Chereads / The Whims of Tragic Seraphim / Chapter 4 - 04 | I See Flies and Shirts in Gray

Chapter 4 - 04 | I See Flies and Shirts in Gray

Seira

Mrs. Goldberg, a 60-year old plump and jolly woman, woke me up at 12 PM with a loud CLANG using a pot, a spatula, and with her earsplitting yelling.

"Do you plan to laze about all day? Get up and contribute to this country!"she yelled and repetitively hit the pot until I got up.

Yesterday, my room threw me a welcome party. We played 'clean-the-mess-and-dust-everywhere-until-12-AM' game.

And while I was cleaning I found my old phone stashed in my old drawer.

A touch screen and outdated phone but still functional nonetheless and I was up until 4 AM reading comics online. What can I say? I'm a night owl.

And so, here I am on my way to mine and Leo's favorite bookstore to hang out--tired and cranky--in a taxi.

The lot of you might be asking why I am in a taxi when my father's loaded. Well Georgia broke her car and had Ben drive her to work instead of calling herself a taxi.

And some of you might also be asking why don't I just drive myself. The answer to that is I still don't have my driver's license. I have issues with driving and as long as I don't drive, Ben will still have a job.

Leaning against the glass, I counted all the white vehicles that passed by until a guy riding a bicycle stopped beside the taxi when the traffic light went red.

His face was covered with a mask and sunglasses with a cap on his head.

And for a second he unmasked his mouth to scratch his nose and looked directly at the tinted windows.

He took of his sunglasses and checked himself out on it before crossing his eyes and made a face directly at me.

Why that little egomaniac!

He's the same guy that manhandled me a the airport yesterday!

Just as I was about to roll the windows to give him the finger, the traffic light went green and speed away. He almost got hit by the taxi I was in when he placed his bike in front.

The taxi driver rolled down his window and shouted at him, he only raised a hand to apologize before riding away.

A fly could already be living in my mouth when I unconsciously opened it during the incident.

I snapped it shut while the side of my face is still twitching in annoyance.

Gladly, the rest of the ride was pleasant and I finally arrived at the bookstore.

And 30 minutes later, I think I already read all of the synopses at the back of each book in this damn bookstore waiting for him, exaggeration intended.

I am almost tempted to sit on the floor when a wisp of a masked face with sunglasses and a capped head caught my eye in the end of the aisle.

Powered by my newfound strength-that probably came from wanting to give him the finger-I sneakily followed his back to the next aisle and before I could smack his shoulder, I debated whether or not I should because if this is not him, I am in deep shit.

I neglected my rational self and listened to my reckless self as I abandoned all thinking and just went for it.

But before I could smack his shoulder with my right hand, he started to turn around.

I panicked and started to escape to the next aisle to avoid him but he caught me.

"Hey wait, how much is this book?"

I stiffened and I heard footsteps nearing me.

He placed himself in front of me and saw my face.

He gave me an expression that looked like he was about to laugh.

"Mind your own business!" I yelled at him.

He roared in laughter, "You should mind your OWN business."

I was about to walk away when he grabbed my shoulder and turned me to face him.

He was wiping the tears from his eye as his laughter died down and apologized, "I'm sorry."

I shook his hand away from my shoulder and again, this time nonchalantly, gave him the finger.

That was a bad idea, because it did not tell him to piss off but it made him laugh again, harder this time.

I turned to my back, groaned and facepalmed so hard my face made a sound.

His laughter faded, "You missed me didn't you? That's why you followed me here?" his voice laced with smugness.

The nerve of this guy!

"FYI I actually came here to meet with someone and you're the one following me." I defended.

He was about to say something when I beat him to it, "How dare you taunt me!"

"Excuse me? Taunt you?"

"You knew I was inside that taxi, that's why you pulled a face and purposely checked yourself out!" I added.

He grinned, "You were checking me out..."

I interrupted him, "Shut up! That's not what I was saying, you, you egomaniac delinquent!"

He blinked. "Egomaniac DELINQUENT?"

"You looked the part!" I pointed to his current get-go of skinny ripped jeans and hoodie.

He looked astounded,"The real question here is why your clothes look like the uniform people use in here?"

Outrage framed my features and I look around and saw the saleslady with the same gray plain V-necked T-shirt I'm also wearing.

"Well, you also look suspicious," I pointed to his shades and face mask. "You're hiding something," I added.

"I am not!" he defended.

I raised my right eyebrow, "You don't look so sure buddy."

"You're crazy and paranoid," he pushed.

I grabbed a fistful of his shirt and stared close to his eye, "I don't know, maybe you're hiding from someone?" I looked around to see if anybody was following him and stared back at him.

At that moment, the glass door opened and revealed Leo holding two cups of coffee.

I froze in place, looked at the guy in panic and dragged him at the end of the aisle and pushed him away from me which made him topple back on the celebratory cards display and caught the attention of Leo.

Leo waved and tilted his head to the side but I interrupted him before he can say anything.

"Leo, my bestest friend! What took you so long?!"I squeaked and fast walked to gain his attention.

He tilted his head to the other side, "Squeakers, you're doing that thing with grammar again, are you hiding something from me?"

My heart thudded like it was on extreme rodeo, "What? Pft, I'm not! I'm just mad you're late is all."

He narrowed his eyes, "You don't look mad."

Sweat was starting to roll on my forehead, "I'm totally mad!"

I gripped his arm and dragged him outside.

"You're stopping the blood transport on my arm," he complained.

"I'm totally mad at you!"

"Am I mad enough to you now?!" I kicked his ass.

He grunted in pain and rubbed his ass, "Yes you are! Geez, I get it."

When Leo started walking, I looked back at the glass, found the guy I was looking for and gave him the death stare as I followed Leo.

This is going to be a long afternoon. I'm going to have to lie my way through this and deal with the apparent embarrassment and guilt blossoming beneath my gut.