That time, I managed to keep those words internal, thank God.
Ben stopped and looked at me, but he didn't speak.
Again, my brain was screaming "Abort, abort!"
And I'm pretty sure there was a Klaxon going off in there somewhere.
But my mouth just kept fucking moving.
"I liked watching TV and eating dinner with you, too. I, uh, don't have a lot of friends and I could always use another one."
Lies. All lies. I didn't necessarily hate people. I just hated that I didn't understand most of them. I blamed my parents since they were never around enough to encourage me to socialize, so instead, I became a freak who studied constantly, skipped a grade, and ended up in college at the age of seventeen. That was hell on my dating life just because I was technically jailbait until the second semester of my freshman year.
I cleared my throat. "Um, and that sounded a lot more pathetic out loud also."
Ben smiled at me. It wasn't the cocky grin or sexy smirk I'd grown used to over the past few days. It was a wide, beaming, genuine smile. I could see the shadow of the boy he must have been once.
It was as if I was seeing the real Benjamin Murphy for the first time and, holy fucking shit, he was so beautiful it was blinding.
Before he could respond, his eyes shifted to something behind me. "Damn, look at the huge raccoon."
A cold chill slithered up my spine, completely destroying the brain fog his gorgeous smile had conjured. I whipped my head around and gasped as I saw Gary the Evil Raccoon crouched by the fence about twenty feet away.
What in the hell was he doing here? Had he followed us? The McClanes' house was nearly all the way across town. Granted it was only a five- or six-minute drive, but still, in raccoon distance that was a lot.
"Don't. Fucking. Move," I muttered between clenched teeth, refusing to take my eyes off my nemesis.
"Is that the raccoon you told me about?" Ben asked, his voice way too loud.
The question caught Gary's attention and the rabid bastard froze before turning his head in slow motion like some sort of freakshow right out of a horror movie. His eyes locked on me and his surprisingly white teeth were revealed as he snarled.
"Yes," I whispered.
"I thought you were exaggerating," Ben mumbled.
I shifted back, my body tense. "How far is the door?"
Gary lifted one leg and took a single step toward me, pausing as though he wanted to plan his angle of attack with the utmost precision.
"Ben," I prompted when the silence stretched on too long.
"Two feet behind me. Five behind you."
I slid one heel back and suppressed a wince as my shoe scraped against an acorn or rock on the wooden deck.
The spawn of Satan seemed to take that as some sort of starting shot because he sprang into action. His fat body lengthened and stretched as he bounded across the backyard, straight toward me. His lips were curled back, and I could see murder gleaming in his cold, black eyes.
"Run for your life!" I screeched, wheeling around.
Ben, who would forevermore be known as my hero, moved faster than I ever imagined he could. He flung the back door open, planted a hand between my shoulder blades as I flew past him, and shoved me into the house. My shoes skidded on the linoleum in the laundry room and I did an excellent impression of a young Tom Cruise in Risky Business until I crashed into the dryer.
I heard the back door slam and twisted around in time to see Gary go splat against the glass of the storm door.
He fell back and for one sweet moment, I thought he'd done himself in. But he jumped to his feet quickly enough, chittered raccoon curses at Ben, and scampered out of sight.
Ben stared after him, his chest heaving. He looked shell-shocked. Dumbfounded. Flabbergasted. Dazed even.
There was nothing but the sound of our uneven breaths for a few seconds before he turned toward me.
"How does something that fat move that fast?" he asked.
"Demonic possession?" I replied with a shrug. "Maybe some kind of toxic green ooze?"
Ben stared at me, speechless, before he clutched his stomach and laughed.
"Only you," he gasped. "Only you could make a mortal enemy of the most obese raccoon on the planet."
11
At nine-thirty that night, I threw open the side door to Cam's house and screeched to a halt.