Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
It was a Saturday and August didn't have to go to school. Usually, that would have meant that Aleyah needed to take him with her to run numerous errands which had never ended well for either party as August would beg and cry for any item that caught his attention while his sister dragged him away from it, almost always causing a commotion. And then by the end of the trip, the boy wouldn't speak to Aleyah while her guilt intensified.
It was safe to say that Aleyah dreaded taking him with her.
Luckily, this Saturday, Aleyah's neighbor and only friend, Lucas, had offered to watch him for the time that she was away. An offer she was grateful for and was quick to take up. This resulted in Aleyah actually arriving at the shops according to her schedule.
Unlike the day before, she wanted to start out with cheaper stores, which would be more likely to hire her. Although Aleyah didn't appear to look scruffy, she could've sworn that the designer stores could tell that she wasn't part of the elitist image they wanted to portray. So she decided to try her luck with the less popular shops, which, at the end of the morning, proved to be hopeless as well.
After an embarrassing amount of refusals, Aleyah decided to call it a day and head back home. Though she was still very frustrated as she stomped out of the last mall in her range of acceptability, she knew the least she could do was rest up a bit for her long night shift at the restaurant. But she also did understand that relaxing would be a futile effort due to the amount of pressure residing on her back.
Aleyah walked with her head down while her clenched, shaking fists slightly swung back and forth. The girl tried her very best to put aside her worries, at least for the long walk back to her neighborhood. But with every trial, the more distressed she became. And once the first drop from the sky hit her head, she broke down.
Giving up wasn't an option. She couldn't do that to August, she wouldn't. Aleyah was all the small boy had. But she was still so angry at everyone and everything. At her parents for leaving her with this responsibility, at the bland store clerks who couldn't consider her desperation before shunning her away, and at herself for her inability to find a job. It was all just so hard. Especially for a girl who had only recently been considered an adult and ruled able to take care of another living, breathing human being, despite having little to nothing to her name.
Aleyah now was hyperventilating, and time seemed to have stopped. Between the stinging of her eyes and the heavy thumping of her heart against her ribcage, she couldn't hear the commotion of people around her trying to evade the rain or even the sound of her own breathing despite feeling the cold air rush in and out of her chest.
She didn't remember falling to her knees or desperately trying to cling to the flatness of the concrete road. And Aleyah certainly didn't recall when the stranger, who was crouched down to her level and getting absolutely drenched along with her, appeared. He seemed to have been saying something, but due to the heavy pattering of the rain combined with her teary, blurry vision, she couldn't make it out.
The male then rose, gripping her arm and taking her up with him. Aleyah didn't even have the energy to be confused, so she just let him drag her under the shelter of a bus stop. "Do you have an inhaler? Or do you need one?" He asked once it looked like she was calming down.
Aleyah blinked a few times to rid herself of the residue tears still in her duct. After the blurriness was reduced, she took the opportunity to look at the male in front of her. He was about six feet tall, but his head was lowered slightly as he also seemed to be observing her. The man had thick eyebrows and deep brown eyes paired with light-toned plump lips. His features were sort of scrunched together with what appeared to be confusion and worry fused.
"No -" Aleyah cleared her throat. "No, I'm okay."
"Are you sure? You looked like you couldn't breathe."
"Yeah, I'm good. I guess I was just a bit winded, I was running from the rain." She shrugged off.
"But thanks for the help. You didn't have to."
"Nah, it's okay. What's a bit of water?" The boy's face relaxed, and he let out a small grin. Aleyah was suddenly hit with a feeling eerily similar to deja vu. She recognized him from somewhere, though it was hard to pinpoint it.
"A bit?"
"Or a lot. Where's the difference?"
"I don't know. Maybe the amount of water?" Aleyah chuckled a bit at her dad joke, and he smiled a bit wider seeing this. "Well, you put yourself at risk of hypothermia for a stranger, so I think that needs some appreciation."
"When you put it like that, then I guess I do need some compensation." The boy leaned down a bit more.
"Compensation? Like what?" Aleyah swallowed. He was insanely attractive.
"Like your number," he paused. "In case my family needs someone to blame when the hypothermia puts me on my deathbed."
"Uh-yeah, sure." Aleyah nodded dumbfoundedly as he placed his phone in her grip. "Now, I really need to go. " She motioned to the bus that had just arrived after she'd typed in the random combination of digits. "Maybe I can find another idiot to risk his life due to my charms."
"Your charms, huh?" The boy's eyes twinkled a bit.
"Yeah, the red, puffy eyes are my go-to look, actually. And judging from this experience," Aleyah teasingly flung her wet hair over her shoulder as she boarded the vehicle, "they work."
"Wait, I never got your name!" The boy suddenly snapped out of his awestruck state as he stared up at the moving bus.
"Then there's a mystery for you to solve, Jude!" Aleyah yelled from the window of the bus before it drove off.
A/N
And there's the first chapter complete! Jude and Aleyah met! But I'm actually really terrible at writing dialogue, and i'meven worse of a flirt, soit was really hard for me to write their conversation. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
