Attraction

(4) | .Caleb.

The look on her face as I hung my apron on my peg against the wall was a representation of dismay. I couldn't see what the problem was. She and Em got on just fine together.

"Let me get this straight." She folds her arms and hugs her chest. "You asked me to meet you here to see if I would be free to look after Emerald while you hung with your mates until the early hours of tomorrow morning. That's the deal here?"

I straighten my posture leaning against the wall as I looked over her. "Are you saying that's not okay with you, A?" My shift in tone makes her rethink her statement and her wall begins to fade away.

I don't see her anymore. Instead, when she goes back to being her vulnerable self, all I see is Azzy and it causes me to look away. Every time she changes from hot to cold, my imagery swerves from A to Azarea and when I see Azarea, I can't look at either of them for much longer so I turn away.

"I'm just saying." She shrugs.

She waits by the entrance when I enter the kitchen to let my manager know I was leaving and when I walk back out, A was still stood by the borderline along the two floorings. "I thought-"

"You thought what, A?" I ask, walking past her and grabbing my hoody off my peg.

She follows me when I walk out of the building to enter the apartment block next door.

The old man from upstairs was sat on the chair. Gary. He was asleep with a cigarette dangling out the corner of his lips. We ignore him and make our way for the lifts.

I press the button for the third floor.

"Have you ever thought that maybe it's not fair on Emerald when you leave her every night to go drinking?" She sounded much more timid, like she was walking over egg-shells. I didn't like that because it reminds me of how sensitive I used to be whenever Azzy was around.

"Why?" I retort. "She's not going to bring a boy into the apartment. She's not got a dozen friends to have a party with. She's fourteen. She knows how to look after herself."

I didn't like speaking about this topic because I had this same conversation with Azarea before the incident.

I can feel my chest convulsing and the monitor which hung by my heart begins to lightly vibrate. I make clenched fists and twiddle my thumbs, the lift doors seeming to take longer than usual to open up.

I close my eyes and block out the sound of A's voice when memories from that night two years ago come to pass.

//

"She's fine Azzy. Honestly, you need to stop worrying." I gripped the steering wheel in my left hand while my right stressfully ran through my shortly-cut hair.

Azzy sat beside me on the passenger seat while Em was in the back, sleeping. Mum and Dad drove on the lane next to us. We would have all gone in the same car if it wasn't for the amount of luggage we had to get us through the week.

Neither one of my family members had been to Plymouth before but Azzy's Nona lived there. She'd invited us to stay for a couple of days.

The traffic was building up but so was my impatience the more I listened to Azarea going on about my inebriety.

"Do your parents know where you really were this afternoon? You know, when I bailed on my boyfriend to look after your little sister when you went drinking even though you were meant to be babysitting her."

I swivelled my head around only to be met with the pattern of her freckles and I groaned into my fist. My teeth gritted together, my tongue wanting to lick the wound I had created without spreading a more seriously damaged infection.