"We're home," Lloyd said as we entered his apartment and didn't see his mom. "Mom? We're back."
Koko got out of her bedroom with her hair done in a high bun. She had earrings and a necklace around her neck. She seemed like she was going to a fancy place to meet fancy people.
"Welcome home...You bought groceries without me asking you to?" She was checking her bag.
"Yup," Lloyd answered.
"Right, groceries at seven a.m. is very normal." She zipped her bag and walked to us.
If you were wondering, we went to the grocery store at five and spent two hours there because Lloyd didn't want to leave the candy section.
Koko handed me something, my keys. "I found them under the couch, you must have dropped them before your date."
"Thank you."
"Lloyd, put the groceries in the kitchen and change your clothes. We're leaving in less than twenty minutes."
Lloyd took the grocery bags to the kitchen and said to me before he went to his room, "I'll text you later."
"Okay." I said to Koko, "Bye."
"Wait." Koko left then returned with my sweatshirt.
"Oh, thanks. I forgot about it." It was dry. "I'll return Lloyd's hoodie later, I have to go." And I left to go to my apartment.
~~~
Brandon called me while I was lying on my bed wearing my pajamas and reading the comments on F. Wreigh's conversation feed.
I picked it up. "Hello."
"Hey Y/n...umm...Are you busy right now?" he asked.
It was twelve o'clock and I had absolutely nothing to do for the rest of the day, or so I thought because of the laziness filling my head. "Depends. What do you want?"
"I have to babysit my cousin and I can't stand him at all. Can you come and help me, please? I feel like I'm losing my mind."
"Wait...you have a cousin?"
"I didn't know that as well, but when I moved in, I found that my uncle -whom I haven't seen even before the first attack- lived next door."
"Good, I'm happy for you."
"Thanks...so are you coming?"
"I can't, I'm busy." I didn't feel like dealing with a kid who could at any moment grab my left arm.
"Please-" He said to someone, "No, that's my laptop. Leave it alone."
He spoke to me again, "I'm begging you. And I can't stay here for long. I have to go somewhere. Please help me."
I sighed. "Fine, send me the address."
"Thank you thank you thank yo-" He told the kid, "I'm talking on the phone, stop crying."
He told me the address and I hung up to get ready.
I wished I could just go in my pajamas. But I got dressed properly and left the house to go to the address of the kid's house.
~~~
The house was familiar. I knocked on the door and Brandon opened it with his hair messier than my left arm's flesh before the surgery. But other than his hair, he was dressed fancy, wearing a tux, unlike the usual.
What's up with people dressing fancier than me today?
"Thank god you're here."
I asked, "What happened to your hair?"
"Don't ask. Come on in."
He closed the door behind me as we walked into the living room. Brandon got out a hair comb out of nowhere and started fixing his hair.
The boy was sitting on the ground behind the coffee table and drawing when he saw me. Oh god, I know this boy.
He walked to me after throwing his crayons away. His dark hair looked nice unlike Brandon's. he looked up at me and said with a smile, "Hello. Who are you?"
His voice was sweat and there was no hint of fear in his eyes, unlike the first time I saw him, when I saved him from getting crushed by bricks during a Garmadon attack and helped him get back home.
Of course, he didn't seem to recognize me as I was wearing a mask the last time.
"I'm Y/n, I'll stay and play with you while Brandon's gone."
He said, "You're pretty."
"Thank you, Sam."
He gasped in a dramatic way. "How do you know my name?"
Brandon was still fixing his hair.
I crouched in front of Sam and whispered, "I can read minds."
"Really?" No, but I'm lonely and want someone to play with.
I nodded.
"What am I thinking then?"
I watched him and how his eyes glanced at Brandon for less than a second.
I said, "You're thinking about Brandon's ugly hair."
Brandon turned to me and asked, "Does it really look that bad?"
"No, don't worry. You look great."
Sam laughed and said, "You're right. I was thinking about his ugly hair."
"Sam, your mom said you should be nice," Brandon told him.
"I'm nice. I didn't say bad things to her."
"I meant to be nice to me. And you were everything but nice. You even bit my hand." He added, "I'll tell your mom when she comes back."
Sam crossed his arms. "Tell her, I don't care."
"How about I tell Amy?" Brandon smirked.
Sam's eyes went wide open. "No no no! Please don't. I'll be good Sam from now on."
I asked, "Who's Amy?"
Brandon answered, "His older sister. She secretly gives him candy behind their parents' backs only if he's acting good and listening to her."
"Oh, so he's doing it for the candy? Nice. Maybe I should start acting nice in exchange for candy too."
Brandon spoke, "I have to go now, take care of him, okay?"
I stood up. "Okay, but where are you going?"
"Uh..." He took a second to answer. "I have a date."
"Oooo~ with whom?"
"I don't know."
"What?"
"My friends at work arranged it. I never met the girl."
"Oh, so a blind date?"
"Yeah."
"Enjoy. And don't worry about us, we won't get in any trouble." Certainly.
"Excellent. I'll see you later."
~~~
Brandon walked into the restaurant his friend arranged the date in. He had never been as nervous before. And he didn't even know how the girl he was going to meet looked like, he only had her number and she had some flowers as her profile picture.
He texted her, "I'm at the restaurant. Where are you?"
She replied, "The red table in the corner next to the glass wall."
He looked, there were two tables with this description, one on his right and the other to his left. And each one of them had a woman sitting alone. "Which one?"
"I'm wearing a dark purple dress."
He walked to the table at the far-right corner to the woman with the deep purple satin dress sitting there.
She lifted her eyes from her phone and smiled. Her lips were covered in purple lip gloss matching her dress. Dark brown skin and long curly hair. She was nothing like he expected.
"Are you not going to say anything?" she asked.
He snapped back to reality and sat on the couch-chair in front of her. "Sorry, you're just so beautiful."
"Thank you." She moved a strand of hair away from her face and said, "So, my sister told me all what her friends told her about you. And I have to say, I'm impressed with your work."
What work? What did they tell her?
His friend is dating her sister, and that's how they arranged the date.
She continued, "I've always wanted to be a policewoman when I was little. How is it like?"
Damn you Charlie for not preparing me for this conversation.
"It's tiring." He knew some stuff about the police, he had studied them for his finals before he became a general. "But pretty exciting too."
"You don't get a break, do you? With all these attacks almost every day."
"Nope. I guess I got lucky today."
The waitress came. "Are you ready to order?"
He looked at Jane -his date-. She told the waitress, "A bit more time, please."
"Call me when you're ready." The waitress left to take the other customers' orders.
Brandon spoke as both of them held and read the menus, "What about you? What do you work?"
"I own a henna tattoo parlor."
"Henna?"
"Temporary tattoos." She showed him the back of her right hand. The henna tattoo extended as flowers from the tips of her fingers to her wrist and spiraled around it as a bracelet of thorns.
"That's really pretty." He asked, "How long does a tattoo like that take you?"
"Depends. This one took me a long time because I'm right-handed and was using my left one. I had this for two days and I'm planning on tattooing my left shoulder with roses."
"That's pretty impressive." He asked, "And how long does it take to disappear?"
"A few weeks to a few months." She changed the subject, "How about we order now?"
"Oh, sure."
They ordered and kept talking and talking. The more she spoke and smiled, the more he got lost in her eyes and forgot where he was.