No, we aren't-" I start.

"Sorry I was a creep." And he drives away. I stare at the truck as it drives away, leaving me still confused.

"Well then..." Ray says, his eyebrows raised.

***********************************

Whilst walking in Ray's very clean room, he just stood there, very awkwardly, may I add.

"Doing the whole 'standing there awkwardly and stare' thing again, are we?" I ask, sitting in his chair by his desk.

That just makes his eyes get unusually wide and he steps closer. I laugh and shove him away from me.

"So, what exactly are we doing?" I ask.

"Anything. I am open to suggestions."

Ray pulls up a chair next to mine. I tap my chin with my fingertips, as if I am deep in thought.

"Do you have MarioKart?" I ask.

He seems slightly taken aback by my request, but he recovers himself.

"I do. But I must warn you, I am fairly awesome at this game. So please embrace the fact that you shall lose," Ray says, finding his game out of his closet. He motions me to follow him out of his room.

In the living room, we sit side by side on his couch. The game begins and as the little happy theme music plays, I get super pumped. Yes, MarioKart is like my favorite game. Yes, it does give me excitement that hardly anything can. No, I am not afraid to whoop butt on this game.

As always, I choose to be King Boo. I just feel him, man. He's my guy. Ray chooses the classic Mario.

Once the game begins and the countdown starts, I sit up straighter. Ray seems to notice because he does the same. He looks at me with a grin before the game begins.

Not only am I fantastic at this game, but I feel super awesome while playing it. I enjoy staying on the right side of the road (or dirt path and such) not to be illegal. I enjoy laughing in the other characters faces as I pass by them. I enjoy screaming at the evil animated creatures that get ahead of me, before I shoot them with me shells.

And, I do not try to hide these facts while playing the game with Ray.

On the first race, Ray seemed utterly surprised about my skill. He just kept a shocked expression on his face as his car drove in, thirty seconds late, and in second place. I laughed and did a victory dance.

"Oh, this is not over, Green," Ray threatens, violently pressing his controller button to begin another race.

Ray manages to get in front of me, which takes me by surprise. So, I chuck a banana in front of him. I laugh like a maniac as I pass Mario. Ray groans and tries to speed up, but I already have a green shell ready. I send it flying backwards, and Mario is right in place. I am fairly far ahead, and still not attempting to contain my craziness. Ray is used to it. He doesn't care.

I pull out in first again, and Ray is being very angry. Just to make him more agitated, I shove his arm, making his controller turn, also forcing poor little Mario off a cliff.

"What did Mario ever do to you?" Ray asked. He looked at me with an innocent look on his face.

"Not win, that's for sure," I say. I start laughing at my own come back. Man, am I lame.

************************************

"Crap!" I say, sitting up quickly from Rays couch, where we have been watching Disney movies all night. "Crap crap crap!"

"What?" Ray asks, sitting up as well.

"I completely forgot, I'm an idiot!" I facepalm myself.

"Once again I ask: what?" Ray asks.

"The bookstore! I am supposed to be working today! I'm a terrible person. Sheryl is going to kill me," I say, brushing off my sweaty palms on my jeans.

"Calm yourself. Sheryl, whom I assume is either your boss or your pet jaguar, is not going to kill you," Ray says. "I feel safe to assume that you haven't missed a day of work in over a year."

I hesitate, and look at my watch. It's almost nine o'clock. Too late now. "Fine. I guess I may as well finish watching Ariel be a stupid teenage fish."

"Daddy I love him!" Ray quotes Ariel in a very high pitched voice. That forces a laugh out of me.

Ray scoots closet to me, so our shoulders touch, then he leans in very close and whispers in my ear something you don't hear everyday.

"You smell like a fried chocolate bar mixed with fairy blossoms."

I stare at him for a moment before bursting with laughter. "You mean cherry blossoms?"

"I meant what I said."

"Oh, really? Well thank you, kind sir, who smells like-" I take a long and dramatic whiff of air "-strawberry jam and popcorn."

"That does make sense," Ray says.

He holds up his strawberry-jam-smeared toast and a bag of popcorn.

"Of course," I say, shaking my head. "And you weren't going to share?"

I pull the popcorn bag from him and steal a handful before shoving it all in my mouth. Ray tries to take it back, but I throw it across the room to keep it away from him, where it decides to spill all over the clean carpet. Yes, buttery popcorn. Clean carpet.

"Crud," I say.

"Nice one," Ray says, shaking his head with a slight smirk on his face.

I run over and hurriedly clean the mess. I shove all the popcorn back into the bag before returning to the couch to finish the movie. Before anything else, Ray takes the popcorn bag from me and shoves a handful in his mouth.

***********************************

"I'm so sorry, Sheryl. Really sorry. I am so stupid. I should be deported to Canada in a cardboard box," I say.

"Oh, come on," Sheryl says, leaning on the counter of the bookstore. "I would only deport you to Canada in a spherical object. Boxes are too good for a ditcher."

I laugh at her subtle humor that she always has. She smiles at me and hands me the stack of books. I, as now routine, place the books on the shelves and pick other books up off the ground.

Apparently people decided it is fun to come into the little bookstore and throw all the books they pleased around the place.

Lizzie, like usual, sat reading some book I haven't heard of. I guess she has to read it for school. She confronted me as soon as she got here today and asked me why on earth I wasn't here yesterday. I answered her question by explaining my malfunctioning brain. I decided to tell her that I forgot because too much Jello can do that to you.

The little bell on the door jingles, and I look up to see a pair of brown eyes looking directly at me. Ray.

"What do you need?" I ask, looking back at my stack of books.

"Do I always have to need something?" Ray asks.

"Can't I just come here for the hay of it?" Ray asks.

"No."

"No?" Ray asks. I look up to see him smirking.

"No."

"And who's going to stop me?" Ray asks.

I ignore him and walk to the next bookshelf and put the new set of the Harry Potter series up there.

"You can really confuse me," Ray states. "One minute you are super hilarious and the next you're like a little can of soup who hates life."

I continue around the corner and find an oh-so-surprising stack of books thrown down on the floor. I bend down and pick them up, placing each one in the correct place.

"Ah, I can see that Sheryl did not kill you," Ray says, still following me. "It still has not been clarified whether or not Sheryl is your boss or a jaguar."

"Do I have to throw you out?" I ask. I don't know why I am being so cold to him. I honestly don't know. It's just a natural habit to me, to focus on my work and only my work until it is done. And interruptions only keep me from that goal.

"You wouldn't."

"Oh really?" I threatened.

Ray raised his eyebrows, as if asking if I was really capable of getting him out,

"Sheryl!" I call. Sheryl comes running out of her back room. "This guy is bothering me. Can you ask him to leave?"

Sheryl looks at Ray and Ray looks back.

"So Sheryl's not a jaguar."