Sweet as a Strawberry

6 ~ Sour as a Lime

A/N: Dedicated to AliceWrights because LOOK AT HER LOVELY COVER 

Chapter 6: Sour as a Lime (Ben)

Why the fuck would I stalk a chick that I didn't even like? I wasn't stalking her.

Lottie had dropped her wallet when Clark pulled her away to her class, and there was money and her student ID and her worker's badge and license, so obviously she would needed it at some point, right?

And even if I'm some arrogant asshole, I'm not just gonna leave the wallet for another bigger ass to steal it when I was perfectly capable of bringing it to her.

When that brunette bitch screeched at me and then bodily tossed me inside that stupid little bakery, I was pissed. I planned to just drop the wallet outside and throw something at the door to get Lottie's attention, but no.

Some fucker had to come out while I was contemplating what to do, and make my entrance that much more noticeable.

"Benny!" Lottie exclaimed when I straightened, my face screwing up with anger at her nickname for me.

"Here," I muttered brusquely, striding up to the counter and slamming her wallet next to her.

At the sight of it, her eyes lit up tenfold and she let loose a thousand-watt beam that unnecessarily astonished the grimace out of me. "Hey!" she said happily, turning her shining eyes on me.

"Whatever," I mumbled, turning my eyes away so that I wouldn't have to see that cheesy smile of hers.

"Thank you, thank you, Benny!" She clasped her hands together and jumped over the counter, flinging her arms around my neck.

"Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?" I snapped, my arms raising slightly, refusing to wrap them around her.

"I'm thanking you!" she replied cheerily, her feet swaying as she hovered off the ground, since I was a bit taller than her.

"Well, stop it," I grunted, pulling her off of me. Her smile didn't drop even as I shuffled away from her, and I frowned at that.

Why was she always so happy? It fucking pissed me off. Did she even have any other emotions?

I glared at her to make sure she would stay away, and then turned around to leave. All I wanted to do was leave that fucking wallet for her to find, and then run away. If she didn't even find it, I couldn't care less, at least I tried, right? But that stupid friend of hers had to catch me.

For Chrissakes, if that was happened every time I did a good deed, then fuck everything.

"Wait!"

I ignored her and kept walking away. In fact, I had even gotten outside, except she somehow dashed in front of me and spread her limbs so that she was blocking my path. "What do you want, Shortcake?" I hissed. "I brought you your goddamn wallet, now would you just bloody leave me alone?"

Her expression flickered from happy to upset to happy again so quickly that I thought I might've hallucinated the hurt on her face, except that the smile was a little bit smaller.

I would've felt guilty if I wasn't satisfied that I'd gotten her to show an emotion other than joy. "Thank you," I enunciated a moment later, when I realised she wasn't replying.

She looked away for a moment and then glanced back at me with those big doe-like eyes of hers, and I almost found myself speechless when she cocked her head with a soft expression on her face. Like she didn't even mind that I had just snapped at her. "You just...you dropped your phone," she spoke softly, stretching out her hand.

I furrowed my eyebrows when I saw it in her outstretched palm. She would actually give me back my mobile even when I was so rude to her?

Of course she would. It was Lottie, for Chrissakes.

Okay, now I felt like a first class son-of-a-bitch. I took my phone from her and hesitated. She still had that kindly look on her face, and it did nothing to make me feel less mean. But why the hell was I feeling mean? I didn't even like this girl, so why was I feeling bad?

"Thanks, Lottie," I said slowly.

She smiled slightly and stretched out her hand as if to pat my arm, but quickly retracted it and waved. "See you later, Benny," she sang, before skipping away to the inside of the bakery.

My eyebrows furrowed again and I looked down at my hand to see that it was outstretched in her direction. Okay, what was going on with me?

That was it. I was officially crazy. I let out a low groan and ran a hand through my hair in frustration. "Girls," I cursed.

I stomped into the bakery again, startling Lottie out of a daydream. She blinked at me and smiled, though she still looked confused. "Did I drop anything else?" she asked jokingly.

I didn't say anything, I just walked up to the counter and stared down at her little bell. I couldn't quite look her in the eye with her staring at me with those well-meaning grass green eyes.

I sighed and dug inside my jeans pocket to bring out a packet of gummy sweets my friend Queenie had given me. I laid it on the counter as some sort of peace offering and then glanced up at her. She was - no surprise - smiling at me. Before she could comment or hug me or something even more ridiculous, I high-tailed it out of there before she managed to make me doubt myself even more.

I let out a deep breath once I was home clear and looked over my shoulder at the tinted windows of the bakery. At least now I felt a little bit better, and that was good enough. My phone rang at that moment and I picked up without checking caller ID. "Hello?"

"Benjamin!" a familiar voice sang.

"Hey Ms. Wallace, need me to pick up Queenie?" I answered, trying to catch my breath from running up the stairs. 

"Oh, how thoughtful of you to ask! I didn't want to trouble you, but..."

"It's no trouble," I replied mechanically, used to these conversations. "Want me to head up to the school now?"

"Oh, yes please! I have a hair appointment now, and I cannot miss it!"

"Of course, I'll take her to my place and you can pick her up whenever you're ready, sound good?"

"Thank you so much, Benjamin! I know I can always count on you!"

"Yeah, it's no problem Ms. Wallace. I'll see you later."

"Bye bye!"

I hung up. Looked like I would be missing my Psych lecture.

Even though Ms Wallace meant well, she didn't really know what being a mum entailed, and so those responsibilities fell on me - a near stranger who just happened to help her one day with her groceries and ended up being her makeshift-nanny.

If anybody ever found out about that, I would be finished. My reputation would be over, and people would start to think of me as approachable. I couldn't have that. I needed everyone to leave me alone. That was why I needed to stay away from Lottie. Because if I let myself be nice to her, she'd keep expecting it. And it had been a long time since someone had expected good will from me, and it was too late to change that.

For now, Queenie and Clark were my only exceptions.