My Little Penguin

Chapter Thirty-Six

Catt's POV

My head was pounding as we drove down the dark roads. The bright city lights sending a pang through my temples. I was trying to direct my attention away from my headache and just looked at the road ahead. In the corner of my eye, I see Emily. She is focused on the road for the most part but I see her glance at me from time to time.

Me still being drunk, I tap the glass with wide eyes seeing that it leaves a tiny smudge on the window and I spell out in my sloppy hand writing

'HI EMILY'

Proud of my work, I tap her on the shoulder with a grin on my face and she turns her head toward me, still glancing at the road. I motion to my message and she reads it quickly, chuckles lightly, and places her hand on my knee, patting me softly.

"Hi Catt." I smile wide and then turn back to the window, watching the few cars pass us along with the fast moving scenery.

We continue driving for a good 15 minutes before pulling into a gas station parking lot. The pavilion covering the gas pumps lit with bright white lights. I cringed at first but my eyes soon adjusted as we parked and started to make our way out of the car and into the store. The sky was dark and the cresent moon was visible. The little bell on the door to the store made a tinging noise as Emily pushed the door open and held it for me.

We walked inside and were greeted by a man that sat in a rolling office chair behind the counter.

"Hello." He said simply. His voice was deep and smooth sounding. He was tall and had light skin with a tattoo of a treble clef on the outside of his thumb. His hair was a dark brown colour and swept over his eyes. He had on a dark blue shirt and it was tucked into his black pants. His shirt had a small name tag that read 'Evan' in small back letters.

I sent him a smile and continued.

We walked thorough the aisles of snacks and the section in the back of stores designated for freezers with a variety of drinks in them.

I walked down the aisle with all the candy and grabbed a pack of Starburst because they are my favourite along with a bag of Cheddar Cheese Ruffles. I then went to the back and grabbed an ice coffee from the freezer. When I was done, I looked around for Emily. I spotted the top of her head in a few aisles away from me and I headed over to join her. When I got to where she was, she was bent over looking at some medicine. She stayed that way for a couple more seconds and found what she was looking for. She grabbed it, stood up straight and then handed it to me.

The bottle was small and white with a thick blue stripe going around it, and in yellow letters in read \

Aleve: headache and joint pain relief

I looked back up to send her a smile but she had already started walking to the register. I followed and then placed my items on the glass counter top. She had grabbed a bag of gummy bears and a red gatorade.

The man smiled at her as he grabbed our things and scanned them and put them in a plastic bag. She smiled back and pulled her wallet out of her pocket. I all of a sudden felt bad that she was paying for my stuff and felt for the wad of cash I stuffed in my bra. I pulled it out and her eyes widened.
"No no. It's okay. I can pay." She patted my shoulder and gave me a reassuring smile. I sighed and put the cash back where it came from. I waited patiently for Emily to finish and then she tugged on my arm toward the door. I started to follow her when the man spoke up.
"Excuse me?" He gave me a timid look.
"Me?" I questioned. He nodded. I turned to Emily and motioned for her to go ahead. Once she had walked out to the car, I walked over to the counter.
"Yes?"
"Would it be weird for me to ask for your number?" A light pink spread across his cheeks.

I thought about Becca and how she swore that I was with Jesse. Maybe she was worried that some guy was gonna steal me away from her. I've dated guys before and I suppose he's attractive.

After thinking it over again. I smiled cutely at him and said,

"No I don't think so." He brushed his hair out of his eyes and revealed these sparkling green orbs.

"Really?" He said, hope flickering in his eyes. I nodded and took notice of a pad of yellow stick notes laying on the counter. I smiled at him again and reached to grab them.

He grabbed a pen out of his pocket and handed it to me.

I took my time writing my phone number on the sticky note, making sure my numbers were easy to read and then wrote my name in cute swirly letters.

Then, smoothly, I slid the pad back to him along with the pen and waved suggestively at him, making my way out the door.

"Bye Evan." I said, giving him one last smile.

He waved shyly at me and watched me walk out the door.

After walking through the parking lot, I noticed that I had sobered up and climbed into the car. Looking at Emily I saw that she was eating a couple gummy bears between sips of her Gatorade and scrolling through Tumblr.

"You ready?" I asked her. She gave me a nod and put the car in drive and pulling out of the gas station.

After a couple minutes of comfortable silence and me scrolling through my Instagram, she asks.

"So is your aunt gonna be cool with you being out this late and just now sobering up?" I knew that she would because aunt Jen is cool and she lets me do my own thing. But part of me wanted to know where this was going.

"Eh she probably won't be thrilled. Why?" I questioned. She shrugged her shoulder.

"I was gonna see if you just wanted to crash at my place and then we could hang out some tomorrow whenever we wake up." I smiled and glanced at the clock on the car radio. The little red numbers read 4:37am. My eyes widened and I chuckled to myself.
"I probably won't wake up until 1 or later. " she chuckled and made this motion that meant 'same' or 'me too'.

"But yeah I'd be up for that." A smile spread across her face.

"Awesome! You can just wear some of my clothes to sleep in and then change into whatever when we get up. Sound good?" She asked.

"Sounds great." I confirmed.

---
Guys I know we suck we're so sorry. High school is tough on us plus Shorti living in California and me in Florida, we can't just meet up at school and talk about the next chapter. But we are super sorry and we're gonna try and get back on updating. We probably won't have specific update days but we'll try and make sure that you guys have at least one new chapter a week. Forgive us and love us. You guys are the best!
Stay sweet!
~Kitty