Crossing the gangster

chapter 27

Oh, shut up mind.

I inwardly rolled my eyes at the fact that I was having a conversation with myself but hey, at least talking to me didn't set off a load of butterflies in my stomach.

I finally let out a small sigh when we pulled up into the parking lot, itching to get out of this awkward tension. Why was it so awkward in the first place?

Maybe it was just the way I broke the news to him, it probably came as a shock...

  I was about to leave when he stopped me, a hand resting on my elbow and I sat back in my seat, confusion swirling in my irises.

"Just call me whenever you need me to come okay? Especially if something goes wrong..." He had a knowing glint in his eyes as he stared warily at the coffee shop, which made me wonder; how easily did he read me?

Did he know I was meeting my mother?

But he couldn't know, I hadn't told him. I frantically recalled our conversation, no I hadn't let it slip...

I gave him a small smile and nod, albeit strained before I walked out, head still swarming from the conversation we had and the tingles from where his hand had rested on my bare skin.

I knew that as a gang leader, he could have forced me to tell him since me mixing with the enemies was something that could get me kicked out. But he hadn't, and for some reason that kicked up my heart's frantic reason that kicked up my heart's frantic pace a notch more.

He trusted me....

I pushed the door open to Joe's, the bell tinkling above me and a waft of strong coffee drifting past my nose. The aroma in this shop was unique, coffee beans mingling with waffles and other sweet delicacies that I was yet to try.

But my happy mood soon sobered, a frown overwriting the excited smile as I spotted my mother sitting in a corner booth, a cup of coffee nursed in her hands.

She had changed so much since I had last seen her, her petite frame filling out slightly but not fat, just healthy, a good healthy. Stick and bones to flesh, why hadn't I noticed her decaying state?

Maybe it was because we were all collapsing in that stifling house that her appearance had just seemed... Normal.

There was a glow to her once lackluster skin from being trapped in that house all day long, sitting aimlessly while we all had errands to run. Though a smile had never dropped from her face, fake happiness excluding her being but now...

Now she looked ecstatic and I hated to say this but perfect, which made me slightly jealous even though I shouldn't be.

She was the one who left so why was her life looking so great?

Something within me always despised her for being so selfish, and although the outcome seemed to have benefited her, my jaw clenched as I walked up to the woman that deserted me when I didn't even know I needed her the most...

I forced myself to put all my pained thoughts to the back of my head, thoughts about how the two of us only reacquainted because of a buried secret and how she couldn't bear to meet me in the eyes, knowing she had done me wrong.

Yet a single word of apology didn't slip past her mouth as the corners of her lips turned up, albeit forced, "Hazel dear, its great to meet you."

Those words sounded so foreign, sounded like a teacher to a student, like a stranger to another. Yet I nodded, scanning around the coffee shop for evidence of someone watching us.

I wanted to fool myself that I didn't know who I was looking for, that it was just a habit but his red hair was ingrained into my memory like no other, the red hair of a fleeting memory yet a lasting nightmare.