Page 59 of Debugging Love

“Did you kill it?” Danni asks in a strained voice.

“He let it crawl onto his knuckle,” Bruce says.

Danni gags. I need to speed this up before she actually pukes. A quick tap sends the spider into my cup, but captivity isn’t on its menu today. While I teeter on the rolling chair, he scrambles out and takes the quickest route to the highest spot he can find–up my arm and onto my head.

Wearing a wolf spider as a hat isn’t on my menu today either. I lose my cool along with my balance. The chair rolls out from under me and I crash to the floor–my elbow taking the brunt of it. Danni screams louder than a jet engine.

“Did I squish it?” I mumble through my pain.

“It’s on the floor,” Bruce yells. “It’s running toward her! Get it!”

I ignore the pain in my elbow and roll onto my hands and knees. The spider is between me and Danni, stalking her. She trades her hiding spot under the table for a hiding spot on top of it, which doesn’t end well. The table buckles on one side, sending her sliding to the floor. Undeterred, she scales the lopsided tabletop and clings to the uppermost edge, her legs folded underneath her like a frog’s, squealing the entire time.

With one swift movement, I have the spider under my cup, still alive, still huge.

“What’s going on?” Christopher says.

I glance over my shoulder.

“Outa my way,” he says to Bruce.

Bruce steps aside and Christopher appears.

“Is anyone hurt?”

“Nope,” I say, despite my throbbing elbow. I tip the cup to peek inside. The spider has climbed to the bottom, which is now the top, so I slide my hand under the rim, and stand triumphantly. Or try to. My knee shrieks and my hip groans. I straighten through the pain. “I got it. I’m taking it outside.”

“What if it comes back inside?” Danni says, still frantic.

I hold the cup at a distance as I reassure her, “I’ll drop him off a few blocks over.”

Danni peers up at me, her face pale and covered in a sheen of sweat.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

“I will be when you get that thing out of here.”

“I’m going. It’s gonna be okay.”

She nods.

As I approach the door, people scatter, including Bruce. “Coming through,” I say even though my path is clear.

In the elevator, I peek at the spider and chuckle. My mind replays the varied expressions on Danni’s face as she cowered under the table, each one new to me, and all of them, curiously, gorgeous.

Once outside, I turn right, travel two blocks and find a nice potted tree along the sidewalk to deposit my friend into. I release it on the trunk and it quickly climbs up into the leaves.

The staticky fuzz is still dancing on my arms, overriding the pain in my knee, hip, and elbow. I chuck the Styrofoam cup in the trashcan and head back to the Citizen’s Tower, light as a balloon, my chin and chest held high.

I liked saying Danni’s name today. I liked the way her hand felt when I grabbed it. I liked being her hero. And suddenly, more than anything else, I want to be her hero again.

Chapter 15

Danni

Chance accidentally taps my foot under the desk. He utters a quick, “Sorry,” and draws his feet back, his rubber soles squeaking against the polished wood.

“It’s okay,” I reply, and then I look at the divider that’s hiding Chance’s face. I haven’t said a proper thank you yet. I’ve been too busy cowering in shorty-pants mode, flattened by the weight of my embarrassment.

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