Page 29 of Doug

Pixie groaned. She didn’t want anyone else. She wanted Doug to be the one to rekindle her fires, but she knew that wasn’t going to happen. He’d warned her.

“Maybe,” Pixie allowed. Someone else…

Damn.She needed to tell Julie about Peter.

“There is someone who’s shown interest,” Pixie said with a grimace.

“Ooh, do tell.” Julie leaned forward.

“He’s an ass, and makes my skin crawl.”

Julie snorted. “Geeze. Why don’t you tell me how you really feel? Okay. Who’s the creep?”

“His name is Peter. He’s the remedial reading teacher at school, and he’s been letting me know, sort of subtly for a while, that he’s interested. And now he’s ramped things up. But Jules, I think he’s weirdly fixated on my arm.”

“Why do you say that?”

Pixie filled Julie in on everything the man had done over the past few months, and making that list out loud, Peter sounded even more degenerate. She took a deep breath to give the capper on his fucked-up-ed-ness.

“Just today he confronted me in the parking lot at school,tellingme I needed to accompany him to the soccer game. And get this. He said he’d ‘give me a hotdog’ if I was a good girl, and did some nasty thing with his eyebrows, so I knew it was supposed to be innuendo.”

“Ewww. That’s gross. If I were you, I’d report the bastard to your superintendent,” Julie grimaced.

“I was thinking I might, because he also…grabbed my bad arm and wouldn’t let go.”

“Oh, my God. That’s assault, Pix. Did you scream? Kick him in the nuts? How did you get away?”

“That’s another strange thing.” Pixie screwed up her mouth. “Do you remember how I told you that my ex, Skeeter, has a brother?”

“Yeah. Hannible, or some such name,” Julie snorted. “Buthas, or had?”

“Has. And it’s Harlan,” Pixie corrected with an amused huff. “This brother, after apparently living with his mother in Texas for sixteen years, is back in town. And he just sort of showed up this morning when this was all happening.”

“What do you mean, showed up?”

“One minute I was struggling with Peter, and the next, Harlan was just standing there. About ten feet away with his arms crossed over his chest. And Jules. He’s enormous.”

“Okay. Cool. Big guy to the rescue. I get it. What did he say to Peter?”

“That’s the funny part. He didn’t say a word. He just stood there looking all scary until Peter finally got nervous and backed away. When Harlan didn’t budge, Peter more or less took off and ran toward the high-school.”

Julie smacked her lips. “Excellent. I hope Harlan spooked the crap out of him. Serves the asshole right.” She paused, then tipped her head, pondering. “I’m assuming you thanked Harlan afterward? What did he have to say?”

“Nothing, Jules. After it seemed he was certain that Peter wasn’t coming back, he turned and walked away. He got into a beat-up old Chevy, and drove off.”

“Okay, that’s freaking weird,” Julie marveled.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Hey.” Julie snapped her fingers. “You don’t suppose Harlan has a crush on you after all these years, do you?”

Pixie shook her head. “I don’t see how that’s possible. He used to follow me and Skeeter around, but Skeeter never included him in anything we did. I’m not sure Harlan ever said more than two words to me.”

“Ahh. He worshiped you from afar.” Julie sighed, the romantic in her running away with non-possibilities.

“Uh, Julie?” Pixie interjected. “I’ve recently heard through the grapevine that Harlan might be…developmentally delayed.That the poor guy never fully recovered from being shot in the head. So I don’t think he’s capable of…everyday things like worshipping.”

“Damn. That’s too bad,” Julie sighed. “It would have been great story. Closure for both of you if you could have fallen in love. And it would have spiked a huge, middle finger toward dick-head Skeeter who’s rotting in jail.”

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