LONE WOLF (On Hold)

Chapter 4 - Two weeks.

There's no way I'd be able to take anything in this place with her watching me, even I'm not that good.

After a short search, I manage to find two pairs of male jeans in my size that seem to be in fairly decent condition. The blue ones seem to have faded slightly but the black ones look pretty much brand new, and they're both fairly cheap to purchase. The black ones are slightly more expensive than the blue ones, though.

Walking over to the counter, I take note of the way the girl straightens up slightly when she realises I'm approaching her.

"Just these, thanks," I tell her as I place the jeans on the counter, looking out the window as I think about what I should do next.

I'm going to need to find somewhere to wash my clothes if I want to wear clean ones tomorrow. I'll spend a little while looking for a pond or something, maybe I missed it yesterday, and if it's a no go then I'll have to find a laundrette.

"So, how are you liking Redwater?" the girls asks, and I turn back to watch her running the jeans through the till painfully slowly.

"Uh, it's okay, I guess," I reply, not really sure what to say. It would be a hell of a lot better if I could find a source of water.

"I saw you talking to Pete yesterday," she tells me then, folding up the first pair of jeans and finally moving on to the second.

"Pete?" I ask.

"The guy who runs the corner shop," she clarifies.

Oh, I guess it definitely is the same girl then.

"Oh, yeah," I say with a slight nod.

"My name's Mia," she announces as she starts to fold the second pair of jeans, and I quickly reach into my rucksack to grab my money.

"Beck," I reply, handing her the money as she passes me the jeans. I shove them into my rucksack as I wait for my change.

"Well, I hope to see you around, Beck," she says as she gives me the money.

"Yeah, sure," I reply, shoving my change into my back pocket as I turn to leave the shop.

When I step outside, I look up at the church clock to see that it's just gone half ten in the morning, which is pretty early for me. Still, it gives me longer to search the area until I have to start looking for the laundrette.

I make my way to the town square, deciding to start from the road I finished off at last night to make sure I don't miss any ground. As I walk, my mind wanders back to the girl in the charity shop. Mia.

She seemed nice enough and she was definitely nice to look at, so why did I feel absolutely nothing when we were talking? There was no spark at all, not even a little one. In fact, I could hardly wait to get away from her.

Because you never give any girls a chance anymore, my mind tells me. If she's not Lucy then she's not worth your time.

Yeah but shouldn't I be trying to change that? I mean, I am trying to get over her, after all. The sooner I can move on the sooner I can go back to just being her best friend. That's if I decide to go back at all, which I never promised her or myself that I would. The idea of never being able to see her again hurts, though, my heart clenching uncomfortably at the thought.

Maybe this whole thing has been a mistake, it's clearly not working. I've been thinking about her just as much as I did back at the cave, maybe even more, which is going to stop me from moving on whether she's here or not. Hell, I can't even buy a bag of apples without thinking about her for crying out loud. Maybe I should go back; if I leave now then I could easily make it back to that lake by nightfall. I have food and new jeans; I've gathered all the supplies that I came to this town for in the first place. I'd never planned on staying here for long anyway, only a few days, and it's not like I've made any commitments here yet. I haven't even had the chance to find any small jobs going in the area so I've really got no reason to stay-