Apocalypsis 02 - Warpaint

dose girls who does dat crazy talk now, aren’t you. Trying to trick me into saying da wrong thing.” He held up his finger and shook it at me. “Nice try dare, Bryn. But I am too smart for dat.”
    I grabbed his finger and squeezed it hard, bending it back a little as a threat. “Don’t shake your finger in my face, first of all. And second, don’t play that guy game where you act like I’m being all crazy girly and doing crap that doesn’t make sense. You know what I’m talking about.”
    “Bryn, I think maybe I want to have my finger back still attached to my hand. And maybe we should just take a nap because you look very tired to me.” He tried to pull his hand back, but I held on. It forced me forward and up onto my knees in front of him.
    “Stop pulling me,” I insisted.
    “Stop squeezing my defenseless finger.” He was smiling, obviously not appreciating how serious I was.
    “Your bird is going to have a problem landing on your hand if you have a messed up finger in the way,” I warned.
    “Don’t you mean he’s going to have a hard time making a bird if his finger is messed up,” said Peter, joining us, completely non-plussed over the tension in the room.
    “No!” we both said.
    “Hey, feisty, watch it,” said Peter, motioning for Buster to join him and sit in his lap.
    I turned my attention back to Bodo, staring him down with as serious a face as I could manage. “Stop. Pulling. On. Me.”
    “Stop. Pulling. On. Me ,” he said, leaning over quickly to kiss me on the mouth.
    I let go of his finger and pushed him hard. He fell backwards, his head going over the edge of the hut’s floor to dangle over the swamp.
    I couldn’t help myself. I seized the opportunity. I jumped on top of him, belly to belly, and pushed his head farther back. “Admit it!” I demanded. “You’re planning something with that bird!”
    “No!” he grunted out. “Never!” He reached up trying to dislodge me, pulling me higher in the process and causing me to end up with my upper body partway over the edge.
    “Let go of me you big oaf!” I yelled after I felt his arms go around me.
    “You started it!” he said, pushing his heels into the floor and moving us both closer to the water.
    “Stop it, you idiot! We’re both going to fall in!”
    “Dat’s okay by me!” he yelled gleefully as he gave us both another shove.
    I tried to pull back, but my earlier concentration on manhandling his stupid, big head made me lose my balance. I had no leverage to get away from him. I could feel the exact moment that we both shifted past the point of no return.
    “Ahhhh!” he yelled, almost like a person would who was doing a cannonball into a pool, his legs coming up above us.
    “You jerk!” I got out before feeling the first splash of water hit my side.
    We rolled in together, in a tangle of arms and legs, sinking quickly to the bottom. Luckily it was only a few feet down. My hair came out of its loose ponytail and swirled around me like tangled seaweed. I could feel him grabbing for me and I tried to kick him away, but he was very persistent. I wasn’t in my element, trying to fight in murky water. The thought of it made me instantly panic, as I remembered that disgusting snake Buster had found somewhere around us.
    My feel touched the ground and I stood up, bursting through the surface of the water. “Jesus, Bodo! What the hell is your problem?!”
    The first thing I heard other than my own voice was Peter laughing and Buster barking his ass off.
    “Stop laughing!” I yelled, which only made him do it more. I looked over, flipping my wet, stinking, lanky hair out of my face, to see Peter holding his stomach and pointing at me.
    “You have … you have …” He couldn’t get the words out, he was laughing so hard.
    Bodo came up out of the water in front of me, a couple feet away and shook his head like a dog, sending spray out everywhere.
    I slowly wiped my eyes clear of the dirty water and glared at him. I was trying to decide which I wanted to do more: attack him or get out of the snake-and gator-infested swamp.
    “What’s da matter? You get a little wet, dare, Bryn?” He was smiling so hard his teeth were practically glowing at me.
    “Bodo, you do not want to mess with me right now. I’m trying to decide whether to let you live or not.”
    “Oh, you wanna go? Come on, den. It’s not a problem for me.” He waved me over casually, as if he were going to show me something. “Come on, silly