“You must be hallucinating.”
“Don’t act like you didn’t do it,” I told him. “I heard you call me Michelle.”
“Oooh!” he shouted. “Now you’ve done it! You’ve said the forbidden word! We’ve got to punish you! And I think I know just the way to do it!”
He leaped up, grabbed me around the ribs, pulled me down, and started tickling me.Run, run!my brain told me, but it was too late. Jack grinned as I fought him off and struggled away on my hands and knees, then he grabbed my ankle and pulled me close to him. Laughing hysterically, I tried to stand up, but all I accomplished was knocking the sheets and blankets halfway off the bed. Jack turned me over and sat on my stomach, pinning me. I cackled and pushed him away with my one good hand.
“Stop!” I screamed, but amid all that laughter, it wasn’t very convincing. “STOP!!!”
“Ask nicely and I’ll think about it.”
“JACK!”
“You didn’t say the magic word…” he responded in a singsongy voice. He reached slightly under my shirt, and his warm hands made me shiver all over. I wasn’t sure I could take any more, so I gave up and started begging: “OK, OK! Please! Please stop!”
He did as I asked, resting his hands on either side of my head with a smug expression on his face. I covered my heart with my hand, trying to calm down. I was almost hyperventilating.
“I hate you,” I told him.
“Did I hear that correctly? Because if so, we might have to start again…”
“NO! It was a joke, I swear it was a joke!”
“See?” he said. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“I swear to you,” I replied, “one day I’ll find out where you’re ticklish, and trust me, I’ll get my revenge.”
“Go for it. You have my permission to touch me wherever you like.”
Irritated, I grabbed a pillow and slapped him in the face with it. It was a poor excuse for revenge, but it was at least something.
“Oh, so that’s how it is? Now you’re really asking for it,” he told me.
“No! No more tickling! Anything but that!”
“Fine. We can try something else.”
I felt him reach around my waist, and before I knew it, he’d stood and slung me over his shoulder. “Are you serious?” I asked.
Instead of answering, he took his phone out of his pocket and glanced at it briefly. When I tried to peek, he hid it.
“So we’re keeping secrets from each other now?” I asked.
“Michelle, you know I’m a man of mystery.”
“DON’T CALL ME—”
“Besides, you shouldn’t be looking at my phone. Phones are off-limits. I hope you didn’t turn nosy in the year you were away.”
“For your information, I’ve always been nosy!” I informed him.
I could feel his shoulder bucking underneath me as he laughed. “Let’s watch a movie,” he said. “My pick. I’m going to die if I have to watch another garbage reality show.”
“They’re not garbage!”
“Like hell they’re not.”
“You’re garbage!” I said just as he tossed me down on the couch. He rubbed his hands together as though he’d just finished a hard job, and I flipped him a bird. “You could have hurt my hand, you know I’m still wounded,” I reminded him.
