The street that they went on was a main one with lots of people coming home creating a rush on the sidewalks and streets. The buildings were a mile high, reaching up for the stars with all of their might with dancing mirrors or rather shiny glass with LED lights to reflect the advertisements that likely paid a fortune to be there for only a few seconds in the oddly realistic 3D graphics.
The lines of the trains passing through were busy, and she watched as the fast railway zipped around them. She wanted to get out more, but all of her days were filled with studying and helping out at the convenience store. If she did get out of the house, it would normally be running errands with her mother.
Since her mother was just as bad as her, whenever they did run errands, it more or less ended with them in a store somewhere far away or in a small hidden shop that was a treasure for those who found it. Her father never pointed it out but had always slid them a suspicious glance whenever they entered the house late with tons of bags.
All in all, she loved to walk through the busy area and stop at some shops along the way but remembered that she was with Noah, so she held herself back from looking at a random tea kettle with daisy flowers over the crown that would be lovely in the glass cabinet for no practical use other than looking pretty that was next to her wet bar at home.
Alice studied Noah's side profile and traced the lines of facial contours that were a bit too stark by themselves but blended well onto his face into a somehow soft image. His lips were pulled in tightly as if he were aggravated which she couldn't blame him since she would happily walk herself home but figured it to be rude to ask so.
He was a tall individual which she didn't notice since she never really tended to stand next to him while studying his form, but he was substantially taller than the average person with good body proportions. Turning her face away, she cringed since she knew she needed to stop looking at him in that way since it would only make his head bigger.
Tripping on a raised piece of the sidewalk, she lost her balance in her platform shoes and knocked her shoulders into a man who was clearly in a hurry since she saw him weaving his way through the crowd earlier. Immediately bowing her head, she gave him a touch of a smile to soothe his anger that was coming off in waves.
He was carrying a large stack of papers that seemed to be important by the way he immediately checked them after she bumped into him, but it was his hostile attitude that made her pause on the busy sidewalk causing people to walk around them. Noah was continuing to walk without even looking back, but she would find him later.
The man finally looked up at her, and she was startled at the hidden anger that was lying underneath, and she truly hoped that it wasn't directed at her. Now that she thought about it, it was him that was psycho if he was angry at her for a tiny mistake that anyone could have fallen for. If anything, he was likely angry at another matter and was projecting the energy.
"I'm sorry," she said slowly.
The man tugged his baseball cap lower on his head and sniffed at her. "Watch where you're going, girl."
She inclined her head again. "I'm sorry."
"You can't act like that to your elders. Lift your head."
She lifted her chin with a confused expression, and the man was about to say something more when Noah grasped her wrists and slid a glare over at the stranger. "We have to be somewhere at the moment. Please forgive our rudeness."
Yanking her hand, she turned back around and followed after Noah's quick steps as they tried to make their escape from the man who was looking like he wanted to pick a fight. If she hadn't been able to leave, it definitely would have escalated into something that she wouldn't have been able to handle by herself.
It was people like them that made her realize that she wasn't really up for confrontation, but whenever she saw Noah's face, she wanted to call him out on all of his mannerisms.
Alice pulled her arm away to try and get it out of his hand that was clutching her so tightly, but Noah severed her with another look. She didn't understand why he was angry when she didn't do anything wrong.
"Thanks for the getaway," she said sweetly.
"Can you please just walk normally?"
Alice tilted her head. "Am I not?"
"You're walking in a diagonal line."
Alice covered her snort of laughter with the back of her hand. "I'm sorry. I swear it's not on purpose."
She wiggled her hand again, and Noah finally dropped it, making retract her hand back into the safety of her pockets. "It really wasn't my fault. I tripped."
"On thin air?"
Alice sighed. "If that's how you see me, that's fine. But I'm just letting you know that I'm not that clumsy. It was raised edge of the sidewalk, your highness."
He picked up the pace in a different direction, and Alice fell into step with him. She brought up the question that she had been meaning to ask but forgot to pop it out earlier. "Why are you working?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, that you're working during the day when you don't need to."
Noah shook his head. "I need the money."
"Why do you need money when you're already so well off?"
Noah slid her a look to practically screamed 'Are you actually asking this?' and Charlotte lifted a hand in apology. "Sorry, that was rude to say."
"It's fine. It's my parents that are well off. I'm not."
"What does that even mean?" she threw out the same exclamation as he did earlier.
"I live in their house, but I provide the rest for myself."
"What?" she knew that there was a story behind why that happened in the first place. Any parent who treats their child like that should be questioned. "Why?"
"My grandfather."
Alice tilted her head in confusion. He said his grandfather with so much emotion that she knew that he dearly treasured her grandfather, so did his parents not feel the same?
She didn't have the chance to probe any further since she just realized how far away from her house she was getting considering they were walking in an opposite direction.
"Where are we going, Noah?"
He didn't even bother to look back at her. "To eat."
"I thought you were joking about it."
"I'm not," he said as he abruptly stopped in front of a huge sign that said promotion deal. "Let's eat at this burger place."
There was no hesitation on her part. "I'm down."