English Accent

Up and down

He brought me to a playground.

When I finally stopped laughing, I raised my head and took in my surroundings.

Everything was colourful.

There was a blue slide, green set of swings, red carousel and ladders of all colours. A great part of the playground was taken by a huge sandpit filled with fresh sand.

If someone showed me a place like this ten years ago, there would be no way to make me leave it for a week. And I'm pretty sure my little brother would love it, too.

I jumped in place, giggling. I couldn't help myself. I guess deep down, there was still a child inside of me.

And now it wanted out. Badly.

I must have been grinning like mad because Dominic chuckled and smiled himself.

"So I guess you like it, huh? " he asked.

I looked at him in awe.

"It's amazing!" I exclaimed. "A perfect playground taken from my childhood dreams."

"See?" Dominic raised a brow, smirking smugly. "I didn't take you here to kill you, just like I promised."

I nodded, focusing my attention back on the playground. It was empty, and the colourful toys just begged me to use them.

"But... What are we doing here? " I glanced up at him.

"This is a place where we are going to meet each other properly. " he said.

I glanced at him, frowning.

"Here? The playground?"

He shook his head.

"You have no imagination, Sweetie. Come on." He extended his hand to me. "I'll explain it to you."

I placed my hand in his hesitantly, and our fingers instantly intertwined. Dominic tugged at it lightly, and I went along. I guess I was still too stunned to object.

He led me to a bright yellow seesaw. I didn't really like yellow, but there was something about this particular colour that made me like it. It was the colour of lemon or the sun in the brightest day.

God, I was turning into a poet. That's what a little colour did to me.

"What do you have in mind?" I asked, confused.

"Sit and I'll tell you."

I obediently padded over to one of the ends and sat down. The seesaw was tiny, made for children up to the age of eight, and even while I wasn't a tall person, it still felt funny to sit there. But it was nowhere as gorgeous as seeing Dominic trying to fit into the tiny seat.

He, on the other hand, was a very tall person, which meant he was having a hard time trying to fit his huge body into the space created for a small child. I watched him getting comfortable and bit my lip to keep myself from laughing. He looked ridiculous, with his knees brought nearly up to his chin and one hand curled loosely around the seesaw's handle. He looked very serious doing this, as if he was taking his place on a throne, not a playground meant for children triple time younger than him.

"Now, this is what I had in mind." he grinned, looking at me across the seesaw's length.

I masked my laugh with a very unladylike snort.

"Are you happy now?"

He nodded.

"Very much so. But, " he pushed himself up with his feet, causing me to ride up.

I yelped and clenched the handle. Maybe he was expecting to kill me after all.

"It's just the beginning of the fun." he finished, bringing me back to the ground.

"Are we going to swing up and down now?" I asked, raising a brow.

"Exactly." He grinned and I furrowed my brows. "But it won't be that simple."

"How can using a seesaw not be simple?"

"Because there are rules."

Oh, here we go with the rules again. If I thought he was a control freak earlier, now I was one hundred percent sure of the fact.

"Rules." I repeated.

"We are going to play twenty questions. Do you know it?"

"That's the game where you ask me a question and I have to answer and then ask you something?" I precized.

He nodded.

"The very one."

"I do."

"Good. But that's not all."

I waited.

"When I ask you a question, I'm going to push you up." he demonstrated, bringing his side of the seesaw to the ground. "And I won't let you down until you answer. Once you give me an answer that satisfies me," he switched our positions so that he was the one in the air. "you will be the one on the bottom and I will be up. Is everything clear?"

"I thought I was in the position to ask questions right now. "I pointed out.

Dominic grinned.

"You get it. Then let's start with something simple."

He switched us.

"What's your name?"

"Abi Hindley."

I stretched my legs out, preparing to meet the ground, but nothing happened. I dangled my legs in the air, looking at him.

"You got lost in your own rules." I said.

He shook his head slowly.

"I said that I will let you down only if you give an answer that satisfies me." Dominic corrected, emphasizing the word 'satisfies'.

I arched a brow.

"And what part of my answer did you find dissatisfying?"

"I wanted your full name."

"This is my full name." I lied.

"No, it's not."

"Oh, so now you're going to tell me I don't know my own name?" I jumped in my seat. "Let me down."

He didn't move.

"No one names a child Abi."

I snorted.

"Please. People name children Strawberry. Or Sunflower. You can't tell me you find my name ridiculous."

"Abi is always short for something. What is your something?"

There was no way in hell he was going to know my full name.

"Nothing. I'm Abi. Period."

"Abigail?" he tried.

"Nope."

"Abelard?"

I frowned.

"It's a men's name."

"Abbie? As if with double 'b' and 'e'?"

I rolled my eyes.

"It's the same, just spelled differently."

