• The Prisoner’s Escape
    I can’t believe it’s 3 AM and I’m still awake, when will sleep come to me. I don’t want to be up this early…or late, depending on whom you ask. Once again I’m stuck on IMVU, chat room hopping. Every chat room I’ve been in there have been all sorts of different conversations, some about a woman holding a baby, others about Sims, even one about a girl making a porno. None of them quite held my attention so I left each one. There was one chat room named “Singles- Hangout” so, me being single, I figured why not go in. Now, my parents and school always told me and everybody I knew not to give out your personal information so I didn’t. I made my characters name BelladonnaEmber because that was the name of the daughters in my family on Sims. So once I got in this room I went and sat down on a chair outside, again, nobody said anything to me and they were talking about farting so I left. As I was leaving I got a friend request from a guy named KnightFire, I’m not sure what drew me back but after I left I went searching the long list of chat rooms to find him again. So once I was back in the farting chat room I went and lay out on a beach chair towards the edge of the map. I saw KnightFire sitting on a chair not too far from me and got annoyed when he didn’t say anything, so I said something “Do you actually talk to the people that you friend?” and he replied with
    “Yes but I thought you were sleeping so I didn’t want to bother you”
    “Well I’m definitely not asleep” we kept talking about things we were interested in and he asked me the question that all parents worry about “How old are you?” I stuttered and said
    “I’m 18”
    In reality I’m 17 but I wasn’t going to say that, I never give my real age away. So as far as I know he thinks my name is Belladonna and I’m 18. So I asked him the same question and he said he was 20, I stopped typing midline. I wasn’t sure what to say back to that so I asked him what he was, I didn’t think anything of it, I know it’s a rude question to some people so I told him don’t answer it if you don’t want to. Immediately after I asked that question, a girl named DarkShadowPrincess came into the room, started playing Britney Spears and dancing on the deck in the least bit of clothing you could wear accusing me of being shallow. I’m not a shallow person; I’m just a curious one. I ask almost everybody I meet that question because I’m mixed with black and white but people think I’m Spanish so before I assume what somebody is I always ask because I know how annoying it can be. So after this girl accuses me of being shallow she goes on this little rant of how it shouldn’t matter to people no matter how much I try to explain to her it won’t change my opinion of him. So I gave up and just said ******** it, I continued on my conversation with KnightFire. As the conversation went on it started to get to personal, there are all sorts of provocative positions that you can sit in with any other person in the chat room and every time I sat in one he was quick to take the opposite spot of me. Even to the point that he was caressing my legs and once had his arms wrapped around me kissing me and I moved over to a different seat, I didn’t know him like that. All the while in the background the little princess is talking about how all he wants to do with me in have cybersex and we got into it again. In the middle of this fight the worst thing happened, my laptop died. Since this was at 4 AM now my light was off and I had to go searching for an outlet in my room that wasn’t obstructed by something that would make it difficult to plug back into the charger. I finally found that spot and my laptop came back to life in the same spot I was before it died, but by that time she was done complaining and left, talking about me being a noob. I was already annoyed with her and he was getting too close for comfort so I left.
    I started watching videos on YouTube watching HodgeTwins videos then ended up on illuminati videos, at this point it was 5:30 in the morning and I could hear my mom getting ready. I stashed my laptop under my bed and pretended like I was sleeping. I didn’t wake up till 1 PM the same day. Since this was Christmas break I wasn’t too worried about getting back on schedule, and I had an 8 hour night drive ahead of me.
    The rest of Christmas break flew by and before I knew it we were back to school again. For the first day back to class in my Zoology class there was a new kid sitting at the science table in front of me. Mrs. Sawicki was going down roll, she didn’t have to say our names anymore, and she would just look up to see if we were there. But she stopped on one name, that wasn’t familiar. So she searched the room for new faces, and she came across the one sitting at the table to my right. She then called out “Are you Dante Knight?” I immediately popped my head up to turn to my right and look at him; he looked up at her from his table and just nodded. I’ve never been someone to be afraid of people, especially people I meet online because they can’t physically harm me. But when he confirmed that his last name was Knight that was a little too coincidental to me even though a lot of people would’ve just brushed it off. While I was in the chat room with KnightFire he said he was black and Italian, so when the new kid is named Dante Knight he has an Italian accent and he has an Italian soccer iPhone case it screams Italian and was a little unnerving. After our eyes connected once he wouldn’t stop staring at me, he just could not take his eyes off me. It was as if he was trying to figure out who I was. Since he was looking at me so intently for the rest of the period I was able to see him from the corner of my eye, and damn was he beautiful, from what I could see. I was just hoping that he wouldn’t recognize me from the chat room, but I figured he wouldn’t be able to. I never put up a picture of what I actually look like on IMVU and made the girl look nothing like me.
