The shower feels nice against my cold skin. This is way better than when I would sneak in to the public school to take a shower early in the morning.
I try to not cry because I need to be strong but I still let the tears fall down my cheeks. My soft and silent cries get muffled out by the shower. Thank god, because I do not want Nardo to hear.
It's bad enough he saw what happend in the parking lot. That is so embarrassing. I try to not show people how weak I am. He has seen me at my lowest. It was all because of a picture in his wallet, that I stole, that just so happened to be the reason I got the nicest thing I have ever owned.
I shampoo my hair with the stuff the hotel provided and then put in this conditioner stuff. I'm not really sure what it is but I spread it through my hair like I did the shampoo anyways. I clean all the dirt off of my body before hopping out of the shower.
I try not to look at my body as I dry up. With my towel around my body I check my backpack. Digging all the way into the bottom I find my ziplock bags I took from a garbage bin. I cleaned it out and now I use it to hold important stuff like cash and underwear. It rains a lot and the bags are water proof.
I pull the bag out with my dry underwear. Throwing on Nardos clothes they bag my body and the pants fall to the ground.
I try tying the string in the sweatpants and finally I get it somewhat tight enough to walk around without the fear of them falling.
That would be funny.
If it wasn't you yeah.
I agree with you Tina. First time in forever.
I named the voice in my head Tina. I think I have serious issues but honestly I have bigger challenges than Tina. One of them being returning Nardos wallet.
I sigh taking his wallet out of the ziplock bag I placed it in. I didn't want the photo to be ruined or his cash...
Leaving the bathroom I look around the empty bedroom. I walk out of the room and go to the small living room attached. Nardo has his back turned towards me.
I awkwardly stand not knowing what to do. "How was your shower?" He questions me. I stare at him in shock. He didn't even move a muscle. He didn't even show me he knew I was here.
He needs to teach me that.
"Okay I guess? I used the shampoo and the thing called conditioner, my hair feels oily now." I twirl my weird feeling hair in my fingers.
He turns around smirking at my small figure compared to his. His clothes are massive on me and I feel like I could swim in them.
"Conditioner is only supposed to be put on the ends of your hair, you aren't supposed to put it on your scalp." He informs me taking a seat on the couch. He smirks at my awkward standing.
"You need something?" He raises his eyebrows when he sees my hand behind my back.
I'm going to kill myself.
Hurry up then.
Shut up Tina!
"Uh... yes?" I hesitate. I sigh and look him in the eye. "I'm sorry I stoleyourwalletandbought asweatshirt."
He looks at me amused and I know he already knows. He leans back and just smirks at me. "I'm sorry I didn't understand can you repeat that?Slower this time." He smirks.
I'm going to kill him.
"I stole your wallet. I am sorry." I bow my head and stick out his dry wallet. He starts laughing at me.
Asswipe.
"Oh Mags! I knew the second you took it. Thanks for the apology though." He laughs at me. I roll my eyes and plop myself down beside him.
"You suck." I mumble with my arms crossed.
"Maggie, just saying, you look absolutely adorable." He gestures to my get up trying to keep his laugh in.
"Oh screw you." I grumble. He continues laughing at me and the longer he laughs at me the more I catch myself smirking.
However, before he could say anything else a knock at the door silences him. I tense thinking the worst. "Don't worry it's just the food." He lets me know softly while taking his wallet and going to the door. He comes back a second later with two pizza boxes.
My eyes light up.
"Got us pizza. Didn't know what type you liked so I got just the regular cheese and pepperoni."
He brings the boxes over to the couch setting them down. "I haven't had pizza in years." I smile at the smell.
"When did you last have it?" He raises his eye brow while handing me a slice. I take a bite out of it and almost tear up. It tastes so good.
"In elementary school. They offered pizza Fridays. Mama never payed for it but there was this lactose intolerant kid in my class. He always got the shits from pizza so, he would always give me his slice. In return I helped him with colouring in the lines." I smile fondly at the memory.
His name was Luca, he was a weird kid and didn't have many friends, kind of like myself. He was my only friend my own age I ever had. He moved when we switched to middle school. Haven't seen him since.
"Kid sounds nice." He agrees but looks slightly sad. I devour my pizza. I am three slices in when Nardo speaks up. "Tell me about yourself."
"What do you what to know? Are we going to play twenty-one questions or something?" I scoff at him.
"What is twenty one questions? Whatever, it doesn't matter. I ask you a question, you answer and then we switch." He literally just described twenty-one questions. I will let his old man knowledge on modern day games slide. Just this time.
"Fine. What's your favourite colour?" I ask him bored. He smiles triumphantly.
"Red, not vibrant red but the colour of blood type of red. What's yours?" Great my father is a psycho.
"That's cute," I totally disregard the blood comment not really caring. "My favourite colour is green, not shit green but like a dark green you know?"
"Sure, sure," he nods eating another slice. "What do you hate?" He questions.
