A Boy, a Dog Girl and a Date: Part Two

What is happening?

His friends began to drift away. “Baltz! Buy me dinner!” Timbul said, the skateboard tucked under his arm.

“I’m not your bank account,” Baltz said sharply.

“You mean you’re not ONLY my bank account!”

They walked away, laughing and talking with each other, the friends Zack had made in his relic and athletic classes. They felt normal.

This wasn’t normal.

What was happening?

Honey began to walk forward. In her head, she was reviewing the script she and Chista had made. They had practiced long into the night and even during lunch.

“We’re recreating the scene where the werewolf girl confesses her love to the boy she yearns for, terrified he will reject her because of her strange background. Now, read what I wrote.”

Honey looked at the page in her hands. “Zack, my love for you has trans…what’s this word?”

“Transcended.”

“Oh.”

“It means traveled. You know, it followed you from being a dog to being you now.”

“Can’t I say what you said?”

“No. Read.”

“My love has transcended the boundaries of our original forms. I know you look at me as simply a beast…”

“What? Why did you stop?”

“Does he look at me like a beast?”

“Yes! I mean, no! I mean…READ!”

“Okay! Hang on…simply as a beast, okay. However, my heart beats as red as any human heart. And it beats only for you. My friend, my companion, my…love.”

“Good pause! Okay, then I use some magic, cause some wind, get these flower petals surrounding you and boom! Classic confession of love scene!”

Classic confession scene, Honey thought. I can do this!

She began to walk forward, steps slow and measured. Off to the side, Chista waited behind a bush with a basket of flower petals, an enormous grin on her face.

“Good girl. Stop a few feet ahead, sun over your shoulder. He won’t be able to resist! You’re living poetry, Honey! You’re…”

“What are you doing?”

Chista jerked as he spoke. Baltz crouched next to her, watching them through the bushes.

“Are you helping them get together?”

He didn’t look at her as he spoke, eyes locked on Zack and Honey.

“Yes, actually, I am!”

“Huh…”

“Huh what?”

“I simply hope you’re better at romance than you are at magic.”

“Why you arrogant piece of…”

As Chista began to softly lay into Baltz, Honey looked into Zack’s eyes. Now was the moment. She would say the words she practiced all the previous night. The perfect confession.

She opened her mouth.

She completely forgot what she needed to say.

“Honey? You okay?” Zack stared at her as her mouth remained open, her face looking like it froze mid thought. “You need help, or…”

“Zack! You followed me after I was a dog!”

“I…I did what now?”

“You transplanted with me! Even though our bodies changed and I’m now a person, you love me like a dog!”

“Is there, like, a hidden camera? Does this world have prank video channels? What is going on?”

“But my blood is pumping! It’s going hard and fast right now and my belly feels like it’s gonna blow up because you’re my best friend and I…”

She threw her arms wide open. The pause was good and necessary and important.

“Are you okay? You kinda trailed off there and stopped talking. Do you want me to guess what you were gonna say or…”

“…LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND I WANT TO DATE YOU ZACK!”

 Zack, only caught the first word clearly in Honey’s rush.

“Love?”

In the bushes, Chista was deep in an argument with Baltz. “The flowers are a classic trope in romance confessions!” she hissed.

“They’re cliché,” Baltz dismissed with a wave of his hand.

“Clichés become clichés for a reason! They work! They…oh, crap! Honey said love! Damn you, Baltz! Go, little flower petals! Fly and create romance!”

A wind began to whip up around her hands as she focused her magic on manipulating the air. The petals lifted up, swirling about before shooting towards Honey and Zack. Though Chista was not a profound magic user, conjuring a simple air manipulation spell to create a display of petals behind Honey should have been easy. However, Baltz had left her irritated, so her aim was slightly off. The petals veered off course, smashing into Zack’s face, smothering him in a wonderful smelling assault.

“Sweetheart!” Honey cried out, leaping to his aid as he batted away the flying cloud of flowers. She tackled him and they tumbled over until she rested on top of him.

“Ugh. Why am I covered in flowers and Honey? This is the weirdest way a day of mine ended since I got shot and woke up with…”

Zack stopped talking as he finished wiping the flowers out of his face.

Honey was crying.

“I’m sorry…”

“Honey?”

“This was supposed to be pretty…”

“Honey, wait…”

“I wanted to prove I was more than a dog. I’m…I’m a girl and I feel things and I…but I forgot my script and the flowers hit you in the face and I tackled you and…and…I only wanted to ask you…”

“Ask me…Honey, what did you want to ask me?”

Honey sat up, curling her knees and wrapping her arms around them. “Forget it. I screwed it up.”

For the first time, Zack fully understood what Chistos had told him. This was not his dog. This was a girl. A sad girl, sitting in front of him, feeling like a fool after she tried to ask him…

“Do you want to go on a date?”

“Yes. I was trying to ask you, but I told the Allheim sisters I wasn’t good at this! I’m a dog! I don’t lead, I follow! I don’t ask for…”

“Do you want to go on a date?”

“Yes, Zack! I was trying to ask if you…”

She looked at his eyes.

He wasn’t clarifying.

He was asking.

A small, startled sound escaped her throat.

All she could do was nod.