apprehension / hemmings

(8) strong

Rose's face wore an expression filled with exhaustion and illness. She was sick, so gran thought it'd be a treat to take her out to our favourite café.

While there, I received a text message from Luke, who happened to be ten steps behind me. We sent each other about two text messages before he left with the waitress who'd served him.

I began to pick at my food. I hadn't touched any more than two bites of the soggy pancakes, and it wasn't because of Luke.

When we left the café that night, he left me on 'read'.

When we got home, I asked if he was alright.

When I was left on 'read' once more, I figured he didn't want to speak to me.

So, I simply went to sleep. I tangled myself up in the thick comforter on my bed and played the album Hesitant Alien as I fell asleep, which put both me, and my parakeet, Zada, to sleep.

She was a quiet bird, nonetheless.

As I woke up, my head throbbed with a god awful headache. Ibuprofen took most of it away, but it would return for a small amount of seconds with the smallest head snap.

Gran was making teggy and rice toast for breakfast, - teggy was a mixture of sweet hash browns and a semi-sweetened rice paste on toast- but I only had one plate. Father didn't even have teggy, his favourite.

"It was lovely, gran," The smile I'd given her was sweet one, as I stood from the table. "Now, I've got to go return these library books in Charleston, I'll probably be gone all day, may even miss dinner. If that's the case, I've already fed Zada. I'll be back by supper, tops."

"Charleston?"

"Yes, gran."

"Is your phone charged? Do you have your mace? Extra money for unexpected fare?"

"Yes," with a small laugh, I gave gran a kiss on her cheek and began to make my way to the front of the house. "I'll see you later!"

Gran laughed.

I wasn't going back to Charleston. The first place I'd went to was the coffee shop, and to no surprise, Luke wasn't there. As I was waiting for my coffee, my phone buzzed in my coat pocket. The front of the screen read:

one new message from luke (9:57 am):
i'm sorry.

Before I could even unlock my phone to reply to the message, my head felt heated and my coffee was given to me. I skilled and nodded, 'thank you' before exiting the shop.

me: what for? you've nothing to apologize for, luke.
luke: ignoring you.
me: you were ignoring me?
luke: can i call you?
me: not right now, no.
luke: can i see you?
me: i'm going to the playground on 97th.
luke: um. why.