WHEN will this stop?!
Adda realized she had zoomed out and was staring directly at the other girl's brown eyes.
I want to go home!
Her little brother's wails made Adda break from her trance. She looked at Ben and said:
Don't worry, I'm pretty sure It won't be much longer before it's over.
Then Adda took a glance at the stranger at her side and allowed an awkward laugh to slip off. The other girl smiled back while shrugging her rounded shoulders. Her wide lips, covered in chapstick, opened like she was about to say something, but not a single sound came out of her mouth. The air was so tense It could be cut with a knife. Then, her lips sealed against each other shyly and she lowered her sight, head pointing to the wet floor.
W-what a shame, uh?
Mumbled Adda, as she tried to break the ice, pushed by the pressure of a silence that not even the rain could masc.
The young curly girl remained mute for what seemed ages, until a worried look reached her face.
I don't think ma' airpods will survive ALL the way home.
Her voice was so fraile the pale girl had a hard time catching all her words, but when she finally connected the dots, her face adopted a preoccupied semblance, a glimpse of sympathy for her.
They stood still, watching the rain flood the zoo and drown their thoughts, until Adda perceived a hesitant movement at her right side.
Uh, bye.
Those were the last words she heard her under-the-porch companion share before padding away, once the weather had calmed down. Adda reprimed her urge to ask her name. She was already too far, besides, they will never see each other again, so any effort was pointless.
I don't even know her.
She reminded herself.
Come on!!! We've been here forever!!!
Pouted the little kid desperately bored.
With a few rapid blinks, Adda took a look around and began to run in the now slowed rain with his brother behind, who was struggling to put up with her speed. They finally arrived to their parents car, a light blue Honda Accord bought in 2001 by her well-off uncle as a gift for her. It was supposed to be hers as soon as she hit her 16 birthday, but even if her father kept saying It was her responsibility, he had sold the old car a few years ago, and both her parents had been using the Accord since then for any situation they could.
She drew out the keys from her black trouser's tiny back pocket and switched on the old car before making sure Ben was properly seated in the back of the vehicle and had well-adjusted his seat belt. Then she drove off, leaving the majestic creatures of the zoo behind and a sad look on his brother's blue eyes that mimicked the sky.
During the way back home, Adda's mind was racing chaotically, thinking about all she could have said or done when she had met that girl with curly hair and a decorated phone suitcase in front of the souvenir shop at the zoo, and immediately discarting every single idea as childish.
You should have offered a ride home...
But what if she thinks I'm a creep?
She's just a stranger.
And how the hell I'm I supposed to know where she lives? She ran away in the opposite direction, so I'm pretty sure she's far away from our neighborhood.
She shook her head, pressing her eyes and humming.
Stop thinking about It and pay attention to the road!
She scolded herself, even if there was not a single car in sight or any other object in movement that could distract her from her own mind.
• • •
When they returned to their house, It was already late and the dinner was being made by their mother, who called Adda to the kitchen, as soon as she changed her and her brother's clothes, to help with the cooking. Once she was there, hypnotized by the pork steer her mom was making, Adda's mother punished her severely for the late arrival and the state in which the two siblings had done it.
Your little brother shouldn't be in the rain waiting for so long. Now he's going to catch a cold!
She had pointed out.
Now, she was on her bed, with her loose pajamas on and the lights out, facing the pastel pink ceiling. After a long day, she was really tired, her light-colored eyes hurt and her darkened eyelids felt as heavy as stones, but, even so, she couldn't put herself to sleep. Her mind was flooded by vivid images of that mysterious girl she had seen at the zoo, and millions of questions rained down on her, like a waterfall, threatening to overwhelm her. But no matter how annoyed by her involuntary thoughts she was or how awfully exhausted she felt, that night was spent in a veil, and only after the early riser sun ascended to the clear sky, the dream realm claimed the young worn out girl.
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