Spades and Angels

Oh Shit I Think I....

Maddox

Meanwhile

Watching Lo I can tell something I'd said stuck with her since I'd seen the start of that smile she had. That goddamn smile that had my brain doing funny things I couldn't explain. Even when she replies to me, her tone is soft and without its usual hostility. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," I hear her mumble, seeing how she realises a second later she'd responded with a swallow of fear that hurts for some reason. Her expression fills with that same emotion when our eyes lock for a second and she stammers out her next words. "I-I need to go." I see her look around to try and say goodbye to someone, possibly the girl at the front of the shop since they'd seemed friendly given what I'd heard once I'd got in. However, when no such friend appears she just sighs and moves to leave. Out into the rain and storm. "I'll see you Monday at school Mads."

She's almost past me before I impulsively reach for her with the same gentle motion I used to try and see what was wrong with her wrist the night of the bonfire. When she notices I see her look up as if to tell me, sharply, to let go. Only when we lock eyes I feel something inside me shiver at the expression there and watch the emotion melt away when I meet her eyes. Seeing her frown as if she's trying to read my expression. The same way she's been trying to read my silence the last almost week we hadn't spoken to rile her up. Too worried about whatever was going on with her to enjoy it as much. I see her make a half-hearted move to pass on but I just keep that same gentle hold on her wrist until she pulls away again. Something inside me aching a little as I feel my fingers loosen around her wrist as I let her go and pass. Though not before whispering what had been on my mind as she vanished out of the door and into the rain. Her body seems to pause on the doorframe as they reach her.

"Be careful and get home safe Lo. See you Monday, mi querida corazón."

I don't even realise what I've said until that same confused look faces me again and I see her shiver once before running out into the rain. I follow her with my eyes until I can't see her any longer and she's swallowed up by the storm. A wry smile on my lips before she's gone and I turn back from the door to see a friend of mine watching me with a puzzled frown.

"Mads?" Amaris sounds confused and I don't blame her since I live on the other side of town from this place given how close she is to the south side of Mountain View. "Are you feeling okay over there?" Her expression is kind but I'm not surprised since, as she's not involved in either the Spades or Angels, she holds no grudges to anyone in town. Not like the others. "You friends with Lo?"

I shrug, "Not exactly," I hedge, not sure how to explain my fascination with the Spade girl I was incapable of leaving alone. "Why do you ask?"

"Just what you said?" Oddly she phrases it as a question, eyes on mine as if she wasn't sure how I hadn't understood it. "Do you know what you just said to her as she left?" Ris frowns at me and I mimic the gesture until she sighs. "Madre de dios yo, you seriously don't know what you just said to in Spanish as she left?" Now Ris fixes me with an expression I can't read. I shake my head, not sure what I'd whispered since my recklessness had been captivated by her beauty, destroying my train of thought. "Oh well, hope you meant it."

"Meant what?" I ask when it's clear she won't tell me. "Ris?" I ask her again but she just regards me out of dark eyes that seem to wonder how I didn't know. "Are you going to tell me or-"

"-Sure, I'll tell you Mads, just hope you mean it. You said 'see you Monday, mi querida corazón.' See you Monday my darling heart."

Her words stop me cold when I realise just how badly I may have just fucked up by not thinking. "I-what?" Thrown by my own words being repeated back at me I see Ris's frown deepen as she clocks that I hadn't been joking with her when I said I didn't know what I'd said. "Are...are you sure that's what I said, Ris?" I give her a pleading look but she just shakes her head. "Shit," I mumble, looking down.