Page 144 of Forbidden Lessons

Chapter 40

Kai

“No, no, no! It’s not fair!” Haven screeches, hands in tight balls at her side as she glares at me.

“Course not. That’s the whole freakin’ point.” I’m down to my underpants, my legs shaking as they fight the pressure of the water pushing against my thighs.

“Come on, Kai! I also wanna play!”

When I ignore her, raising my arms like a God as I challenge the foamy deluge pouring down the creek, Haven shrieks.

Damn, she’s got a set of lungs on her.

“Quit it!” I yell at her. “No one’s gonna hear you, anyhow!”

“You’re so mean! I hate you, Kai!” She screams at the top of her lungs, and I swear, if we hadn’t chased all the wildlife away with our antics over an hour ago already, a flock of birds would burst out of the trees and deer racing away through the brush.

This is really messing with my mood, and it was crappy to begin with.

“Okay, okay!” I stomp my way out of the creek, slashing my hand through the air. “Cut it out, y’damn banshee!”

She only stops when I’m a few feet away from the tree I tied her to. Her face is red and splotchy, her arms and legs rubbed raw where the ropes bit into her.

I guess I tie her too tight sometimes. But if I make the ropes loose enough for her to escape, she complains.

Girls are weird.

Okay, the one girl I actually talk to,she’sweird. But the girls at school are always going around in their tight little snitch packs, always gossiping behind their hands.

Gossiping about me. I know, because they always laugh when I look at them.

So I’ve stopped looking.

Haven doesn’t laugh at me. Only when I fall and bust up my knee or something. Or when my farts come out in a squeak.

I put my hands on my hips, staring her down. “You can’t play.”

“But why?” Frustrated tears sparkled on her lashes.

The rains came and went last night. The ground is still muddy, the trees still dripping, but the sky is clear. Late afternoon sunlight spears through the leaves and makes patches of shadow and light on Haven’s face.

I glance at the roaring creek. “It’s going too fast.” I scrunch up my face. “You’ll die.”

She pouts. “Maybe I wanna die. You don’t know.”

“Oh, gawd,” I drawl, dragging my hand down my face. “Not this again.”

“My foot’s going numb.”

“Why didn’t you say so? Don’t want your foot falling off.” I huff as I drag my weapon out of my underpants to cut her free. It’s less cutting and more wedging the knife into the knots to loosen them, though.

I really got to get my hands on a sharper knife. I keep asking Haven, but she gets this look in her eyes and says she throws away all the knives at her house because her dad might just kill himself.

Runs in the family, I guess.

She giggles when the last rope is free and shoves me as she runs past, straight to the creek. “Fooled ya!”

“Filthy liar!” I yell, running after her.

---