Chapter 11

My eyes widen in surprise. What's he doing here? I mean, does he even know I work here? I answer myself in my head as I think how Grid is his sister. She could have just mentioned it, and maybe as a good friend he decided to stop by.

Bennet is nearing the counter, walking as he waves, and smiles in a pleasant manner, and I sile and wave back.

"Hey, Cayce. How are you?" he asks.

"I'm alright," I answer, "how about you?"

Bennet leans on the counter and smiles. His eyes again are blue and pulling me in. Like a fireplace in my chest, his smile and presence seems to ignite that feeling of warmth and comfort. Thinking now, maybe I don't mind him meeting me here, and I'm not overtly surprised unpleasantly at all.

"I'm fine," says Bennet, still smiling, "I, uh, happened to be in town, and I heard from Grid that you were working here, so I thought to just swing by."

"Oh, that was nice of you," I say, and wave upward toward the snacks in jars behind me, "we're a little past closing time, but you can still ask me to pick out anything you want to buy."

"Thanks," says Bennet, "I'd want something a little nicer than candy though."

"Huh?"

"I mean, eh, candy would be nice," says Bennet, nodding to a jar with yellow and pink colors twisted into tubes, "I'd like a half-pound of that, if it's alright."

"Sure thing," I say with a smile, and use a metal scooper to get the candy into a paper bag, and weight it. I think I hear Bennet curse under his breath to somebody named Oliver as I do, but I just focus on my work. Ringing up the price I put a sticker with the store's logo on it to seal the paper bag, and hand it over to Bennet.

"Anything else I can get you?" I ask as I do, and Bennet's hand brushes against mine as I do, which leaves a trace of warmth there that's leagues more than what's inside my chest, though it seems to spread out to heat my entire being up. I'm not sure if I'm just weird around Bennet, and that could be the case, but I'm sure that Bennet probably thinks this is just a nice way to greet a friend, and I soak it up like the stupid teen I am the way I want it to be.

"You, I mean, uh, no, I think this will be good," says Bennet, holding up the bag.

Thinking about the heat he creates in my body, I'm suddenly aware again that I need to get home to check if I left the stove on. This realization has me jump in the spot, and causes both the counter and Bennet to also be shocked as I shout with my sudden epiphany.

"Are you okay, Cayce?" asks Bennet with his concern as his brows knit together.

"Yeah! Totally fine. It's just," I say as I pick up my bag and start to move around the counter, "I just need head home. I think I left my stove on."

"Oh, hopefully everything's alright," says Bennet, but he seems strangely sad to see me go.

I hear a jingle and Mr. and Mrs. Miller are back.

"Hi, Mrs. Miller, I think I left my stove on, and I need to rush home to make sure everything's alright," I say.

"Alright, take care!" calls Mrs. Miller as I leave with understanding, and I'm guessing maybe she's had this experience before too.

Nodding, I dash out, waving to the three of them in the store, but as I make my way outside onto the empty streets, the face of Bennet that was evidently sad to see me go lingers. Running to the direction of my car, that's all I really see, his sad expression, that natural puppy-face pulled into a frown. It's something to admit, but he is pretty handsome as I think back on it.

I come to a stop once I think I've traveled enough in the direction of the parking space my car is in, yet my car's not here. Usually when I go to my car, I just go in the direction I think it is in, and travel, walk, the distance it should be away. That's always worked. At least, in all the time I succeeded in finding my car. This time though, seems to be an instance of failure, and I recall that last time I lost my car I had to press the panic button on my keys to create a sound I could follow for direction.

This time though, since it's so quiet around the street, and I don't want to be caught as a public nuisance in this instance I'm being noisy, I decide against the panic button solution. I might have to do something else not related to my car in going home. I could walk, but then, that's way too much work. Ten miles? And when I'm already hungry? No way.

Turning my head as I take in again how the street I don know that I'm on is quiet and without any real cameras on the exterior of buildings, I wonder if I should just fly home. It's been a while since I did last time, and now seems to be good time for flying. If I did fly, it'd take much less energy and time to go home, and then I'd finally get that meal I'm looking for.

Thinking for another moment, and then nodding on my idea, I reach up to pull off my jacket, my shirt, and leave only my undershirt on. This one has been tailored to have holes in the back, since I usually strip off my clothes leaving the undershirt on when I get home.

Unwrapping and then extending my wings out, I shake them a few times to let the blood pumping through them properly, and concentrate as I make my wings shift into the shape of eagle ones. Raising my wings over my head, and then flapping them down, immediately pushing me off the ground. After flapping my wings a few more times, I'm above the streets of Handerville and rising higher. My backpack is carried in front of me, and flying in the direction I'm certain that my house is in, I begin flying that way while continuing to rise slightly higher.

I'm certain I'm heading in the right way as the lights of town fade away. Though, because there's the moon hidden behind a few clouds right now, I can't tell for certain. I didn't leave any lights on at home, so it's going to a little tough to spot it.

Flying for a twenty minutes without spotting my home has me stopping as I flap in the spot, having my wonder where exactly I am. I see the lights of Handerville a little far away, but not anything else really. Then, the moon does come out from the clouds, and I realize I've flown straight out over the ocean.

Shocked that I flew onto the ocean, I do a double-take on the water below me. It's also a fact that I just repeated what I did to try and find my car. Maybe traveling in the direction you think your destination is in would be a poor tactic.

Understanding that, I pull out my phone and look at it. Using a GPS on my phone, I find my way back, flapping over and down to my house. Landing on the roof of my house, I walk over to the roof door and open it. I leave this door unlocked. I put some salt on the outside of the door to help dispel anything like bad luck coming into my house. Hopefully it'll dispel that bad tactic for reaching somewhere. I know I don't want to get lost again, and definitely not over the ocean.

Entering my house, I close the door behind me. I use my wings to float down the staircases, not wanting to track my outdoor shoes on the floors. Reaching the ground floor has me setting my bag down and throwing off my shoes with a sigh of relief. I'm home!

In the kitchen, I confirm that the stove is off. Smart me. I must've outsmarted myself. Does that make me now smart, I don't know. But for now, I'm ready to eat that fish and chips. I almost lost my appetite several times from everything that happened tonight. Now though, as I'm looking at the fish and potatoes, sauces and salad, I'm ready!

Nodding once, I begin to cook and prepare, and within thirty minutes, a wonderful meal is prepared. Setting it on the kitchen counter, not the dinner table since it's too far away and I want to eat now, I dig in. It's wonderful, and I'm happy I managed to get home.

All too soon I've eaten it all, but I know it's time for bed. Not having looked at my watch until now, I glance at it, and I see it's past midnight. I almost jump in my seat, and then do as I get up to clean up the kitchen and head upstairs for sleep. Thankfully I did my homework, at least most of it anyways, already, so I can head onto bad.

Showering, brushing my teeth, and also maybe looking at myself in the mirror to see if there's anything Bennet might see as stunning on me, is a process I go through before my head lands on my pillow, the windows open in my room let in the breeze, and the day catches up to me as I start to drift off to sleep.

It's then that I almost jump up again, realizing I didn't drive my car home, so don't have any way to school tomorrow. The school bus doesn't swing by since I wrote a form saying I don't need it.

Groaning, I reach over to my phone on the nightstand to set an alarm. It's going to be a long day tomorrow, walking to school in the morning. Or, I guess, since it's already past midnight, it's today. So, it's going to be a long day today.