    Going from Zoology to my Air Force Junior Reserve Training Corps (we call it ROTC) class Dante was on my mind. I just didn’t think I’d be seeing him again. I went into the ROTC room and started talking to my Chief; he then turned around and waved somebody over to us. Dante slowly made his way over to us and I froze up for a second, but Chief didn’t notice. Dante shook hands with Chief and then looked me over up and down one time; my head snapped backward and I took a step backward but Chief had no idea. The only problem was that I was department head of personnel which meant I’d be seeing a lot of him for a couple of weeks. Being head of personnel meant that I’d have to make sure I had all of his personal information, signed paper that he checked out a uniform, and signed paper that said he has an ROTC textbook. Chief figured that since I was personnel and I knew everybody in high and low positions I should be the person to introduce him to everybody and explain everything to him. I didn’t like the sound of that. Chief took me and Dante to the middle room that held the Chief and Colonel’s office, dressing rooms, textbooks, files, uniforms, rifles, sabres, and any other thing we threw back there. He stood us next to each other and exclaimed “Jenae! Why didn’t you remind me, I’m sorry Dante this is Cadet Senior Master Sergeant Jenae Vanderbilt” he smirked at this little outburst and Chief continued “as you can see we’re pretty relaxed in this unit even though we do have our ranks and rules firmly established”. He looked at me slightly confused and Chief told me to take him into the class and introduce him to everybody above Flight Sergeant.
    We went through our normal drill of commands that Flight Commander MacKay would call out “Flight, attention! Ready, Face! Hand, Salute! Ready, Front! Parade, Rest” I stood at parade rest till Chief came over tapped me on the shoulder and pulled me to the back of the room with Dante since I am the last person on roll. Sitting at the back table we were able to see the two rows of plain fake wood tables in front of us, five tables on each side with Chief in the desk next to us hugging the wall. From the back you also see the boards on the right side of the classroom that had all the event information for anything we had going on anytime soon. The two front boards and smart board were used for class, and the podium was used for attendance and presentations. There were three computers diagonally behind us to the left on a table attached to the wall and a chair for each. Plus, with it being an Air Force unit we had posters around the room close to the ceiling about the Air Force or just pictures of the jets. So Dante and I sat at the back table and I pointed out everybody he needed to know and how to address them. I pointed to each of them “You saw the guy that gave us all the initial orders? That’s Patrick Mackay the Flight Commander, he’s cool he can’t hate anybody and as long as you’re not overwhelmingly loud you’ll be alright. Oh and you CAN call him Patrick but it’s not really preferred, you better just call him Trace or MacKay like I do. The guy that was taking roll is Miles Strain, he’s the Flight Sergeant, he’s right under MacKay he’s also one of the funniest and goofiest people I know”- I smiled-“The girl with strawberry blonde hair in the second row, left table, far left seat? That is Sage Dalton, she’s the 1st Lieutenant. Even though she has a high rank she’s one of the softest, goofiest people I’ve ever met so as long as you don’t piss her off”-Strain called my name for attendance “Sir” I looked back at Dante- “You won’t have to worry about her. The guy to her right is John Bowling, he’s the assistant to the Colonel and nobody has ever liked him, we all only respect his rank and not him but you can make your own judgments. The girl with blonde hair in the 3rd row in the center seat is August Fitch, she goes by Augie and she is second in command. She also has a short temper so don’t mess with her, oh yeah, and she has very few friends in ROTC, me being one of them. For the most part you will be calling everybody here by their last name, there are few that you can call by their first name like Augie and me or you could use my last name people use both but for the rest just go with the last. I think that covers all the high people in the class, you’re gonna have to introduce yourself to everybody else but don’t worry everybody else in this class is pretty friendly except for Augie and the girl that sits next to me so don’t worry about them unless you’re feeling particularly brave one day but you can always sit next to me at our table, I wouldn’t mind anyway. I’ll just keep you away from Courtney. I think that’s it. Any questions?” his hazel eyes just looked at me for a second, blinked and looked straight ahead. He listened to Chief talk about the fundraisers coming up, drill practice, and homework. Then Chief said “Oh yeah, Jenae, take Dante out in the hallway and teach him the basic movements” I sighed and said “Come on” he got up and followed me out. When we got out in the hallway I showed him all the basic movements. For practicing some of the movements I had to hold his arms to make sure his arms stayed pinned at him sides and every time I did he would flex them. The first time I blushed and smiled, after that I just shook my head. At this point when I was holding his arms and he flexed he said “Come on you know you like my muscles” I just looked up at him and replied with “You’re a dumbass” he looked confused. He started looking around and I could tell he was wondering what he did wrong “How am I a dumbass?” he finally asked
    “Because I’m not that kind of girl and you telling me that I know I like something doesn’t fly with me, sorry.” I shrugged
    “Oh, so you’re that kind of girl?”
    “What kind of girl?”
