Laying asleep in bed, I heard my phone ding and woke up.
"Hey, there's breakfast in the kitchen, come down if you want any."
It was Hannah. The kitchen was half way across the house, so it actually made sense for Hannah to text me rather that come get me.
She'd been here for a little over a week now, and seemed to get more comfortable around me. This was the opposite of what I wanted since she wasn't even considering giving up, but honestly, she was starting to grow on me.
"Be down in a few min. Thx." I slid my phone onto the table by my bed, then did my hair and changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. As I looked in the mirror, one of the things that went through my mind was, "will Hannah like this outfit?" I shouldn't have cared whether or not she liked the look, but I ended up furrowing my brows and seriously considering the question instead.
"Is that..." I sniffed the air trying to identify the sweet yet savory aroma that filled the room. "...Pancakes?"
"Crepes." The corrected me, not taking her eyes off of the pan in front of her.
"No shit." I smiled and chuckled at the thought at she could cook something that to me seemed so exotic.
"Surprised you even heard the text message go off."
"What can I say, I'm a light sleeper."
"Hm. There's strawberries in the fridge, and chocolate stuff in the cabinet. That's really good on them. Especially with whipped cream on top."
Hearing her suggestion made my stomach growl. It sounded absolutely delicious, so I grabbed all of the things she listed and sat at the large dining table with a crepe I swiped from the counter. I spread the chocolate out on the inside of the crepe before folding it over to make a half circle. Then I folded it again and added another layer of chocolate spread, strawberries, and topped it off with a dollop of whipped cream.
I waited to eat though until Hannah came over to the table with her own food. When she was choosing a seat at the table, she picked one that was about ten seats to the left of me. I was used to having dinner parties here for mother's work, but being so far apart from one person felt odd.
"Come sit down here." I blurted out before she sat down. She sighed before sitting down beside me.
"Okay, we need to talk, Mavis."
Her tone sounded serious which genuinely concerned me.
"Sure."
"At first, this little thing with you following me around and flirting with me was funny. But now, I mean, it's been a week. I know you're not actually into me.
I am completely aware of what you're trying to do, so you can drop it. I'm not leaving anytime soon."
She paused and looked up at me. I was red in the face, either from embarrassment or shame, or something entirely different, I had no clue.
"Your parents aren't gonna be back for three more weeks. I didn't know if they told you that or not, but that's how long I'm gonna be here. If this goes well, then you'll probably see me again after that."
"First of all, I'm sorry." I was debating confessing my plan to her, even though she said she already knew what it was. " I saw how uncomfortable it made you when I flirted so I thought that if I just kept it up, you would leave and I could go back to doing whatever the hell I want while they're outta town."
I looked down at the table shamefully.
"I'll stop though."
Even though I wasn't looking at her, I could tell that her eyes were focused on me.
"You...you can still do things you want to do, just responsibly. And I have to go with you. That's all." Her voice was softer now than it ever was before.
"Can I go shopping? Sorry, can we go shopping?" My eyes lit up at the thought of getting out of the house.
"Yeah. Just no more maxing out credit cards, got it? There's rules."
"Fine, what are they?"
Hannah pulled a large piece of paper out of her back pocket and got out of her seat. She walked over to the fridge and used a magnet to pin the paper to it.
"For shopping, you can only take a maximum of three thousand dollars out of your account depending on what you have to buy. You have to take it out in cash and if you don't spend it all, then it gets hidden in an envelope so you don't try and use it."
"Memorized it already, huh?" I was going to say something kind of snarky, but remembered what she said earlier and refrained myself from doing so.
"Yeah." She paused, like she was waiting for me to say something more. When I didn't she continued, "let's head out."