A Complicated Wish

Part 5

"Is she okay?" A distant voice asked.

Cress wasn't sure what happened, one minute she was up and talking, the next... well the next was that she was on the ground.

What made her collapse? She couldn't exactly remember, was it her 'tragic backstory'? No that wasn't it. 

Oh.

Now she remembered Arol Dean. A boy from her past a phantom. Someone who she completely forgot about. Well not completely, completely. She still thought about him, but in a friendly way- why did this matter? 

She groaned as she pushed herself up.

"Hello there." The distant voice spoke. Only not so distant.

"Uh, hi?" She blinked a couple of times to clear the black spots from her vision.

"You took quite the fall there young lady!" Mary said as she grabbed onto Cress's arm, signaling Arol to grab her other. The duo hoisted her up settling her back on her feet.

"Thanks," she huffed as she brushed some non existent dust from her front.

"No problem." Arol flashed his teeth, they weren't exactly straight, not like the Colgate smile Carswell had, but endearing all the same.

Cress felt heat rush up her face after the thought. She felt shame stab her gut at the fact that she thought of another guy.

"Uh Cress." Mary looked at Cress with an urgent, panicked smile, "are you going to introduce yourself to the young man."

"Oh," Cress looked between the two people, both towering over her, "I-"

"We already know each other." Arol flashed his teeth again.

"Well," Mary clapped her hands together. "Let's start next week, someone-" she looked pointedly at Cress "-should get some rest after a fall like that."

Cress nodded, she felt more heat rise up her face. She had barely been here twenty minutes and already had to be sent home.

"I'll walk you out." Arol said, drawing out his first half of his sentence.

Cress gave a small smile as he led her out.

They walked down the drive to her car, where they awkwardly stood, waiting for the other to break the silence.

"It's good to see you again." Arol smiles at her. "It's been too long."

"It has." Cress agreed. Now that there wasn't any person or embarrassing moment to stop her, she finally got a good look at him. After seven years of separation she forgot what nine year old him looked like and had to connect what she remembered to this new face.

He had been only half an inch taller than her when they were kids, now he stood as tall as Kai, maybe even taller. His mop of light brown curls remained their floppy self, but less frizzy, perhaps he used product. His skin still held a sun kissed glow to it, even as the seasons became colder. And his eyes. Cress always saw the eyes as windows to the soul, and his, his led straight there. They were brown, a beautiful fresh coffee brown, that in the right light, turned a beautiful gold, like king Midas himself couldn't help himself from touching his eyes. That was something that never changed.

"Ah, well," Cress coughed, realizing she had been starring. "I have to get home. Do some homework."

She slammed her back against the car, trying to get out of this situation.

Had she been starring? Had she blushed. Oh if she did, she was a goner. How embarrassing.

"Right, I'll see you later." Arol gave a small smile and walked across the street back into the building.

"What are you doing?" Cress rolled down her window to ask.

"I may be a volunteer, but I still have to visit my grandmother." He paused his trek, seeing her confusion. "Lanie, Lanie's my grandmother."

Cress nodded dumbly before driving off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knowing she got far enough away from the building, she parked her car in an unknown neighborhood, and slammed her head against the wheel.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid." Cress pulled down her visor and looked into the mirror. Her face was still bright red. She let out a shallow laugh.

"Okay." She breathed. That was awkward, really awkward, next week will be better.

She took in another long breath... knowing she could cry when she got home.

When she put her car in drive, she was startled to hear a knocking on her passenger side window. She gave a small squeak when she looked over.

Cinder gave her a confused look, motioning her to roll down her window.

"Uh, hi." Cinder laughed to herself. "What are you doing here?"

"Just having a mental break down." Creased Leaned on her steering wheel, making the horn go off. "You?"

"On a walk." She motioned to Kai.

Right, this was "rich person town", Kai's part of town.

"Sounds nice." Cress smiled. She had an odd relationship with the couple. Having one too many break downs in front of Kai, and Cinder having to deal with panic attacks in the bathroom at school, she was able to openly talk about her anxieties much more openly with them.

Cress cleared her throat, "Well," she placed her hands on her steering wheel, "I've had enough embarrassment for my tiny body today, I'm gonna go home."

"You want to talk about?" Kai asked.

Cress have a sweet smile, "Not in the slightest."

She started rolling down the street, Kai opened his mouth to say something. Cress took advantage of her still opened window and yelled again, "Not in the slightest!" She rolled up her window and sped (at a safe 27 miles per hour) down the street.

She needed to go home open up a tub of ice cream and listen to her "this is pretty much a mental break down" playlist, on loop.

A/N
Ok let me explain! This *slaps down a picture of the corona virus* was supposed to last two weeks ok. Two weeks! So my fun "ahaha y'all having fun in quarantine" me can go jump off a bridge. Because I am not.

But I ended up taking a college course class during the summer, and got a job, and had to clean out my grandmas house (not dead, just moved to a home)

And then school started and I was like "oh cool more free time!" No no no. I was wrong, I was very wrong. Online school is a big no no, and we have a chance of power outage. So we are just loving it here. But anyway, it's been a hot minute (six months) but I'm back, will probably disappear for another six months and write another mediocre chapter!
But thank you for your patience, and please interact with the world.