SMILE ✔︎

W H O I S T H E P R E T T Y L A D Y

W H O  I S  T H E  P R E T T Y  L A D Y

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J U L Y 1 9 9 8

I woke up at four am with him, just because he wanted me to know he wasn't leaving me and never coming back, but rather that he needed to kick Koa out of his bed.

He told me he'd rather I be in his bed...

I couldn't fall back asleep after that, no matter how much I wanted to. All I could do was watch... watch the sun slowly rise, the tourists begin to pop up, watch out especially to see if I could see Royce standing on the beach.. with no shirt on and his signature purple shorts... oh and how could I forget the key necklace?

My alarm set off for 7 am, and I turn it off and walk down stairs.

I walk through every aisle, checking the stock of each item and refilling anything I need to. And the day goes by like that.

I don't know why I felt so empty now, because I felt so empty without him. I didn't have any light, it was gloomy and grey, but as soon as I saw him walk through the door at 1pm, it changed.

I smile a little.

"Are you working?" I ask, bending over the counter a little and smiling at him.

He looks around before leaning down on the counter in front of me. He leans in and kisses my temple.

"What do you want me to do, baby?" He asks.

I shrug, "I have to work a thirty more minutes before my mom will actually talk to me, but you can go out to the beach, because they're about to start a party out there."

He sighs a little, "I like being late..."

He slowly puts on an apron from under the counter and smirks at me, "I'll sit in the aisle with the Funyuns and crunch them until you come over here and eat chips with me." He says, and I watch as he moves around the corner.

And I hear him plop on the floor and start crunching the bag of my favorite chips like he owned the place.

I chuckle before I jump over the counter and run to the aisle he's in.

I plop on the ground right in front of him, my apron bending and creating wrinkles at my waist. He smiles at me before slowly handing over the bag of Funyuns he knew I'd want.

I grab him a bag of Cheetos and throw them in his lap. "So.." I start, blushing a little bit as he stared at me. All I could think of was last night.

"How did Koa react?" I ask, opening the bag and taking a Funyun in my mouth. "She was okay with it, but I'm still pissed she fell asleep in my bed."

"Why?" I ask and he chuckles a little but, opening up his bag of cheetos and putting one lightly in his mouth.

"Well if they were both gone I wouldn't have had my hand over your mouth would I have?" He asks with a smirk, looking up at me.

I slap his arm, "Stop it Royce!"

"Okay okay!" He says lightly dodging my next slap to the arm. "But in all serious I wanted to sleep next to you for longer.. and I wish we were in my bed and not your air mattress."

I laugh a little, "I do too..."

"I mean what's the point of being rich if you don't get anything?"

I sigh, "They have a plan that when they turn 40 they'll finally stop because they wanna be little old people with a lot of money. At 40 they'll have around 4 million plus some."