Welcome to Gaia! ::

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“You went to the park with him? You could’ve gotten raped or something!” Alyssa exclaimed through a burst of smoke Monday after school.

“I know, it just didn’t seem very likely considering he’s the one who saved me from being raped.”

“What’s wrong with you, Ebony? You used to be the smart one between us!”

“You sound like my mother, what’s with you? You were the one who was interested in him in the first place!”

She crossed her arms and shook her head. “He’s not right, Eb, you need to be careful.”

“I am being careful.”

“You’re going to get hurt,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Am not,” I said defiantly. “Here’s my mother. Don’t say a word.”

The tiny car pulled up and we got in back. My mother appeared to be surveying the area and looked quite pleased about whatever she saw, or didn’t see.

“Hi girls, how was your day?”

“Good,” we replied in unison.

“That’s good. What did you learn in school today?”

Alyssa smiled and explained to my mother something about science in relation to religion – something I saw as an oxymoron – and I quickly tuned her out. My mind wandered to Azreal, and I wondered if maybe I was being too irrational. Maybe Alyssa was right; I was going to get hurt. I kept the thought in mind, but decided I wouldn’t tell Alyssa about him anymore, and I wouldn’t do anything until I was sure of what I was doing. The car stopped and Alyssa thanked my mother.

“See you tomorrow, Eb,” she said, giving me a final look of disapproval before shutting the door. I crawled up front with my mother and she began driving again.

The next week was fairly uneventful, no one had noticed my absence on Sunday and Az kept to his word and didn’t show up to the school. My mother took me to the doctor, and like I told her they would, they found nothing. I have to say it was one of the more embarrassing doctor’s visits I’d had, so I won’t go too much in detail, I’ll just say it wasn’t pleasant, and, for some reason, my mother wasn’t happy afterwards.

That Saturday at work, I got and incoming call, something that never happened. I was hesitant to pick up, but it wouldn’t stop ringing and I didn’t want anyone else to notice.

“Hello?”

“Ebony?”

“Azreal?”

“Yeah.”

“How did you get this number?” I asked, looking around to make sure the boss didn’t just so happen to come around.

“I have caller ID, I called back the number you used to call me.”

“I work at a huge telemarketing agency, though.” I looked around some
more to make sure no one heard, and was probably drawing more attention to myself than if I just talked to the guy.

“I guess it’s just luck that you answered then, huh?”

“Yeah…sure,” this is really weird. “So…what’s up?”

“I was calling to see if you were free again tomorrow.”

I bit my lip. “I dunno…I don’t think we should meet up again so soon, you know? I mean, someone’s bound to notice if I’m never to mass.”

“Yeah, I understand,” he didn’t sound upset, I was hoping I didn’t ruin my chances with him. “Well, do you want to meet up somewhere another time?”

“Uh…” What do I want?

“How about this, do you know where the Wal-Mart is near the lake?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s meet there. There’s people, security cameras, and it wouldn’t be too odd to be going to a Wal-Mart, would it?”

For a date?

It’s not a date.

“No, I guess not.” You have quite an interesting taste in places to meet.

“Okay, so we’ll meet there around…?”

“Seven tonight?” Tonight?

“Sounds good. See you then.”

“Yeah, see you.” And he hung up. I put my head on my desk and closed my eyes. “s**t.”

Nice going, Speedy.

You’re going to get yourself in trouble.

Be careful.

I thought it over carefully, and when my mother showed up to pick me up, I’d come to the conclusion that since there were all that he’d mentioned; cameras, people, security, that I’d go for a little while and see how things turned out. I got in the car and turned to my mother.

“Hey mom, can I go to Wal-Mart later?”

“Sure,” she replied cheerily. “We can go now if you want.” Not we. I looked at the clock built into the car and checked the time; it was only 5:15.

“Uh, how about I leave in a little bit? I need to do some work first. So, around seven?”

“You’re not riding the bus,” she told me, losing all ring in her voice.

“Can you drop me off, then? I’m doing a survey for school and need to just stand around for an hour and ask people questions.”

“Why can’t I go?”

“Because, you’ll get bored, and you’ll eventually leave. Things won’t go over well,” I told her, aware of the attitude I was giving her. She sighed and adjusted her jaw.

“Alright, I’ll drop you off, but you’re taking my phone with you, and I’m only giving you an hour.”

I smiled. “Okay, thanks, Mom.”

When she dropped me off, she wouldn’t quit reminding me to check in every 15 minutes and not to talk to anyone “suspicious”…and not to give her that “Yes-Mother-Bologna”. I walked in and looked around for Az. I didn’t see him, but it shouldn’t have been too hard; he seemed to stick out in crowds. I wandered around the entry way, watching the people as they passed by and trying not to look like I was lost. Finally, I saw him; he was doing pretty much the same thing I was; looking lost, watching people, smiling to passerby’s. He was wearing a button-up shirt and jeans again, his hair wasn’t messy, but his cowlick made it look slightly so, and his hands were stuck in his pockets as he looked for me. I walked over to him when he had his back turned and stepped in front of him.

Haha, but when it says 'bologna', I literally hear her say "bow-log-nah" and I laugh.

THONGS. heart

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey,” he smiled. “How are you?”

“I’m good, you?” Petty conversation.

“I’m good…” he paused. “You look good.” I stared down at myself; I
hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary, but I went with it and smiled back up at him.

Okay, whatever.

