The Ballerina & The Devil

Ten. Accidents

My mom should've known better than to send me grocery shopping. She really should have.

She had known me for about my entire life, so you'd think she would have picked up on the fact that I'm not a good shopper due to the fact that I will pick up any and all items I see on the shelves. It really wasn't my fault. I had a problem.

That was the argument I intended to use when I got home and had to explain to Mom why instead of buying just a carton of milk and eggs, I bought twelve bags of groceries.

I picked up the last bag and set it in the back seat. It contained a bunch of fattening food I was without a doubt going to feel guilty about eating the second I was finished. I would have to control myself from throwing it all back up

I shut the trunk and rolled my cart to the front of the store. I strolled back over to my car and climbed in, starting the engine.

I made my way through town without any real rush to get home, seeing as Mom would throw a true fit when she saw all my purchases. It was when I was driving down a long, narrow road that was surrounded by a woodsy area on either side of it, that I saw a peculiar sight.

Aidan Benson walking along the side of the road. Alone.

I squinted my eyes to make sure it was really him, and when I could confirm it was him walking a fair distance in front of my car, I frowned.

What was he doing?

Walking.

I rolled my eyes at myself. Yeah, he was walking, but why was he walking down such a random place in town?

Maybe his car broke down. His car probably broke down, and he started walking to find help, but he got lost and now he's attempting to find his way back to civilization.

That made sense.

I pondered on whether or not I should pull over and ask if he needed a ride. I wasn't so sure he'd accept a ride from me which had me reluctant to even try asking. I hadn't rejection. It wasn't fun for anybody. More so for me, I think.

But there is a chance he'll accept, and if I just speed away without asking I'll never know, I reasoned with myself.

But the chance of him turning me down is definitely higher.

But I'm pretty sure we stand at a good place where we can at least be civil towards each other.

But you judo flipped him, I'm pretty sure that's not civil.

He asked me to show him, so I can't even be held accountable for that.

I ran a hand through my hair, distressed. Anxiety had started to build up inside of me, and I drummed my finger against the wheel as I gnawed on the inside of my cheek.

I knew I was overthinking this whole thing and that in retrospect, it really wasn't that serious. Certainly not serious enough for me to get myself worked up about it. It would only take about two seconds to ask Aidan whether he wanted a ride or not and two seconds for him to answer my question, but there were too many factors that came into play that I had to think over. Something I couldn't do in the time it would take to reach him even with my car having slowed down to a crawl.

I couldn't just make a rash decision because if I did I would probably end up totally mortified, and that wasn't an option. It was simply human nature to make any and all attempts to avoid humiliation. It was a frustrating nature, mind you, not to mention really inconvenient when the time came to make a snap decision, but there you have it.