    “The one who thinks she’s better than the rest because you have wall up”
    “You really are stupid. I do have a wall, because I’ve learned from past mistakes, I do not think I am better than other girls for it, what you did may work with other girls in this school but not with me solely because I don’t like show-offs. So, don’t assume s**t about me till you know me”
    “Well I just learned quite a bit”
    I looked up him and opened my mouth to say something smart back to him but closed it and said “How?”
    “Well you just told me you’ve made mistakes, you’re not too airheaded, and you seem to be very set on what you like and don’t like”
    “You can’t get that much from three lines”
    “Yes you can”
    “Whatever”-I looked at the clock-“We need to get back inside, the bell’s gonna ring in a few minutes”
    as I was leading him back to the room he found his voice and said “I have one question” so I turned to look at him and said “Which is?”
    “Do you have an IMVU account?”
    I stuttered “W-why?”
    “I was just talking to this girl and the way you talk sounds a lot like her”
    “What do you mean the way I talk sounds like hers?”
    “In word choice and reaction time…and I don’t know, I just get the same feeling from you that I do when I talked to her”
    “That doesn’t make much sense but ok. How can you get a feeling from somebody through a computer?”
    “Because, I’m just cool like that. If it didn’t make sense then how come you suddenly got nervous?”
    “I’m nervous because we need to get back to class so I can get to my anatomy class on time and I hate being late. Plus, you’re not that cool” I had to humble and shut down his ego real quick or else he was going to ruin this beautiful image I have of him in my head.
    “Well than you can show me where it is because that’s what I have next too”
    “Are you stalking me?” as soon as those words came out I wished they hadn’t, I didn’t bother to wait for an answer I just opened the classroom door and went to Chief “Is there anything else I need to teach him or talk to him about?”
    “Have you discussed uniforms, 341’s, and how our ranks work?” I groaned “Now you know what else you have to do. Oh and tell him about the Facebook page. Do you like him so far?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Do you think he’ll be a problem like you?”-he said in a joking tone- “Oh yeah, be sure to bring him to lunch with you so that he can meet Dalton better and watch other classes too”.
    “I am not a problem, ok? And he hasn’t said much so I couldn’t tell you how he is. If he stays quiet like this all the time though he’ll either be a silent rebel or be nothing at all”. I didn’t want to tell Chief about the conversation we had outside the room.
    After ROTC I hurried out of the class on ran off to anatomy. When I got into my seat I suddenly felt safer because I had my guys there, I knew Buice would get in 2 minutes after the bell and Will would get in just at the bell. Dante sat diagonally behind me and I didn’t mind because Buice would be next to him. Just as I predicted Will and Buice came in at their normal times. When Will walked in and started to walk towards his seat he looked at me puzzled and I just shook my head. Sure enough he came in dressed very fashionably (for a boy) and smelling great as always. He was really dark but had a smile as bright as the sun, and a big attitude (almost as big as mine) that’s full of Marine Corps pride. He put his stuff down on the counter and asked me “Who is that?” “Rude. Why don’t you ask him yourself? You guys will get along great” he rolled his eyes and turned around “Why would we get along great?”
    “Because he’s just as much if not as cocky as you”
    “Whatever. Who are you?” Dante looked up from whatever was in his lap and said “I’m Dante Knight”
    “Where are you from?”
    Dante snickered “Italy” I just shook my head. Then Buice walked in looking even more confused than Will, the only difference was that Buice asked Dante himself. Buice came in wearing the norm, basketball shorts a baggy shirt and basketball shoes with a book bag that always seemed to be almost empty. Buice looked at him curiously and asked “Who are you?” I almost laughed and said “Aren’t they so polite Dante?” then Buice looked at me “You know him?”
    “Not particularly. I just know that we share zoology, ROTC, and this class so far and he doesn’t talk much either.”
    “Bet you he does you just scare him with your ugliness”
    “Oh shut up Buice come up with something better if you’re gonna insult me”
    “I can’t”
    “Why not? Are you high or drunk again?” I saw Dante’s eyes widen a bit
    “No I’m just tired b***h”
    “Weak. You’re the one that’s gonna scare him” then I turned to Dante “I’ll give you a synopsis on what they’ll probably talk about: fighting, guns, girls, and working out. That’s what most of their conversations consist of” Will flicked my thigh and I punched his shoulder. Finishing my statement to Dante I said “Good luck sitting next to Buice” he got this worried look on his face
    “Why?”
    “Because you’ll never know what comes out of his mouth” I said with a chuckle then turned back around to get some work done on my anatomy sheet.
    After a while I turned around to ask him for his schedule to find out if there were any other classes that he would harass me in, instead he was asleep. I gave up on that to talk because I realized how that would make me look. I got Wills attention along with Buice’s to answer their questions, and to talk about what happened in the hallway. They didn’t have any questions surprisingly enough but of course they wanted to know all about what happened in the hallway. I started to explain the story and Buice stopped me and pointed at him I just shook my head “I don’t give a ******** if he hears me, what’s he gonna do jump up and cover my mouth?” Buice shrugged and I completed the story. By the end Buice and Will were making jokes about how he liked me and I liked him and he was gonna have sex with me. I looked at him and I could see just over the edge of his arm that his cheeks were raising, which meant he was smiling, which meant he heard everything. I just shook my head and told them to both ******** off and put my headphones in to listen to music.
