Chase: and the girl who came back

I slide out from under the car I’m doing an oil filter change on and look over at Yasmin and Arden. They look deep in conversation; she looks a little off though. Something isn’t right.

I will hurt Arden if he upset her.

It’s her first day for fuck’s sake. Give the girl some space.

I couldn’t argue with him when he walked off with her. Not until I can figure out what this is and what it means. I watch Yasmin swipe a tear off her cheek when she thinks Arden isn’t looking at her.

I see it.

It seems I see everything. Including the slight shake of her shoulders as she tries to hold back her tears.

I decide I’ve had enough of shop class. There’s only fifteen minutes left anyway.

I let Mr Williams know that I’m getting changed and will walk Yasmin back to get changed before the bell rings and the bathroom fills with people.

Neither Yasmin or Arden see me approach. I place my hand on her shoulder and she jumps up and away, startled. Her eyes furiously take in her surroundings and when she realises it was me, I see her try and calm herself down.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” I say approaching her with caution. Holding my palms up so she can see them. She doesn’t talk.

It’s almost like she can’t.

“Can I walk you to the bathroom to get changed?”

She looks around the room again. She nods ever so slightly. I almost miss it.

I can see Arden take in what is happening.

“Why don’t you guys meet us at our table? I’ll grab us lunch.” Arden says. Yasmin just nods again.

“Sounds good. I’ll see you soon.” I close the distance between us and touch her arm carefully, so I don’t startle her again.

When she doesn’t jump, I quickly grab her bag from the ground and then lead her out of the room.

Once we’re outside, I stop and turn to face her.

“Are you okay?” I can see the wall she had up this morning firmly in place. I want her to let me in again. I want to see her pain and so I can help take it away.

It takes a moment, but after a few calming breaths she finally responds. “Yeah, sorry about that.” Her voice is soft and scared.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.” I tell her honestly.

“I know, it’s not your fault. I’m just a little jumpy,” she says finally meeting my gaze.

In that moment I can feel everything she is. She hasn’t always been this way. Something has happened.

I want to help her.

“Do you want to sit with us at lunch?” I ask. Hoping she’ll say yes.

I watch as she pulls her phone out of her pocket to check something before she responds.

“I don’t do well in crowds. I might just eat in my car.” Her voice is still soft and timid.

“We don’t sit inside. We have a table outside that we sat at away from everyone. It’ll just be Ally, Arden and Rhys.” I say trying to both calm and convince her. I want to spend time with her.

Preferably alone so she can let her guard down, but I’ll take just spending time with her as a group at this point.

“Uhm, I guess. I don’t want to intrude.” She kicks at a clump of grass, no longer making eye contact, the uncertainty is loud and clear.

“You aren’t intruding. I want you there.” This gets her attention; she slowly lifts her head but still avoids my gaze.

“You do?”

I take a chance. I gently place my finger under her chin, encouraging her to look at me. I want her to see that I mean what I say.

“I do.” I let her both see and hear my honesty. The sharp intake of her breath lets me know that she heard me.

“Okay.” She holds my gaze, but I know we’re short on time and I want to get her out of the main building before it’s flooded with kids. I get the feeling, that a large group of people is the last thing that she needs right now.

“Come on. Let’s go.” I lead her back into the building and send a message to our group chat while I wait for her.

Chase: Yasmin is sitting with us for lunch. She’s still a little spooked.

Ally: Spooked? Arden what the hell did you do???

Arden: Fuck off Ally. Wasn’t me that spooked her.

Ally: Arden!!! What did you?

Arden: It really wasn’t me. We were chatting, you know getting to know each other. Everything

was fine…

Ally: …

Arden: Until Chase touched her shoulder. She freaked out.

How did Arden not see that she’d been crying? She’d ducked her head to try to hide it, but I could see it clear as day from across the room.

Chase: It wasn’t intentional. At least I didn’t make her cry

Ally: ARDEN! YOU MADE HER CRY!!! SO HELP ME, IMMA KICK YOUR ASS

Arden: Calm your farm. I didn’t make her cry

Arden: Wait? Did I?

Chase: Sometimes I wonder about you. Yes she was crying. Which is why I came over.

Arden: Oh… I didn’t mean to make her cry

I believe him. I don’t think he’d intentionally make her cry and if he knew, he would’ve offered some sort of comfort.

Chase: What were you talking about?

Arden: Nothing

Chase: I call bullshit

Ally: I second that

I’m interrupted by Yasmin clearing her throat. I look up from my phone and can’t help but smile at her. She gives me a small smile of her own.

“One sec.” I say holding up my finger.

Chase: We’re on our way to the table. See you soon.

Arden: Roger that. Mushu’s are delivering.

I shake my head and pocket my phone.

