the girl in the green house » david dobrik au

ten

"David, I brought you some—" Maude stopped in her tracks, right in the door coming in from the garage. She glanced at me, then back at David with a noticeable smile on his face. "Oh, I didn't know we were having company. I would've cleaned up in here a little better."

"It's just Lu," he shrugged. "What'd you bring me?"

"Just Lu," she scoffed. "I thought I'd taught you better about how to treat a woman."

David looked a little flustered at that, stealing a small glance at me with rosy cheeks. He replied, "I meant it was just one of my friends, so it wasn't like we were having a whole dinner party or anything."

I looked up at Maude with a playful, teasing smile. "He's such a heathen. Can't even believe he's related to you sometimes."

"Me either," she dramatically shook her head, tossing the brown paper bag in her hand towards us. "Got you candy sticks at Elliot's. Share."

"What are candy sticks?" David frowned in confusion, pulling open the bag. I gave a shocked look to Maude, who just nodded like she was also disappointed in David's ignorance.

Elliot's Pharmacy was one of my favorite places to go as a kid. They had one of those mechanical rocking horses you could ride for fifty cents, and they had candy sticks for a dime a piece. They were really just a stick of hard candy, but something about them was magical. I told him, "I want the cotton candy one, if she got one. Or we can split it, since you've never had 'em. The cotton candy's the best."

"Okay," he pulled out the familiar blue and pink striped stick and broke it in half in the packaging, carefully opening it and passing one half to me. "It's just like a lollipop, right?"

"Yeah, but better," I told him. "Suckers are too clean. You don't get sticky fingers from a sucker."

"You want sticky fingers?" he half laughed at that.

"Of course," I nodded to myself, savoring the taste of the sickly sweet candy. "Brings me back to my youth."

"You're still in your youth, dear," Maude commented from her place at the kitchen counter. That was only half true. I knew I was young, but I missed the feeling of being a child, being free and dirty and not having any plans in life. The only thing there is to do when you're a kid, especially when you live in a small town like Calhoun, is to live. No worries or pain. Just pure happiness, candy colored saliva dripping down your fingers as you walked home from the pharmacy with your older brother yelling at you to speed up, dirt and grass stuck to the bottom of your feet. Mother would be mad when we got home and she saw that I had been out in public so dirty, but as a kid who also loved baths, I never minded much.

There was so much more freedom when I was younger, when Cal was around. I could follow him anywhere, and he never much paid any attention to our parents' wishes. He'd let me step into the creek if I wanted to, let me collect grasshoppers and frogs to bring home and hide in a little jar under my bed until they inevitably died due to lack of care. I missed him more and more every day, and wondered if he ever missed me just as much. Probably not.

He was so much older. I was just the little kid following him around like a lost puppy. He probably didn't think much of me now that he was free.

"Lu," David nudged me and broke me out of my thoughts. "You looked out of it. She asked if you were staying for dinner."

"Oh, I'm sorry," I glanced back at her so she'd know I meant it. My phone had yet to buzz with a message from Gloria. Either she was still at my house and my mother hadn't returned yet, or she had left without being sure of her whereabouts. At first, I worried about how I'd get home, how I'd explain to my mother that I'd been gone so long with a Dobrik.

Then I thought about Cal. He would've laughed in her face for all her nosy, ridiculous questions. He wouldn't have cared if he got grounded for six months; it's not like he listened to them anyway. So I said, "Yeah, I'll stay for supper. If that's okay, obviously. I don't mean to be a bother."

"Supper," David mocked quietly under his breath, a small laugh escaping him. It seemed he wasn't quite used to Alabama and all the words that came with it. He continued, "You can stay. I know you think we're poor or something, but we have enough food in this house for three people."

"David!" Maude seemed shocked that he'd even say that. "That is so rude of you. Luella is nothing but nice."

I just smiled at David, who smiled back at me like we shared a secret. I didn't know what the secret was, but it felt special. I joked, "Well, if you're sure you can scrounge up enough food for all of us, I'd be happy to stay."

"You're funny," David grinned, his teeth and lips already turning a light shade of blue. "These things are pretty good. I've never seen them before."

"We'll have to go to Elliot's together one day," I told him. "You can ride the horse."

"There's a horse?"

"It's a fake horse. It just rocks. Might not even hold your weight, but we'll see," I teased. "What other flavors do we got? We can rank 'em from best to worst. Or maybe we should eat them worst to best. I don't know, whatever you think."

"You're the candy expert," he shrugged. "You do it."

I set out on my mission, dumping the bag of nine remaining candy sticks out and carefully, methodically sorting them into place, giving David my reasoning for each placement. He just watched, letting me talk his ear off on why the artificial banana flavor was ranked above the orange flavor because it was a prettier color, but below the green apple flavor because artificial banana is still artificial banana. I think I could've talked all night and he would've sat there listening.

Maude made some chicken casserole that felt like a shot of happiness straight to the soul. Southern cooking, especially done by a grandma, will do that to you.

She made David drive me home, even though it'd probably be better for both of us if I just walked home in the rain. I made him park down the hill, so hopefully my mother couldn't see his car, then stood outside for a few minutes hoping to get wet enough to look like I'd actually walked home.

"Where were you?" were the first words out of my mother's mouth when she first spotted me sneaking in the back door.

"With Corinna."

"Why are you soaking wet?"

"I walked home. She fell asleep watching a movie and I didn't want to wake her up."

She stared at me for a second, "You didn't answer my texts, Luella. For the love of god, if you're going somewhere, just leave a note. There's no need to worry us."

"Sorry," I told her. "I will next time. I'm gonna go take a shower."

"A hot one," she spoke after me as I walked up the steps. "I don't want you catching a cold."

And just like that, life was back to normal. It was tragic how easy it was.

How is everyone doing today everyone tell me one good thing that happened to them this week !!!

Xoxo abby