"So what is it?" he insisted.

I sighed. If we were having trouble with the first question, then I could only imagine what it was going to look like later.

"Why are you so sure it has to be short for something?" I asked.

He shrugged, making the whole seesaw move with him.

"I have that feeling."

I looked down.

"You know that I can easily jump down from here, right?"

"Oh, I do. But that would be cheating." he replied. "And that's not what the rules said."

"Damn the rules."

He watched me expectantly.

I tightened my lips.

"If I tell you my full name, will you promise to never use it again or tell it to anyone?" I asked.

He gave me a fake salute.

"Scouts honour."

Something told me he was never a scout.

I let out a long breath and closed my eyes.

"Abelone." I murmured.

Silence.

I felt myself rushing towards the ground and opened my eyes to see him smiling.

"Now, it wasn't that hard, was it?" he asked smugly.

I furrowed my brows.

"You're not laughing?"

It was his turn to frown.

"Why would I be laughing?"

I shrugged.

"It's a stupid name."

"Not to me." he simply said. "Now, are you going to ask me a question or am I supposed to spend here the rest of my life?"

I thought about it.

"What is your favourite colour?" I finally asked.

"Dark blue."

I let him down.

"What's yours?"

Up.

"Purple."

Down.

"When's your birthday?"

Up.

"December 18th." Down. "When's yours?"

"August 26th. What's your favourite dish?"

Up.

"Triple chocolate muffins with chocolate chips."

He arched a brow.

"Triple chocolate?"

"White, milk and dark."

"And what type of chocolate are the chips made of?"

"My, don't you ask too many questions? It's my turn." I wiggled down.

"Your first pet's name." I demanded.

"I had only one pet." he responded. "Or, in fact, I still have him. It's a German Shepherd and his name is Bummer."

I flew up.

"Bummer?"

Dominic rolled his eyes.

"I was ten. Don't judge. Now tell me what type of chocolate are the chocolate chips."

"Whatever type you want." I grinned. "That's the whole point of triple chocolate-chocolate chips muffins. You never know what's inside."

"Can you make them?"

"Yep."

And I'm a freaking master in it.

"Will you make me them someday?"

"It's my turn." I protested, but he remained on the ground. "Hey, it's cheating!"

"I won't let you down until you promise me you'll make the triple chocolate chocolate chips muffins for me someday."

"That's just not fair."

Dominic raised his hands.

"I never said I was an honest person." he mused. "Now, will you make them or not?"

"Maybe. Let me down."

"Maybe is not good enough. I need a hundred percent certainty that I will get the muffins.

I sighed.

"I will. Now get me the f**k down."

He tsk-ed, but obeyed.

"It's not a place to use such an improper language, is it?" he scolded me. "You will deprive the kids."

I looked around.

"What kids?"

"These are kids. You never know with them. They could be hiding under one of the benches right now."

I shrugged.

"It's their problem. And stop distracting me. It's my turn." I thought for a moment. "Where are you from?

"Here." he replied. "My uncle lives just a few miles outside of the town. I wanted to be near him, so I went to EMU. And you're from England?"

I nodded, flying up.

"Southampton."

"A sailor girl, are ya?" He said, terribly faking some kind of a sailor/pirate accent.

"Not really." I snorted. "I might have been living in a harbour town, but I'm no sailor."

"You swear like one, though."

I grinned.

"You haven't seen anything yet.:

We stayed like that for a while, chatting and asking each other questions until some overprotective mother yelled at us for occupying children's toys and destroying public property. When Dominic tried to explain to her that we weren't vandals, just two bored with life college students who wanted to have some fun, he nearly got hit with a purse.

God. I've always been afraid of children, but now I realized that the real threat were their mothers.

After I gave my place over to her son and said sorry, I headed to the main gate leading out of the playground and into the park. After a few steps I heard Dominic's call:

"Where are you going?"

I glanced at him over my shoulder but didn't slow down.

"The parking lot. I guess we won't have another chance to play."

I looked at the woman meaningfully.

"Why not?" he sent me an easy grin.

"Uh... I don't know about you, but I would like to survive another day, thank you."

Dominic chuckled.

"Come on, Sweetie. Don't let a woman beat you."

"You're lucky I'm not a feminist. Otherwise, you would've been in big trouble right now."

His smile was pure evil.

"Oh, Sweetie, trouble is my middle name."

"Nope. Your middle name is Malcolm."

Dominic Malcolm threw his head back and groaned.

"God, I can't believe I told you that."

I grinned.

"Anyway, we're not done yet." he said.

"What, you want to start a war?" I motioned to the evil woman.

"No. But I want to go spin a little."

I watched as he turned and jogged over to the red carousel. When he saw me still standing in place, he pushed it a little, making it swirl slightly.

"Come on. I don't want to play alone."

