'Monroe, Drive. Just keep driving!' was all I kept saying and I prayed he did not ask any questions. Monroe nodded in understanding, noticing the man next to Mary-Anne. "Where to, boss?" I laughed at Roe and smiled over at him. "I don't know, yet. Just keep driving for now." "You can talk about it if you want. I will listen and not judge. I am not going to push you, but just know that you can talk to me." I bit my lip and tried to keep the tears in my eyes. I am not an extremely emotional person, but when people I love make me feel special, I cry.
"I love you, Roe. I can't imagine life without you as my friend. I don't want to talk about it just yet, but I am not allowed to be seen by any exploration of Mary-Anne." I looked to the front of the car and saw the entrance to Mountain Rise, the rich, fancy neighborhood. "Monroe, pull into the neighbor hood up here. It is about 2.5 mile walk back to my house. If you let me borrow your backpack cooler, I can make it home before the ice cream melts all the way."
"Okay, Doll. I want my backpack back though. I can't lose another cooler to you." Monroe leans over to give me a hug. I gladly accept it and return with one, too. "Ha ha ha, you are absolutely hilarious. I got to put that in my book of best jokes, but then you would be in there and I don't think you want that. I will make sure to return it by the end of next week." I start blowing kisses at him and made a heart over my chest. "I love you." "If that is the case, then will you marry me?" Monroe opened up his hands like he was holding a ring case. I stuck out my tongue. "You are an idiot. See you later."
I climbed out of the car and watched him drive off with a wave. I hitched up the backpack straps and started my trek back to the house. When I was about to turn the corner to get on the main road, a group of boys no older than 20 starting calling out to me. I looked up only when I heard their footsteps getting faster and louder. Someone's hand jerked my shoulder causing me to stumble back a little. When I turned around, I plastered a big smile on my face to show I was 'not bothered.' "How may I help you?" I said trying to sound as innocent as possible, but honestly, dark thoughts were already running through my head. "What you got in that bag right there? Seems awfully big for just getting dropped off here."
I was already starting to get annoyed. Why do people have to be so damn nosy? "Why do you care? In honesty, why? I don't care about you, why do you care about my business?" I ground out. I want to get home, put the ice cream away, and go back to sleep. "Oooh, feisty. I might have to teach her a lesson." The oldest looking one said. "Cut the crap. I want to leave. I propose a math problem. If you can solve it, you get what you want. If not, I leave and you shut up." I smirked. These kids look dumber than rocks. I hope they get so confused, they leave.
"What do you say, boys? Let the girl win or shall we?" The idiot... I mean, kid looked back. "Oh come on. It is not that hard of a decision. Yes or no?" "No need to get snarky. We will do it." The kiddo was getting angry. I inwardly smiled. "Let us start plain and simple. I am having 19 friends and me coming over. How many people are there at my house?"
Some tiny kid in the back chimes up, "You would have 19 people. You invited 19 people over." I pulled my windbreaker over my nose and laughed, breathy. I dropped my hand and put on a straight face. "How old are you?" I just had to question. "I am 17, pretty mama." This time I had to laugh out loud. "Okay, any other guesses?" "You would have a whole shit ton of people." This boy who was built like a 30-year old body builder. "Yeah, and that is not including the ones in my closet, the basement, and the shed."
Everyone looked at me, shocked. "Calm down! Any more guesses?" "You would have 20. That saying you don't have one of your parents or other guests in the house. We learned to answer problems like these in math since the second grade." I shot my head up and smiled. "Now you can see why I laughed. Now darlings, this is a perfect example of common sense." The 'leader' basically growled at me. In my mind, I was dying laughing, thinking 'didn't know you like to play pet?'
"Final half. You solve, you big brain. You don't, I win. Plain and simple. In this bag I have ice cream. Using the information you just figured out, tell me how many tubs of ice cream I have?" The boy that answered earlier said," What about how many serving each person eats? What about what the serving size is or how many servings are in each container?" "I am going to be nice. They eat 2 serving sizes and the tub has 5. The rest you have to figure out. Have fun! You have...." I pulled out my phone. The walk if I move at a good pace should take almost an hour. It is 13 minutes to the top of the hour.
