12

As we were walking through a small wooded area of the park, Flynn spoke abruptly.

"Hey, Alison, I just thought of another loophole."

I looked up at him and asked, "Really? What is it?"

"I could just kiss myself," he said with a small laugh.

"So have you kissed a frog before, or will this be the first time?" I asked playfully.

Flynn threw his head back and laughed. I smiled, looking up at the colorfully decorated trees' branches that formed a shifting tunnel above our heads.

I was still a little chilly, but I wasn't going to take Flynn's coat, even though he wasn't even wearing it anymore. I have dignity, despite what impressions you may have gotten.

"Excuse me," a woman's voice jerked me out of my thoughts, and I looked back down to earth, halting my steps as Flynn stopped as well.

In front of us on the path stood a middle-aged woman with dark hair and a large, bulky, expensive-looking camera.

My brain froze immediately. How am I supposed to speak with an absolute stranger unexpectedly?

But fortunately, Flynn was there, and he's kind of a social butterfly. "Yes?"

The woman smiled. "I was wondering if I could take your picture. You see, I'm a professional photographer and I like to take pictures of couples I find interesting."

Couples? Interesting? We were neither interesting nor a couple. And had she been following us all day, watching us to see if we were interesting enough to warrant a photograph?

"Okay, sure," Flynn answered immediately. What?!

His hand brushed against mine before apparently he sprouted a brain cell (shocking!) and didn't touch me. I hid my face behind my hands, a blush creeping up my cheeks, not that anyone could see it. I peeked through my fingers, and saw the photographer woman smiling at me.

Flynn leaned down slightly, whispering in my ear. "Come on, don't hide your face, Alison. A face like yours doesn't need to be kept behind hands, or a veil of hair."

While he was saying all that bull-crap, I heard the camera click several times. Flynn straightened back up, he and the woman exchanged trivial little niceties before she walked away, thanking us for our time.

When she was gone, I immediately returned to my normal self. I smacked Flynn in the arm.

"How dare you let her think we were a couple!"

"We are a couple. A couple of people walking down a path in a park," he said, smirking.

I glared at him. "You know what I mean." I started walking away, and of course he followed me.

I glanced over my shoulder at him. "Look, I want some time to myself. Just meet me at the car at 6:30, okay?"

He looked concerned, but simply nodded.

I turned to leave, but he stopped me. "Alison, wait."

That sentence was beginning to sound like a broken record. I slowly rotated to face him, and he was looking at me with those brown-black eyes of his, looking a bit like a lost puppy or something.

"What? There's nothing wrong with recharging my antisocial batteries that get drained by human interaction. Also, I'm a bit fed up with you at the moment."

He sighed in what I assume to be defeat. "Fine. But I really like hanging out with you, you know." I was kind of touched by this, until he added: "even if every other thing you say to me is an insult."

I rolled my eyes and kept walking away. "See you at 6:30, Flynn," I called over my shoulder.

"Bye."

~

Six-thirty rolled around all too soon. However, by the time I made my way back to my vehicle, I was all nice and recuperated, prepared to confront humans - or more specifically, Mr. Hot Stuff - once more.

He was sitting on the curb by the car, poisoning himself and the air around him with a cigarette. As I approached, he looked up, and immediately tossed the thing on the ground and stomped on it with his foot. At long last, the caveman was learning manners.

"Are you still mad at me?" He asked, looking up at me from where he sat as I came to a halt in front of him.

"Nope," I replied, feeling all of my pockets, searching for my keys while still looking at him, "I'm all cooled off now." I frowned upon the discovery that my pockets were in fact empty. "Do you happen to have my keys?"

He shook his head, rising to his feet.

I bent over and peered into the driver's side window of my car. Sure enough, sitting there on the seat were my keys. Groaning, I quickly tugged on the handle. Locked. "Aw, dammit!"

"Locked us out, did you?" Flynn asked.

"Obviously."

He crossed his arms. "You do realize that locking us out of our only form of transportation is against the Terms and Agreements, don't you?"

"Stop teasing and just help me...do something!" I cried, turning to glare at him.

He chuckled, but assured me this wasn't the first time he'd been locked out of a vehicle, and informed that he knew "exactly what to do".

"I'll be right back," he said, then sprinted off in the direction of Main Street.

How the hell was he going to help me by running away? I plopped down on the curb and sulked until he did come back. With a wire coat hanger in hand.

"Where did you get that?" I asked.

"A clothing store, where else?"

"And what's it for?"

"Watch and learn, Alison," he said - cockily, in my opinion - and proceeded to bend the hanger all out of its usual shape and shove it into the minuscule gap between the window and the door.

A few seconds of fiddling around, and then: click. He grabbed the handle, and viola, the door opened.

He turned to me, smirking, as I stared in amazement. "Cool." I approved.

He gave a small, playful bow and said, "I think I deserve a kiss, don't you?"

I was about to protest profusely until he brought the back of his hand up to his lips and kissed it. Ah, yes, the second loophole.

"You know, you figured out so many loopholes for your own task," I said, standing up, "I should've figured one out for mine."

He motioned for me to get in the car. "Actually, I figured one out for you." I sank into the driver's seat, grabbing my keys and stuffing them in the ignition as he shut the door for me and walked around to the passenger side and got in.

"See, I was thinking that you and your friend Jenna could fake a fight in front of, well, everyone, and then claim you were no longer friends, and then she'd sleep over, and that'd be the end of it," he explained, fastening his seatbelt.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I pouted, buckling up and putting the car in reverse.

"I didn't think of it until today," he said, glancing back as I started to pull out. 

"Alison!" He yelled abruptly, grabbing the steering wheel.

This startled me into halting. "What, Flynn?!"

"There was a kid back there!" He gasped, clutching at his heart with the hand that wasn't clamped onto the steering wheel.

I looked back. "What? But I checked." But sure enough, there was now a small child standing back behind us. Sweet Frodo of the Shire I'm glad Flynn saw him. My breath suddenly hitched in my throat.

"I almost flattened a kid," I whispered, slowly turning back to Flynn, who was still staring at me, "that wouldn't have ended well."

Flynn's eyes were wide as he continued to stare at me. "Maybe I should drive."

"It would've been awful....and I don't even like kids!" I said, frowning.

"You should let me drive, Alison," Flynn said, still clutching the steering wheel.

"No! You can't drive! I have to be in control!"

"So you can run over some kids?"

"No...."

He looked back behind us again. "Well, he's gone now. But I wish you'd let me drive."

"No. And that's the end of it."