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The cool January air nipped at Arte's cheeks. Twisting the key inside the lock, the door swung open and she entered the warm two-story home she currently lived in. Fumbling with the groceries she used her left foot to nudge the door closed.
"Scotty!" Her voice echoed out into the quiet and quaint space. Without waiting for a reply she trudged into the kitchen, pausing long enough to kick off her vans by the door and drop her keys into the bowl── she noted only one other set of keys were there.
As she dropped the plastic bags onto the isle she heard thundering footsteps from upstairs grow closer and stumble down the stairs before Scott McCall appeared, grinning brightly with twinkling puppy brown eyes. Despite his giddiness over her making it back safely── and before the rain could move in and soak her── he was mostly excited over if she'd gotten his moose track ice cream or not. It'd been promised to him if he'd done the dishes that morning in place of her── she'd been busy and forgot to do them the night prior.
"Payment, as promised." Arte grinned, holding up the single quart of moose tracks as if it was a trophy── to a sixteen-year-old asthmatic, it probably was. "Did you finish lacing your stick?" She made idle chatter, setting it onto the isle and grabbing them a spoon before she began putting away the groceries── she kept her mint chocolate chip out and next to him as he'd dropped onto the wooden stool the instant she'd grabbed two spoons.
"Yeah, I was going over it again," Scott's mouth was filled with ice cream. "I didn't want the ball to fall through it again."
During the previous summer practice, he'd failed to tighten the strings and the first-ever ball he'd managed to catch── that she'd thrown── sailed right through the net and his tan skin had heated up to crimson for the next three hours and every time he looked at her. Over the past few months she'd helped him out── as well as his best friend── and now that the second semester of his sophomore year began the very next day, he was confident he could make his dream a possibility.
Arte nodded. "You'll do fine, just make sure you have your inhaler close by and keep an open mind." With the groceries put away she joined him at the isle. "You've got a shift tomorrow, closing all on your own." She wiggled her eyebrows at the latest responsibility he'd gained.
"You don't think Deaton is making a mistake?" Scott's worry flickered over his expression as she opened her ice cream. "I-I mean, I just started three months ago, closing is a big deal, right?"
"Depends on if by big deal you mean job we don't want, then yeah," Arte teased, taking a bite of her wintry treat. "It's a big deal." She winked when he grinned boyishly and shook his head── his floppy hair bounced and slung some droplets of water onto the counter.
Taking another bite of her ice cream, Arte's phone buzzed from inside her coat pocket. "Want to make a bet?" She spoke simply, catching his eye and watching as panic shimmered── he was horrible at bets and almost always lost them. Without giving him a chance to actually decide she tugged her phone out and flipped it open── it was old school but it served the purpose of only making phone calls.