    After a relaxing period of anatomy I had to go to British Literature and read The King’s Speech, most boring book I have ever read. The lines sometimes blur together and words get jumbled up so I just close my eyes and go to sleep.
    I was excited for the long awaited lunch period till I remembered Dante. I waited outside of the cafeteria for him; he was walking down the hallway looking confused at the map the school gave him and looking around him.
    “Dante!” I shouted across the hall, he looked up and smirked. I don’t like smirks; they have too many meanings behind them. He walked over painstakingly slow like he wanted me to watch him walk, so while he walked over I started looking through my book bag for my phone.
    “Hey” he said in a sly tone
    “Don’t try and get cute, come on.” I talked to him as we walked through the cafeteria “Chief wants me to bring you with me to the lunch group back at the ROTC room, I don’t know if you have a choice so just for now you’re going.” He just smiled and followed along the lunch line not getting anything.
    “Aren’t you gonna get something?” I asked
    “No, I’m not hungry” he said
    “Yeah ok, everybody with this lunch period is hungry”
    “I’m not”
    “Good for you, I’m starving” we hurried past the people waiting outside to check passes since he didn’t have one. Once we got back in the room, Reese looked at both of us and yelled
    “Uh-oh! Jenae has a boyfriend!”
    “He’s not my boyfriend idiot; he’s the new kid in ROTC. So shut up.” Dante looked a bit taken aback then went back to a blank look on his face. Dalton chatted him up more on how things are run which I was happy for because I was hungry. When she stopped talking for a moment he whispered in my ear “You definitely are her” the color drained from my face and I grabbed his hand to drag him into the middle room to the back. He had seen the front portion of the middle room where all the records and books were kept stacked on two tall shelves. There was so much stuff back there that we had shelves going along the back wall across from Chief’s office too. Dante had never actually gone all the way in the back. When I pulled him in the back he finally saw the two dressing rooms, one of which had a curtain and the other had a door but both had a bench to sit on, an overhead light, and a mirror. There were four double racks of clothes for girls and guys which were completely filled. When we got in the back and I was sure we were safe I looked at him for a second and really got a chance to look at him for once. He was the color of a caramel, with big hazel eyes, big lips, a big nose, a hard slightly squared jaw, and a close shaved head with dark hair you could tell was starting to grow back in. I also noticed he had tattoos, quite a few of them actually. He had four that were visible with a shirt on but I had a feeling he had more under his shirt. He had two symbols on his inner and outer forearm on his right arm; on his left arm he had roman numerals on his inner forearm and on his outer left forearm he had something in Italian. I looked up at him, he had to be at least 6 feet tall but I kept a defiant look on my face. I didn’t like this height advantage so I jumped up on the counter where the shoe cubbies were placed and on top of the drawers that held hats, belts, socks and whatever else we needed them to hold. I sat up straight so I was at least at eye level. I finally regained my resolve after looking at him and started “Why are you so sure I am from IMVU?”
    “Why should I say?”
    “Because I need to know”
    “Why?”
    “Because I said so”
    “That’s not a good reason” he slowly turned to walk away and I grabbed his shoulder to pull him back. I was balancing with half of my body on the counter and half off, him being the only thing that I could hold on to. When he saw what could happen, he started to smile and I just begged him “Please, don’t move”
    “I won’t move if you tell me if you’re her or not”
    “Why do you wanna know so badly?” he took a small step away
    “No!”
    “Tell me”
    “Wh-” I decided I wasn’t about to play this game with him so I started looking for ways to get down. I kept a vice grip on his shoulder with my right hand and quickly shifted my left hand from the counters edge to his arm and slid off the counter safely with my hands still on him. I finally let go after an awkward moment of his muscle tone registering in my head. I know I had a determined look when I slid off the counter even if I did look goofy, but when I looked up with my mouth open prepared to say something his eyes stopped me. I looked at them for half a second and got stuck, my hands slowly tightened and he flexed his arm. I immediately let go and he let go of a cocky smile, all I could do was blush look away. “I knew you liked them” he said.
    “Shut up retard” he laughed then then it disappeared and he looked back at me
    “So, is it safe to assume you are the infamous BelladonnaEmber?”
    “I’ll tell you whether I am or not IF you tell me why you want to know so badly”
    “Mmmmmm……Ok, I’ll tell you”
    “Really?!”
