[Complete] Ariel and the Bandits

7 - A Rainy Day

April 29, 2020

"Do you think something is going on between them?" Hera asks. She takes a sip of her tea and tugs her blanket higher.

It has been raining since last night. We aren't sure when the rain will stop, so we figured staying in and watching movies would be a good call.

"I don't know. I figured maybe she's talked about it with you," I say.

After finishing The Kissing Booth, Hera and I got on the topic of friends and siblings. Ally is the kind of person who was meeting tons of people for network connections. Hera is social but predominantly spent most of her time with her two best friends. You know, before the two of them got married. Naz is even more social than the three of us. She knows a lot of people, but she doesn't like very many.

But in relation to the movie, we consider something else.

"Ollie," Hera sighs. "We might be girls, but she talks to you way more than she talks to me. Besides, does it matter if they're friends?"

"No, not that they're friends. But I don't think that's the direction they're heading in. Naz would have said they're just friends."

"What about you? Aren't you into one of her friends?" Hera asks.

"Her Spanish tutor," I clarify. "I'm not into her I--"

The front door opens.

"Ariel?" I say.

Hera's eyes widen. She turns her head as Ariel widens the door with Naz right behind her. Naz is carrying a couple of bags into the house.

When Ariel and Nasira come in, they are drenched. The rain must have caught them. Naz and Ariel set the bags down on the table. Hera and I rush upstairs with the girls between our grasps. Hera brings clothes as I bring towels. I leave Naz's room to give them a moment to change and head downstairs to light a fire in the chimney.

"Oliver," Ariel calls quietly. She leans against the second-floor railing, peering over to me. "Do you have a sweater I could borrow?"

My feet use their muscle memory to get up the stairs. My mind is still trying to remember fundamental body functions. I thank God I decided to do laundry this morning, or else she'd be walking into a tornado aftermath of clothes.

Ariel's eyes roam my bedroom. My desk is the first thing anyone sees from the doorway. There's a corkboard above it-- mainly used to hold my schedule and regimens, but also a rosary dangling from one of the push pins and pictures I shoot and print.

Upon entrance, my bed is in the center against the olive green accent wall on the left. When we moved in last year, my sisters requested that I get a headboard and a decent bed frame, although they didn't specify why. I made sure to relay the message to the interior designer.

Above my headboard is a framed world map. I wish there is a magical or significant meaning behind this map, but it's just something the interior designer said would work well for the room. To their defense, they're right. The map looks great.

I pull a hoodie off my desk chair. It's a black pullover hoodie with wool inside, and the front lettering read "When you can't beat the odds, change the game" with a white line drawing of a crow.

I awkwardly hand the hoodie to Ariel. She sighs in relief and pulls it over her head. "Thank you."

Ariel walks toward the farthest wall from the door, where two blue and red plaid bean bag chairs rest parallel to the windows. On the left and right wall are built-in shelves-- one side with all my read books and the other with the unread. She glances at both sides.