My Kind of Perfect

by Lockheart, Freesia

  See?

  “John!”

  “Sorry about that. The car in front stopped all of a sudden,” he said, pointing to the black Porsche.

  “By any chance, is it broken?” I asked, a tint of happiness resounded in my voice. If it was broken, that could only mean one thing—freedom from one stalking car. And chances were, we could get away from this honeymoon with just one car to run away from.

  “Maybe,” he said, leaning his chin on the wheel and yawning again.

  “Come on, let's go out and ask them what's wrong. Maybe the plans will change and they'll let us off the hook for today,” I said to him.

  He lazily nodded and unlocked the doors. We went out the car and saw that the Porsche was miraculously spouting off smokes. Lovely. I saw Dorothy coming out of the other car and looking very much displeased. Finally, Heaven smiled down on me. I suddenly wanted to go down on my knees and utter my thanks.

  “Oh my, look at the trouble we have in here,” she uttered as soon as she got closer to us.

  “What a lovely trouble,” I said back, smiling wildly.

  She wasn't pleased by what she had heard. “Oh, is that so?”

  I swallowed hard. Her eyes told me that I had said the most uncalled for words that I could ever utter in this lifetime. I then instantly took it back by saying, “No, I mean... this is really a big trouble. But I'm sure we can find some way to fix this.”

  “It may take some time though,” she replied absent-mindedly.

  Oh great! Her mind was elsewhere and it shouldn't be there at all. For the past few moments that we had been together, I had been more cautious of her every movement. Whenever she creased her eyebrows, it meant that she was thinking of something. Well, from previous observations, it usually involved her plans with me and John. Those were of prime importance for her.

  “Why don't you two go ahead,” she started saying the verdict once more.

  “Ahead?” I echoed.

  “Yes dear, just follow the map I gave you a while ago. The boys and I will be coming along a little later,” she said.

  Was she serious?

  “You're letting us off your sight?” blurted John.

  I nudged him in the stomach and whispered to him, “Let her. This is our lucky chance.”

  “You saying something, Kayla?” asked Dorothy, curious at what I just said.

  “It’s nothing important. I told him he looked so handsome today. And I mean, we can find our way to that resort. Meet you up there?” I replied, smiling at her with eyes sparkling.

  Dorothy nodded and told us, “Go along, both of you.”

  “Okay!” I blissfully replied, forcefully dragging John back to the car.

  As soon as we got inside, John instantly asked, “So what's the plan?”

  “We'll lose them and head back home instead,” I replied, feeling smart again with such a brilliant plan in mind.

  “It's a one way street. There's no other way around,” he said while examining the map.

  “We don't have to use the map or the roads that are placed in there.”

  He looked at me and asked with a confused expression. “We're not?”

  “Yes,” I said, “If there's no road, we'll just have to make one!”

  He gave it a thought, I presumed. He stayed silent for several minutes as his fingers lightly tapped the steering wheel. “Kaye, that doesn't sound like a good idea.”

  My shoulders dropped in disappointment. I couldn't believe that he just said that my brilliant plan was some utter nonsense. I argued, “It's the most intelligent thing one person could every think of.”

  “But making a road out of nowhere and not to mention in the mountains, is just plain absurd,” he said, stressing the words.

  “Don't call my plan absurd. Think about it, do you want to go along with Dorothy's plan?” I asked him.

  “Of course not.”

  “Then trust me, I've got a good brain to put into use,” I said, all high and mighty.

  “You sure?” he said, holding on the wheels doubtfully. “Cause really...”

  “Positive,” I assured him before he even say anything that could ruin my mood.

  I was just saying that. After a while, I realized that my plan was absurd.

  “I don't think this will lead to any good,” John finally said while trying to get the car out of a mud cow path.

  “Just a little more and we'll be out of this in no time,” I said, showing off a spark of my undying optimism for the past few hours.

  He stepped on the gas and the wheels roared in an epic attempt to get out of the mud. However, as hard as he tried, the car already gave up on us and mellowed itself in the mud path instead. John took off his seatbelt and said, “There's no way we can get this thing out of this mud. I'm going out.”

  “Wait! What about me?” I said in protest.

  “What? You won't come down and just stay here?”

  I looked around and saw that we were lost in the middle of nowhere. Staying here didn't seem to be the most enticing idea either. I cleared my throat and said, “I will. I'll come down.”

  Then in a moment, I heard the slamming of the door from my left. I looked outside and saw the knee deep mud that I have to walk through. Gross. I watched as John unloaded the things from the trunk and get the ones, I presumed, we needed to survive in this... woods or mountain.

  Why was I even here?

  John grumpily tapped his feet as he waited for me to come out of the car. I looked outside again and hoped that somehow, the mud miraculously dried up and there will be flower beds in place of it instead. Reality hitting on, there was still mud when I looked again for the second time.

  Then John knocked on the car window beside me. I rolled it down. “What are you still doing out there?”

  I crossed my arms and answered, “I can't go down. There's a lot of mud.”

  John let out an annoyed sigh and furiously rubbed his hair with his hand. “You're driving me crazy, Kaye. Can't you dirty your feet sometimes?”