"You have 3 minutes of group discussion and 10 minutes of personally figuring out. Your time starts now." When y'all here, they put their heads together and thought. That is actually what they did. They did a group huddle with their heads touching in the middle. I sat down on the curb and pulled out my spoon and Dark Chocolate Cherry ice cream. Might as well enjoy it while it lasts.
"Time is up! Get to work figuring it out. Remember the prompt is how many tubs of ice cream do I have in my bag? Now go!" I pointed my spoon at them in a threatening way. This was getting boring. They were whispering out their math and counting on their fingers. "Idiots." I mumbled under my breath. They are going to be like everyone eats their 2 servings so you have like 6 tubs. I really just want to leave. I put my spoon and the tub away and stood up. "Stop thinking. It's not like you do that anyway. There is 6 of you. Line up shortest to tallest or youngest to oldest and then I will get answers."
They lined up youngest to oldest, I am guessing because it was that or they can't line up to the tallest. I walked up to the tallest kid and grabbed his collar to yank him down to eye level. Not that I am short, this guy was massive. He was in the middle of the line and I figured I would use the element of surprise to get my answers.
"You! What is your answer? Whisper it into my ear." "5. It seems like a reasonable answer." I threw him the okay sign. I took a couple massive steps back to see the whole group. "This is going to take to long. When I point at you, just say your answer." I pointed at the youngest and continued up the line. "7, 5, 5, 6, 3, 7." I pointed at the kid who said 3. "Why did you say 3?" "In simple math problems, my lucky number is 3." "You're close, but No!"
The 'leader' actually growled this time and took threatening steps my way. I took my steps to meet him in the middle. My dad told to accept the challenge, not back down. I plastered the biggest smile I could on my face when his nose was roughly 2 inches from my face. "Now I really want to teach you a lesson. Pretty girls like you shouldn't be verbal and sarcastic." "Good thing I ain't pretty. I am gorgeous! And my dad told me, 'Men like you are stupid. Women don't need your bossy ass controlling us.' You like power and I like to take that power away from you. Now have a good day!" I burped really loudly into his face.
Most people would be like gross or disgusting. My dad would be sprinting away from the scene high-fiving me and smiling like no tomorrow.
I booked it and I mean not even Usain Bolt could keep up. I went from 0-90 in like 2 seconds. I slowed to a jog when I could not hear their pounding footsteps or should I say Mr. BossMan's footsteps. I slowed down even further to a nice slow walk and caught my breath. A car crawled next to me and rolled down its window. It was Carrot.
"I saw the whole thing. That was hilarious. What were you doing in there anyway?" "Oh, Shit! I forgot to tell them the answer. THE ANSWER WAS 4!" I screamed so loud the birds in the surrounding trees fled. I looked back at Adam. "Sorry Dude. Mary-Anne had someone over and I couldn't go home just yet. My friend was driving me." Adam starts laughing. "Yeah, Levi told me what your friend said. Actually we are on facetime right now." I poked my head through the window to look at the phone in the stand. "Hi, Blue Jeans." I made a face at him and climbed in through the window into the passenger seat.
"Was that really necessary?" Adam and Levi said at the same time. "The unnecessary is always necessary. Words of the wise." Levi asked, "Who said it?" "I don't know. Some hobo who was trying to steal from Mary-Anne when I was younger. He ended up getting $50 from her purse and $100 from my dad because we thought it was funny. He sadly got hit a couple times with her purse before he got anything." "Damn, Your dad sounds like a fun man." "He was, but now we don't know where he is." "I am sorry." I turned to Adam. "Unless you kidnapped him, don't worry. See you later. Oh, and think of weird questions to ask for later. Levi make sure to bring snacks."
I hugged Adam and made faces at Levi. "See you skanks later." With that I climbed out the car and headed into the garage.
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A/N: Do y'all ever start a story then stop it when it gets to an embarrassing part? I have the worst second hand embarrassment so I do this often. And since I am a writer, my brain automatically starts writing the part to how I would like it or it instantly thinks of all the bad things that could happen.