An amusement, a diversion, a pastime.
Finally, this time, while he was walking down the hall with Tom, Brad saw her coming. And it seemed, as they walked past, that she slowed down just a tad and smiled at Tom--no, not a smile of greeting, but--Brad thought--of victory.
Brad looked over to see Tom with his head bowed down. "What the fuck was that all about?"
"It's nothing," Tom muttered, not particularly to Brad. "It's nothing."
"Fuck nothing," Brad said under his breath, and turned around and raced back toward the girl. She was walking toward her next class, but just before he reached her, she turned around to face him. He ran in full steam and pinned her shoulders to the wall.
She gave an "oof!" but instead of cringing in pain, she simply sucked in a breath and gave him an almost manic smile. Brad ignored it. "Well, little Miss New Girl--"
"You can call me Tracy, you know, Brad?"
He paused just a moment, but he wasn't about to give her the pleasure of knowing he was wondering how she knew his name. "OK, Tracy," Brad continued, sardonically, "what the hell did you do to my friends?"
"Me? It's nothing," she said, smiling congenially. Brad shoved her hard against the wall again, but Tracy just mmm'd, almost as if she enjoyed it. "I told you, it's nothing, it's just a game."
Brad's eyes narrowed. "A game?"
"Yeah, a game. And they lost, is all. I was just better than they were."
Brad looked around, nonplussed. "What kind of game?" he pressed on.
"Nothing special," Tracy answered simply. Before Brad could open his mouth to challenge that, she went on, "I'll bet you're pretty good, too." She looked him over. "Yeah, you might even win, Brad."
"Fuck you."
"That's not the game, Brad. Do you want to play the game?" She looked right into him. Brad was speechless. "Do you want to play with me, Brad?"
Brad couldn't answer. All he could do was watch her lips as she asked him again. "Do you want to play with me?" Her tongue slipped out and made one languorous, agonizing pass over her lips. "I want to play with you, Brad."
He felt himself getting dizzy and snapped out of it just in time. He looked around to see if anyone was watching, but they weren't. He turned back to Tracy.
"Fuck off." He forced himself not to turn around as he walked away. Over his shoulder he heard her say, "You know you want to, Brad." He could only shut his eyes and pray he didn't run into someone he knew.
Copyright (c) 1998 {hamlet}Ophelia