Say The Word

Chapter 4- One Step Closer(...To Disaster)

  "The hell do you want? I'm on the roof now and you're still following me. What are you? A dog?" he glanced at me, furrowing his eyebrows.

Okay, rude but sure. I took a deep breath, remembering what Elly told me. "So, why are you in such a bad mood?"

"Good question. Will you be able to solve it for me if I told you? I think not, so shut the fuck up and leave me alone," he lied down on the cool shaded concrete floor.

"Maybe I can," I hummed, inching towards him.

He clicked his tongue, "Right, you gon' give me a job? Money? Only talk to me when you can provide me with all of those."

"Maybe I can," I blurted out of impulse.

He sat up, scanning me up and down. A long pause later, he said, "If you do have money, name your price and the job you want me to do. Do you want me to kill, steal, or lie?"

Oh, lord, it was happening. Being straight forward was the answer! Elly, you absolute genius!

"Uh," I hesitated. The opportunity was in my hands, I was panicking. "Be my rental friend, and I would pay you."

More silence. Vastel, what were you thinking-

"Sure, how much are you willing to pay me?" he raised his eyebrows, interested.

There's not going back now, I had to play along no matter what, there was no way I was letting this slip. "It'll be on hourly, obviously. Five dollars per hour, how does that sound?"

"Ten. Five can barely get me anything."

Okay, here comes the bargaining. "How about six?"

"Eight, you are taking time away from me after all. In this case, time is money."

He had a point, I'd give him that.

"Fine, eight it is," I played along.

"Do you want an official document? Legally stating that you own me as long as you pay up?"

"What we're doing is...illegal though?"

"Oh, so you do know, maybe you aren't so inept, as annoying as you might be. I ain't exactly your 'friend' yet, so you can't cut any of my pay for saying that. Now, let's talk about my working hours. After school 'til six thirty only, I need to go to my other work place."

Uhm, how many jobs does he have? "Sure, but, the condition is that you'd be yourself when we're 'friends'."

Was it working? I could not tell. He would probably be smart enough to re-

"Fair enough, we are 'friends' after all. So, that means, we need a safe word, to prevent us from getting too close and also if we wanna call if off, both of us can do it. Literally would be the word to call time's up. You're coming up with it, by the way, since you came up with this idea of yours."

"Arrête, we'll go with that, what do you think?" I suggested. It literally just means stop in French. I don't know why I came up with it either, it just felt right.

"Great, we have ourselves a deal," he stood up, stretching his hands out, his back cracked multiple times. "See you after school then."

I stood there, trying to process what on Earth had just happened, as he dashed down the stairs. Somehow, I managed to get a little closer to him even more.

▪▫▪▫▪

"Vastel, arrête," Ceb (yeah, I'm using this name now) called out to me. "We're supposed to hang out together today."

He was all smiles. Shocked looks were shot our way, as he grabbed my arm and started to practically drag me away.

"It's 1:30, the time starts now. I have no idea how to do this so let's get out of here first," he hissed. Okay, woah, there, we were glued together, body to body. His hands were in contact with my torso, making me a little nervous.

I was conscious of my breathing suddenly, as if it would disturb him if he'd noticed me breathing. We made pass the crowd without any problems, most people made way for us, and I could not tell if it was because of Ceb's killing stare or it was because we looked like we could just run someone over with how fast we were going. I felt uncomfortable not because of the other students staring at us, it was because I knew Elly was somewhere in the crowd looking at us.

"Jesus, what's the rush?" I asked, as he peeled his hands off of me.

"I just can't wait to hang out...best friend. Totally not because I don't want us seen together," he gave me a sarcastic grin. "Where do you think we can go?"

"I don't know." What do friends do anyway?

"Just so you know, we are NOT going to my house, alright? Gotta keep things professional," he warned, walking a few steps ahead of me. "We could do whatever you want."

For a second, the most sensible thing to do seemed like bringing him with me to get the ingredients I needed for the meals I had to prepare later.

"Well, let's go, we're going to miss the sale."

Oh, lord, I was going to take this person out on a grocery trip with me, just because he said so and also because I did not want to miss the sale (Yes, the sale is that important, shut up).

▪▫▪▫▪

"So, you're telling me that, you know how to cook?" he asked as we strolled down the aisle made up of a variety of canned sauces.

Things were going great. Well, at least they were until I caught a glimpse of someone who should know not to be there, Elly.

"Yes, I know how to cook, now help me work out the math for this can and this can," I held up two different tomato sauces to his face, eyeing the corner of the last rack. Her shoes were mildly visible. "There will be a 40% promotion because of the sale, and I can't choose which one is cheaper. I really like both of these brands though."

He lowered his head, squinting at the price on the rack. "Just go with the best tasting one, it's not like you can't afford it."

"Unfortunately for me, I have a rent-a-friend now so I have to save up," I rolled my eyes, trying to make him get as engaged as possible. Her shoes were still visible and I was panicking. "So just be a friend and help me calculate."

"It's not my fault you came up with this idea," he huffed, snatching the two cans away. "Let's see what we have here."

"Hey, I'm just going to use the bathroom real quick," I told Ceb.

He half-heartedly grunted a respond, still absorbed in the 'math' problem.

Oh, lord, don't ruin this for me.