Candy Girl

think of it as a Rick and Morty adventure

"But—"

"—And If you don't feel sure then let's make a deal, you trust me, we follow my plan, we give Aiden his jacket and if you want to leave, we leave. They would be even a safe word...let's say...Papaya."

I opened my mouth to speak, but then narrowed my eyes at her and stop. I made a movement with my face. Gwen nodded at me feeling satisfied with her previous statement.

"It sounds very tempting," I said sarcastically, "But you're forgetting I'm an introvert, so that sounds like an absolute nightmare."  I was done arguing until she did the thing with her eyes. I rolled my eyes. Gwen was gazing at me with the power of a thousand sad puppies.

I immediately placed my hands on my eyes. "No, that won't work."

"Please," she begged.

I breathed out exhausted, "Why do you want me to go?"

"Fine," she said. "You leave me no choice. I use my no questions-asked-favor-wild card."

Mothertucker.

"Nothing too crazy," I begged her.

***

"This IS crazy!" I hissed at Gwen. We currently driving in King City. I stared both amazed and scared, I had never been so far from town before. Or even this far up in the city. We rarely visit the city since we had everything we needed, school was the only reason why we visited the city.

We walked out of the car and before us was a gigantic concrete wall that encircled identical buildings of endless apartments. The structures gave off the impression they had been constructed a long time ago, but no one bothered to renew them.

What impressed me the most was the concrete wall. It was full of graffiti. But it was actually looked artistic. It was sprayed on with a mixture of colorful colors. It was like opening a bag full of skittles. There were different shapes drawn into the wall, like names or signs and even cartooned animals and people.

It made a huge contrast with the red brick buildings, but yet somehow matched harmoniously since some of the apartments had signs hanging out the balcony, mostly of job seeking proposals like window repairman, or hot meal services.

As we drove by, I could see there were multiple local stores, like small fresh fruit supermarkets, boutiques, laundry stores, computer reparation, restaurants and 99 deal stores.

It was startling to see how much this area of this area contrasted with what I usually saw in town. It felt we had traveled to a whole different country.

Our neighborhood was graffiti free, the houses were enormous, they were not apartments buildings bigger than about a fourth floor. They were also limited to four residencies per floor. While here, they were about five residencies per floor. We had big store corporations. Mostly everyone owned a car, the streets were impeccably clean and I understood why my parents never allowed me to go to King City expect for school.

Gwen ignored my pleading, "You said nothing too crazy. This is only crazy."

"I hate when you play with my words," I concluded.

"Relax," Gwen squeezed my cheeks as she smiled energetically. "Think of it as a Rick and Morty adventure!"

I officially freaked out, "That is not comforting! Rick and Morty's adventures always GO REAL BAD. And if this were to be a Rick and Morty adventure, I would clearly be Morty whom always gets into deep cheese."