I approached him slowly, fully aware of the woman's eyes following me.

"Is it another genius idea of yours?" I asked, stopping a few feet from him. "Whoever asks question spins the carousel?"

"Nope. I just want to play."

He hopped onto one of the seats and extended his hand.

"Come or I'll start without you."

I couldn't stop the laugh that escaped me as I obeyed his command and sat in the seat on the opposite side of his.

"How are we going to spin this thing now that we are both -"

I didn't get to finish before the carousel tugged me forward and I started spinning. Firstly I was too stunned to understand what was going on, but after a few turns, I realized Dominic was no longer beside me. I focused my gaze long enough to see him standing beside the carousel, spinning it furiously.

"What the hell are you doing?" I yelled, trying to distinguish the ground from the sky.

"I warned you your punishment would be cruel." he responded although I had no idea where he actually was.

In fact, I had really no idea where I actually was, either. The carousel was spinning so fast I didn't know where up ended and down began.

"This is my punishment?" I exclaimed, trying not to vomit. "Seriously? This?!"

I knew I was rambling but I couldn't care less. I was beyond forming any coherent thought. My head was spinning so violently I was sure my brain has been turned upright by now. I clenched my fingers around the seat handles, holding onto dear life as Dominic spun the carousel faster and faster.

"Yes." I couldn't see his face, but there was no remorse in his voice. If anything, he sounded even amused. "Four hundred and seventy seconds. The exact time I had to wait for you the last two times."

"What! You are going to torture me here for... eight minutes?"

"You should have thought about it before when I was dying of boredom waiting until you made yourself pretty."

"I wasn't making myself pretty! Stop it right now!"

I barely caught myself from face-planting the ground when he did just that. Before I could jump off, he started spinning me again, this time in the other direction. If it was possible, it felt even worse, since now I was spinning backwards. I had to close my eyes and grit my teeth to stop myself from vomiting.

"I'm going to kill you once I get down." I threatened.

"Sure you are." the mocking tone in his voice told me he didn't believe me at all.

Somewhere in the back of my head, I wondered why the hell the evil mommy hasn't stopped him yet. She could yell at us for playing on the seesaw, but she wouldn't stand in my defence when he was trying to kill me?

I hated to say it, but mother or not, she was a b***h.

For a second I debated simply jumping out of the damn seat, but considering the speed I was going with, this would be even worse than sitting here. So I sat through my punishment, clenching my eyes shut and trying to think of the best and most painful ways to kill him.

I was just opening my mouth to yell at him when I suddenly stopped. I waited for a second for him to push me again, but when it didn't come in a suspiciously long time, I prayed one eye open.

Three Dominics were standing in front of me, swaying mercilessly. I made an attempt to hit him, but I didn't know which one I should punch first, so I stopped midway. Instead, I scrambled out of my seat, holding one hand to my head and praying for the dizziness to go away. The second my feet touched the ground, I fell forward with my arms flailing and hands grasping at the empty air. I readied myself for the meet and greet with the ground, but it never came. Instead, a pair of hands caught me, keeping me upright. I tried wrenching out of his grasp but failed. His grip was too tight and I was too dizzy to do anything apart from falling.

Eight minutes of spinning must have been a hell lot of time, because the world wouldn't stop turning. I was pissed at him for spinning me, I was pissed at him for holding me, I was pissed at him and his stupid time issues. I tried to step away, but stumbled again. s**t.

How long could a damn dizziness last?

I barely registered being lifted off of the ground and pressed against a chest. A hard chest.

Now, all those girls in all those books always said that muscled boys were cool and sexy, and it was so nice to hug them.

Want to know a secret?

That's all bullshit.

Hugging a muscled guy was like hugging a wall.

My head felt like pressed to a stone. Completely uncomfortable.

So I started wiggling, trying to get him to set me back on my feet. But of course, he didn't listen and proceeded to carry me out of the playground and further into the park.

"When I can see straight again... You're going to learn... What real pain feels like." I threatened.

I felt his chest shake under my cheek.

"Stop laughing, you asshole. This," I made a circle with my hand. "is all your fault.

"Yes, I know." he replied.

And then it hit me. He wasn't ashamed. He didn't carry me out of pity.

He was enjoying this.

"Put. Me. Down." I demanded, dangling my legs furiously.

"We're almost there, Sweetie. I wouldn't want you cracking your head open a few feet from the car."

Oh, I bet he wouldn't.

I didn't speak a word to him from the moment he placed me on the passenger seat of his car to the moment he stopped in front of my apartment to let me out. Not even when he asked if I was ready to walk.

I showed him what I thought about his concern by shutting the car door in his face. Finally able to walk again, I stormed into the building without looking back.

And for the hundredth time I cursed myself for accepting this stupid deal.