Orna Puella

- III -

Liz picked me up on Saturday evening around six or so. She was chattering nonstop about how excited she was to go out finally and I just nodded in the right places.

“You look nice!” she said finally. “That dress is awesome!”
“Thanks,” I smiled.

My dress was okay, I suppose. It was dark blue, not too revealing, but at the same time, not too modest or old-fashioned. Plus, it was comfortable, which was a great thing. Liz looked pretty good herself in her red dress and high-heeled shoes.

“How long do we have to stay?” I asked and Liz shrugged.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Probably till eleven or so.”

Oh dear God… I should’ve taken my dad’s car. Oh, well. Maybe I will love it there, who knows.

The party was all right. There was cake, coffee, and other stuff that made my mood a little bit better. Liz was mingling somewhere with Kelsie and some other people and I didn’t feel like talking to anyone, so I grabbed another cup of coffee and walked into Kelsie’s garden, which was quite impressive. I sat on the bench under one of the cherry trees and drank my coffee slowly, thinking that it was already almost nine-thirty in the evening and that hopefully Liz will be ready to leave soon.

“Hey,” someone sat next to me.

Oh great, it was Kennedy.

“Hey,” I said gloomily.
“You look bored,” he said and I squinted my eyes at him.

He sounded funny. Was he drunk or something?

“I am all right,” I said carefully and he hiccupped. Yup, he’s drunk. Great.
“You know,” he said thoughtfully. “You are really hot for a chief’s daughter.”
“Uh huh,” I said quietly. “Sure…”

He laughed and I wondered just how drunk was he.

“Seriously,” he said finally, his speech slightly slurred. “If it wasn’t for your dad, I would totally do you by now.”
“Right,” I agreed and got up. “I’m gonna go find Liz, okay? I’m gonna go home…”
“Home-schlome,” he snorted and pulled me back on the bench. “Stay a bit, will you?”
“My dad’s waiting for me,” I said feeling a bit uneasy by now.
“No, he’s not,” Michael laughed. “There was some kind of emergency; I’ve heard it on the radio… He’ll be there until midnight, I bet.”
“What kind of emergency?” I frowned.
“Who cares,” he shrugged. “Probably something to with bad pipes again… The bakery keeps getting flooded or shit like that.”
“I gotta go, Michael,” I said evenly and got up.
“Fatso is making out with some guy,” he grinned and tried to pull me back. “She is not going anywhere for at least an hour.”
“She is not a fatso,” I said, thinking immediately that arguing with drunks was a stupid thing to do.

Kennedy snorted.

“I called her fatso since kindergarten… Believe me, she was a fatso back then!”
“See you later, Michael,” I said and walked away from him.

I couldn’t find Liz anywhere and decided to walk home. It wasn’t too far, the weather was nice, and I seriously didn’t want to hang around here anymore. I looked around, and to my greatest relief, Kennedy wasn’t there. I found Kelsie, told her that I need to take off, and wished her happy birthday again. She smiled and thanked me for coming. Okay, good. She is not going to hate me for leaving before everyone else did.

I started to walk home and after ten minutes or so, I decided to take my shoes off. The asphalt was warm enough and my feet were complaining about spending way too much time in the prison of high heels. I kicked my shoes off and was about to pick them off the ground when someone snatched one of them. I looked up, startled.

“What are you doing?” I demanded.

Kennedy grinned.

“I have a foot fetish,” he said.
“Give my shoe back,” I said tiredly.
“Nope,” he smelled my shoe deeply and I winced. “Mmmm… Seriously, smells better than a chocolate bar…”
“Freak,” I muttered and grabbed my other shoe. “Keep it, I don’t care.”

I started to walk down the road and he ran after me. Okay, I liked this less and less every second. He was much bigger than me - I weight a hundred and ten pounds, maybe even less now, since I almost stopped eating ever since the funeral - and I knew for a fact that he was a hell of a lot stronger. And he was really drunk, I could see it now. Suddenly I realized that I was in the middle of the dark road alone with him and that there was nobody else around. Dammit, I thought. Should’ve waited for Liz! I tried to keep calm and ignore him, praying that he will lose interest soon enough.

“Wait up,” he hiccupped again. “Hold on, will you?”
“Michael,” I said calmly even though my hands started to shake by now. I was scared and I hated the feeling. “Just go home, okay? You can keep my shoe, I don’t care.”

He snorted.

“I wanna walk with you,” he said with yet another hiccup and I gritted my teeth.
“Fine,” I said evenly and grabbed my other shoe tighter. The heel was pretty high. I had a good chance of whacking him on the face with it and maybe even knocking him out.
“So,” he said after a few minutes. “Let’s go make out.”

Great.

“I don’t think so,” I said calmly.
“Are you a virgin or something?” another hiccup.
“Michael, just go to sleep, okay?” Oh, man… I didn’t like this at all.

He grabbed my arm and pulled me closer to him.
“Come on,” he muttered. “You’ll like it, I am good…”
“Let go,” I hissed, panic flooding my head.

I tried to whack him with my shoe but he just laughed.

“Come on,” he repeated, and I briefly wondered if he would even remember any of this in the morning.
“Let go!!” I screamed at him and he ripped the front of my dress.

I managed to push him away, I still don’t know how, and then I ran. I knew that he was right behind me and I ran into the middle of the road. Suddenly there was a bright light, an extremely loud honk, and I felt Kennedy’s hand on my shoulder. I think he screamed something like, “Jesus!!!” and then whatever it was on the road - looked like a truck - slammed into us full speed. Then I don’t remember anything.