Katherina

Stranger In Town

"Rose.... Rose", her mother called out, dragging the words while walking upstairs towards her bedroom. A bang landed straight at the door. "Rose, are you in there? Rose dear", still no response from the other side of the door.

Rose and Elira laid flat on the floor, the grimoire still in the middle of them, the candles all blown out, the windows wildly opened, the rays of the morning sun stroke right into the room, She took in a big gasp of air, like she was fighting for her life, "Elira", she said softly while trying to get a hang of herself, she opened her eyes fully and tapped Elira multiple times, "Hey", she mumbled slowly, she kept on banging on the door, 'Mom I'm coming", Rose said and raised Elira to her feet. Elira opened her eyes fully, and quickly slid the grimoire and the candles under the bed and wiped her face quickly with her palms. "Hi", Rose said as she opened the door, her mother stood furious and glared back at her, "you girls have been sleeping all day, Elira, your mom has been worried all day" she said and walked into the room, they both stood side by side with her, "what do you mean all day?", Elira asked with an eyebrow raised up a bit, "this is literally 1:45 pm girls", she said turning and staring at both of them angrily, "God damn knows why you both are up this late, just clear up the room and come have lunch":, she said and left, Rose shut the door behind her, "the fuck...how is that possible?" Rose asked, her facial expression drenched with shock and curiosity.

After some minutes, they washed up, took a shower and went downstairs to have lunch. The dining table was unusually lively.

Rose sat across from Elira, absentmindedly twirling spaghetti around her fork while thinking of what happened last night, and she stared at Elira for a while. Elira stared back at her and chuckled softly while Rose's mother was making seamless jokes in the kitchen. The two girls burst into laughter, their voices filling the cosy kitchen. Just then, Rose's mother walked in, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel. "You two seem to be having the time of your lives."

Mrs Aveline chuckled and shook her head. "Well, before either of you say anything further, I need a favour." The girls looked up.

"Could you both run to the grocery store for me? We're out of eggs, bread, and milk. It shouldn't take long." Rose sighed dramatically. "There goes my afternoon." Elira smiled as she stood. "Come on. The sooner we go, the sooner we're back." Rose grabbed her wallet from the counter and rolled her eyes with a grin. "Fine. Grocery mission it is."

The sun hanged gracefully in the sky, lowering at its horizon, the evening dew was fast approaching. "come on the store is literally down the streets", Elira said as they both stood at the side walk about to cross to the other side of the road, "I see you enjoy this torture", Rose said like her life has been drained out of her body, she just walked in front of her leaving her a bit behind, they walked on the road to the other side, just then a black car, old brand, all windows raised drove speeding at them. "s**t!" Elira shouted and pulled Rose out the way as the car almost ran them over, the driver quickly rolled down his window and stared at the two girls, "I'm very sorry ladies, was on a call" He said, "its fine ", Rose said and kept walking, he rolled his window back and stared at them walking to the other side as he drove off.

"Finally the store", Rose said as they reached the store and walked inside, the place was filled with busy people, most on a queue to payoff their good, some still shopping, "let me go grab the stuff, I'll come meet you", Elira said and went into the store to pick up the items, while Rose just stood waiting for her, after a few minutes she came back with a basket in her hand with the items, "let's go pay off, by then the queue had reduced so they joined the last person on queue. "Hi, Good evening", the lady behind the counter greeted them with a warm smile. They both smiled back at her; they dropped their goods on the table, and she started scanning them.

The glass door of the store opened slowly, and all of a sudden Elira caught a glance at the person walking in. "Hey, Rose, isn't that the same man who almost ran us over today?" Elira whispered to Rose. She turned slowly and looked at him. "Yeah, he's the one; he looks kinda lost", Rose bluntly said. "Your goods, girls, and that 52$ in total", the lady said. Rose brought out her bank card and paid. "Let's go", Rose said as she collected the goods from the lady behind the counter.

A bottle of wine was suddenly dropped onto the counter desk; the lady behind the counter looked up at the person in front of her.

"Good evening sir, is this all you would like to have?', she said with a smile and reached out for the bottle to scan it but he held it tight, "the two girls that just left, do they stay around here?", He asked, his voice was deep, "yeah they do, down the street, why asking sir?", she asked him with a suspicious and curious look, "almost ran them over today, wanna go apologize", he said looking at her, then he released the bottle. "dammm that's crazy, you new around here, haven't seen you before", she asked, there was silence in the air for some while, he turned around a few times, scanning the store, he was the last person in the store, 'yeah just moved in recently still finding my way around", he added. "that's 6$ dollars sir," she said after scanning the bottle of wine. "Well...The problem is I don't have cash on me but you gonna listen to me carefully" he said and leaned towards, she could literally hear him breath, he stared into her eyes and said, "You gonna forget I came to this store and bought this, you gave it out for free" He said and all of a sudden she smiled at him "You can have it for free sir" "Thank you so much, Cassy" He said and left the store with a grin on his lips.