Bubble Gum Kisses

**Kapittel 42** ***Vanessa***

**"No way,”** he said, then drooped his head to look at me, his lips now spreading into the signature arrogant smirk that was growing on me.

"Excuse me?" I couldn't conceal my flabbergast, blinking several times to verify if his lips just did flip the other way around. Okay, that caught me off-guard. I think I needed to have my ears cleaned too.

"Don't I deserve a thank you?" he asked all of a sudden which caught me off guard for the second time. Looks like I wasn't mishearing things.

"A what?" I couldn't help but ask him to repeat himself.

"A thank you," he immediately answered, then added, his leer growing wider and wider as he every word left his mouth. "I can at least have something like a hug, or a kiss, or a blo-"

"Gosh, you're like any creep who thinks they're the nice guy or alpha male who deserves a Nobel prize award and every woman's pussy!" I gathered all my remaining strength and shook myself off him, wincing as chills ran down my spine in disgust, the restlessness from earlier gone. God, now I felt disgusting.

"It's basic courtesy to say thank you after being given a favor, you know." He snickered at me. What the heck? Why was he being playful right now? Wasn't he supposed to be all overbearing and unpleasant?

"I was about to, 'til you demanded it." I rolled my eyes at him.

"You sure you were about to?" he asked playfully.

"Urgh, whatever," I audibly groaned and walked to the garden in hastened steps, making me walk ahead of him.

Even though I couldn't see him, I could tell that he was scrutinizing me silently. It was like having a stalker walking behind you in a dark alley in the middle of the night. It irked me, so I walked faster.

As soon as I arrived at my destination, I scanned my eyes around in hopes of finding the guidance counselor. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any signs of her. I sighed. But this time, upon realizing that the garden had gone more chaotic than how it looked earlier, much to my chagrin. Now it'd take me longer to finish up, did the other students think this place was a dumpster or something?

"Where's Ms. Caswell?" I asked Friso who just arrived.

"She said she has to attend a faculty meeting so it'll be just you and me right now," he replied nonchalantly and shrugged before walking past me, off to the direction of the storage box that Ms. Caswell guided us to.

"And who ensures that we get to move in this community service...?" I followed behind him in quick steps. His strides were slow, but his legs were long and his strides were wide. I could do five steps with only one step he made, like the frigging giant he was.

"We have a security camera over... there," he said, his head facing sideways.

I looked in the direction that he was looking and saw that there was actually a monitor attached to the building enclosing the place. Heck, how come I didn't notice that?

“Here,” his voice said, and I looked at him. I found myself face-to-face with the same neat and polished rake that Ms. Caswell showed us earlier, along with a pair of gardening gloves.

I noticed he was being unusually civil. Did my punch knock some sense into him? Or has he had a change of heart? Could this call for a closure? No, he had probably thought of how to murder me and acted like this on purpose so I could put my guard down. Anyhow, I should get along with him for a bit while he was being like this. But I should still remember my distance. God knew what he'd do. One minute he was being an ass, then became this silent, brooding bear that I was afraid to talk to, and now he was acting like a normal person.

"Uh... thanks," I mumbled under my breath and politely took the things he offered.

"Wow, you said thanks when I just offered you a rake, but when I saved you, you didn't?" I heard him scoff while I was wearing the gardening gloves.

Gosh, I was just thinking of getting along with him, and now he was getting on my nerves again. Seriously, I think he was beyond common sense. Now I was starting to think that he was being an ass not because of what happened back then, but because he was just like it all this time. He might have appeared like an angel from heaven to me before like how he did with Ms. Caswell, and now that our relationship could be likened to being enemies, he was treating me like the actual devil he was.

I began to rebuke him: "Look, Friso. I'm grateful that you took me out of that situation, but you shouldn't be an ass and demand me to express it like some loser badly wanting attention..." I paused to take a deep breath. "And if you do want the attention that bad, don't ask from me. Because we aren't friends-"

"Of course, we aren't friends. We're ex-"

"Shut it!" I cut him off before he could finish what he was intending to say. Change of plans, I shouldn't get along with him. While we're at the same place, I should treat it as if he didn't exist.

"Now let's get moving," I then said and walked over to the trees, planning to start weeding. I needed to calm my nerves again, cleaning could probably help me since that was what mom did whenever she got angry too.

I took a deep breath as I rolled my sleeves to my elbows. I should be careful with working on this, one messed up move and my uniform will get dirty. God knew how hard it was to clean a dirt-stained uniform, especially if it was white. "Hup!" I inhaled and lifted the rake, and swung it down to the soft, mushy ground. Just like that, dirt splashed over my socks like jam dropped on the floor. You attract what you fear, I fear.

"Need help?" I heard Friso's voice ask.

"Shut up," I retorted without looking at him.

"Oh come on, Va-"

"I'm not talking to you, Friso."

"But you just did."

وو 66

"Don't you think it's getting lonely without a little conversation?"

"Please, I'm already having a rough day. Don't make this harder for me," I stated, and finally, he didn't speak again. Hooray for silence.

Time passed, weeds were plucked, leaves were raked, my anger dissipated and the skies started to go from blue to yellow to russet red. Almost an entire hour and a half passed peacefully, and the garden had now looked presentable enough that butterflies began to flutter over the flowers. Thankfully, the devil incarnate chose to leave me be in peace for a while, but I could still sense him stealing glances at me but I chose to ignore him.

"Phew," I exhaled as I raked the last set of leaves to the heap of a combination of weeds and dead leaves. I wiped the sweat off my tired face and stared at my hard work. This was like fall's worth of leaf litter.

The sound of water running emerged along the earthy scent of soil being sodded. Looks like Friso was also done with doing this job too, and was now watering the garden. I placed the rake gently against the tree trunk and walked to the dumpster. I kind of dislike smelling the wet odor of the ground or the road, it reminded me of a bad memory. I should make my distance by picking up the...

Ploop!

I gasped and immediately lifted my foot off the small stack of trash that I stepped on. There I saw it, all small and rod-shaped yet flattened at the center, looking disgusting with its dark brown color combined with yellow spots, and the mildly foul odor that entered my nose just now. Holy fuck, I stepped on poop. Great, just great.

"Of all things to step on, a cat poop?" I thundered, and let out an exasperated sigh to relieve my vexation. "Seriously?" I looked up at the sky, groaning.

I lifted my foot the other way to attempt in rubbing my shoe on the grass when water suddenly splashed on my shoes. My jaw left my face and fell to the ground.

"Hey!" I interjected and look at Friso's way. Now my shoe was wet! Mom spent her money on this!

"I was just trying to help!" he shouted and proceeded to point the hose in my direction before splashing water on my shoes again.

"What the heck, Friso? Stop! You're gonna ruin my shoes!" I said, but he didn't stop. I decided to walk over to him. "I swear to God, Friso-woah...!" I wasn't able to finish what I was about to say when I suddenly felt my feet launched off the earth, my head spun and gravity left my body, then came back to push me down.

"Ow..." I groaned for the nth time, feeling that bum hurt. Wait.. did I just...? "Holy...!"

**

Thank you for reading Bubble Gum Kisses! To keep up with my work, future works, and endless frustrations on Twitter: https://twitter.org/RiosMorpheus**