“Sorry, that was stupid,” he apologized and looked down, rubbing the back of his neck and trying to laugh it off. I smiled genuinely.

“No, really, it’s okay. You look good, too, very professional.”

He laughed again and almost got hit by a seven-year-old driving a cart. He jumped out of the way and we decided to start moving before we really got hit or kicked out for loitering.

“So, I have to ask, what’s with the odd meeting places?” I inquired. He tilted his head and raised his eyebrows in question. “Well, the park, Wal-Mart, and you just so happened to be waiting for something outside of an all girls Catholic reform school when we met.”

He grinned again, showing some of his mysterious inner self, and said; “I don’t know, I guess that’s just me.”

“Interesting.”

He shrugged. “I guess I have to be, otherwise, you’d be pretty boring yourself, wouldn’t you?”

I laughed at that.

“Hey! You know what’s fun to do while you’re here?” He asked.

“What?” I giggled. He reached over into the lingerie department and pulled off a handful of thongs. I raised my eyebrow this time.

“We could go around and put these in random people’s carts. Really, it’s fun.”

“Oh…”

“Do you want to?” There was a question. I’d never done anything like that before, I’d had an intense fear of getting caught doing something like that, especially after being enrolled in St. Mary’s, and something told me that being caught not only putting thongs in random Wal-Mart shoppers carts but also doing it with Az would definitely not be the best thing to happen to me.

Live a little.

And be banned from Wal-Mart?

I couldn’t think, I only felt like I had a split second to even try to, so I reached over and grabbed a few thongs myself.

What are you doing?

Az grinned again and we walked off, trying to remain inconspicuous.

“So, let’s get to know each other a bit, shall we?”

I shrugged and bit my tongue to keep from laughing as Azreal dropped in the first pair of thongs into an older woman’s basket.

“Night or day?” He began.

“I dunno…night.” I hesitantly dropped in my first pair into a hand basket.

“Winter or summer?” He dropped another pair.

“Fall,” I replied.

“That’s not a choice.”

“You choose one.”

He dropped in another pair; he did it so casually it was almost intimidating. “Summer.”

“Winter.” I dropped another pair and we turned a corner. “Elvis or the Beatles?” I asked.

“Neither.”

“But if the world depended on your having to choose, which would it be?”

He laughed a little. “I highly doubt that will ever happen, but in the unlikely event that it did, then the Beatles.”

“Really? I had you pegged as an Elvis fan.”

“I like John Lennon.” He dropped in his last pair of thongs and I handed him some of mine. “What’s your favorite color?”

“Navy blue…um…what’s your favorite band?” I tried dropping in another pair in a couple’s basket, but they turned around as I was about to do it, so I pretended to be looking at something and ignored their glares as they passed.

“I don’t have one,” Az replied, giving the couple a smile and then dropping one of his thongs into their basket when they weren’t looking again. “Where do you want to live when you’re older?”

“Anywhere but here.” I quickly dropped another pair.

“Are you religious at all?” He asked casually, as though he was talking about the weather outside and not universal beliefs.

“I’m an Atheist. What about you?”

“I believe there’s a god and devil, but they don’t need to be feared or worshipped.” He got rid of the last pair of thongs he had and I handed him one of the two I had left.

“That’s a pretty good outlook, too.”

“So, you don’t believe at all?” He asked.

“I won’t say I don’t believe at all, but I really don’t believe there’s a higher being. Of course, I could be wrong.”

“And if you are?”

“Then Hell doesn’t sound so bad.”

He smiled.

We continued on like that for about the next 45 minutes. I called my mother every 15 minutes, but she only answered once, claiming she was busy and saying she’d be there at 8 sharp.

“So, do you want to hang out again sometime?” Az asked at 8:05 as we stood in the doorway at Wal-Mart waiting for my mother. It had started to rain again, so I would go back and forth between the doors and cash registers every once and a while to look for her, always keeping Azreal out of sight.

“I’d love to, but I don’t know if I can.”

“Does your mom scan e-mails?” He asked after a moment.

“No, I have one she doesn’t know about.”

“Okay. I could give you my e-mail address and we can talk online instead of always having to call.”

I smiled. “Alright.” He grabbed a pen from one of the empty registers and we exchanged addresses on each others’ hands. “So, I guess I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” I said as my mother finally pulled up. He smiled and stepped towards me a bit like he intended to do something, but stopped himself and tried to hang onto his smile.

“Yeah, talk to you tomorrow.” We waved and I ran outside through the sheets of rain to my mother’s car.

“Did you have fun?” She asked when I was buckled in.

“Sure, if you can call it fun.”

“Do you have to do it again sometime?” There she went again, she was ignoring me. At least it left an opening.

“I might, depends on what my group says.” No more questions were asked. We drove home in silence, and when I got to my room there were two more brochures waiting for me on my bed; Life as a Single Mother and The Importance of Communication.

kirbs is right: it mixes the two speakers up. you could also do it this way:

"blah blah, ebony talking"

He smiled, "Blah blah, Az talking"

if you have a continuing dialogue, that is.

one more thing: "He had to tilt his head down and to the side a bit to make eye contact with me, being that there was about a three inch height difference between us,"

I am only 5'2", and i have never experienced this with someone who is 5'5" at all, unless we're REALLY close, and...you might want to mention if they're that close together 3nodding

other than that: i'm pretty excited about this. i especially love the interaction between Ebony and her mom; it's pretty comical in a very dry way. i hope there is something a little longer between them in the future.