    “No, now tell me if you it’s you or not”
    “Hell. No.” I tried to walk past him but between the counter and racks that held our clothes but there was no way I was going to get past. I tried pushing past him but every time I tried he would just put his hands on my shoulders and push me back. Every time he pushed me back I watched the muscles in his arm flex which slowly worked away my resolve till I finally gave up and stood there looking up at him. Then I remembered how he looked me up and down next to Chief “Remember when we were talking to Chief earlier?”
    “Yeah, what about it?”
    “Why’d you look me up and down?” I asked, and he smirked
    “Because I was checking you out” I’ve never had anybody be so blatantly honest about things like that before so I kind of stared at him for a second. I was getting real tired of his smirks; they never made sense to me.
    “Why?”
    “Shut up”
    “Excuse me?!”
    “I already know where this is going”
    “And where is it going since you seem to know me so well?”
    “You’re gonna ask why, I’m gonna say because I think you have an amazing body, you’re gonna say no I don’t I’m fat and I’m gonna get annoyed”
    “Don’t make assumptions, you don’t know me like that, you have no idea what I would’ve said or why I would’ve said it either. Stop talking and acting like you know me so well.” As I got more and more mad my voice slowly rose, my face started to get pink and I had pushed my body all the way up onto his staring straight up at him with a strong defiance. He stopped for a second, opened his mouth and closed it again and just looked at me. He opened his mouth again and said “Then maybe you should let me get to know you”
    “Why? From what I can tell you’re cocky, rude, annoying and assume everything”
    “How?”
    “Cocky: you had this little smirk when I felt you flex your muscles”-I blushed a little-“rude: you told me to shut up before giving me a reason why, annoying: because of that little smirk you always do”-he started to smirk again-“see! That! And last but not least you assumed how I was gonna react to what you said” he stood frozen for a second and started to really smile finally leaning into my ear and softly whispering “I know you’re the girl” I froze again and tried to quickly push past him but rather than pushing me back he grabbed my hand and pulled me to his chest. My heart was already beating fast because I started an adrenaline rush, then, on top of that I’m being held chest to chest…or stomach really to this amazingly gorgeous guy that annoys the absolute crap out of me. He held me close for a second, as much as I wanted to detest it since I didn’t really know him it was something I realized that I had needed but didn’t want to ask for in the past year. I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tightly till Sara came in the back and cleared her throat. I jumped back and he slowly let his hands slip off of me, as soon as he let go it was like a huge weight was dropped on my shoulders again and he went back in the room where the lunch group was. She raised a thin eyebrow at me as her big green eyes went wide and I stopped her before she could start “That stays back here, don’t say anything to anybody about that” she nodded and went on
    “I just had to get something from back here” after she walked into her classroom I slipped into one of the dressing rooms and just sat there for a while. I stood up and stared at myself in the mirror. I had straightened my red brown hair so it fell to my chest; I wore a tight grey sweater dress, black leggings, and thick boots. I’m a caramel color, I don’t have a big chest, I’m not super skinny, I have some fat on me in a couple of places that I’d rather not have it in. I have big lips, small nose, small dark eyes, and a soft oval-heart shaped face. So in all I wouldn’t say I’m the ugliest person in this world but I definitely wouldn’t put myself up as high most of the girls I know. Especially not a girl that deserves his kind of beauty. Having blue, and green eyes are a lot more favorable than my dark brown eyes. I headed out of the dressing room and Dante was standing in the back again about six feet from the door. He just smiled at me, and flexed his arms. I shook my head, giggled and blushed as we both walked back into the room. Once we got into the room, the lunch crew was staring
    “What?” I asked, slightly annoyed by the stares, Dalton smiled at me and said
    “You like him don’t you?”
    My jaw almost hit the floor but I could feel the heat slowly working its way up into my cheeks and came back with
    “No, how could I like him if this is just his first day and I’ve just met him?” he made a small sound that sounded like a laugh disguised by a cough. She shrugged and said
    “Maybe because right before you walked back in the room I could see you were looking down at the floor smiling and blushing” even though she had a point I wasn’t about to let her win in front of everybody.
    “Yes because I was wondering what kind of annoying lies, stories, or thoughts you guys were gonna come up with, so come on, tell me what you think happened. I know you have some stories Reese” Reese looked up for a second smiling, shook his head and looked back down. Nobody said anything so I picked up my stuff and moved it to the middle room then sat with the 6th period class talking to him about the different class procedures for 1st years. He was just looking at me the whole time, not saying anything, just looking and I was sure he wasn’t paying attention to a word I had said but I had to at least pretend like I was explaining things to him. In the middle of me explaining Colonels job he asked me
    “What’s your next class?”
    “I don’t know, what’s yours?”
    “Not this”
    “Yes this. I’m taking one of the hardest classes available…for me anyway” and I just sighed. I looked back up at him with a half-smile and kept on talking but I knew he caught on to why I sighed.
