I walked around the clothing section of the store and grabbed the first pair of jeans and blouse I seen, along with a bag of chips, two orange sodas, a bag of twizzlers and some tube socks.
"Hi, how'er you." A younger looking lady said standing behind the cash register smiling from the corner of her mouth.
She had dirty blonde hair and dirt smudges on her face "Hi, I'm fine and yourself?" I asked, then placed my items on the counter.
"Well you sure are ain't chu? " She said leaning in and smiling too hard.
I gave her a courteous smile back and looked around the store. There was one other person there besides me.
"You have THEE most beautiful eyes."
"Thank you ma'am, but do you think-"
"-Gosh, what color are they?" She said with a confused expression.
"Ma'am I have someone waiting for me-"
"-Oh right! Of coarse." She said grabbing the blouse and folding it.
She put my items in a brown paper bag, "forty-seven eighteen." she pronounced holding out her hand.
I dug out my wallet and pulled out a hundred. She looked confused for a minute. "Thank you for stopping by." She yelled before I took the bag. I nodded and made my way to the car.
There was a man, standing by passenger's side of my car yelling. I hurried over there. "-Over here right now if you don't get your ass out of this car!!- "
"-Excuse me," I said then looked at Amaia whose face looked like she'd seen a monster. "what the hell is going on."
The man looked well over forty and and had a thick, dirty beard that connected to his mustache. He wore dirty overalls and wore an old beat up hat.
"I'm pretty damn sure she done tried to sneak her way into this here truck of yours, but I'm gone see her out. Her mama's been calling up a storm looking for her and I'm going to see to it that she's made it home safely." He said waving at a couple guys that appeared from the market.
I walked over and sat the bag in my truck. "Please.." she whispered as tears ran down her face. I walked back to the front of my truck. "I'm going to give you one more chance to willingly come with me." the man said.
"So, you guys aren't at all concerned about her appearance?" I asked. They looked at me with a confuse look on their faces.
"Young man what do you mean?"
"The bruises? The swollen jaw the busted lip? Did you even observe her at all?"
"yea I seen that."
"And how do you, being that your here to protect her, not assume that I could have been the cause of it?" I said and waited for a answer.
He looked confused, "If you were the cause of it She wouldn't be in your car holding on for dear life, now would she?"
"True, but why do you suspect she is 'holding on for dear life' sir?"
" Look I don't know what your tryna say, you city folk using all them big words but it's time for miss Amaia to return home, get her out of there guys!" He said then they started toward the car door.
"No!!! Please!!!Leave me alone!!." She screamed at the top of her lungs.
I walked angrily to them, pulled out my hand gun and fired a shot in the air.
It was silent. Nothing but the sound of birds emerging from the trees that surrounded us.
They all We're startled and looked at me. "Get the fuck away from my truck." I said. I was angry now. So angry I could feel my blood boiling. My face felt like it was steaming.
They slowly moved away from the truck. I walked to the passengers door and pulled on the handle. She was still holding on tightly.
Her face was begging as tears streamed down her swollen, beat up face. "Please don't let them take me back." She said scratchly. "I'm gonna take you home, I told you that. Now let go." I said still angry.
She stared at me a while before she finally let go. I opened the door and slammed it shut.
"You are making a big mistake young man, and I will see to it that you get yo black ass locked for good you bastard. "
He yelled before I peeled out.
We drove in silence for a while. I sat there with my gun on my lap thinking of a billion question to ask her. I glanced at her. She was looking out the window.
I took in a deep breath then grabbed the paper bag off the ground and pulled out a soda and my twizzlers. "Here." I said placing the bag on her lap.
She looked at me then looked inside. She grabbed the soda and with shaky hands she opened it and drank it all coughing at the end of it.
I looked in amazement. What the fuck? I thought.
"Are you thirsty?" I asked knowing the answer.
She looked at me, eyes still swollen from her crying. "Yea but I'm fine. We don't need to stop-" "-No here." I said handing her my soda.
She didn't hesitate one bit. She grabbed the bottle and chugged it half way and then stopped and started coughing.
"You okay?" I asked.
She nodded, "I'm ok, it's just cause I never drank alcohol before."
I chuckled. "what?"
She looked at me confused, "Alcohol."
"Its soda." I said smiling. She sort of smiled back then shook her head. "Oh right, no... uhh," She started. Then there was the look. The weary expression that drowned all the joy of life out her face.
Then back to silence.
