Pencil Breaker

Chapter 14- Helium Tanks

I look at my short brown hair in the side mirror of the car and sigh silently. I look at the cars and their drivers as we pass them. They just had one objective right now, to get to their destination.

"Do you want to listen to some music?" Andrew asks.

I look at him, he was still staring straight at the road and looked at his hands. They were clenched on the wheel. Was he okay? Was he nervous?

"Mai?"

"Yea sure" I mumble. He could've just turned it on. I stare ahead of us as we get onto the highway, was party city that far away? I shrug at myself.

I stare at my lap when suddenly an aux cable lands on my lap.

"Huh?" I say. What, did he want me to play my music?

Well, if he wanted to listen to my music then he shall listen. I plug the cable in my phone and put the first song in my library.

Apple bottom jeans starts to blare in the car and Andrew breaks. I stare at him as his face starts to change and his frown turns upward into a smile then into a laugh. Ha, I haven't seen that smile since that thing.

Another ancient song starts to play conveniently after.

"Always the ultimate feeling, you got me lifting feeling so gifted sugar how you get so fly" comes up and I burst of laughter from watching Andrew.

"What?" Andrew says with a puzzled look. Was he that oblivious?

"You" I laugh "your faces are hilarious"

"My face is funny?" He asks raising his eyebrows as he quickly looks at me before looking back at the road.

"No!" I say between laughing. This was way too over the top. I needed to stop laughing before my stomach starts to hurt "the faces you're making when you're listening to this are hilarious" I huff as I try to get air just as another song comes on, a guitar intro.

"Don't you have any songs from this year?" He laughs.

"Of course I do! It just conveniently played the other ones" I scoff as I smile. I flip through my library and find the prefect specimen.

"Hey Andrew, can we go thrift shopping" I laugh as I lean against the side. I can't, this was the prefect song.

"What what, what, what" I sang to the song.

"You" he sighs "are unbelievable" he says shaking his head and turning right, making me lean left.

I grip my bag tightly as he turns again. What party city are we going to exactly because this one was freaking far away. We grew quiet after that and I just leaned back into my chair to look outside. Was this just going to be a combination of awkwardness and hilariousness? I hope not.

As we drive in silence we finally get to a partycity.

I jump out of the car and immeidately strech, where are we? Was this roosevelt?

I start to walk ahead without looking back to see if Andrew was behind me. The roads are full of slush and water, getting worse as a car passes. At the end of the parking lot I see a gigantic mountain of snow. I'm not kidding, it was two times my size and I was 5"4.

As I walk into the store I was hit with the smell of rubber. I look around as Andrew comes in a few minutes later.

"Ugh" he makes a face "What the hell is that smell" he scrunches up his nose and walks past me.

That. was. adorable. I feel myself tense up and let out a deep sigh. No irregular heartbeats today. I absolutely had to focus on the objection. I took a deep breath and walk after him, finding him in the balloons section.

"We had to buy these right?" he says, pointing at the latex balloons and the helium tank.

"Yea" I quickly nod as he looks at me "oh, I'll get the cart" I say as I start to walk away.

"No, I'll get it. You just get the stuff" He says, patting my shoulder as he passes me.

I crouch down in front of the tanks and furrow my eyebrows. Why couldn't he just let me get it? The balloons, have to get colorful ones or else it won't be a fun time. Well, the best option would be the 20 dollar tank of course, we're probably only going to use it once and then store it.

I move back to the balloons and snatch 5 bags of latex balloons just as Andrew rolls in with his cart. 

"So the tank?" He asks as I throw the balloons in.

"This one" I say as I pull the box out.

As I begin to carry the box I feel a push.

"Here, let me do it" Andrew says, taking the box out of my hands.

I stare at his back, raising my eyebrows. What the hell was this? I'm not allowed to do anything? I am a strong independent women okay? I do not need some guy to carry a fucking helium tank for me, it's not even that heavy.

I revert back to my calm face as he turns around.

"So what else?" he says as he takes the cart.

"I need-"

"Andrew!" A high pitched voice shouts.

What the hell is the model doing here. I stare at her in her flashy and stylish clothes as she rushes down the aisle and jumps on Andrew to hug him.