    My math class was going to be a legitimate surprise since I had no idea where he was going to go. I went and sat in my seat with Jonnathan diagonally across from me. Moreyah didn’t show up so there was an open seat and at the last second just before the late bell rang Dante strolled into the room and sat in the chair opposite of Jonnathan and smiled at me. He started to talk to me but Mr. Norman decided that it was today that he wanted to talk for the whole period. Poor Dante never got a word out.
    At the end of the period I asked him which bus load he had, he smiled and said
    “Well, I guess I’m second load with you” I stood close to him and asked
    “Do you wanna talk some more?” he eyed me for a second then nodded so I turned to Mr. Norman “Mr. Norman I gotta take Dante back to ROTC to make sure he has everything for his uniform on Wednesday” the teacher didn’t really acknowledge us, he just nodded. We walked out of the classroom and headed in the direction of the ROTC room but never made it because we ended up waiting at a door in the back of the school. I have to admit, I felt a little cornered but I had always waited here for my bus to drive up because nobody ever came back here. I figured this would be the best place to talk, if not talk at least stare at him. When I was looking up at him it seemed as if there were a million things he wanted to say but he only said one thing before the bell rang for the buses “You look pretty today” and then walked away. He was already out the doors before I could turn around and respond to what he said.
    I walked up the steps into my house with my headphones in, went straight to my room and laid out on my bed meaning to only play games on my phone but instead my eyes closed and I was fast asleep. I had probably the best dream ever. I was in the ROTC room and I walked in the middle room to get my service coat for senior night. When I walked back there Dante was standing just outside the changing room door with no shirt on. His black hair was wet (I’m guessing from the sink), he had on the desert camouflage pants with the heavy black boots and dog tags hanging from his neck. The lines and striations that covered his upper body and arms were amazing; he had tight abs, solid pecs, muscular arms and a sly smile. There were drops of water sliding down his body from his wet dripping hair and he started to take steps towards me and I came towards him. When we were close enough he wrapped his arms around my waist to pick me up. I don’t like getting picked up, it’s very uncomfortable and it scares me. As he started to lift me up and I started panicking he just whispered “Ssshhh…” softly into my ear and it was like all was well. He cradled me against his body as he walked toward the racks of clothes and infamous counter. He placed me gently on the counter and I ran my hands up and down his chest and abs as I bit my lip. He watched my face as I traced the lines on his upper body and he slid his hands around my shoulders and down my back. His lips followed his hands as he kissed from the top of my ear down to my neck and down to my collar bone. By this point, I’m already hot, my heart’s beating out of my chest and I’m ready for his lips to touch mine and forget about the rest of the world. He slowly lifts his head up to face me and his eyes slowly started to close as his face leaned into mine. I smiled as I closed my eyes waiting for that big kiss, I could feel him get closer by the heat coming from his face and his hands finding their way up my back and into my hair. My hands slid around his neck and- my phone vibrated on my arm and woke me up. I was pissed. I was furious. When my eyes opened I screamed a slur of all kinds of offensive words because I was so close, SO close to kissing him. Even if it was in a dream it still would’ve been good. I finally looked at my phone to see who was brave enough to disturb me during my nap and it was a Facebook notification saying “Dante Braedon Knight requests to be your friend” or something like that, my eyes were still halfway closed and I was still pissed and my brain hadn’t caught up yet. When my brain caught up I almost jumped out of my bed. I unlocked my iPhone and accepted the request. I tried to go back to sleep to see if I could continue the dream but my phone vibrated again. I groaned and rolled over to see who it was this time. Dante had sent me a message and I got all excited. I went back in to Facebook to see what it said…
    “Hey” that was all it said, he’s gorgeous and everything but he just woke me up from kissing him with a ‘Hey’? No.
    “Hi”
    “What are you doing?”
    “Well, you see, I was asleep having a great dream. But your friend request and message woke me and then kept me awake”
    “Oooooo what was this dream….?”
    “Please, give me a good reason as to why I’d tell you”
    “Because you like me and you want me to know even though you won’t admit it” my heart stopped and I wasn’t sure what to say to that so I just played along.
    “You really think you know me don’t you?”
    “I do know you”
    “Sure, so which other girls are you flirting with?”
    “None so far” my heart dropped a little but I just kept going as if I was perfectly fine
    “Well, then who’s the next target? I could always give warnings or advice on them”
    “But I don’t wanna look at you like that?”
    “Like what?”
    “As a friend”
    “Why not?”
    “I know how it feels to be friend zoned and I wouldn’t wanna do that to anybody else” I just nodded to myself because I’ve been in both positions before and started to feel sympathetic towards him before I shut up my heart again.
    “Fair enough”
    “So which guys do I have to watch out for?”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “I know there are guys coming after you, it can’t just be me”
    “Umm, sorry, there’s nobody else”
    “These guys are stupid then”
    “How sweet of you I guess….? lol”
    “Isn’t it? Lol”
    “What part of Italy are you from?”
    “Florence”
    “Really?!”
