Your Dangerous Game

Chapter 11. The Confrontation

(Mindy Esmond’s Perspective)

“Don’t act like we’re friends to each other, because we are not,” Mindy said firmly to him.

Alain chuckled at her as they went into the walking trail in the woods. They were passing the pine trees throughout the autumn footpath in the area.

And then he shouted back, “Well, aren’t the purpose of getting paired is to make us close to each other?”

“Shut up,” Mindy snapped cynically. “We are not. And we will not. Whatever happens.”

Alain chuckled again. And he finally decided to confront her, “Why is it I have the feeling that you are disgusted at the sight of me?”

Mindy rolled her eyes, annoyed at his silly question. And then she slightly glanced to check on him. When she noticed that Alain was grinning at the time, she quickly looked away.

She was actually felt a little bit awkward to be standing near him. She didn’t feel like she could get along with him. She thought that Alain was another stupid dumb jock like Brandon and Roy. He would probably make fun of her and enjoyed teasing her again and again.

“You ignore me,” Alain slightly raised his eyebrows and sighed in a little bit of frustration. “They said silent is gold. Well, sometimes, huh? What about your case?”

Thereafter, Mindy finally had to stop walking with him. She paused to turn and see him for herself. She was annoyed with everything that he just said to her. He was obviously judging her, but she also did the same thing to him anyway.

He immediately followed her to stop in the middle of the walking trail. For a second, he stood still beside her and watched her face carefully.

When she just stared silently at him with a hating look on her face, then he noticed. He was confused why she kept doing that to him.

And then he shouted out, “What is fricking wrong with you, Mindy Esmond? Just tell me. If you have a problem with me, just say so. We can talk about what you don’t like from me rather than giving me an on and off vibe like this.”

“First of all, it’s not an on and off vibe, okay?” Mindy snapped out cynically. “It’s me, loathing you for who you are.”

He instantly pinched his eyes when Mindy stated her words firmly to him.

“Are you saying that you’re not usually this kind of passive-aggressive person?” He intentionally tested her patient this time.

Mindy clenched her jaw, trying to endure her annoyance against him.

He stepped forward to her. Mindy instinctively stepped back from him.

“Hey, I’m not going to bite you, alright?” He muttered.

It was not the first time Mindy heard him saying that. She remembered he said the same thing back then in the frat house party when they met in the kitchen.

“And what did you say to me? You’re loathing me for who I am?” He emphasized the last words peevishly.

Mindy chuckled. “Yeah, you heard me, dumb jock.”

Alain finally raised his hands in the air, feeling defeated to argue more with her. However, involving himself in one’s argument was just not so his thing. He just wanted to understand why Mindy seemed a little bit off against him.

Then he said, “Hey, let me guess. Are you doing this cynical behavior against me because you heard a stupid rumor about me in UPenn?”

He tried to guess what was she thinking about him. But Mindy stayed silent for a while, making him even flustered.

Then Mindy crossed her arms in her chest defensively. She just didn’t feel comfortable when Alain kept pressing her to fess up.

“Listen, alright—” Alain shouted out again. “Whatever you heard back then in UPenn, I don’t give a damn. Believe whatever you want to believe. I won’t clarify anything for you.”

Mindy narrowed her eyebrows at him. She got flustered when he suddenly brought up the topic to her.

He added, “You don’t know me to better judge me.”

Afterward, she shrugged her shoulders and muttered, “I don’t care either. Do you think you’re so important, huh?”

Alain furrowed his thick eyebrows at her. He was surprised when she said that.

“Why does everyone talk about you in every classroom I go to?” Mindy shouted out as she shrugged her shoulders. “It’s not like you’re a superstar or an underground metal singer that everyone worships anyway.”

“Damn it, Mindy,” he muttered, annoyed. “You can be funny, but you can be very annoying. Don’t you know that?”

Mindy smiled proudly of herself. Then she murmured, “Yeah, I know. Whatever.”

And then she walked ahead in the walking trail, leaving him behind.

Alain quickly followed along to walk with her again.

While trying to keep his pace as fast as she was, he shouted out, “Well, I’m not a superstar or even a metal singer like you imagine me to be—”

She slightly glanced at him and sighed in disbelief.

“Gosh, you’re unbelievable. When did I ever say that I imagine you to be like either of a superstar or a stupid metal singer and whatever—”

“You just did say those words to me,” he reminded her. “I just want to tell you that we can start over, you know. We can be friends. Maybe we can be very good friends.”

Mindy stopped walking and turned to face him again.

“Sorry, but I’m not interested to be friends with a notorious illegal biker like you are,” Mindy snapped him right in his face. “I don’t want to risk my life by being your friends. You’re involving yourself with dangerous things are not good for me.”

“Dangerous things? Like what? Give me an example,” he demanded her.

She took a deep breath and told him, “You involved yourself with the local cops for instance. Did that guy names Bryan once said that to you, huh?”

He locked his tongue on the side of his lips and chuckled out.

Mindy pinched her eyes at him bewilderingly.

“So, you just believe whatever that you heard, huh?” Alain muttered. He didn’t raise his voice since the beginning. But he showed a little bit of a mixed emotion after Mindy brought up the guy named Bryan to him.

But she just stared silently at him. She didn’t know what to say next.

Then he said firmly to her, “My advice to you is simple; don’t believe everything you hear before you really know it.”

For a moment, when seeing how pissed off Alain was, Mindy immediately felt guilty for confronting him.

He was right though. She didn’t have proof to find out about the truth yet. How would she know if the rumor about him out there was true or false?

But she was too embarrassed to admit it to him. she didn’t want him to notice that she was actually feeling a little bit on edge about this confrontation with him.

She immediately changed the topic, “By the way, I don’t want to lose my extra score from Mister Saltzman, so we better start searching for something inspirational around here and write it down on the paper.”

He sighed heavily and nodded. And then they both started to go hunting in the woods.

While he went sightseeing around Fairmount Park with her, Alain shouted out mischievously to her, “All you care is your extra score, huh?”

Mindy glanced cynically at him. And then she quickly looked away.

And then he spoke again, intentionally teasing her, “It’s all about the straight A scores for your assignments. And then you go home and read a bunch of lame books, and sleep, then wake up the next morning just to repeat the same damn boring things to do.”

Mindy immediately turned to face him. She sighed heavily as she pinched her eyes at him.

“It’s like you live such a boring life, Miss Esmond,” he teased her. “No wonder why the guys at college call you—”

“Don’t start with me!” She snapped out alertly to him.

He grinned. He was tempted to tease her again to see how she would react.

“Why are you so obsessive about getting straight A?” He wondered. “Don’t you know how nerdy you look by doing all that unnecessary stuff?”

“What? Unnecessary?” She bulged her eyes out at him. Then she exclaimed out of rage, “You have no idea how hard I had studied to get into UPenn!”

“Now that you get in, you can breathe easier and have a little fun,” Alain said. “You don’t need to stress out about being a perfect student.”

She was about to say something, but her mind suddenly went blank.

And then Alain shouted out, “Nerdy Mindy, don’t get so worked up. You need to enjoy life.”

As Mindy sighed heavily, she couldn’t take it anymore. She just couldn’t hear any more of his stupidity. Her heart had been beating hard since he kept on teasing her.

Alain murmured, “Come on, just walk with me and enjoy the view for a little while.”

Mindy clenched her jaw hard. And the next thing she did was leaving him behind.