"Holy fucking shit! What do I do?" I scream-whispered.

Charlie held up my jacket, and I threaded my arms through the holes.

"Get down there — and don't worry, I got this," he said.

Charlie and I shuffled out my bedroom door. From below, we must have looked like a couple of vaudeville actors doing a skit — bumping into each other and leaping down the stairs with a mix of faux audacity and hidden oafishness.

"Thank you, Jack," Charlie said, "for the tutoring and your friendship. I'm better for it."

"You're welcome, Charlie," I said. "I'll see you tomorrow." Charlie smiled and walked towards the door, I looked at Rae. "Oh, hey, Rae. Charlie, this is Rae. Rae, this is Charlie," I gestured back and forth between the two.

Rae held out her hand, "Hi, Charlie. It's nice to meet you."

"I've never heard of you," he said, walking past her and spinning around to wink at me. I struggled to contain how amused I was. Rae turned to me, puzzled.

"We haven't talked about social cues yet," I said. Rae nodded.

Phil lumbered down the stairs and pushed me aside.

"Hey, Rae," Phil said. "You look nice tonight." Unfortunately, even though my brother lacked articulation, brains, a soul, and all of the skills, he did not lack suavity, which was, sadly, one of the only things I had yet to master.

"So do you," Rae said. My heart popped like a balloon a toddler squeezed too hard. "Shall we?"

"We shall," Phil said — beating me by literally one second. Phil and Rae walked down the path in front of our house, leaving me to close the door. At the end of our driveway was my brother's three friends.

"Yo, Phil, who's the chick?" Reg said.

"Logan, Reg, Simon — this is Raegan," Phil said. "We've been close friends for a while now."

I scoffed.

"And you remember my little sister Jacky."

"Looking fine, Jacky," Logan said, looking at me lustfully.

"Bite me."

"We should go now," Simon said. "The twilight will be fading soon, and we want to know which house we're throwing the tissue onto, don't we?" Simon wasn't as much of a punk as the rest of my brother's crew, more of a disgruntled dweeb looking for revenge on a teacher that failed him.

We started walking from my house, towards the proclaimed Mr. Walrus-Nard's house in the nicest neighbourhood around. I wondered if this was the start of something new. A new hoodlum Jack who hung out with the likes of my brother by choice, vandalized a person's house for no personal reasons, and did things that she didn't believe in just because her crush was gonna be there, too. I also wondered if it was worth it. Crushes are fun when they are on people you will never meet and never actually get together with, and until now, that was the only kind of romantic love I knew. But since Rae walked through those doors earlier in the afternoon, I knew what it felt like to have a real crush. And it's amazing and terrifying and confusing and sickening and stupid.

"Did it hurt?" Logan asked, interrupting my monologging. I turned to him slowly.

"If you say 'when you fell from heaven,' I swear I will gut you like a deer," I said.

"Those are some strong words, honey, I'm just trying to make conversation," he said.

"Keep your colloquy," I said, avoiding eye contact, as it might humanize him.

"C'mon, 'least you can do is grace me with you conversation. For example, what kinda panties you got on?"

"Fuck off, Lucas," Rae said, appearing out of nowhere and positioning herself between Logan and me. "I will pepper-spray you and leave you convulsing on the street if need be."

"You're feisty, new girl. I like that," Logan said with a wink, and walked off to join the others, who had turned a blind eye or honestly didn't notice.

"God, he's a creep," Rae said to me. "Are you okay?"

I was speechless, but I snapped out of it quick enough. "Okay? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Thanks." I said, tucking my hair behind my ear. "He's always like that. But I've never really talked one-on-one with him, I guess."

"Yeah," she said. "I knew a guy like that back in Grantham, the best thing to do is to just get away from them. Though, it is kinda fun to tell them off if there's other people around."

I smiled. "Yeah — pretty awesome what you said."

"Are you kidding?" Rae said, grinning back at me. "'I'll gut you like a deer'? That's a pretty cool line. You'd never actually do it, though, would you?"

"If I had the right tools, and a basement with a drain for blood, then I might," I said, trying to be clever, but just repeating what I had seen in various movies... "Maybe I could start a diner and serve people his flesh-burgers." ...Like Kingsman 2.

"That sounds like a lucrative business opportunity. I'll invest," Rae said.

"It's a deal," I said. I considered it a victory of a social affair.

"So, are you nervous?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said. "About what?"

Rae laughed, beautifully, like a flower in full bloom. "About the TPing — what else?"

I looked at her face. "I-I'm just generally nervous. Like a hairless cat."

Without any forewarning, a vdog barked ferociously and ran forward despite being chained to a railing. I jumped metaphorically out of my shoes and grab held of Rae's hand instinctively. The beast stood on his back legs and continued to growl, staring at me with large brown eyes.

"Jack?" Rae asked, as I gathered myself. Aside from the aforementioned social anxiety — dogs were and still are my worst fear. Ever since our childhood puppy was brutally attacked by other dogs on multiple different occasions, the sound of their collars jingling and clawed paws hitting the ground at high speed would always capture my fear-mongering imagination. I realized, in the excitement, I had grasped Rae's hand unthinkingly.

"Sorry, I... I'm afraid of dogs," I said. I let go of her hand and shrank into my untucked-hair in embarrassment.

"It's okay," she said, taking my hand in hers. "I get it."

I blushed and grinned. I looked down to avoid a crack in the street, and saw a bunch of cuts and bruises on her exposed forearm.

"Did I do that?" I asked a stupid question.

"Oh," she said sounding uneasy, pulling down her sleeve with her other hand. "Uh, no, forget it."

I was about to say something more when Phil came over to us with two packages of toilet paper. "We're here," he said, an air of exhilaration in his voice. "Let the TPing begin."

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What up friends?!?!? Thanks for reading this chapter.

What could possibly go wrong for Jack in this situation, amiright?... 

That was sarcasm. 

This is very stupid.

Anyway, comment, vote, message me for ANY REASON AT ALL (that's an overstatement) and we'll chat. Have a lovely day! *smiling emoji*