"Nolan, I want snacks," Madaline says to me for the hundredth time. I munch on my toast and look up at her tiredly. It's ten in the morning and all she can talk about is how it's my fault for her not having snacks. I don't see how it's my fault, who said she couldn't get cheese puffs? Not me. Or maybe it was me who said that. That's not the point. The point is, who eats snacks at this time of day? Is breakfast not a thing anymore? Guess not.
"Madaline, if you want snacks so bad, go buy them."
She gasps, dramatically, as if I said every curse word in the book. Holding her hand to her chest, she stomps over to me. Grabbing me by both of my shoulders, she shakes me hard, almost making me drop my toast. I get dizzy and push her away from me. The woman is crazy sometimes. I'm telling you.
"I'm not going anywhere if you're not coming with me. Who knows what kind of people are out there, I could get kidnapped! Do you want me to get kidnapped?"
I mutter, 'yes' underneath my breath while finishing up my small breakfast. Madaline must've heard me because next thing I know, I'm getting a full on glare from her. I tilt my head, trying to act innocent, but it just doesn't work on her. Sighing, I put on my shoes and a light jacket, before returning to the kitchen. Madaline looks at me confusingly, not getting what I'm trying to imply. Raising my eyebrows, she still doesn't get what I'm trying to say. Shrugging, I go to turn around.
"I guess I'll just take all of this off, since you don't wanna go to the store anymore."
"No!" Madaline practically screams, busting my ear drums in the process. Her parents are gone at work, so they weren't here to scold her about all the unnecessary noise she's making. "Don't take it off, I still want to go."
Madaline runs to get her boots and pink jacket before skipping her way back to me. We leave the house, locking the doors behind us. There was no need to drive anywhere, since there's a small store not too far from here. Madaline and I play 'I spy' along the way to pass time. She cheated every time, making me pinch her side here and there. She would squeal every time, making the both of us laugh. The sounds she made were hilarious.
We finally reach the store and go in, our laughs echoing off the walls. Leeane, our store friend, waved at us and we waved back. We make our way to the candy aisle and pick up different types of candy. We didn't really look at labels, just picked up whatever we saw and put it in our green basket. We moved to get drinks and Madaline picked up every juice she saw. I picked up a sweet tea and apple juice. I was going to move on when I saw sprite. Sprite is my second favorite. Or my third. One of those.
When we're done getting our drinks, Madaline suggests that we get some fruit. She's been wanting to do a fruit board for the longest. I tell her that we can do that another time and she pouts at me before nodding. We go to pay for our stuff, when I bump into someone, almost dropping the entire basket. I do stumble back a little, but luckily I don't fall. That'd be embarrassing, especially since it happened once already. Regaining my balance, I look up to say sorry to whoever I bumped into.
"Sorry I-.." my words fall short as I see that it's the girl from yesterday. She doesn't have as many rings on as she did last time, only a couple. She had on a single cross necklace and her outfit looked so good. She's wearing black, ripped jeans, a white, long sleeved shirt, and white shoes to match. She has an angel wing earring in one ear, with a diamond earring in the other. Snapping my eyes back to her face, I smile stupidly, "It's you, the tattooed girl."
"It's me. You're the clumsy guy."
Hearing her call me the clumsy guy, makes me blush slightly and turn my head. Guess she still remembers what happened yesterday, even though I wish she would forget. Madaline looks at us confusingly, probably forgetting that this is the girl she saw me talking to yesterday.
"Yeah, it's me. Funny seeing you again."
Her eyebrows raise in question as she puts a bottle of chocolate milk back.
"O-only because you said we wouldn't be seeing each other again. It's a pretty small town, so I thought you were leaving or only visiting. Something like that."
She makes an 'o' with her mouth and nods, probably remembering that she did say that. The three of us walk up to the counter to pay for our stuff. The tattooed girl lets us go first and stands behind me. Madaline puts our things on the counter, before handing me the empty basket. I quickly put it back and make my way over to her. She looks at me with her hand held out. Looking at her confusingly, she rolls her eyes and points to her hand. That action didn't help me understand one bit.
"The money? Where is it?" money? Was I supposed to have money?
"What do you mean? Why would I bring money?"
Madaline looks at me crazily and punches me in the arm. That actually hurt. I'm not going to admit that though. Her head is already big. We argue about what we're going to do and how we'll pay. Putting everything back is extra work, but we can't exactly stand here. Realizing who's still behind us, I turn to her sharply. She looks half bored and half amused. I see that she doesn't have much in her hand and still needs to pay. I pull Madaline to the side, so the tattooed girl could pay for her things.
"Sorry, uhm you can put your things up there."
She doesn't say anything and puts her three items on the counter. Madaline turns me to her and demands that I put everything back. More than half of the stuff isn't even mine! She grabbed half of the store, who's fault is that? Not mine!
"Guys," Leeane stops us from arguing again. We turn to her and she hands us our bagged items. But we didn't pay..
"But how? We didn't pay. Are you giving these to us for free? You could get fired," I say, not wanting that to happen. Leeane laughs and shakes her head.
"You're not getting them for free, idiot. That girl paid for your stuff, the one you were just standing with."
Okay first, why do I have to be an idiot? Secondly, she paid? She didn't have to do that.. I have to see if she's still here. Ignoring Madaline, I rush out of the small store. Looking around I see no cars, or people. Not giving up, I walk around and continue to look for her. Going to the side of the building, I see her leaning on the wall, smoking a cigarette. Her eyes are closed and she looks very calm. Almost like she's at peace. Walking up to her, I think of what I should say. Nodding to myself, I tuck my hands into my jacket pockets and stand next to her.
"Hey. Those still kill you know."
Her eyes slowly open and she looks down at me. Yes, down. I'm 5'7 and she's probably 5'9.
"Hey. I'm aware," she says back, blowing out a small cloud of smoke. She wafts it away before it gets in my face. I silently thank her for that. We stand there in silence for a minute or two. Her still smoking and me trying not to stare at her. That'd be weird..me just staring at her. Coughing slightly, I clear my throat and look at her to see that she's already looking at me, waiting for me to say something.
"Thank you. For paying for our things, I wouldn't be saying thank you for anything else- not to mean that in a negative way. I am thankful for you helping me up yesterday, you could've just laughed at me. That would've been really embarrassing for me, heh yeah-"
"You're welcome," she says, interrupting my mini rant. If she didn't, I probably would've gone on forever. Seriously. I look down for a second before looking back up. She's no longer looking at me, but at the ground as she smothers her cigarette with her nice shoes. I want shoes like that...again not the point.
"Why are you standing here anyway? Are you homeless?" I dumbly ask. She laughs at what I said and shakes her head. She laughed. Her laugh...was so nice. Strangely, I want to hear it again. She glances at me, before laughing again. God that sound. The girl stops leaning against the wall and stands up straight. I look at her curiously, but she says nothing. "Are you okay?"
"I'm good. My friend didn't show like the dumbass he is, so looks like I'm walking home. See you around, clumsy," is all she says, before walking off. I still don't know her name though. She said see you around, so that means it's possible we'll see each other again. I should at least know her name, right? I think so. Yelling out, 'wait', I stop her once again. She turns around, her eyebrows raised. I find that she does that a lot when she doesn't want to talk. That's okay, I do enough talking for the both of us anyway.
"What's your name? Don't you think I should know it by now?"
She seems to think for a minute, before turning around again. I frown, but it doesn't last for long.
"It's Scarlette."
Scarlette. The name fits her perfectly. I smile and get closer, so I could tell her my name.
"I'm Nolan!"
Scarlette waves goodbye and I hear her say, faintly,
"See you around, Nolan."