Gucci in Juvie

Chapter 20

'I want candy.'

-I Want Candy, Bow Wow Wow

Hu Li sat in the driver's seat, gracefully handling the wheel as we sped down a highway. She had opened the windows in the van, so wind rushed and circulated around us. Her dark hair seemed to float around her head.

'Are we there yet?' 

I whipped around. 'Nathaniel Black, if you ask us that one more time, I will throw you out of the van myself.'

He slumped in his seat and pouted, crossing his arms. 'I was just asking!'

'Well, shut up.' Hu Li said calmly, with a deathly undertone in her voice.

And so he shut up.

The ride was uneventful, and silent. But we knew that each of us was thinking the same things. What happens now? What do we do next? Where will we go? Will they find us? If they do find us, then what? 

Was Elliot alright?

Soon we stopped at a gas station. Hu Li jumped out to refill the gas and I dragged Nathan to the convenience store to get some snacks with the money Elliot gave us.

'Oh. My. Gosh.' The convenience store was brilliance itself. So much food. So many drinks. The lights blinded me for a second and I just stood in the doorway, contemplating. Nathan was a bit stunned too, obviously, since he had been in J.U.V.I.E for a whole year. 

You can kinda lose all sense of humanity in that place. And totally forget the concept for convenience stores.

I made a beeline for the junk food aisle. 

'Get the pringles.' I heaped the sour cream and onion flavoured chips into Nathan's arms. 

'Why are there.....' A strange look crossed his face as he stared down at the cans. 'Like, 10 of them?'

'I get hungry. When I'm hungry, I eat deep fried thinly sliced ovals of carbohydrated perfection.'

'You mean chips?' 

'Have some sense of poetic justice!' I tossed a few bottles of iced coffee into the shopping basket that Nathan had wisely taken. 'Beautiful things deserve beautiful words.'

'Cass, wh-'

'It's Cassidy, you goose finger.'

'Cassidy, why would potato chips be defined as something 'beautiful'?'

'That's utter blasphemy and you know it.' 

'Yeah, yeah, okay you got me.' He grinned and I grinned and we just grinned and bonded over those flavored deep fried thinly sliced ovals of carbohydrated perfection.

It was nice to joke over these things. 

'Oooooh, skittles.' Nathan scuttled over to the candy aisle and grabbed a few packets of the multicolored candy.

'You like skittles?'

He smirked and tossed over a packet, hitting me in the dang face with it. 'Taste the rainbow, girl.'

I gasped. 'How dare thee!'

'I dare, princess, I dare.' He laughed, aiming another packet.

'I'm no princess.' I grabbed the nearest object, which happened to be a bag of Hershey's kisses and hurled it straight at his (kinda perfect) head. 

'I'm the queen.'

And so started a candy war.

It was absolute carnage. Bags of different kinds of sugary treats had burst open mid-air or when they met their target, spilling over the floor and unto our clothes. Nathan and I were both cackling, and I nearly busted a rib laughing when he slipped over one of his beloved skittles. 

'Dost thou surrender to thy royal majesty?' I pointed a large lollipop at him as he lay groaning and chuckling on the floor.

'I think I surrendered a long time ago.' He slowly got to a kneeling position and bowed his head. 'Your Highness.'

I giggled, tapping the lollipop on his shoulders in a 'knighting' motion. 

'If you're the queen, does that mean I'm the king?' He quirked an eyebrow slyly.

Well, somebody was getting bolder. I kinda liked it and hated it at the same time.

'More like prince consort, m'dear.' I flipped my hair. 'When I'm queen, there's only one throne.'

He shrugged good-naturedly. 'As long as I'm beside you.'

We stared at each other, just grinning away like two fools. If somebody had walked by at that moment, we would've looked like two really high people, a boy dressed in a t-shirt and jeans kneeling on the ground, in front of a girl in high heels and a trench coat holding a ridiculously large lollipop, both surrounded by spilled sweets and ripped up packaging. 

'C'mon.' I broke out of my slight trance and offered him a hand, which he took to pull himself up. 'Let's go pay for all the food.'

'How about the mess?'

I winked. 'That'll be our little secret.'

'What?'

'Live a little.' grabbed the basket. 'I'll deal with it.'

As we walked up to the cashier counter, I whispered in his ear.

'Just remember, run.'

He looked at me with a slightly terrified expression, and I patted his shoulder as we arrived.

We paid for all the stuff in our basket, and I gave the cashier an extra big smile as he gave us the receipt.

'Anything else I can get for you?' The cashier leant forward and gave me a slightly creepy grin.

'Yeah, um, we had a slight problem with aisle 9.' I gave a bashful shrug, twirling one piece of hair with my finger. 

The cashier looked quite charmed, frankly. 'I'll go check, thanks for telling me.'

'No problem at all.' I waited till the cashier was out of sight as he headed towards aisle 9, and then quickly grabbed our things and Nathan's hand.

'Wha-'

'Run.'

As we sprinted out of the store, I heard an anguished scream behind me and a laugh bubbled out. Nathan joined in and we were both giggling hysterically as we reached the van, hand in hand.

'What have you done now.' Hu Li deadpanned when we found her leaning casually against Bessie's side, arms crossed and face set in a blank expression, hair falling over her shoulders like a pitch black waterfall.

'Just drive.' I gasped out as I slid open the van door and shoved Nathan in unceremoniously, then gently placing the snacks beside him. He fumed slightly at the definite difference of care that I took with him versus the food.

'Don't tell me what to do, you're not my mum.' Hu Li rolled her eyes, but slid into the driver's seat anyway.

We drove away just as the cashier came running out, cursing at us.

A/N

This is more of a filler, just a short chapter to develop the relationship between Nathan and Cassidy. The action will come soon, because holidays are starting in a bit for me (everybody say AYYYY YA) so stay tuned!!!!

Side note, I know I've said this before, but if thous hast the time, check out the link below, my friend made some videos about mental illness education and they're animated (woooooo) and i would really appreciate if u gave her some support and also help to spread the word about these videos, so that they can be a benefit to the mental health community and helping people understand and help their family and friends who suffer from mental illnesses:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZADh3azhu8ZNMVgCAznv1g

much love for u guys!!! 

-coraline xx