  “Nope,” I muttered.

  “Fine, then stay there,” he said, walking away in anger. I watched as he grabbed the things and headed towards the depths of the woods.

  Was he seriously leaving me behind? How could he? It's dangerous out here and it's already getting dark. Holding my head out the window, I shouted, “You're gonna leave me behind?”

  He stopped on his tracks and turned back. “You said you won't come out from there.”

  “I...” I said back then looked down again and winced at the sight of the mud.

  “Keep your beautiful feet away from the mud and stay there. I'm going up to the resort,” he said before starting to walk away again.

  “Wait!” I exclaimed, “I'm coming with you.”

  He stopped walking again and watched me instead of answering back. I gulped and opened the car door. The first thing that greeted me was the earth colored mud that was trickily placed on the ground.

  Eww. Gross.

  “Aren't you going to carry me or something?” I asked, hoping that maybe he'd like to consider it. For the first and last time in my entire life, I would let him touch me.

  “No.” His answer was firm and relentless.

  “Fine!” I removed my stilettos and stared disgustingly at the mud. I told myself that I could do this with the thought that there was always a flowing river in every mountain. There had to be. And after another long moment, I lifted my dress and plunged my feet into the mud.

  It was yuck.

  Just thinking about the composition of this mud made me feel like throwing up. What if there was a poop in here? And so, with the horrifying thought, I hurriedly stumbled my way out. And as I was nearing the firm ground, something caught my feet and I lost my balance.

  Thud.

  No. I just didn’t fell right into the poop mud.

  “Are you okay?” I heard John's voice as soon as I got my face off the freaking mud.

  I believed that he was standing in front of me,
and there was the slightest hint of worry in his voice that he all failed to keep inside. As I blindly searched for something to wipe my eyes and lips with, I swore that I was now looking like a zombie covered with mud. I tried grabbing some clean towel or anything that I could make use of. Then as if reading my thoughts, John handed me a towel.

  I hurriedly wiped away the mud in my face. Opening my eyes, I saw the succumbed laughter in his face. I narrowed my eyes in dismay and shouted, “Don't you dare laugh at me!”

  Then that was when he let it all out. He let that one annoying and utterly pesky laughter escaped in the air. As he was doing so—annoying and all—I forced myself to calm down. I ended up convincing myself that he was not making fun of me and I tried my hardest to compose my face.

  Calm down.

  He paused and studied me for a while and then laughed again. And so the next thing I knew was that I pulled him into the mud—making sure that his face hit the disgusting muck first. Now we were even. And as expected, he angrily stood up after and I endearingly wiped away the mud on his face to get back at him in a grand way.

  “Why did you do that?” He was raged.

  “Cause you laughed at me,” I said before turning around and getting out of the mire. Then out of nowhere, instead of me walking away like I’d conquered the world, John grabbed my dress from behind and pulled me. And with all the pulling, I stumbled down and fell directly into the mud again.

  Then he started to run and get away from me as fast as he could. Really? Payback? I angrily slammed my hands on the mud in ire and pointed my forefinger to him, warning him, saying, “You get back here!”

  I saw him picked up our things and ran for his dear life. Following him with a wrath incomparable to any other, I picked up the pace and started running to him and also to the uncertain future where I was heading to.

  Today may come out strong. It may take you off to another place where destiny believes you should be heading to. All you need to do is take that chance and move along, bearing in mind that somewhere out there, one magical moment is just waiting to happen.

  Chapter 13

  There are certain things that can make any girl feel crazy. At times, it is that feeling that she never asked for. The one that will catch her off guard. Yet, at the same time, it is that same feeling that can make her realize that everything is just right.

  “Wait! You're not making me walk that far!” I protested while looking at the map that he held in hand. From where we had assumed we were and the resort that Dorothy was talking about, the freaking distance was vast. It was murderously vast, that as if just by thinking about it, it already shot us dead.

  “Whose fault was it that we were in this kind of situation?” asked John, creating another argument again.

  “Of course it is yours. If you only know how to get that stupid car out of the mud, we won't be in this kind of situation in the first place,” I said back to him, meeting his irritated eyes.

  “But it was your idea that we make a road out of nowhere,” he continued the argument, emphasizing more on the 'nowhere' part.

  “My idea is fine. Blame it on your lack of driving skills,” I told him, holding my arms across my chest.

  “My driving skills?”

  Oh crap, I hit the wrong button.

  No one should even dare talk about his driving skills. For him, that certain skill was his gift. It was like he believed that he lived just to drive. Don't make me elaborate it any further, for I also had no idea why that was so.

  But taking on the gun and pointing it to my head, I continued, “Yes, I'm sure I said the right thing. If it wasn't for...”

  I froze instantly in place, my whole body went numb. Even though we were in the middle of an argument, I clearly heard that fluky noise which sounded more like a grunt. I looked at John and saw how the color drifted off from his face. He know what that sound was for him to be that terrified. Was I the only one who hadn't realized what it was?

