Gift of the Goddess

Chapter 32 - The girl with the scarlet hair

It was unreal to me how such a small and weightless card could have so much money packed into it. I asked Jack how much was on it, and he said and I quote. 'Just go wild with it.' Zack said he would text me any updates he had on Leo. So far all Leo has done is sleep in an alleyway. I had to fight the urge to go and help the poor kid. But if he had a secret agenda, I needed to catch him plotting. I was a little apprehensive to leave such a delicate mission to Zack. However, I talked to Bean myself and I trust him a lot more than Zack.

So I skipped school today and decided to go shopping. So far I bought enough food to fill our fridge, then I gave out some food to the homeless ( Zack roasted me for it). After that I decided to buy Lux a laptop. Then I got Valentina a star wars hoodie, as a kind of thank you gift. I held off on buying anything until tomorrow. I figured I would take Zack's suggestion to heart and take her shopping. Anything to get out of the hospital setting...

I was walking down the road to my last stop. Zack and I hadn't been back to this place in years. Since Zack got us banned from here that is. I looked up at the sign, and there it still was. Daniros Pasta house. It was a small red building at the end of the road. The red paint on the building's was peeling now. I remember it being so much more colorful. I wondered if he'd recognized me now.

I took a breath and looked over the old wooden door. So many memories in this place. I slowly reached out and opened the door. The ringing of the bell echoed throughout the empty store. I caught them just as they were opening.

"O-oh just a second!" I heard a burly deep voice call out from the back.

The shop was old fashion. The chairs and tables all looked like something you see in a history museum about the nineteen eighties. All glazed over with a red, white and green paint that's faded with the years. The only thing that hadn't worn out through the years was the smell. Just as inviting and mouth watering as I remembered.

"H-hello! Take seat anywhere you li-"

A husky man in a dirty white apron came out. He was hairy, with streaks of white hair scattered about on his head. He stopped talking to me and just stared in my direction. Oh crap he recognized me!

"H-hey" I stammered out. "Long time no see, it's me Stry-"

"Ah Stryder my boy!" He cheered happily. "It's been years! You're looking good! How's Lux?"

"Ah, she's doing good. She actually got a scholarship for university, she's in med school now.' I replied as I stepped in more.

"Oh that's fantastic!" He cheered.

"Yeah." I took a breath and relaxed some. " Hey, do you remember that day Zack ordered hundreds of dollars in food? And then dined and dashed?"

His happy expression slowly began to fade to an owl like scowl.

"That little.." He growled.

"Well, since I took part in that I-"

"No no no Stryder you're fine!" He pleaded as his voice became calm again.

"No It's not fine. You helped me and my sister out a lot when we didn;t have money. And I aided in stealing from you.I recently got a lot of money given to me. So I figured it only be right to pay you back for that."

He sighed and closed his eyes, scratching his beard for a moment. Seemingly thinking hard about something. I took a few more steps closer to him.