TBBM X. He Fears Roaches

"DDJ?" I asked, intrigued.

The other two looked at her, too, similarly as intrigued.

"Drop-dead gorgeous!" she declared with arms high up in the air.

I was sure she'd be miserable once she realised. All the other students surrounding them were laughing.

#WhatADay

#Misfortunes

I swore I'd get this birthmark removed.

T________T

At a nearby food tent around the corner of our street, sat Ferds and Domops, drinking. They were a staple of our streets since they were unemployed. A quarter of the times they were helpful, but the rest of the times, they were just drunken bullies by Freda's store.

"Hey, Jopet," Ferds called me as I passed by. "How's your hickey doing? Doing great? Let me see."

I looked away, embarrassed.

He and Domops alternated in teasing me until, reeking in alcohol, they decided they wanted to come near me.

I ran home as fast as I could. Since they were drunk, they were of no match to a sullen soul drenched in puddles.

It smelled good outside of our home. My mother was frying some sausages. I tried to sneak in so she wouldn't notice what kind of dirt I got myself into.

"And who are you, eh?" she noticed me, anyway.

"Oh, Mother," my tone raised two octaves. "It's just me."

"I know we aren't rich. I know that. I know we needed money. Yes. But tell me, since when did you try catching mudfish in the river?"

+++

I woke up regretting that I didn't go downstairs to see James yesterday evening. But how could I face him? I was afraid he learned what happened to me on my way home. Why did I have to be embarrassing all the time?

James decided to go straight to our house as my mother didn't open the food stall. He had dinner in our place, like he said he would. James lived alone in their house since his parents were abroad. Occasionally, his sister would ask him to babysit his niece for a few days when they had to go on business trips. My mother was very fond of him.

"James has been looking for you," my mother greeted as I came out to eat.

I nodded, morosely.

I turned the TV on so my mother would stop talking about James as not seeing him made me really want to cry.

As I scanned through the channels, I got caught up in a weather report stating that we were anticipating a storm in twenty-four hours or so. But by how much our area would be affected, was still about uncertain.

"No. No. No. Cannot be," I panicked. Today, I'd make that silver car driver pay for what he did to me yesterday. No storm or earthquake or any disaster whatsoever could stop me. My blood boiled vengefully.

I donned on my reddish-brown coat as it started raining again. I entered the university gates, rushed to the parking lot and hid myself behind the trees, on the look out for the arrival of a silver car whose driver wore a white wristband. I'd been pretty nice most of the times but this time was the exception of that "most". I grabbed a pair of twigs to match my camouflage

I worried that he might not come that day, as obviously, classes might just be suspended any time soon. The rain had been gathering strength. I swore in the name of my birthmark, I should get him today.

Then on, it came. A silver car.

The front seat flew open. I steadied my grasp on the twigs. The driver oozed out front. He had earphones on, listening probably to some pop music before I got him.

White wrist band. Target locked.

"You have the audacity to sing!" like an angry lion, I sprung out of my den, holding on tightly to the twigs that I held at my back. I expected him to recall me and apologise but a different kind of doom struck his face, making me stop.

"Jeez! Roach!" he almost jumped over the open door and sat, with feet up, on the front of his car. He wore shades so I didn't initially recognise him.

"Red!?" he owned the silver car!?

His hair got shorter.

"God! The cockroach's talking to me! No!" he kept retreating as I came nearer so he fell down to the grass. It was raining.

"Cockroach? Me?" I poked. "What idiocy are you upto? It's just me, Boasty!" I took off the reddish-brown coat. Coackroach? the twigs must have protruded out to the back of my head earlier as I held it. Nasty boy with vivid imagination.

"Ugly Hickey!?" he looked up at me from the ground, obviously annoyed. His smart phone fell on the mud. Good thing, it had a water-proof covering. "What's your problem?"

"You're scared of roaches?"

"No," he poker faced.

"You are," I laughed, his expression was funny. Finally, I found his weakness. He didn't seem like he had any. I was rejoicing from within me.

"I said, 'no!'"

"I disagree," my nose fluttering in the sudden discovery. I put on my coat once more. "Hang on, let me check."

He stepped back twice.

