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 Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 10:28 pm
Hero immediately struggled her way out of Jude's hold; she pushed him away, both hands on his chest. She stood in front of him now, eyebrows up somewhere around her hairline, stiff as knotwood as her eyes blazed. She had gone from zero to tightly stiff-upper-lip furious so quickly as to break the sound barrier.
"Mr. Lawson," she said tightly, "did you just accuse me of being -- a queer? Because if you did, repeat it, only this time more plainly. Say it right to my face. And I'd also ask that if you have any desire to -- matchmake -- " she said the word as though it were a dead mouse she was holding out, or a sour taste to spit out -- "you either beat yourself about the head to get rid of it, or let me do it for you."
Hero's mouth had a ferocious curl to it. She was also unashamedly blazing, fingers curled into fists as she obviously tried to control her temper.
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 11:16 pm
His brother was right. The butch ones were crazy.
"A queer? What is this, the 1920s?" Yes, that's right. The door-opening, coat-on-puddle-putting, borderline male chauvinist was standing there scolding this girl for using a derogatory term against gay people. What made him more of a hypocrite was that Jude was homophobic himself, in the sense he was sort of scared by the idea of it. (Maybe hiding something, maybe not. You couldn't prove a thing.)
Buuut, with Hero before him throwing out insults, that natural sense of I MUST DEFEND THE UNDERDOG (indeed so intense only SHOUTING IT would suffice) kicked in.
Still, because he didn't remember why he was unusually aggressive with this girl, he acted how he would if she was any other lady he offended (oh God help him there were so many). Taking her one of her curled hands into his, he lifted it to his lips and planted a kiss gently on fingers that may end up killing him in his sleep later. Or, you know, right there on the street.
This always made the girl's hearts melt. And, hair aside, Hero was definitely all woman. The plan was foolproof!
"Don't get defensive, my lovely wife. If you'd take my advice and grow your hair out you'd be so pretty no one would ever make the mistake."
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 1:17 am
Jude was treated to the sight of Hero Barrett going as red as her hair: a flush that grew from her neck to her cheeks to even the tips of her ears, a nuclear blush, a true-to-God redheaded-hair blush. If her heart wasn't melting, apparently her blood temperature was going into overload.
This was compounded with her doing something so girlish, so impulsive, so puerile that she was embarrassed: she slapped him. Her hand made a resounding, satisfying CRACK! across his face that was more loud than it was painful, and she turned around and started stalking down the path.
"Save your ridiculous, overweening chivalry for someone who'll appreciate it," she actually growled. "Somebody whose IQ is tepidly room temperature. One of your tee hee girls."
This too felt like something she had accused him of before. At that point, she loathed herself more than him. She had SLAPPED HIM. Why didn't she backhand him? Why did she have to lose her temper? Why did he make her lose her control? God, he was just so irritating! So loathesomely irritating!
"I'm sorry I hit you, Lawson," she said, salting the wound with magnanimity.
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 1:34 am
Jude was just as surprised as she was. Did she just hit him? Did she just hit him? He wasn't stressing the 'she' because of her identity, but because a girl had hit him. And for what? For being nice!
Jude was nice, and in fact so nice, he scolded himself instead of having a single bitter thought about her. The sting on his face was remedied with just ignoring it; you didn't get to be as good a boxer as he was if you couldn't take a punch to the face, let alone a slap. (He'd heard once slaps hurt more, but clearly, whoever made this claim had never been decked by Marcel.)
"That's alright," he responded sincerely. To make matters worse, he was grinning. Not just grinning, but grinning. The damn Chesire Cat would have gawked at how wide the b*****d managed to make it look. He had no idea why, but it felt so... There was really no word to express the level of joy that came with getting under this girl's skin. All he could think was: This what be like passing every class with an A feels like.
Except, that was a joy he would never know. But this? This was right here, right now. Lord, it was awesome. He only hoped it had something to do with this unknown familiarity with her, and not being turned on by being hit or something creepy like that. His grandmother would roll over in her grave and wake up just to die again, bless her heart!
Still smirking oh-so-contently, he continued his own stride, catching up to her again. "You know, I think I'm actually going to go to class." For once. "But I'll rain check you on this juice." Determined to relish this sweet, sweet victory a bit more, he suddenly caught her by the shoulder and leaned toward her ear, whispering in a voice that one could rightfully accuse of being a little more than friendly: "Just Jude is fine for you, dear."
Then he bolted away like a bit out of Hell (though it felt like Heaven), back toward the school, before she could hit him again. The fact he giggled like a girl while doing so would stay between him and God.
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 2:23 am
"Run faster, Lawson!" echoed behind him -- but it was all done, the victory was his.
And Hero Bennett found that she would be unnaturally ruffled the entire day.
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