She bit her lip, laughing as I rubbed my arm in the spot where she punched me.
“You find my pain funny?”
“You thought mine was.”
“True.”
She laughed, and we started walking again. She came to the Centipede game, and we took turns on it a while before we moved on to a two player game. We both held the toy guns that came with it and shot the ducks as they flew into the air.
I couldn't think of a time when I had felt the way I did when she was next to me. I'd like to think that she was looking at me with the same thoughts.
Knowing how hard she had fought to make her relationship with Thad work, and knowing she had confided in me, made me think that maybe she did. I didn't talk to Liam about our conversation, but just by things he had said, I had a feeling that she hadn't really talked about it with anyone.
I did feel special, and I felt amazing, and important because she had chose me to talk to. She had sat down beside me, and she had spilled her heart and soul to me, and had waited for me to judge her, or hate her.
Honors like that weren't bought. They were earned.
I wanted to be able to do the same thing. A part of me wanted to tell her everything I was feeling, and wait for her response. It was the same part that wanted to tell her why I didn't allow Ava to have any pictures of me in the house, or tell her how I felt about my mother burning me.
Just to explain why I felt the way I did would be enough for her. Julie would listen, I knew she would, and she wouldn't judge. She would offer a shoulder to cry on, and she would care.
I couldn't do it. . . Not yet. I didn't have the strength she had to be vulnerable. I wasn't able to open up to anyone.
But when I was ready, Julie would be who I ran to.
Julie pointed her gun at me, and narrowed her eyes. “I'm about to shoot you, sir,” she told me.
I turned toward her, but kept my gun pointed at the screen. “You shoot me, ma'am, and one of those innocent ducks die,” I warned her, holding my finger against the trigger.
Julie looked to the screen, and then back to me with mocked concern. “But my daddy said I had to. He said you were a bad man, and you would ravish me if I didn't shoot you,” she said, her voice tinged with a western accent. I'm talking old western.
I shook my head slowly with a shrug. “Your daddy might be right, little lady. You'll just have to decide if you want to kill that innocent duck, or be ravished,” I told her, matching her accent.
She placed one hand over her chest, and breathed in dramatically. It was hard not to laugh at her display of acting. She was both adorable, and completely stupid.
She dropped her gun, and came to me, placing her hands against my chest the way Vivian Leigh would have done Clark Gable. Her green eyes were exploring mine, her words breathless.
“Ravish me, you brute. Just, don't harm the duckies,” she pleaded, shaking her head.
I placed my hands at the small of her back, pulling her into me. I saw the acting disappear, and the real, pure Julie return. I saw her not smiling, but not angry.
I saw want in her eyes, and I saw yearning. I had never seen a girl look at me that way, and it brought forth a nervous ball in my stomach. My hands felt like lead as they held her, as she looked at me and begged me to make a move.
Making a move might have happened, if we hadn't heard Liam. I had found myself leaning down, watching her lips part and her eyes close as we came so close.
“You're not exactly a beauty queen yourself, you know,” Liam said, and both Julie and I turned to see Liam walking toward two guys at another game.
I released Julie as she watched him. I still felt her tense as she seem to realize something before I did. “Oh God, please no,” she said desperately, and she moved from me quickly.
I didn't know what was going on, only that Liam looked ready to fight, and the two guys he was walking toward looked like they would be happy to help Liam out with that mission.
“What is your problem?” one of the guys asked Liam.
Liam got close to them, pointing his finger out toward our direction. “You are my problem. Why don't you keep your stupid jokes to yourself and leave well enough alone,” he told them.
They had been talking about me.
I walked quicker.
“Maybe you shouldn't be listening in on people's conversations,” the other guy said, pushing Liam in the chest. I saw Liam throw his fist back, ready to punch the guy in the face, but Julie came between him.
“They didn't say anything to us, Liam. They were talking to each other,” she told him.
“I don't care. They were still talking about you and Falon,” he told her, glaring at the guys.
They had been talking to each other, I realized. Liam had read what they were saying, and now, they looked ready to kill each other.
“You should tell your friend to mind his own business,” one of the guys popped up.
I had to push through a couple of kids. They were the ones that had realized that a fight might be about to go down, and they didn't want to miss any of the action.
“My brother is deaf! So
