The Hooded Beauty

Can I Stay With You?

I love a good Target trip, it's just the ultimate shit shop. 90% of the things you don't need, you just get the urge for an impulse buy. They lure you in with a decent bargain. I'm a sucker for a good deal.

Jace gets changed. Again. I already have his shirt on, so I just throw on some ripped jeans and some suede black Chelsea boots. I plait my hair into a loose fishtail braid which drapes down my shoulder. I look in the mirror and I think I've put too much effort into this look.

"You look hot, stop doing 'that look' at yourself" he says as he sneaks up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist pulling me closer as he kisses my cheek. Why does he make me melt like this 24/7? I have constant fanny flutters.

He's wearing jeans and a hoodie with a leather jacket over the top and a beanie on. He looks effortlessly amazing. We head out to the car, holding hands. I grab my keys and walk over to my car. Then I look over and Jace is at the gate.
"But, my car is here, yours is next door. It makes more sense for me to drive"
"I don't care, I'm driving" he says.

I know he means he wants to drive his car, but I throw him my keys anyway, it was a bad throw and they slam onto the floor. He sighs when he picks them up, I can tell that he can't be bothered to argue so he walks over to my car. I kiss him on the cheek and hop into the passenger side. Well, atleast I won, he looks around my car, figuring it out. I remain silent and let him do his thing.

"You have an automatic?" He queries with a hint of judgement.
"Is that bad?" I thought most people here only drove automatics.
"No, it's not bad, it's just useful to know how to drive a manual, especially in our line of work. The amount of times I've had to drive a random car is crazy" he babbles on and to be honest he has a point. I shrug and he drives us to Target, he's actually really good at driving my car for the first time. He places his hand on my thigh for the majority of the 20 minute journey.

We get there and park relatively close considering it's 6pm, it's not busy at all. We hop out and head to the entrance, I grab a cart as it's better to have one because I don't want to walk around with an overflowing basket. It's a pet peeve of mine, plus them things get really heavy very quickly.

I push the cart and we head to the Health and Well-being aisle so we can try to find some massage things, ideally muscle rub. As we're looking and chucking things into the cart, a girl comes up to us looking terrified, I'm instantly concerned but hesitant. I stand up and move closer to her, she looks into my eyes with tears forming in hers.

"A man has been following me since I came in and you were the first people I saw that looked approachable. Can I stay with you guys for a while? just pretend like we're friends please, I'm sorry" she pleads looking extremely uncomfortable and distressed. We both say sure anything we can do to help. Then, I see a man with a hood over the majority of his face walk down our aisle and stare at the girl briefly before pretending to look at the pregnancy tests. Her eyes widen when she sees him and she tries to hide between us.

"Oh my god Abbie, you made it finally, we've been waiting for you. Did you get here alright? The traffic was awful our way" I say loudly as I pull her in for a hug, making sure this creep hears me, hoping it will prevent him from pursuing his plan. I whisper 'It's all good, I got you, you're safe with us', Jace and I stand either side of her as we walk through the rest of the store. He appears in every aisle like clockwork. I think it's time for us to pay and leave, I hold her hand throughout it all.

Jace loads the conveyer belt and we bag it up together, I never leave her side. We insist on paying for the things the girl picked up, she lets us reluctantly. We walk out together and walk her to her car, which isn't that far from my Jeep. I don't think I can see the man anywhere. She thanks us as I hug her, we tell her to stay safe. I look back constantly to check on her as we walk to our car.

We load our stuff into the Jeep, Jace goes to sit in the car as I take the cart back. I hear a distant struggle while walking back to the car, the guy is dragging her away, she's trying to fight back but his grip is really tight. I instantly go into fight mode and start sprinting towards them.

I immediately grab and dig my elbow into him, trying to loosen his grip, he eventually lets go and she falls to the floor in a wreck, I scream at her to run to her car and lock herself inside of it. The guy is now trying to grab me, he puts me into a headlock and begins to pull me away.

I slam my hand onto his leg and wrap my arm around his waist, preventing him from moving further. I move my hand from his leg to his wrist and grip tightly. He starts to tighten his grip around my neck, choking me more.

I quickly move my hand from his waist, bring it around to the other side of his chin and forcefully shove it up as hard as I can. He releases his grip from me as an instinct, I pull my head from his arms. I still have a hold of one of his wrists. I shove my elbow deep into his shoulder and twist his arm. Forcing him onto his knees, I grab the back of his head and smash it into the concrete hard.

It knocks him unconscious, I just stare at him for a few seconds not knowing what to do. This all happened within a minute. I stand up and dust myself off and look up to find Jace staring between the two of us looking stunned.

"That was... amazing"