  But clearly, we both heard it and I was not just imagining things. It was the sound of snapping of twigs followed by a scoff or something, whatever that was. But surely, it wasn't a pleasant sound to hear when you were just by yourselves and lost in the depths of the woods in this mountain located in the middle of nowhere.

  “You think...” I started saying, my words trembling as they made their way out of my mouth.

  He met my quivering eyes and I saw him nervously swallowed the lump in his throat. Then he said, “I think that it's...”

  Another twig snapped again, sending shivers to my skin. “Goodness!”

  “Kaye, I think it's a...”

  And before he can finish off what he was trying to say, a black boar that was definitely provoked by our presence appeared from the woods. As if making its grand entrance even more spectacular, he scoffed angrily and scraped his hoofs on the soil.

  “Let's find a higher ground,” he whispered to me.

  “Why are you whispering? It's not like the boar can understand you,” I told him, trying to get the thoughts out of my head or it might just kill me, if not the angry boar would do that part.

  “Stop throwing words back to me. I'm serious. We should find some kind of a higher ground,” he hissed.

  The boar jeered again, moving even closer to us.

  I was instantly alarmed. “Higher ground?”

  “Oh good, now you're listening,” he said back, holding my arm with his hand.

  “Where exactly are we going?” I asked him, before making any kind of movement. I was still looking at the boar and saw that it was, like us, staring from a good distance.

  “Not sure,” he said. Then before I could even answer anything, he started dragging me on to the depths of the woods.

  “Wait! Don't tell me you don't know where we are going,” I said to him while running, catching my breath in between the words.

  “Stop talking and just run. It's coming closer,” he answered, looking behind to see the location of our 'assailant'.

  We ended up running around in circles. And assuming from how his head went back and forth in all directions, I think he was trying to find that higher ground he was talking about earlier. Only that, it was not in sight.

  “A tree! We can climb that one,” I said, pointing to a tree that had branches spread across. My heart skipped wild as I marveled on how the tree seemed to be solely made for my rescue. It was a good thing that I was generous enough to share a part of my luck with him.

  He nodded and started pushing me up. It took me a moment before I realized that he was violating one of my rights. “Stop touching me!”

  “I'm not touching you. It's getting closer. Hurry up!”

  I climbed up, yanking my feet on his face just to get even. And then after several seconds, I reached a branch where I was sure, could never be touched by that wild beast. John did the same and reached the spot a little later.

  And in a moment, which I was certain was also a product of my utmost luck, the little boar arrived, still scoffing and puffing in anger. If it wasn't for my luck, that boar could have had caught up with us earlier. The beast looked around and saw that we were not in sight anymore. Then after a moment of searching, he went to the other side, all fast and huffy again.

  How did we even outrun that beast? I wondered about it as I looked at its departing figure. Talk about what hormones could do. It could actually make a normal person transform to a mutant for a moment.

  And speaking of hormones, oh my, Johnny here held my butt a while ago. Not letting it pass, I said to him, “Hey, just to remind you, I'm off limits.”

  He turned his gaze to me. “Huh?”

  “Don't huh-uh me. You know what I'm talking about,” I said, pointing to my perfectly shaped bottom.

  “You mean a while ago? Come on Kaye, I can't even remember the...” he said, lost for words as he looked at his right hand and tried squeezing some air. Then he finished, “...feeling.”

  “Feeling?” I couldn’t believe he just said that. “Of what?
The sensation of touching that?”

  “Yeah,” he said, nodding. Then as if to tease me, a hint of smile flashed on his face. It grew wider by the second.

  “Don't you dare think about that!” I spurted, warning him. In anger, I held on tightly on the branch where we were seated and it sort of snapped.

  “Woah, easy. Don't make us fall.”

  “Oh, you will fall from that spot if you will continue to think about that,” I said back.

  “Well, you're the one who brought up the topic,” he said, quite laughing to himself.

  “And you're that amused?”

  “Well, for most part, you are amusing,” he told me. Blinking twice, I failed to realize if that was meant to be a compliment or an insult.

  “Okay, let's get it clear. You're not allowed to touch me,” I stated, trying to end the conversation and finalizing things.

  “Pleasure is all mine,” he said.

  I continued “You don't have the right nor do you possess any kind of privilege to touch me. Just because you're my fake husband doesn't mean that you possess those rights.”

  “O-kay,” he faltered.

  I was annoyed that he was not taking me seriously. I mean we were talking about my rights here. It was the freaking right of an important person named Kayla Wilson. He should be paying attention to my worries.

  “What?” he asked. He must have seen how flared I was for him to ask me what.

  “Let's make a deal.”

  “A deal? Aren't you tired of all the deals we’re stuck in?”

  “No,” I said. “And in fact, I'm starting to think that deals sound like a good idea after all.”

  “Yup, it makes the world go round,” he sarcastically added.

  “Whatever. So getting back to the point. I'm going to penalize you every time you touch me,” I said to him.

  “Penalize?” he asked, trying to find the rationale for what he had heard.

  “Yes, penalize. In other words, so as to make you avoid touching me, I'll make you pay for each time that you touch me—accidental or not,” I said to him, stating the verdict of the century.