"Stop it! Stop! Stop!" he pleaded. "I'm just... afraid of your oily face. Who wouldn't? If you tell anyone about this, I'll tell them you liked bathing in mud and puddles. Yes, I will---because that's the same colour as your birthmark, murky brown. And I'll gather people to drive along Gate 1 when ever you are about to go home so you'll always be smudged in murk. Do you want that?"

"Are you threatening me? You're planning to do it again, huh?" I started chasing him. We were circling his car in the rain.

"Hicks, you're so feeble. You can't even walk well so stop already. You can never outrun me."

"You're right. I can't outrun you," I put the twigs up my head. "But I can fly... I'm a cockroach---"

"Stop! Stoooop it! Rack off, Hicks! Are you nuts? Please, hold it!"

"Please?" I found myself laughing joyfully. "Kind word."

"Take it away. Please. Please," he looked as if he was going to run out of air. His face turned bright red as he climbed up his car. He must be really scared. " Throw it away, already. Please."

The rain started to go full swing with the rain beating us cold. I worried that he might fall off so I gave in.

"Okay, I'll throw it away," I calmed him down and took off my coat as I ran towards the shed nearby. "Get down here, now."

"Jeez, it's cold," he closed the car door and ran as I waited him out in the shed. He was wet and muddy.

"Lucky, your car isn't white," I smiled at him. He took off his cotton vest. White. He wore a white round neck t-shirt under it. His wet shirt molded to the form of his chest.

I swallowed a lump. Wait, was I nervous? Probably because I knew he was still scary.

"What?" he asked, irritated.

"Nothing..." I avoided looking at him.

No way! Why did this feel reminiscent of movie scenes I used to swoon at. Erase. Erase. Was I actually finding him attractive, now? No way. I've James already.

That moment, we quietly waited for the rain to pass but it didn't seem like it would. I watched him shake in the cold and felt sorry for him. I didn't feel like taking revenge anymore. He was really threatened by the thought of a cockroach.

"Shit! This is all on you," he complained, after a long streak of silence.

I hated looking at him. It felt like I was peering on his muscled chest.

"It's not like I made it rain. It's not like I made you crawl up your car."

"You bloody caused this rain. You've a birthmark behind you. You said that brings out trouble," he was suddenly laughing, as we sat in the shed.

"Yeah. Maybe," he had a point. "Just like everyone says... the PAC girls, my neighbours, everyone. I'm the harbinger of bad luck."

He looked at me, studiously. I couldn't tell why. I didn't like to look his way.

"You dipstick can wear it, if you're cold," he said, pointing at my coat. I realised I was shaking, too.

"But you'd freak out if I wore it."

"Hurry, please," he snagged it from my hand. He slid his arm on the right sleeve. He was shivering. "Take the left."

"The what?" I babbled, surprised.

"The left sleeve. Please. I promise I'll be nice."

"You want us to share---"

He grabbed my arm and threw it to the left sleeve before I could even finish speaking. He was cold, but hot, too. I feared he might be catching a flu. His skin was burning, shivering. He ducked his head on his knees as we sat. He went on like that, quiet, for the next fifteen minutes or so. I couldn't bear seeing him like that. He had the tendency to be unprecedentedly nasty at times. But now, he looked really helpless.

"Here," I moved his head up to my shoulder. It still rained tirelessly.

He fell asleep.

His head weighed heavily on my shoulder. No, it was actually his entire body, weighing on me. His head was still hot, but he was no longer shaking. I didn't know what to do so I stretched my hand out in the rain, then put it on his forehead as it got cold. He started looking peaceful, eventually. He was better off, peaceful.

In my wildest imagination, I actually wished he'd be nice to me like that. Wait. Was he really nice? Or was he just asleep?

"Hicks," I was jolted by his sudden calling.

"Are you awake?" I inspected him.

"Yeah. I guess," he replied.

"Can you sit up straight?"

"Yeah. I guess," he cleared his throat and sat up.

We watched the storm unfold wordlessly. We stayed silent, huddled up together in one coat, wishing for the rain to lose rigor and let up. I could feel his breathing. He was breathing evenly, now.

