CHAPTER THREE
Milo
"BYE, MR EVANS!" One of my students call out, waving as she holds her mothers hand.
I grin and wave goodbye at the little girl, Haven, her name is.
Todays been a long fucking day, and so has this week and only half of it has gone by.
First it was that woman that lives on the floor above me yelling at me two days ago, then it was me spilling tea on myself while teaching yesterday. And today, my heads been pounding like crazy from children.
I sit in my car and sigh through my nose, thinking back to those two days ago my brain seems unwilling to delete from my memory.
Raelynn.
I wonder what she's up to. What she does in her free time other than get stuck in elevators. I didn't exactly think things through when I pretended to be her boyfriend in front of her parents, it just... happened. And it worked, so I'm not sure why she went all fucking crazy-woman on me afterwards.
I bite my bottom lip, simply thinking of her face. The piercing that hung from her septum, the rings she wore, the way her breast sat so... perfectly—
But I shake my head and the image of her out. Sitting up, I remember where I am.
In my car in front of an elementary school, surrounded by whiny children.
Not the ideal place to grow a boner.
Turning the key in the ignition of my car, I press down on the gas and start driving.
The streets of NYC are ones most people would call hectic. It's a fucking nightmare. I've come to miss London sometimes when I start driving, traffic is inevitable. I take a longer route home, avoiding the streets that would lead me into jams. I have no real reason to rush home, I have a few papers to fill out, lessons to plan, but other than that... I'm not sure why I feel the need to get there.
I don't really have anyone to converse with either.
It takes a little more time than usual to get to the front of the building. I park and get out, grabbing my phone and walking inside.
Sitting in the front desk is Edna Higgins, the security guard. I raise a hand as a hello and she grins. She's a fairly older woman, in her forties I believe, the center of her eyes starting to wrinkle when she smiles.
"Afternoon, Mr. Evans," she says.
I walk to her, leaning on the desk. "Edna." A huff leaves me, I glance around the lobby. "You know of that new resident? The woman, fairly tall," I measure her height with my hand just under my chin. "Curly hair, brown eyes..."
She nods while stacking some papers on the desk. "Yes, Raelynn Garcia?"
"Garcia, yes. Is she home? Have you seen her... leave?" I try my best to sound nonchalant, though calm and collected hasnever really suited me anyway.
Edna shakes her head, "She should be home right now. Should I ring her apartment phone to tell her to come down?"
I shake my head, "That won't be necessary, I'll go up."Just then, the door to the stairs opens and a familiar face pops through, walking with her gaze at the floor.
Raelynn. I grin.
"Rae," My voice comes out rough as I call out to her.
The thick curls falling past her shoulder blades whip to the left as she turns at the sound of her name. She wear a casual dress that flows and gives off a spring feeling. She carry's gloves, but not ones for cold weather, but thick working gloves.
Her eyes jump to me as she halts her walk, then gives me a once over.
I hastily check my own outfit. Black slacks, suit jacket, and a white Oxford shirt under it. A light brown trench coat sits over it all.
I look back up at Raelynn and she starts walking again. I follow her.
"If you keep following me, I'll have no choice but to call the police." I can't tell if she's joking or not.
I grab her hand and turn her round before she can get to the door. "I'm sorry," I say. "For pretending to be your boyfriend."
She yanks her hand and away and I refrain from frowning.
Why does she hate me?
Maybe because I told her I didn't want her. I thought that I was making her uncomfortable, so saying that was the first thing to come to mind.
She walks again through the door and I keep following her despite her protest. We walk out into the NYC downtown streets at the very end of Manhattan.
I struggle to stay at her side, she's much smaller than me and doesn't bump into people as often.
"Where are you headed?" I ask her. "I can drive you."
"Oh, was that your Tesla out front?" She says without turning around or stopping her stride. "Figured."
"What does the kind of car I have matter?"
"Nothing that your outfit doesn't say by itself."
My outfit? So she doesn't like it after all?
I frown now. "What's wrong with my outfit?" I find her side again as the street clears up, we turn a corner and I continue following her. I haven't walked this fast in a long fucking time.
She turns to look up at me for the first time. "Oh nothing..." she looks me up and down.
"Clearly it's not nothing, Lo— Rae, so tell me."
She stares at me, darting her eyes around my face. Then stops moving. Annoyed New Yorkers give us looks and walk around us. I grab her hand and pull her off to the side.
