The Boy Who Fell Off a Lawn Mower | Watty's '18

4. Your Name, Please?

Chapter 4

Your Name, Please?

Aida rushed around to the back yard of the house, exactly where Mr. Lawnmower had fallen off a few days back. She was surprised to see him and her father doing some handy work together on the machine. It was a big orange thing that'd come with the house and Aida's father, Jay Erikson, had been too stubborn and money-conscious from the old days to purchase a new one. Aida approached tenderly, not wanting to frighten either of the focused men.

Suddenly, Mr. Lawnmower himself looked up from his work and gruffly pulled the back of his hand along his sweaty forehead, further messing up a hairdo that had probably looked well-styled before he'd gotten here. His grays met Aida once more. "Hi there!" called Aida, trying to sound unbothered by his piercing gaze.

"Aida! My girl!" called her father in that loving way that parents do, as he also looked up from the work. "How was school? Make any friends?" he boomed. That was it. The embarrassment. She didn't want him to know she had no friends until today.

"Actually... yes. It was a lovely day. I'm going to a sleepover with one of the girls from class tonight." Aida smiled lightly, feeling the presence of the boy she'd thought about for three days, but trying to act natural around her father.

"Good! Have you met our lawn mower yet?" He chuckled as he gestured to the machine, but really referred to the boy.

"Briefly. The other afternoon." She tried not to look at him, but he continued looking straight at her. "What happened?" she asked and took a few steps closer to the work.

"Nothing. It should be fixed in a jiff!" Jay put a greasy hand on his short white beard and moved it down to his round belly, still in his nice work shirt. He must have just gotten home. Aida couldn't help but notice Mr. Lawnmower looking at her father, clearly not agreeing with the fact that it would be fixed "in a jiff."

"Dad, you should change out of your work shirt before you get it all gross. Luckily it hasn't stained yet! It's hard enough to get you to go shopping; you only have so many good shirts now." As Aida said this, she came to the realization that she had subconsciously sent her father away so the mysterious boy in her lawn would talk to her.

"You're right, my girl! I'll do that now. This boy will have it fixed before I get back down here, I'm sure. He's a mechanic, you know." Her father's red cheeks became even redder as he tried to stand. It took more work for him to do easy things since his heart attack. It had only been a few months before the move, which was why Aida and her sister had suggested her father hire somebody to mow the lawn. It would be significantly less strain on him to get his exercise from simpler activities.

The boy stuck a hand out to steady Jay as he stood and then spoke in a deep no-nonsense voice. "Not really, sir. I wouldn't consider myself good enough to be called a mechanic yet. It's just a hobby." His face twisted in a way that made Aida think he wished what Jay had called him was true but didn't consider himself to be of that caliber yet.

"Nonsense! You can be whatever you'd like," called Jay as he wobbled inside promptly calling for Aida's sister to see if she'd thrown her laundry in yet.

The boy nodded after him and continued his work, no longer seeming interested in Aida now that it was the two of them.

Aida felt a painfully awkward tension in the hot California sun. She racked her brain for anything to say. "Come to a party tonight." Wrong thing, thought Aida, mentally face-palming herself.

The boy slowly peaked his head above the machine, grease on his tanned face, an effect of being out in the heat all afternoon. "What?" he asked shrilly. "Your slumber party?" he qualified, in more of a playful manner.

Aida hated herself for using that as a conversation segway, but had to roll with it now. "That's just what I told my dad." The boy put his head back down and continued stressfully working, uninterested.

"No thanks, Aida." Her breath hitched. He remembered her name. And had also rejected her. She felt a burning sensation from the sun suddenly.

"Why not?" she demanded, feeling displeased with the rejection, and also becoming bolder the longer she was in his presence.

"Well first off, you don't even know my name." He paused, still not looking at her. "Second off, this is currently my business. And you're not supposed to mix business with pleasure." Aida could hear him devilishly smiling; she felt it in the medium amount of space between them. "And third, I try not to associate with anyone at school." He quieted, but Aida didn't speak. "Oh and fourth... I don't know you."

Aida realized they had the no friends thing in common until today and then considered saying something smooth like "well you could know me," but couldn't think of anything of that sort and landed on "well, what's your name?" She stepped closer again, wanting to close the gap.

"Do you need to know it?" he asked. She hated him for not looking at her, but knew his grays would make it harder to be as confident as she currently was. Tiffany must have rubbed off on her a little.

"Why yes, I do. You work for me, technically. I need to know what to write on the checks." She was trying to be fun, but flirtatious was never a way she would have described herself. Sure, she'd been on a few dates, but that was in her old hometown. Everything was different here.

"Well, your father is paying me. And he's paying me cash." He looked up for the second time and Aida could see his entire face now, deciding his mystique was rather cute, but also a little scary, as he disproved her.

"You could tell me for the cause of friendship," she suggested, trying her best and thinking back to Tiffany and Diane's bubbliness. She knew they wouldn't have said something like that; they would have said something cleverer.

"I told you, I try not to associate with anyone at school," he repeated. Dismay washed over Aida after being lumped in with everyone else, but she decided to be relentless. She had been brainstorming for days what name fit his looks, and just couldn't put a finger on it.

"Well, I'm not really from our school." A slight twinge of blush came to her cheeks at using the word "our." "I'm from another school in Connecticut... I only just got to this one."

He frowned, but it still looked good on him. "That's not what I meant."

"I'm not wrong though," stated Aida. Suddenly, the elusive Mr. Lawnmower stood up, wiped his reddened, calloused hands on his already dirty jeans, and walked over to Aida. He stood very close to her, to the point where she could smell gasoline, grass, and a twinge of oak from a cologne. Aida's breathing slowed, wondering what he was doing. Her legs threatened to take an automatic step back, but the rest of her body was unable to comply.

He put his hand out for her to shake this time. "Levi." It rolled off his lips like warm butter on bread. Aida tried to use the confidence she had felt when he was much further away, just a few moments ago, but now understood that confidence was fleeting.

"Nice to meet you, Levi," she whispered, as they held hands longer than any normal handshake either of them had been a part of.

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A/N: I think I like him, I don't know about you. Also praise the lord for not having writer's block yet... on my past few stories it would have been hitting hard by now, but I'm actually a few chapters ahead. Feeling good and I hope you all are too. Show me some vote/comment love! Also, this is my fifth part, so I can now officially enter in the 2018 Watty Awards! I've never had any luck so maybe this year will be my year *this is something yours truly says every year*

What do you think of Levi? Did Aida hold her ground well?

-Nickie xx