“Do you like Chinese food?” I ask Yasmin while we walk back through the halls. Just as we exit the building, the halls fill with kids and she looks around uncomfortably. It’s warmed up now. Once we’re safely outside, I take off my blazer and catch her watching me. I give her a wink and continue to walk towards our table, which is as far away from the main building as we could get, right near the car park.

“Yeah. Why?” She replies hesitantly.

“Arden’s got our favourite restaurant delivering lunch.” Mushu’s never delivers lunch. Usually we just get sandwiches or burgers and the occasional pizza if Martha doesn’t bring us lunch. Not sure how Arden managed that.

“Restaurant food for lunch? I’m a little out of my league here. I planned to just get something from the cafeteria.” She’s still a little on edge.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s just something Arden does. We stopped eating at the cafeteria years ago. Arden got food poisoning and as funny as it was for us, he then demanded that we never eat there again and has been providing lunch ever since.” I offer a little explanation, secretly hoping it’ll relax her a little.

“Oh wow. That’s a little over the top.”

“Yeah, but that’s Arden. Usually his housekeeper brings us lunch.”

“A housekeeper? Jesus I can’t even begin to wonder what this restaurant is going to be like, it’s not going to be something weird and fancy like goat’s head soup or chicken feet? Because there is no way in hell I’m eating that,” she says and I can’t help but chuckle. It’s the most she’s said to me since she left my house this morning.

She glances at me curiously. “You find this funny?”

“It’s not what you’re thinking. Trust me?” I don’t expect a reply from her, but I’m pretty sure I hear her whisper “okay”.

As we near the table, she begins to tense again.

“It’ll be okay. You can leave anytime,” I reassure her again.

Ally sees us approaching and rushes to us. She throws her arm around Yasmin’s shoulders and walks her away from me while throwing a scary ass glare in my direction.

I head to the table while Ally and Yasmin sit on the grass a little bit away from us and talk.

I turn my stare to Arden. “What happened?” Arden makes the motion of zipping his lips and throwing away the key.

“It’s pointless. I already tried to get him to spill.” Rhys says looking up from his phone.

“You were awfully quiet, during that exchange.” I say to Rhys.

“Doesn’t mean I wasn’t following the convo. It was hard not to, when you were blowing up the chat,” Rhys says abruptly.

“Who pissed in your cereal this morning?” Arden snarks. This isn’t unusual for Rhys, but he hasn’t been like this in a while.

“Fuck off Arden.” He snaps. I catch him looking over at the girls and then back at us. It was quick and I probably wasn’t meant to see it.

“What’s going on?” I ask as I sit opposite him, choosing to ignore his attitude.

“Nothing.”

“We know you better than that.” I don’t buy into his nothing crap.

“We don’t even know her and what, we’re just letting her hang out with us?” I had a feeling this might’ve been what Rhys’ problem was. I didn’t think it was Yasmin herself, but more so what she represents.

“At one stage, we didn’t know you,” I reply. Rhys only joined us in 8th grade when he and his family moved to Canary Bay from Acre Woods.

A beep from the car park distracts us and Arden heads over to pick up our food. The girls approach and Yasmin slides in beside me. Her leg touches mine when she sits down and I hold my breath, waiting to see what she does.

To my surprise she doesn’t move it. She just turns to Ally and continues her conversation.

At first look she seems a little more relaxed, but I don’t know if it’s because she’s calmed down or if she’s putting on a front.

Arden unloads the bags on the table and we all help open the containers. He’s gotten all the usual favourites. Dumplings, noodles, honey chicken and fried rice. We each take an empty container and dig in.

“Wow. This wasn’t what I was expecting at all.” Yasmin says as she places a little of everything in her container.

“What were you expecting?” Arden asks with a mouthful of food.

“When Chase said restaurant, I expected chicken feet and goats head soup. You know some of that fancy stuff that no one ever wants to eat.” Arden’s unable to contain his laughter.

“Fuck no. Mushu’s is the best hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant in town. It’s small, run down and the food is amazeballs,” Arden replies when he finally manages to control his laughter.

“Amazeballs?” Yasmin asks with a chuckle.

Oh god.

I’m screwed. Her laugh does things to me. Without thinking, I place my hand on my thigh and softly touch hers. She doesn’t jump this time. Just turns and smiles.

I may have only met her this morning, but I know for a fact I’d do anything I can to make her smile like that again.

“Trust me. Amazeballs,” Arden says while nodding at her container and shovelling a dumpling in his mouth.

I watch as Yasmin picks up a dumpling, closes her eyes and hesitantly takes a bite. She lets out an audible moan, and it takes everything in me to not react. She opens her eyes and looks at me, slowly licking the remaining dumpling juice from her lips.

“Amazeballs.” She says a little breathily.

Yep. Screwed.