HYMN OF THE RAIN

Bravely stupid

"Are you okay?"

I glance at Bryan, as his steps fall beside mine.

I'm sorry, but what kind of question is that?

Biting my tongue, I try not to say anything too offensive.

"I can possibly lose my job tonight, but other than that- I'm good."
"Calm down. Rosa's the one who's gonna speak to him. He won't know you're in this."

As much as I appreciate his reassuring words, I know I've let myself fallen into a nervous pit. It's kinda impossible to let myself out of it now.

Meanwhile, Rosa is a few steps before us besides Alexa. Trust me, we've all tried to talk her out of it- even Alexa herself, but here we are, walking towards the place she claims the guy is often around at.

Don't ask me how she knows.

Lord, please help us all. I promise if we can get out of this without any trouble-

"There he is!" Rosa whispers a little too loudly, while she points her finger in a certain direction.

And surely, the gloomy guy is there, currently wiping tables. By there, I mean he's at our favorite McDonalds' outlet.

We stand a few steps away from the big windows, our eyes following Rosa's back as she gets into the place with nothing but pure confidence.

Our dear friend finally catches his attention as she greets him, and soon enough, they're in a conversation.

"Can you read lips?" Bryan asks, while his eyes are stuck on the two.
"Nope."
"Me, neither."

"Does she get it?"
"I don't know."

I can see how annoyed he looks. I'm 90% sure she won't get it, until Rosa turns around, exiting the place with a huge grin.

"I TOLD YOU SO!" she exclaims excitedly, holding out her phone in the air.
"You got it?"
"I got it!"
"Did he recognize you?" I pipe in, and she turns to me with her award-winning smile.
"No, silly. He was kinda annoyed at me, but I got it anyway."

Good. Okay. I'm safe. I thought he'd recognize them as they entered the bookstore at the same time as he left the other day.

I throw one last glance at his direction, and when I think I finally forget about the whole thing, his gaze meets mine. He squints as if trying to get a better look at our direction.

Dumbfounded, I hold the stare a second too long. The moment I break it off is the exact moment he looks at me as if something finally clicks in his brain.

I'm in trouble. Or am I?
Maybe...
Oh, there are too many maybes in my head.

I can't look back to make sure of it. So I do the only thing I can do- drag my friends out of the scene in hope he'd just forget about the whole thing.

What will happen if-

"Earth to Sasha. Hello?"
I turn to Alexa, and she looks at me curiously.

"Are you okay?"
"He saw my face. Do you think he'd.."
"No. Come on, quit it. You're being paranoid over nothing."

She pats my back, "Calm down. You won't lose your job over Rosa's silly experiment."
"What if-"
"If there's any trouble related to this, call me. I got your back, okay?"

The night hasn't been very pleasant, but at least it's done. I just hope that if he does realize it's me, gloomy guy is kind enough to let me off the hook. Or just ignore the whole ordeal altogether.

But if that's not the case, then...

I shut my eyes, trying to put my overthinking mind into a rough halt.
I'll figure it out, somehow. I know I can.

For now, I can only walk away with my friends, while hoping he'd dismiss the whole thing.

"I'm starving!" Bryan exclaims, and soon we agree to go to our favorite pizza place. 

Drowning away my worries with pizza sounds like a good idea.