I think for a minute before responding. "When Ray doesn't let me pee and my bladder nearly explodes." I grimace at the memory. "What is your brothers name?" I remember he said something about me having an uncle and grandfather.
"His name is Marco, he's a pain in the ass, I think you two would get along." He nudges me. Rude. "Giancarlo is my fathers name."
I nod and eat my sixth piece of pizza. I am so damn hungry. I fall back on the couch looking out the window. "You have to ask another question." I tell him with an annoyed tone.
"Favourite thing to do?"
"I used to crotchet. But I would always start something and I couldn't finish it because I ran out of yarn. Or swimming, I used to on the school computers watch people do diving off springboards, I thought that looked super dope."
"Can you swim?"
"Yeah, school required it."
"I'll sign you up for diving lessons when we get to New York."
I didn't really think about what would happen next. But I do want to go with him, I think. He said he loves me. No one has ever cared before.
"When are we going?" He looks up at me with a shocked expression.
"You are giving up so easily?" He smiles at me which makes me smile.
"If what you said in the parking lot was true than I think it's okay that I go with."
"Can I hug you?" He asks me softly. He has a huge smile on his face. I nod and move into his open arms. He traps me in a big comforting hug.
I let my head rest on his shoulder. I am hugging a man I met less than a day ago and yet still I feel the safest I have ever been my whole life.
"Go to sleep we will be travelling tomorrow." He softly whispers. I am carried somewhere before being moved out of his arms and on to a soft surface. I feel a blanket cover me.
"Thank you." I whisper before I nod off.
-
I wake with a start. It takes me a minute to register what is going on. Why am I in a bed?
Once it all comes back to me I sigh and flop back on the bed. That was a nice sleep.
I jump out of the bed energized and ready to start the day. I skip into the bathroom, and throw on my dry new sweatshirt and my old cargo pants.
Thank god my clothes dried over night. Looking into the mirror my hair looks crazy so I throw it up into a bun. I guess it could be considered a messy bun. Whatever it was it looked atrocious.
I wash my face and brush my teeth all with my stuff in my backpack.
Barging into the main room I see Nardo jump up off the couch waking up from the loud noise. He looks super annoyed up until he sees me ready. He groans, looks at his watch, and then groans again.
"Kid it's seven in the morning." He whines. I don't get it?
"So?" I question him confused.
"You should be asleep."
"I can't! I woke up and now I am ready to go to New York. Also why did you sleep on the couch? You look ridiculous." He's super tall he's a good foot or more taller than me and he's cramped up on a love seat.
"You had the bed." He grunts rubbing his face sitting up. "There is a breakfast downstairs wait for me to get ready and then we will go down." I nod and watch him leave the room to go to the bathroom.
I look around for like five minutes. I hate waiting. I stand up and grab a paper off the TV stand.
Sorry my guy, you're so damn slow, I couldn't wait up. See you at the breakfast!
- Maggie
Hopefully he can read that and it's legible. I skip out of the room and look for an elevator. After a few hallways I find it and hop in.
There are like ten buttons and I can't help it when I press all of the numbers. I travel to each floor just for funzies. Once I get to the main area I skip around looking for the food.
Ooh its an all you can eat!
I get in line. I take a little bit of everything. An apple, toast with all the different jams, a bowl of colourful cereals, some sausage weiners, cube potatoes, and too top off my plate a waffle.
An old lady helped me with the machine. By the time I was done collecting my food I sat down in the dead center of the seating area. I face the door and look at my plate.
Loud and powerful footsteps grab my attention. When I look up sure enough I see Nardo at the entrance in search of something.
Oops it's probably me.
"Hey Nardo! They have waffles and weiners!" I shout to him a little too loud. Everyone stares at me weird and I sheepishly smile at all of them.
"What happened to going down together?" He questions me pulling out the chair across from me.
"What happened to you being young? Your as slow as an old man with hip problems." I say again too loud as an old couple walks down looking at me with a nasty look.
I look back at Nardo who looks amused. "Oopsies." I giggle starting to chow down on my food. Nardo said he doesn't want anything so he just sits there and watches me. Honestly his loss, these weiners are fantastic.
Thats what she said.
Shut up Maggie.
I finish my plate patting my full belly. "Ready to hit the road? Travel to new beginnings? Adventure across the Everglades?"
"You are weird." He smiles fondly at me. His expression says something completely different than his words.
"You are old." I reply to which he scowls at me. "Okay let's go!" I grab his arm dragging him back to the elevator. Seeing as it's just the two of us, I slowly inch towards the button panel.
"Don't you dare Maggie." He warns me. He shouldn't have said anything because his warning just egged me on. I slide my hands down pressing all the buttons.
"I'm going to kill you." He groans holding his head in his hands. I smirk beside him proudly. This guy doesn't know what he signed up for.
-
I hope you all liked!
Lots of love 💕