"What do you want, Milo?" She still holds the gloves that I now realize is covered in dried dirt.
I look back up at her, "I can't be friends with my new upstairs neighbor?"
"Are you friend with all your neighbors or did you just decide to fuck with me for whatever reason?"
I shrug my shoulders. "Not to the extent of friendship, but I'd say acquaintances."
She tilts her head. "Why do you talk like that?"
I draw my brows together, "Like what?"
"Like so... formal. It's creeping me out, especially with your accent. You sound like you might give me a lecture."
"Well, I am a teacher."
"Are you in the middle of giving me a lesson?"
I tilt my head, "Depends, do you want me to?" My tone lowers and I smile.
She presses her lips together, her eyes darting away from my face. "I'm going to pretend you didn't just flirt in some weird... teacher language."
She turns around and walks. I follow her, again. Where the hell is she headed?
"I'm going to pretend you weren't flustered."
She ignores me. "Is there a reason you're following me?"
"Not really... Where are you going?"
She looks at me, "I might as well show you since it doesn't seem like you're going anywhere." She stops walking in front of a gate the width of two buildings, behind it is... well, nature. A garden, plants and small trees dress the entire space. In a city where green isn't so common, this is like a splash of life to the green less world that surrounds it. From here I can see through to the other street. At least a few yards length away.
She transfers the gloves in her hand to the other and takes out a key from the purse that's draped across her chest. Opening the two white painted doors of the gate.
She walks in onto the cobblestones pavement below and I do so too, looking around at the leaves that hang overhead from nearby trees.
"You should probably not touch anything before you get your clothes dirty with soil. I'm assuming you're strict on that stuff."
I shrug off my trench coat and drape it over my arm. "I don't mind getting a little dirty. What is this place?"
She walks towards the small white tables with chairs around it and set her bag and keys down. Heading to the small glass greenhouse off in the corner.
"My garden," she answers, looking at me over her shoulders. I place my coat on the table she put her purse and fall in path with her towards the greenhouse.
"You're a plant Mom. Hot."
She glares at me and opens the green house door—
A ear throbbing scream leaves her.
"No!" She yells. My eyes widen as I watch her run to a tree and grab a broom leaning against it, then run back to the green house, slamming the end of the broom against whatever inside.
"What's going on?"
"The fucking raccoons!"
Raccoons?
Just then I see the large animal, it's natural mask across his eyes running across the plants of the green house. Dirt sprays across the air and hits me.My heart races at the sight of it, I haven't seen one of those since I was in Central Park... years ago.
Raelynn looks terrified, but oddly used to this. She stops in front of it with a broom and it looks at her, hissing and standing on its two back legs with its legs up.
I run to Raelynn and place my hands on either side of her hips, pulling her away from that wild animal.
"Milo, stop I need it get it out." She wiggles and I grip her tighter.
"No, love, that thing is probably rabid. If it bites you, you can die."
"I've done this before, okay?" She gripping the broom tightly, but doesn't attempt to leave from between my hands sitting on the curve of her hips. I feel her stomach fill and deflate with her quick breaths, her dress risen up a bit, crumpled with my hands. "I'm not scared of it."
"Yeah, rou definitely don't look like you are." I laugh out against her ear and she scoffs. I can practically see her scowl.
I take hold of the broom and let go of her, stepping towards the raccoon. Raelynn backs away.
Lifting the broom over my shoulder, I grill the animal.
"You're an ugly son of a bitch," I say to it with a smirk. It hisses.
"Don't ego the damn animal, get rid of it!"
With the muscles I've grown over the past few years at the gym, I use them as I bring the broom down and wack the raccoon across the green house. It hits the wall hard, shaking the structure then the floor with a thump. We stare at it laying down.
I pull my shirt selves that l already got dirt on it, up my arms and stand beside Raelynn.
"How'd I do?" I say, as we look at the raccoon that may or may not be dead. "Good, yeah?"
She rolls her eyes, but her lip twitches up just a bit. "Oh shut up and make yourself useful. Get rid of it."
*****
[A/N]
Wc:1921
If you haven't seen raccoons from NYC, consider yourself lucky because those things are literally New York citizens. And so massive for what?
Honestly have no idea how long this book will be tbh but it's only the beginning :)
I have to write a short story for my creative writing class and I've never been this exited to do homework.
Don't forget to vote, cya.
-Kayla R.