Be Rude but Love Me | ✔

CHAPTER 22

When I look up to her, she's already opening the door. "I'll be downstairs. Hurry up."

I ensnare my unbridled rage with deep inhales. Once I feel better, I finish to get dressed and race down the stairs. Ellie isn't up yet so quietly, my sibling and I leave the dwelling, she on a bike and I on foot.

Her garrulous nature takes over as she starts talking and talking. I don't hear her with my earbuds for this purpose but I can see her lips moving as I glance at her once in a while. I take one earbud off – the one on the side where she can't see – and listen.

"Wow, the air is less polluted than the one at home."

"Oh look, a butterfly. There aren't many at home. Maybe they don't like cities."

"Haha, there's a neighbor spying on us."

"Living here seems nice."

I don't think she's even realized that I am not answering. I suppose she's talking to herself. I go to place my earbud back where it was but I decide against it.

I can feel my muscles already aching so I slow down the pace a little. Beads of sweat are running down my spine inside my tank top and I already feel damp after fifteen minutes. Lucy is true to her word, she's pedaling very slowly to match my jogging pace. I should have known that as lazy as she is, she couldn't have asked to go jogging with me.

I round the neighborhood twice, Lucy still next to me. "You're sweating." She points out after several seconds of silence, "And you stink." She adds.

Taking off my earbuds was I bad idea, I knew it. I pretend not to hear her and continue my race around the neighborhood. Soon after her words, I hear a clatter next to me and turn my head to see the bicycle on the ground and a little sister of mine running across the street.

I stop running and call to her but she keeps racing away. I see her directing herself towards a guy in a jogging outfit. I start walking towards her, trying to remind myself how many times Dad, Mom, and I told Lucy not to talk to strangers. I hasten my pace, taking long strides. The closer I get the better I can see. Lucy is bent on the street, playing and talking with something in front of her, something that I distinguish a few seconds later as a dog.

Once I'm close enough, I stop walking and stare at my sister playing with Russell. Yann has stopped his jogging as well and is staring down at the two of them, happy to have found each other.

"Hey, Tracy," she calls but doesn't stop maiming the poor canid. "Look who's there."

She starts making weird sounds and gestures to Russell who seems to like it. She appears to be having fun, touching and tickling the dog everywhere. After a while, I notice that my breathing is slowing and I realize I have to continue my jogging. I lift my eyes from my sister and her friend to take a look at Yann who is already watching me.

At that moment, images and words of him apologizing yesterday rush to my mind and I try to push them back down. I don't want to think about it now. I don't want to recall the genuineness and the regret in his voice, the way he so gently whispered my name. I can still hear it now, my name on his lips, softly spoken, almost like a breeze.

But I snap out of it. I look back down to Lucy who's playing with Russell and doesn't appear to be letting go of him anytime soon.

"I'll leave her with you," Yann says the same time I ask, "Can I leave her with you?"

I see him clench his jaw, probably in annoyance. He pushes back the hood of his hoodie and glances down at his dog before looking back up at me. "I'm not babysitting."