Carlos Sentara stepped from the Boys Room and immediately spotted the tall, slender form of Wren. Donning his most innocent grin, he made a beeline for her, spinning aside at the last instant, his hand cupping her ass and giving it a squeeze. To his disappointment, she did not react and his grin grew lecherous. Until he noticed his feet no longer touched the floor.
The girl stopped and turned to face him, the expression on her face bland as if she had noticed a spot on the ceiling. Carefully closing her book she tucked it under one slim arm and approached Carlos who was now five feet from the floor. From a pocket she extracted a pink ribbon with a loop already formed at one end. Deftly she flipped it over the toe of his shoe and drew it tight around his ankle. He spun slowly until he faced her.
“You thought Nathanial didn’t care about the remarks made to me?”
Carlos shrugged, “Well, yeah, man, he don’t care if I pinch your ass or scope you out.”
“Actually, you are mistaken,” Wren said. “He cares very much but I have told him I can take care of myself and he trusts me to do just that.”
She tugged he ribbon and Carlos slowly began to rotate.
“Whachu gonna do, chica?” He was beginning to grow concerned.
“I am not your ‘chica’,” Wren replied then gave him a tiny push and he floated slowly toward the ceiling trailing the pink ribbon. Thirty feet above the floor she pulled him to a stop where he hovered five feet below the acoustic tiles. Nothing was in reach.
“Hey!” Carlos said. “You gotta get me down!”
“I am sure someone will come along soon and reel you in,” Wren said, turning on her toe. “You had best hope it ISN’T Nathaniel.”
“HEY, come on! Can’t you take a joke?!”
When class broke twenty minutes later, Carlos became the subject of considerable speculation as to how and why he’d been left like a discarded balloon in the middle of the hall. Some merely teased him, a couple held the ribbon and started him spinning. When Belle found him she burst out laughing and snatched the ribbon from Mal who appeared to be thinking about pulling him down.
“Oh, no,” Belle grinned and looked up at the hapless young man. “You think you God’s gift to women?”
She pulled him into a fast spin.
“Come on, Belle,” Carlos groaned as the walls began to blur.
“You grabbed the wrong ass, I think,” Belle called up. “And I think you need to stay up there a while.”
She made a sound like the tink of a tiny bell and the ribbon fell away three meter up leaving Carlos spinning.
“Anybody get him down before I say gonna have ta answer to me,” Belle glared at the little group gathered below the rotating Carlos. “Now youse better get out from under him before he spews.”
The crowd disappeared like cockroaches finding themselves suddenly exposed by the kitchen lights. Belle looked up at Carlos and smiled to herself. That would teach him to grab other girls’ asses. For an instant she felt something odd, a little guilty maybe, but she buttoned it away and headed for her next class.
Nat Ryan looked up at the slowly rotating Carlos then at the spatter of puke all over the marble floor tiles. Growing three feet taller he caught the trailing ribbon and brought the boy to a stop. Very carefully he drew Carlos down to eye level.
“Carlos,” he said. “I am not the one you have to worry about as you can see.”
The young man’s eyes were scanning from side to side as if still in the spin.
“Wren could just as easily have done this to you outside,” Nat said, shrinking to his normal 7’3” and keeping Carlos close. “You have no respect for women and because of that, no one respects you.”
Suddenly gravity returned and Carlos landed in a puddle of his own making. He tried to cling to the floor.
“I’d suggest you clean up your mess then take a shower,” Ryan said as Wren appeared at his side. “And next time you start to grab Wren’s ass . . . try to imagine being at 40000 feet without a plane.” Slipping an arm around her waist, he turned and stepping carefully over the barf, headed outside.
Carlos groaned and rolled over onto his back, ignoring the vomit, happy the world had at last stopped spinning. When he heard the squeak of wheels he looked over to find Belle pushing a mop bucket his way by the mop’s handle.
“You tell anybody ‘bout this, I’ll ring a bell that will make you dizzy for a month.”
He sat up and stared at her for a long minute then tentatively smiled.
“Thanks, he said.
“See? Dat weren’t so hard,” Belle said.
Carlos struggled to his feet, almost falling but Belle was under his arm supporting him.
“Man, you stink like a Philly alley in summer!”
That’s when he noticed she wasn’t wearing her earbuds. It made him look at her.
“Don’t be givin’ me dat look, we ain’t gonna be fuck buddies jest ‘cuz I wanna get da smell of vomit out of da building.” She scowled up at him and he did something totally unexpected. He kissed her.
She didn’t pull away like he’d expected. She did react however with a surprisingly heated kiss in return. After a few moments he drew back and he could see something he’d never seen in Belle’s eyes before. Hope. He kissed her again.
