Chapter Fourteen

Well clearly, I lost the challenge because I supposedly stared at him for too long in the car and here I am, holding bags of clothes for him after three and a half hours of shopping.

"I'm hungry! Can we buy food now?" I say, exhausted.

"Hm, just one more store." He looks around for a possible store I'm assuming.

"You said that five stores ago!" I shout, finally done with the torture.

I drop all the bags right where I was and stalk towards the food court, without looking back. I hear loud footsteps following me, but I don't turn back to wait for him. I stop in front of Subway and order a foot long and a six inch sandwich with a drink for myself.

I pull out my purse and take out my debit card. After paying, I take both my sandwiches as well as the drink and find an empty table. I see him shoving around and through people to try to get to me. He sits down in front of me and says,

"Oh you bought me a sandwich too." He smiles and reaches for the foot long I was going to eat after my six-inch.

I swat away his hand and grab the sandwich. He gets up and returns with his own foot long and starts eating. We eat in silence, well not exactly silence because the mall is a chaotic place, but neither of us speak. I definitely don't because at this point, food is my only priority.

He keeps glancing at me every few minutes, but doesn't say anything.

We finish eating and I say, "I'm full," relieved while rubbing my tummy. He just responds with, "Are you sure?"

"Am I sure, what?"

"Are you sure that you're full?" Wow, offensive. Does he realize that I'm a human and not a pig?

"Yes, I'm sure. I don't just keep eating you know." I say aggressively.

"I have a hard time believing that because you almost finished two bags of snacks and you were eating all morning. I kinda saw a peep of the mess through the cupboard door you forgot to close properly." I physically face palm myself causing him to chuckle.

"Well I eat a lot but that was enough. I'm sure I'm full. If I do get hungry, you can buy me some food, like you promised."

"Then let's just hope you don't." He says getting up. I reach for the bags, but he takes them instead.

"Well then, where's the next store?"I ask trying to keep up with his long strides.

"We're done shopping for today. But we could go somewhere else if you'd like?" He suggests.

"And where is that somewhere?" I narrow my eyes at him, scrunching up my face.

"How about the movies? It's been a while since I've been."

"Yeah me too. Sure, let's go." I shrug as we walk towards his car.

We arrive at the movie theatre and it's quite empty for a Saturday evening. He offers to pay for both of our tickets, no matter how much I argued with him in the car. I stand in the food line and buy some popcorn for the both of us. When I come back, I see him smiling big and he motions for me to hurry over. We sit in our seats and watch as the movie begins.

"That was shit!" He says, laughing as he throws away the last bits of popcorn he never ate.

"I mean, it was supposed to be scary and it's not my fault you just aren't scared of scary things."

"Scared of scary things." He mocks me.

"What?"

"Then you tell me. What are scary things?"

"Um, ghosts cause you don't even know if they exist. Zombies cause why do corpses have to walk around, like sleep. Stupid dead people. Oh and murderers! That would be so scary! Like if you were murdered. I can't even imagine that. Like it could be a gunshot to the forehead or a slit to the neck. Or you could be hung! Or you just starve in the secret dungeon or something! Oh my god! And-and that guy from the movie-the guy from the movie he-he cut-"

"Alright you need to calm down. Jeez you're scared." He says while gripping my shoulders tight, but not tight enough to hurt me. He shakes me up a bit so I'm not thinking so much about the movie.

"Well yeah, you just took me to watch a horror movie where some psychopath cuts people and eats them like are you okay?! Are you a psycho too?! Like who watches this kinda stuff? Why were there so many people in there? And kids? Oh my god! OH MY GOD!" I press my hands to my face.

"What? What happened?"

"IM GONNA HAVE NIGHTMARES! IM GONNA HAVE NIGHTMARES BECAUSE OF YOU! Great you know, thanks a lot whatever your name is!" I say angry, upset and with a bunch of random emotions all at the same time. Even now, his hands don't leave my shoulders.

"Listen, Erin. You're gonna be okay, I promise. And I'm sorry, I didn't know you were gonna get this scared. Call me if you're having nightmares. I'll probably be awake." He says looking into my eyes and slowly removing his hands. I simply nod.

"Can you drop me home now? Please?" I ask desperately and he nods.

"Yeah, come on." He agrees instantly, pressing his hand to the small of back as he leads me out to his car.

We arrive at my house and he pulls into the driveway.

"I still don't know your name yet. How much longer do I have to wait?"

"How much longer you have to wait is up to you."

Confused I just say, "okay, bye then."

"Bye, babygirl. Take care." I just ignore that he called me babygirl, too tired and upset to argue with him.

"You too," is all I say before I get out of the car and go inside, without looking back.

I should've noticed the cars outside before I came in, because now I'm facing a bunch of people that I could've been ready for if I did.

"Hey honey." Oh great. Story time with Erin.