Benevolence

Chapter 9: Carousel Horses

"Ice-skating? You wanna take me ice-skating?" I laugh humorlessly into my AirPods. "Sorry, but that's not happening-- literally, I just can't. I've tried numerous times, and all of my efforts were epic fails."

"I already asked my uncle to leave the rink open for us after hours, Lai."

I open the trunk to my car and collect the groceries. "Why can't we go roller skating? I'm more experienced in that."

"Lai, come on. You dragged me to that rock concert the other night, and I ended up enjoyin' it."

"That was a rave Drew, not a rock concert. And you wanted to go— bruised face and all," I say giggling.

"Oh aight, you got jokes?"

"Mmhm," I hum in between laughter, making my way up the front steps.

"Listen, I gotchu', aight? You don't gotta worry 'bout fallin'... I'll hold your hand every slip of the way," he says, laughing at his own joke, and I can picture his face: the bridge of his nose scrunched, and the corners of his eyes creased jovially.

"Hahaha," I say dryly. "I'm sorry Drew, I just don't think bussing my ass consecutively will make our date much more enjoyable. Maybe for you, but not for me."

"Angel, just trust me. You won't fall. Not on my watch." The sound of Todd and the rest of his group members celebrating nearly drowns out his voice. "They broke another code," he explains. "So should I work on arrangin' somethin' else or are you gonna trust me with this one?" He asks.

"Uhh...how about you give me some time to think about it?" I ask.

"I'll give you till the end of the day," he speaks lowly. "And if you leave me hangin', I'm comin' over there."

To avoid making two trips to the car, I crammed all the bags into both my hands. But I overlooked the fact that I'd have to dig for my keys. "Shit," I mutter, preparing to rest them on the floor, but the desperation to get inside vanishes when someone from the inside opens it for me. "...Maya?"

"Alaina..." she greets, disappointment written all over her face.

"Should I call you back?" Asks Drew.

"No," I say.

Not wanting to prolong this moment for either of us, I push past her and drop the bags on the floor near the couch. The clattering of cans and bottles is the only disturbance in the room as I remove my hat and scarf, and stuff them into the sleeves of my coat before hanging it in the closet. Turning around, I almost knock into her as she stands around awkwardly. What's she even doing here? Feeling antsy in her presence, I step around her, grab the bags, and make my way into the open kitchen.

"Lai, you heard me?" Asks Drew.

"Yeah," I say distractedly, packing everything into the fridge.

"No you didn't," he says, slightly annoyed. "Wassup? You busy or somethin'? I can call you back--

--No, I'm just..." I remove some yogurt that's been sitting on the shelves for weeks now and replace it with a fresh carton of almond milk. "Putting some stuff in the fridge," I finish.

"You know you could have called me up for some help, right?"

I laugh. "Dre, I'm pretty sure this is a one-man job--nothing I can't handle on my own."

"It would've given me an excuse to come see you," he says. Maybe you don't need to think too hard on my offer...Maybe you just need a lil convincin'."

"You can still test that theory," I flirt. "You know where I live."

"You didn't have to do that, you know," my mother says from behind me.