Apocalypsis 02 - Warpaint

useless these days.
    “Who are you gonna fight, Peter?” asked Bodo. “Da dog? ‘Causs if dat’s the plan, you better start practicing now. I think he can take you down.”
    Peter scowled at him. “Who are you going to fight, Bodo? Bryn? Better plan on losing if that’s the case.”
    “Oh, no way. Not me. She’ss too scary. I prefer to fight someone more easy. Like dat Trip guy.”
    I snorted. “You know I love you, Bodo, but Trip would kill you, even with no training.”
    “Is dat true? You really luff me?” His expression was too falsely innocent to be serious. I shoved him over, just for messing with me.
    “Shut up, you idiot.”
    Bodo looked at Peter. “You heardt her say it. She luffs me.”
    Peter rolled his eyes. “Don’t let it go to your head. She loves Buster, too, and he’s a bald, tick-covered, doodle machine.”
    “It’s true,” I said nodding, trying to stay serious. “I love him so much that I just picked a pile of those ticks off his face. Without barfing.”
    “Oh, dat hurts. You luff da dog more dan me.”
    I shrugged. “What can I say. He’s pretty cute.” I knew Bodo thought he was pretty cute too, so it was fun to make him feel like he was in competition with a naked poodle.
    Bodo frowned. Then a gleam came into his eye as he looked at Peter. “Guess what I’m gonna do today,” he said.
    “What?” asked Peter, sounding very bored as he picked through his food.
    “I’m gonna doodle on da house.”
    Peter’s head shot up. “Do not even go there, Bodo. I’m serious.”
    Bodo was smiling like a fool. We both knew how much Peter hated that word, even though he was guilty of using it from time to time when he wasn’t watching himself close enough. He tried so hard to be mature, but sometimes he just couldn’t help himself.
    “Maybe I’m gonna doodle udder places too,” continued Bodo.
    Peter stood up suddenly, dropping two hunks of meat, much to Buster’s delight. “You guys are totally immature, you know that?” He stormed off into the kitchen.
    “Hey!” I yelled over my shoulder. “If you want to doodle, there’s an outhouse for that, Peter. I’ll take you later if you want to know where it is.”
    I received no answer back.
    “Maybe I can doodle on da doodlehouse door. What do you think, Bryn?” Bodo was talking purposely loud enough for Peter to hear.
    I shook my head, smiling and mouthing the words, You are so bad , to Bodo. He just winked at me. It was such a simple gesture, but it made my heart race anyway. I got up quickly to put some space between us.
    I didn’t know why I was suddenly so nervous around him. I liked him. If he liked me back in a romantic way, I’d probably be okay with it. But I wasn’t sure if he was just playing around or not. He was always teasing, so it was hard for me to know for certain when he was being serious. Maybe he never was. And I still didn’t know that much about him. But do I really need to know any more than I already do? This was a new world. Maybe there were different rules about what you needed to know about a person before you got serious with him. Or maybe I was just trying to convince myself of that because I was afraid he was keeping secrets from me that I didn’t want to know.
    Bodo grabbed my ankle. “Where are you going?”
    “Nowhere.”
    “Come sit back down with me. I want to talk to you.”
    I sank slowly into a sitting position, staring at him as I went. His eyes never left mine. I could feel the sweat starting in my armpits and couldn’t remember the last time I felt so nervous around a guy. It was freaking me out a little, my emotions and reactions being this out of control.
    “Last night was pretty craszy, yah? I mean , yes?”
    “Yeeeaaaah,” I said, wondering where he was going with this. “Last night was nuts for sure.”
    “Well, you know, at da end? Right before when we go to sleep?”
    I nodded.
    “I toldt you dat dare was only one thing missing from da day, do you remember dat?”
    “Yes. I remember,” I said softly. I didn’t want Peter to hear what we were talking about. My face was already on fire with just Bodo and I knowing that the last thing he claimed was missing from the day was a kiss from me, one second before he planted his warm lips on mine.
    “Well, dat was only part of da way true.”
    My heart sank. He doesn’t like me. I knew he was only joking. “Oh, that’s okay,” I said with false casualness. “I know you were only messing around. Don’t