    “Yeah, why is that such a big deal?”
    “No reason really, it just reminded me of Assassin’s Creed and how Ezio lived in Firenze…I still remember his full name…or title…whatever it is”
    “…..really?...what is it”
    “Ezio Auditore de Firenze”
    “Do you think the whole Templar Assassin thing is true?”
    “I wondered about it after playing the game because it would make sense but I don’t have any proof of it”
    “Nobody really has any proof of anything on them”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Nothing. Have you always lived in Georgia?”
    “No no no, tell me.”
    “If you ask again I’m not gonna talk to you for the rest of the night”
    “No need to be so touchy, damn. No, I haven’t always lived here and I’m ready to leave. Btw what do your tattoos mean?”
    “The one on my right inner forearm is the symbol for Firenze, the one on my left outer forearm is Knight in Italian, the one on my inner left forearm is my birth year in roman numerals, and lastly the one on my outer right forearm is my family crest”
    “I wish I could see it right now so I could actually make sense of it at one moment”
    “I can always send you a picture”
    “You have a phone?”
    “Of course lol”
    “Then why are we on here?”
    “Because between all your blushing and flirting I didn’t get a chance to get your number”
    “Ha. Ha. You were the one flirting, I wasn’t”
    “But I wasn’t the one blushing. So what’s your phone number?”
    “Yes you were!”
    “When?”
    “Ummmmm….”
    “Exactly lol”
    “Shut up”
    “Your number is….?”
    He had a point, I was the one blushing just about the whole time but I gave him my phone number and he got off Facebook and sent me a picture of the tattoos and now that I got a chance to really look at them the black ink on his skin was gorgeous. I stared at the pictures of his tattoos and traced them on my phones screen with my fingertip. After the pictures he texted “Hey, do you like them?”
    “How could I not? Lol I love tattoos”
    “Oh, really? wink ” right when he sent that I wanted to stop talking, right after he said that I felt like the conversation was going somewhere sexual that I didn’t wanna go to.
    “Yeah, but if you have any more I don’t want to see them” I think he could sense the change in attitude just by his response
    “I wasn’t forcing you to, I was just saying. ‘No need to be so touchy, damn.’” I literally laughed out loud
    “Lol I’m sorry I just didn’t want you to think that I…I don’t know what I was gonna say”
    “Yes you do”
    “How would you know if I didn’t?”
    “Because I’m cool like that” I saw the normal cockiness come back and I knew he was back to normal.
    “So do you actually talk to the people you friend on Facebook or just use it to creep on them?”
    “You are her, I have no doubt about it now.” I couldn’t move my fingertips to come back with a quick a response and my brain stopped working
    “You couldn’t prove that even if you tried, you can’t know I’m this mystery girl”
    “Yes I could”
    “How?”
    “Speech”
    “What? I have to go”
    “And that?”
    “And what?!”
    “You’re getting frantic and defensive”
    “Shut up, deuces” I put my phone down and ignored its vibrations telling me he’s texting me. I went to go eat something and take a shower but I couldn’t get one bite of food down because I was just thinking and worrying about him. “Was he after me to kill me? Is he gonna hurt me in some way?” I became way overly dramatic till I took a shower. I sat down in my shower and just calmed myself so that I would be able to think things through. I closed my eyes and talked out loud to myself in the shower because it made me calmer than just thinking it “You got too carried away with Dante today, you need to pull back and don’t let him feel you up flirt with you or make you uncomfortable. He probably is the guy from IMVU but you can’t let that intimidate you. Nobody can intimidate you. Nobody. Tell him you are the girl so he’ll stop asking and you guys can get past that. Do not look to him for a relationship; he’s too gorgeous for you. You’re just ugly little Jenae, remember that.” The last part made me cry but that’s just how my brain worked, that was the only way I knew how to stay humble. So I spent the rest of the time in the shower crying.
    Just before I went to bed I let my curiosity get the best of me and I looked at my phone, it said “Dante 3 New Text Messages”. My heart leapt of joy for about a second, then I remembered the talk I had with myself in the shower and my heart dropped. All the messages were so sweet and sorry though “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make you mad” “I messed this up didn’t I?” “Goodnight Beautiful”. The last one hit home, nobody had said that in a long time…a very long time. I thought for about a second maybe letting him in but then I remembered what happened last time I let a guy in. I never wanted to be that girl that held grudges against future guys because of a last one but I just realized how hard that is. I was worrying about what if he was just lying, what if he just wanted to have sex with me, what if he’s just kidding and he thinks this is funny?
    I went to sleep worrying about all these things which I later regretted when I missed my alarm and woke up late.
