I woke up that morning without a shirt, but I had jean shorts on. I looked around and saw Del, he was just… sitting there, looking at my shirt on the floor and then looking at his hands, back and forth, shirt then hands. "Morning, how did you sleep," he said as he handed me my shirt, and grabbed a glass of water. "Morning…" I said confused, as I fixed my shirt so I didn't put it on backwards and inside out.
"Last thing I remember before passing out from sleep is we were watching Dead Souls, oh gees… did we..."he shook his head, "Ew! We… ew! We kissed," he shook his head again, then said, "We didn't just kiss, we kind of… umm… made out," He said, "EW!!! I could have gone all day without knowing we did that… don't tell anyone!"
"Okay, I won't tell anyone." He held up his hands as he said, "Thanks, and can you give me a lift to school, you coming today or are you going to ditch school again?" I said as I got dressed and grabbed my bag, "And can you drive me home?" I grabbed a brush and brushed my hair, "Where are the washcloths, I want to try to get the smell of your cologne off me so that people don't start wondering what we were doing, ugh I don't even want to think about it." I said as I started looking for some washcloths, "here! They are always under the sink by the way."
I hopped in the truck and he drove me to my house so I could check on the animals, we picked up a baby armadillo that Del almost ran over, as I put it in a little box, the baby cougar yowled and stared at me and I stared back… then I blacked out.
"Mack! Mack! You okay!" Del said as he shook me, I woke up and hit him in the mouth with my head, "What happened? What, are you ok? I said as I held out my hand and he took it, "Yea I… I'm fine," He said as he rubbed his head.
"You sure you're okay… your lip is bleeding." I handed him a paper towel, and rubbed my eyes, "I don't feel so well," I said as I rubbed my eyes, "Ok, no school for you, you are going to bunk with me till you feel better, ok? Because your parents will kill me, if you go home sick after spending the night at my house they will think that I either drugged you or I gave you a beer or something, because everybody knows that your parents hate my guts, so I say let's go." He said as he helped me up.
I looked into those glimmering green eyes and… kissed him. "Um, let's go," he said as he held the shed door open for me and walked me back to the truck, "HEY!!! Where are you guys going?" April said as she ran up to the truck, "Mack aren't you coming to school? Tomorrow is the test and did you even study?" She said so fast I think my head exploded, "Um… Mack isn't feeling well so I… was just taking her home", April cut him off, "Her house is the other way Del, and didn't you guys just come from there? He cut her off, "Yeah, ok April shut up see you whenever Mack is feeling better." He said, then drove off so fast, that I'm pretty sure that my soul flew out of my body and was standing next to April.
"Why did you do that?" I said as he grabbed the door and helped me out, "I mean she was talking to me not you," I said as he put me down on the ground so that I wouldn't fall and bust my head open. "Yeah, but April annoys me and annoys you at times, so I did both of us a favor, and plus I don't think you're going to even be able to go to school tomorrow because of what happened… So yea and by the way you're welcome. He said as he picked me up and plopped me on the couch, with a warm blanket and two pillows.
"How are you feeling?" He said as he was making some tea without a shirt. "I feel like crap, my head hurts and the world is spinning, when did you wake up?" I got ready to take a shower, "I woke up like three hours ago, and ate breakfast and even ran to the store before you woke up." He said, and tossed me a towel.
"Wait… did you hear that?" I whispered and then ran outside, then half way down from the porch I heard the ear splitting yell of a wild cougar, "Mack!!! Stay there don't move!!!" he yelled, the cougar stared at me in anger, anger that I have never seen or experienced, her eyes as golden yellow as any cougar's eyes, I saw her inside me like… like I switched bodies with the cougar. "Del!!! Run to my house go to the animal shed and grab the cougar cub, Now!!!" I stood there, trying to not fall to the ground in fear, but instead I moved closer in curiosity to the beautiful nature of the wild cougar up close.
The cougar snarled and got into her pouncing stance. "Del, hurry!" I got down lower and kept my eyes on the mother cougar; it hissed, stood up and stared at me the same I stared back. I got a glimpse at its right back foot, there was a small faded almost paw mark on it. I looked at it in awe then I heard another cougar cry from amongst the forest, and a flock of birds flying out. Del ran out fast and had the baby cougar in his arms, "Del hand me the cougar… I'll give it to her…" the cougar kept her eyes locked on me then moved her gaze quickly to the moaning baby of hers, she hissed and stood there showing her long 2 inch fangs. She swished her long tanned tail back and forth and she lowered herself to the ground, Del gave me the baby cougar, "You sure you can do this without being pounced on?" he said while handing over the cougar.
I grabbed the little cougar, and walked slowly to the mother cougar. She stared at me straight in the eyes and kept her mouth open as a threat to me to back away. I walked slowly up to her and slowly and softly set the baby down. She walked up to her infant and grabbed it softly on the back of its neck and sauntered off into the forest.
Del and I both took a sigh in relief that the cougar didn't attack us, "oh my god. I am glad that she didn't attack us" he said as he got his scared adrenaline pumped up heart calmed down a bit. "Yeah, did you see what was on her right back foot?" I stared off into the woods then started walking towards Del's house, he followed and we both kept quiet while walking to his house.
I called my mom and told her I was thinking about moving in with Del, so I could be his roommate since his parents aren't home. He has to start paying the bills so I'm going to help him out. She told me the same thing my father did which was "I'm too young to be a grandparent" then she hung up after I said that won't happen for a long while.
We made it to Del's house and got settled and ordered some pizza and I went and took a shower. Del watched TV and got comfy on the couch. After I got out of the shower and I got into my sports bra, the one I used to box in, I got my Nike shorts on and walked off into the living room. Del was on the couch then he went into his room and he put on his sweat pants and took off his shirt, and he looked at his six pack in his mirror, he walked back into the living room and plopped himself next to me on the couch.
"To answer your question Mack, I did see the mother cougar's mark on her foot, and I did hear the other louder cougar cry in the forest. The mark on the mother cougar's foot looks like the same one that's on your side on your ribs… I saw it when we made out that night. It looks beautiful, it would look better if you would get it tattooed over. But you don't have to get it tattooed over." He stuck his hands into his pants and itched himself and then took them out.
I looked at him in surprise, "I thought we said we weren't to speak of that." I spoke annoyed. "Ah, ah, ah, we agreed we weren't going to speak of it to anybody else, we did not agree to never talking about it amongst ourselves. We could do a small make out session again if you want, but… we don't have to ever again if you did not enjoy it the first time." He spoke of interest in me and in embarrassment by bringing it up.