BAD LAD

10. Chris

In less time than it takes to say, we’re in the parking lot of the supermarket in question and I park my pretty baby at a place that seems relatively safe from potential scratch causing issues. I cajole her one last time before leaving, under Kate's mocking gaze.

“Don’t worry, baby! Daddy will be right back.”

“I warn you: you French kiss it... I’ll leave you here.”

I can’t help it, her c***k makes me smile. And what compounds my case is that she’s probably the only human being, with Jo, to dare speak to me that way. Casual and caustic without being afraid of getting punched.

“You’re jealous? You also want a hug?”

“I don’t need affection at this point.”

I caught her out again: her cheeks are slightly tinged with red. This elf of the woods with her coppery hair and eyes so pale, this gnome with a mouth... is one hundred percent innocent. You can’t fool an old dog like me: troubled girls, I can smell them a mile away.

I take advantage of having put on my sunglasses to observe her. She’s still wearing the sweatshirt that’s too big for her and baggy jeans that threaten to greet her ankles at any moment. No guy would know what her body looks like with such an odd appearance!

I shake my head in frustration. If only her sister helped her to bloom a little in that respect...

She equips herself with a plastic basket while I go with her, hands in pockets. I do a little looking around, grab something at random from the shelf, and put it back down, having taken a look.

“Do you have food allergies?”

Her question took me by surprise.

“What?”

“Is there stuff that you shouldn’t eat?”

“I don’t think... I know.”

“You eat a lot or not?”

Damn, but what’s this interrogation?

“Well... um, that depends.”

She nods her head several times, serious, and continues to scour the shelves while filling her blue basket, me on her heels. Suddenly she asks again:

“Do you like chocolate?”

I squint my eyes.

“Yeah... well, I eat it without being a fan. But... but why?”

She looks up to the sky in exasperation.

“Because I’d like to bake a chocolate cake, so I might as well know whether you eat it or not.”

My mouth forms the syllable before I pronounce it:

“Oh.”

It’s downright weird, such a situation. Me with a girl in a supermarket. A girl who isn’t a member of my gang, nor a chick I f****d. An almost unknown who now lives in my apartment and asks me if I like chocolate to bake me a cake, instead of questioning me whether I have a condom with this flavour.

Kate looks at me impatiently and I return pronto to the present to continue to follow her through the shelves, unable to help feeling uncomfortable. She is so different from Mel: that must be what disturbs me.

Suddenly, a detergent box falls from her overflowing basket and she squats to better organize the contents so that nothing more escapes. This position has the misfortune to reveal her underwear. Attention, panties, I saw many go by over the years, then it’s hard to understand why a piece of pink cotton hypnotizes me at this point. Besides, I’m not the only one and I spot a kid, fourteen years tops, trying to squint too.

“You need help with anything, kid?” I growl, but low enough so only he can hear.

He jumps staring at me, eyes round in surprise, then smirks.

“Because you weren’t, too, trying to figure out what kind of panties they were, maybe?”

Well, this makes no sense at all. Where’s my killer aura if kids begin to challenge me without blinking?

I shake my little finger.

“You’ve got the time to ask yourself these questions. For now, leave them to those whose gear is mature.”

The teenager clamps his lips while his eyes throw lightning.

“If it was you who was carrying her basket, she wouldn’t have to bend down and neither of us would have these questions in our minds.”

Little bastard!

“Jamie,” calls the woman accompanying him, with some impatience.

“I’m coming, Mom,” he says before giving me a conniving wink.

I watch him head towards Kate, unable to move I’m astounded by his nerve and lack of fear of me. He kneels, picks up a packet of biscuits, hands it to her while sporting a radiant smile of boyish charm. My jaw drops, especially when she smiles back, remembering to thank him. Again, the brat turns to me, a victorious glow illuminating his brown eyes.

“Well, that little bastard kicked my ass!” I whisper to myself watching him walk away toward his mother.

