Unfortunate

Chapter 3

Mallory's Point of Veiw

“Mom, I’m pretty sure we’re lost,” I told her for about the thirtieth time. We’ve been driving around for the past half hour.

                “Stop saying that! I know my way around Forest Park; I’ve lived in St. Louis my whole life! But are you sure Elliot didn’t say where to meet? This place is pretty big. Are you sure he’s nice? And safe? How long have you known him? I haven’t even met his parents, I mean-“

                “Mom,” I said comfortingly, “Elliot and I are working on a project, it’s not like it’s a date. And yes, he’s pretty nice.”

My mother is no different than any other moms, in most aspects. She is passionate for scrapbooking and goes to about any concert she can get tickets for, whether it be Bon Jovi or They Might Be Giants or One Direction. But other than that, she could be anyone’s mom. Not that I don’t love her and I’m not thankful for her, I am.

                “Pretty nice? Does he-“

                “Wait! I think I saw him!”

                My mom slammed on the car breaks and craned her head out the window franticly looking for Elliot. “Where is he? Where?”

                I tapped my mom’s shoulder and pointed to a big grassy clearing behind the Art Museum we were driving past. Forest Park is one of my favorite places to go because it holds just about all of the tourist attractions in St. Louis, from the Art Museum to the Zoo to the Botanical Gardens.

                And there, juggling a soccer ball with more talent than I could ever obtain, was Elliot. Before my mom could ask too many questions, I thanked her for driving me and made sure she would be back in two hours. I walked up to Elliot as my mom drove away.

                “Hey,” I said while straightening my hoodie.

                He stopped juggling the ball and looked up at me. “Hey, what time is it?”

                “6:45,” I replied while looking at my phone.

                “You’re forty-five minutes late, you know?”

                “You never gave me your phone number, and I couldn’t call you to know where to find you.”

                “So you got lost?”

                “Well, we just couldn’t find you, so yeah. I guess we were lost,” I said. I thought it was pretty obvious.

                My answer made its way into a smile across Elliot’s face. Why it was so funny, I didn’t know. Nonetheless, I was thankful he showed up.

                When he didn’t answer, I asked, “So do you live around here?”

                “Sort of,” he mumbled.

                I looked around and didn’t see any cars, so I figured he walked here. “So, do you want to get started? My mom is going to pick me up here in two hours, and I don’t know how long this will take.”

                “It won’t take long, I’m just showing you the basics. Right, so stand over there,” he pointed to a point in the grass about ten feet away from him. “I’m going to pass the ball to you. You watch how I do it and then pass it back, okay?”