"Why didn't you leave me to fall?" he asked in sudden. The benches we sat on didn't have backrests.. He didn't have to speak so loudly so I could hear him: our faces were literally three inches away from each other. "You could've moved away, like I did you in Religion."

"Wait-what?" I snapped. "You wished that I just left you?"

"I didn't say that. I was asking."

"Uhm... because you looked like you needed me?"

"Do I thank you, then?" he was suddenly staring at me.

"Nah," I brushed it off.

"What 'nah'?" he smiled. He was smiling at me. Red was smiling at me.

It made me nervous.

"You didn't look like you were a "thank you" person---"

"Thank you."

That sounded weird. Or maybe, it sounded weird because he said it. Red said it. We were smiling at each other. For the first time, we weren't fighting. It felt good.

We were quiet again.

"Hicks," he called me, after a while. "My phone. Can you get it for me? It's near the front tire."

"Me?" I clarified. "You mean, I'll run in the rain and get it for you?"

He nodded.

"Why do I have to?"

"You said, I looked like I needed you. So, I need you now," he was still a bit hot, but already, his air had been coming together. "Besides, it wouldn't fall in there if it weren't for you, agree?"

"Disagree."

"Really?" he was strangely warm. If this conversation had happened another day, he'd probably be insulting me by now.

"Stop playing the nice card. You're not really nice," I muttered.

"Okay. I'll get it, then," he attempted to stand up.

"No," I pulled him back down. "You're sick. How can that be more important, now?"

"But I want it, now..." he coughed and coughed. Was that him making baby faces?

"Let's wait until the rains let up. How can you be so---"

"I'll pay you."

"I mean, you can get it later. You're way too muscular to sweat picking up a smartphone."

"Do you really want to know why?" his airy expressions went back. "Because if I were to do it, I'll get mud on me. If you were to do it on the other hand, you're of the same colour, so nothing will change. That's my reason."

"Nope, you're seriously being mean again and you expect me to---"

"Five thousand."

"I said I do---" I came to my senses. "Five K?"

He nodded, winsomely.

"Show me."

"Bloody avaricious," he sighed, shoving me his wallet. "Are you homeless? Are you a beggar, Hicks?"

He was that serious.

I looked delighted as I peeked at his wallet. I didn't mean to look like money-hungry but, I took every opportunity I could, to earn. Besides, I wanted to be able to pay for my books and miscellaneous fees by myself.

"Alright," I finally agreed. I wriggled out of the coat so he could keep himself warm and jumped into the rain.

And because I was fated to be lucky, the rains and winds surged heavily right as I left the shed. The ground was wet and muddy, I was tripping almost every other step I made. With my poor eyesight, it made me struggle even more. I looked back at Boasty as he pointed where to find it. He pointed to the right of the car but the wind surged even stronger as he coached me.

I aimed my hand on the grass to find it. I wandered about blindly until I believed I found it, behind the tire. I was on my way to pluck it from behind the tire when---

"I got it," I thought I was just imagining Red's scent but he suddenly just appeared. He covered me with my coat, took his shirt off and gave it to me. "Get inside. Dry up."

I froze. His skin felt really hot but his eyes were unrepentant. He looked unspeakably determined and also dazzling. He stood so close to me that I couldn't move---or look away. He had a good built. He must be working out allot.

He went down on his knees and seized the phone from the ground. But I was just there, watching him. I couldn't move.

Dub dub. Dub dub.

My heart was in drum rolls.

Dub dub. Dub dub.

I'd never felt like this before---this much.

"Hicks, I told you to get in," he commanded as he got up. He opened the door and pushed me right in.

By that time, the rain reached it's peak, we could barely make out of what each was saying, even inside the car.

"Are you rea-y? Yo- c-n't go h-me like this?" he had his grip on the wheel.

"Wh-t? I'm s--ry, I c---dn't h--r you."

"Wear y--- se-tb-lt."

"Unwear----What?"

"Y-- keep on yappin n-nse-nse," he launched in front of me. And I thought he was going to do something. I closed my eyes. I could smell him. He reached on to my side half-naked. "D-n't dre-am."

Seatbelt. He strapped me to my seat.

I thought he was going to kiss me or something.

Dear Saint...