Synonyms For Better

Chapter 4 - Bee-lining for Trouble

 "YOU?" HE ASKED back, equally surprised.

I stood up real fast, almost staggering back from the guitar still on me before I took it off and handed it to Lillian, who took it graciously while looking back and forth between Mr Not-Neel and I.

"Why—" he started.

"Wait." I held up a hand before he could get another word in. His skin flushed slightly, though, I'd noticed, a certain mischief in his eyes wouldn't seem to tamper down no matter what he was feeling, whether it was joy or guilt or even surprise, and I did not like that. I did not like it one bit that his eyes seemed to devour whatever was in front of him, as if he was the single most important audience for the play that was the world. Locking gazes with him was quite... thrilling, and I swallowed.

I really needed to stop. I summed it up that all the sugary treats I'd had were absolutely positively messing with my brain.

I banished my quick analytical calculations and got straight to the point. "I thought I paid that bill to Delight Pops," I started. "Oops, nope, not I thought." I met his eyes and crossed my arms. "I know that I paid that to Delight Pops and to Carrie, but not your personal tip jar, mister Not-Neel."

"Your— wait. You know Carrie?"

"That doesn't even matter." I squinted at him in disbelief. "That's, like, the descriptive detail of my essay and you're choosing to ignore everything else and hyper-analyze just that. Wow, thanks." I uncrossed my arms then and stared him down. "But if you must know," I added fake-sweetly, "Carrie and I became best-friends after she fixed my order that you butchered."

His eyes slightly widened but he held his stance. "Miss—"

"Not only butchered, but then you tried to convince me of your buffoonery theories on the density of whipped cream."

He stared at me the way he did in the coffee shop— as if he was thinking Why me? and What am I encountering right now? But then suddenly, his face was a smooth canvas, no expression what-so-ever, and he nodded in resignation, sighing. Finally, it seemed, he was admitting defeat.

Or, um, at the very least saying sorry— I was all talk and no show, after all. I didn't have the slightest clue what I'd do if he'd had a sassy rebutting point for what I'd said. I hadn't really prepared for anything like it, and half of my spiel to Not-Neel was running on the high from all that sugar, and not from my logical brain.

"I'm truly sorry about that. I don't know if anyone told you already, but there was a bet about working at the place and how I wouldn't be able to do it—"

"Yeah, the real Neel told me," I nodded, emphasizing the 'real'. "Like, about that—"

"Do we really want to get into the complications of the name mishaps, Miss Almond Baba?" the guy shot back, and I faltered slightly, blushing. I bit my lip, a guilty habit, noticing his dark eyes fall to my mouth for the slightest second before meeting my gaze again. I looked away in a hurry and cleared my throat.

And such looking away brought me back to reality where Lillian was still watching us with her jaw slightly dropped.

"Lillian!" I cried (a bit too frantically) and she startled out of her trance. I lowered my voice to a more appropriate volume so only we could hear each other. "Do you know how to get home from here? Or are you taking the bus as well?"

The girl strapped the guitar back on and smiled at me. "No, I live right by here. If you ask around for the Dunkley family, anyone will tell you where my house is. Will you visit me, Cora?"