I re-join Kate double-quick, almost snatching the basket from her hands, and then feel the weight of her startled pale eyes on me.

“What’s the next aisle?” I ask through clenched teeth, staring at a point straight ahead, still furious at myself for actually being put in my place by a kid probably discovering he has fuzz around his mouth for the first time.

“I think you can go to the checkout,” she tells me, averting her face.

“No, it’s okay.”

“It’s not necessary, I’m saying.”

“And I’m telling myself that I have to.”

And if the p*****t kid is still hanging around here? Not a chance.

We challenge each other amid the potato chips. Kate, hands on hips and glaring at me with clear eyes.

“I have to buy sanitary pads, i***t. Perhaps you want to help me choose my brand?”

Ah. The blob.

I suddenly waver not quite sure what to do. Run away? Play the fool?

“It’s not...”

My free hand made circles in the air while Kate sarcastically arches an eyebrow.

“It’s not... I’m perfectly happy to do it.”

I chose to play the fool.

“Really?” she whispers, bad as the black death.

I grin while gently shaking my head. I have a terrible urge to back down but I can be as stubborn as a donkey, the kind of guy who refuses to lose face while dying to run away, in the opposite direction to the chick’s intimate hygiene department.

“Rea... lly,” I say slowly.

This word has just torn through all of my internal organs before being expelled by my mouth. Kate seems stunned by my stupid stubbornness. She doesn’t seem to understand where it’s coming from, and actually, me neither. I would never have thought to find myself one day choosing a girl’s pads just to save face.

Once in said area, my fingers clench on the handle of the basket and I want to drop everything and clear out. Emptying a beer in the first bar on the way will look like heaven after this hell.

What the f**k am I doing, damn?!

When Kate cuts in front of me with, specifically, two boxes of tampons, big and small, and a devilish smile, I feel myself becoming very pale.

“With or without applicators?” she asks me innocently.

“An app... what?” I choke.

“An applicator. It helps you insert the tampon correctly, you put it...”

I raise a hand to stop her straight.

“I understand very well where it goes.”

There are limits to what I can endure. I just found mine with this damn girl. Imagining her in the process of... inserting... Okay. Deal’s off.

“Meet me at the checkout,” I say, probably as white as the floor tiles beneath our feet.

But while my legs are already taking me to the exit, I hear her burst out laughing noisily at my back and I stop short, my body taut as a bow. I retrace my steps immediately to stop only when I can dominate her with all my height, leaving only a few measly millimetres of space between us.

I must have looked pretty damn furious because she gasps, the situation totally beyond her. I only tilt my head while the rest of me remains straight and stiff. My nose almost touches hers, my eyes are burning. I bet she only breathed once or twice. And I like it. I like it very much, the electric suffocating tension that surrounds us, despite where we are.

“Provoke me.”

“Huh?”

Her voice is a whisper.

“Provoke me. Go ahead.”

Mine is a dull rumble. Her eyes widen, leaving me to guess that she doesn’t know what to think of this turnaround. In response, her head slowly shakes a silent ‘no’.

“No?” I emphasize in an even lower tone.

She repeats the movement.

I’m still leaning. In response, she half-opens her lips, tipping my fury like scales with the excess weight resting on one of its plates, the one that expresses mad mode against s****l stimulation mode.

“You insert your thing where? Tell me. Explain. I’m a really curious guy by nature.”

Her lips open to then close again without a word crossing their barrier.

“Katherine...”

She looks away and blushes.

I got you.

“... never forget this: even if you’re messing around with me, I’m not a good guy. What you just did is reach my limit. My limit with you. Never go to the other side of my line because after... don’t come complaining about what could... what will happen. Got it?”

Kate nods immediately. She was scared, I know, I’m perfectly aware of it. She probably thought I was going to be violent when what I was doing was a different kind of thing. Nevertheless, I won’t deceive her, because she has to get it in her head, once and for all, that guys like me, can be a real piece of garbage from one second to another.