𝐈'𝐋𝐋 𝐁𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐃 || 𝐙𝐚𝐧𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐭

Chapter 6 - Oops, My Bad...

It took me less than ten minutes to walk to the mall and once I had, I wove in and out between the crowds, dodging people as I did. Honestly? I hated crowds! The idea of random people bustling around beside me, strangers touching me... I shuddered at the thought. It just put me on edge.

I quickly cleared my head, getting back to the matter at hand - food. My cocoa-brown gaze scanned the array of vendors set up along the path in between shops before finally settling on a kiosk with bold letters stamped across the front: Ice Cream. Bingo! My stomach gurgled lowly and I bit my lip, making my way over to it. Maybe now I'd be able to get me something to eat. The man working there glanced up as I approached, flashing me a friendly smile.

"What can I do for you, love?" he asked politely.

I hurried, eyes flicking across the flavors in the containers before stopping at a medium-sized vat of pink-colored creamy liquid. Pointing a finger at it, I smiled up at him.

"That one, please," I answered.

Obliging, he began to scoop it out of the vat and into a cone.

He held it out to me then with a smile plastered to his face, "1.15,"

But once he noticed I didn't stop to pull any money out, his friendly facade faltered. I bit my lip lightly, feigning sadness mixed with a slight dose of surprise.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I-I should have said before - my mum has our money but she's in another shop right now," I lied, rolling my eyes playfully as if this were a regular occurrence for "mum".

The man didn't seem to buy it, though. Time to kick it up a notch, I thought to myself as I let my eyes flicker to a small toddler nestled inside his light blue stroller. His mother must have been preoccupied elsewhere though, leaving him parked right smack-dab by the fountain by himself. Perfect. My gaze connected once more to the owner's.

"It's just..I really wanted to buy my little brother some ice cream. Strawberry is his favorite flavor and I promised my mom I'd watch after him while she shopped," I explained, faking a disappointed expression.

Finally, the man's features softened and he relented, holding it out to me.

"Well..if your mother really is coming with the money, I guess we can go ahead and let the little tyke have his dessert." the man said with a soft smile.

I almost felt bad as I took the ice cream cone from his outstretched hand - almost. But if being homeless had taught me anything, it was that sometimes you had to do what you had to to survive. And this was another one of those moments. Another person stepped up to the cart then, distracting the man enough for me to hopefully sneak away undetected. My tongue shot out of my mouth then, taking a lick of the ice cream before a smile graced my face. Yum! I turned to leave after that when suddenly, my body collided with another and my ice cream cone was shoved into the stranger's black t-shirt, leaving a large cone-shaped imprint.

Remorse coursed through me then and an apology began to form on my lips.

"I am so sor-" I started, glancing up only to be met with a familiar but unpleasant surprise.

The wide-eyed, scowling face of the school's famous bad boy, Zane Bennett. A richie from what I'd surmised.

"Oh, wait, I'm actually so not sorry," I sassed with a smirk, my eyes flicking briefly down at the ice cream cone in his hand or rather what was left of it after our collision.

His slightly, choppy brown hair blew across his forehead but he didn't bother to brush them back as he glanced down at me.

"Hey, watch where you're going, Ramirez," he snarled, dark eyes flashing anger due to the pink splotch I'd created on his obviously expensive t-shirt, "You ruined my Armani!"

I rolled my eyes in annoyance, completely unaffected by his ranting. He was just an overgrown brat really - arrogant, conceited, stuck-up, tall, dark, attractive... I shook my head then in an attempt to shake the thoughts free from where they were heading.

"I'd say I improved it actually, Bennett," I shot back, scanning the shirt that clung to his frame, making his abs slightly visible through the thin material.

"Oh, please, at least it's better than what you're wearing. Newsflash? It costs more than what you from the thrift shop," he sneered.

I could feel the blood boiling in my veins from his words, irritating me to no end. I hadn't even noticed my hand moving until it happened, 'till the gasp ripped free from his throat, making my gaze follow his to the cone in his hand. The vanilla ice cream had miraculously changed from a creamy consistency to jiggly, jellified liquid there in the cone. My dark eyes went wide as saucers as I glanced from it to my hand and back. What in the world?!

"What the-" Zane started, looking down at it in shock briefly before calling out to the kiosk owner, "What's wrong with this stuff?! Some sort of recall or something?"

Before he could begin to complain about his father would hear about this, I backed away in horror, glancing down at my hands once before running off in the other direction. I could hear Zane shouting after me but I didn't heed his calls as I raced away.

Had I done that?! And if I did, how?!