    I showed up at school as ugly as could be. Sweatshirt with yoga pants and warm black boots; I came dressed for sleep. I walked in to the ROTC room to drop off my hot chocolate and take out the stuff I didn’t need for my first three class periods. He showed up next to me. Looking gorgeous of course with a sweatshirt, jeans, and white shoes; it was so simple, I could wear the same thing and not look nearly as good in them as he does. I didn’t look up at him I just sat on a chair next to the shelves in the middle room with my head between my knees because I didn’t want him to see my face. So he sat in the chair next to me, he didn’t say anything, he just sat there which I didn’t mind one bit. This whole time I’m just wishing he would touch me in some way, some little way whether it’s rubbing my back or nudging me to say it’s time to go that would make me not feel so bad. But he didn’t. I got up to walk to the sink that was behind the desk across from the cabinets that held our rifles, practice rifles, and sabres. I got my fingers wet and went to the dressing rooms and rubbed my eyes with the cold water. Cold water on my eyes always seemed to help me wake up even if it was only temporary. After rubbing my eyes I put my head against the mirror and just cried. I didn’t start bawling my eyes out or being loud, I had silent tears running down my face that would hit the floor with what seemed to me to be a loud crash; but between my hair surrounding my face and my hood over my head I knew nobody would be able to see it. Plus, I had just put cold water on my eyes and I had an excuse.
    I turned away from the mirror when the five-minute warning bell came and nobody was standing at the doorway to the dressing room. Somewhere deep down in my heart I was hoping he was there; I wanted Dante to be there to hug me again like he did before. When he hugged me and I felt like all my problems and insecurities didn’t exist, but he wasn’t there. Some cruel part of my brain said “I told you he wouldn’t be there for you” I tried to push it away and used the logic that he barely knew me, why should he be following me and holding me when I cry. Still though, deep down in my heart I wished he was there to hold me and save me from myself.
    Zoology came and we had a lab today, we were going to be dissecting perches and I was not looking forward to it. The smell of dead fish combined with formaldehyde, no. Of course me being a good student wiped the tears that continued in first period put on a smile and acted excited to do the lab because I like Mrs. Sawicki that much. When I came in the room I realized Dante was sitting at my table with his back to the door. Mrs. Sawicki’s room had all the thick black science tables doubled up so a group of four people could sit together. I didn’t have any friends in zoology, so I sat by myself. There were five sets of double tables with her desk and science table right next to each other in the front of the room. She had the white board and smart board behind her. Standing in the doorway looking at Dante at my table I was stuck, I didn’t know if I should sit at the same spot or sit somewhere else and then I thought to myself “You’re being a little b***h, sit where you normally do; some guy isn’t gonna scare you away from a table”. So with that little kick I was off to my table and sat right across from him. His head was down on his crossed arms and we had a lab work to share and I was not going to do all of this by myself. I poked his elbow and the first thing I saw broke down my walls with no effort. He lifted his head just enough that I could see his big hazel eyes and I could tell he was smiling, which made me smile. So he picked up his head and said “I was having a good dream until your poke woke me up” I giggled and asked
    “Well what was your dream about? I know you wanna tell me” he smiled at that and said “Why would I tell you that?”
    “Because you like me and you won’t admit it” he actually laughed at that and he had the best laugh I’d ever heard. It was hearty and warm if there ever was one and it made me want to laugh too.
    Mrs. Sawicki started handing out perches and I just looked at ours disgusted but Dante smiled. I looked at him confused and he said “You know, I’ve never done a dissection before. Have you?” I was in disbelief “Uh, yeah! Quite a few”
    “Which were?”
    “I dissected a shark in 8th grade, a frog in 9th and a worm along with little weird things this year”
    “Then why don’t you teach me”
    “Sure” I didn’t see any harm in it; I mean I was only going to teach him how to dissect things. Again, some hopeful part of me said this was my chance for me to touch him. This was my chance and his smile told me the same thing. I just didn’t know what I should do and if I should do it.
    After Mrs. Sawicki was done giving instructions and we had all the instruments we needed we followed the video. As it went along the teacher would pause it sometimes so we could catch up with it. At one point Dante got stuck and didn’t understand how to make a cut and asked me how he was supposed to do it but kept his hand on the scalpel. I mustered up the courage and listened to the voice inside my head that was screaming “THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO TOUCH HIM! TAKE IT!” and so I did. It looked like he was giving up on me touching him so I quickly went to the other side of the table and held one set of gills up as my other hand that I placed on top of his was now holding onto his hand firmly pulling the scalpel along. I tried to ignore the fact that I knew he was staring at me the whole time so I just talked and explained to him how to make the other cuts with my hand still resting on his and me still looking down at the fish.
    As we were cleaning up the table he constantly hovered around me, always by my side or behind me or in front of me getting in the way claiming I was always in the way but after a gentle push he’d smile and walk back to the table. Mrs. Sawicki gave us some cleaning spray for the tables and at one point I felt really awkward because I was completely bent over a table and I was kind of hoping Dante would notice. Sure enough he did. He found a reason to slip past behind me and was sure to thrust his hips forward as he past behind me and I blushed.