Stray Story - 007

The two of us got off the bus at the central station in town.

I was still recovering from our conversation just before. Seriously, I must've lost ten years of my life when Tayla said she was pregnant. I'm so glad that she was joking about that.

As we stepped off, the bus driver leaned over and spoke to me.

He said, 'she seems like a real handful. Good luck.'

Guh.

I'd forgotten that the entire bus had overheard our conversation, and were listening in while Tayla had me dancing in the palm of her hand.

How embarrassing.

She got me really good.

And an entire bus full of people had been listening.

The two of us headed towards the nearest exit. In this direction, there's a shopping complex less than a block away. Presumably that's where Tayla is leading me.

"About Caro…"

"Yeah?"

"What do you think we should do?"

Tayla's voice was full of concern for Elis' sister. It makes sense though. She might be safe for now, staying at my place, but how long will this all last? This precarious situation that we're all in. I mean, she must realise that the best outcome, from me and Tayla's perspective, is for her to go back home.

And if she thinks that just because we haven't told anyone about where she's staying yet, that we won't ever, then she's wrong.

"I think I know what we have to do already," I replied to Tayla's question, "I'm just not completely convinced it's the right way to go about it."

"Well, I'll leave it to you then. You probably understand how she's feeling better than I ever could."

Yeah. Tayla might be right about that. That's the impression I get from Tayla. Even though she's known me this whole time, she still doesn't entirely understand why I ran away from home, not Caroline either.

For her, it's unimaginable for things to be so bad at home that you would rather risk living on the streets than staying in your own house. Though it makes sense that she doesn't get it. Both her mum and dad seem like great people. Krista and Devon. I don't have anything bad to say about them. Well, Devon does scare me a little, but I know he won't really do anything unless I make Tayla cry.

"Hey, Alexander?"

"What is it?"

"I was thinking just now… you spend a lot of time with girls other than me."

"Huh?"

"I mean, most of your co-workers are female, including AJ…"

"She's not even interested in guys."

"… and there was that time that you and Caro kissed."

"She's a child! It doesn't count!"

"Really?"

Wait, had she actually been mad about that this whole time without saying anything? Was she just waiting to get me alone before she absolutely abused me for that mistake?

"Tayla…"

"Just kidding. I know you didn't mean anything by it. Even if you have a thing for younger girls."

"I'm not into younger girls!"

"So, you don't love me?"

"That's not what I meant."

"You don't find me attractive?"

"No, rather… you don't really come across as a younger girl. You aren't even a whole year younger than me."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Tayla said, smiling.

I sighed. Tayla makes me work so hard sometimes. She makes me sweat just to get her kicks. Not that I really mind at all.

She does seem to be hurling curveballs one after the other, however, for some reason. Normally she spaces them out a bit more reasonably than that. I'm having a hard time keeping up, to be perfectly honest.

"Tayla, are you actually mad about something?"

"Hmm? Not really, why?"

Ah. Yeah, she is.

"Just, I don't know. You seem a bit more intense than usual."

"Well, it's just like I said before," Tayla brought us back to our earlier conversation about me kissing Caro, "I haven't gotten enough lines recently, so I'm forcing the author to have it be just the two of us for three chapters."

Or rather, Tayla brings us back to our earlier, silly and nonsensical, conversation about her 'author'.

She continued on, "for instance, I haven't gotten a chance to say a pun in so long. I'm sure that the readers have forgotten all about that character trait."

"It might be better if they forgot. All of those puns are terrible."

"Yeah, you really need to keep it up in order for the audience to remember such a small detail."

"Please stop with your meta comments."

"I mean, it's just like Alexander. If you didn't keep bringing him up, I'm sure the audience would've forgotten such a small detail."

"Am I just a small detail in your life?!"

There, I went and did it. I said my part, as the straight man, in our comedy routine. Please just let it be over with now.

"Ah, you're right. I need to stop with the small details, and advertise the other parts of this universe, right?"

Guh. It didn't stop her at all! It got even worse!

And, she inadvertently called me a small detail again!

Though, I'm sure it was actually on purpose.

"If you want something else to read while you wait for this lazy author to upload a new chapter, search up Project: Artemis."

"What is that?! Don't just make crap up!"