Chapter two- That Candy Shop

A few days passed, and I hadn’t really expected to see him again, and I tried to convince myself it wasn’t such a big deal. We’d only spent a few hours together, but I found myself replaying our simple conversations over and over in my head. And pausing on his smile.

I sighed as I continued on my way home from school, but stopped mid-stride when I saw a familiar face headed in the same direction as myself. My heart leapt to my throat and I waved casually when he looked at me, he smiled and moved closer to my side. I felt shivers run through my body as I felt the heat from his body. I had bought a coat since we had last talked, but regretted it since it meant that I couldn't wear his anymore...

“You look great.” He said walking alongside me, and I blushed. I was getting tired of that though, it seemed every time I talked to him I blushed, and I was certain he noticed because I saw him smile slightly to himself out of the corner of my eye. He was dressed in his normal threads-as a ted. And I was sure it looked slightly strange to see someone like me walking alongside him, I’d never really hung around anyone like him. 

“Thanks” I muttered, trying to silence my pounding heart. We walked in silence for another moment, and as we rounded a curb, I felt my shoes catch on a crack in the concrete, and I lurched forward into a puddle, o course it had rained just an hour ago. That’s my luck. Embarrassed beyond belief, I felt hot tears welling in my eyes as water seeped into the fabric, making me shiver with cold. I felt two hands grab mine and lift me up in a hug before swiping clumps of snow off my now soaking wet clothes.

“You alright?” Ritchie asked me, sounding slightly worried. “Sorry I didn’t catch you...” He pulled off my now useless coat and offered me his, again, with a crooked smile. Wiping my face, I quickly pulled it on and thanked him. I surreptitiously breathed in his scent that still lingered on the jacket. That was the second time I had fallen around him; he must think I was such a klutz…

“You’re welcome.” He said, letting go of one of my hands, but still holding the other as we continued to walk. He continued to hold onto my coat, but I noticed he was wearing slightly warmer clothes than the last time we had met, so I felt less guilty about stealing his coat. We walked slowly to my house, and I regretted when it finally came into view, but he opened the front gate for me, just as my father pulled into the drive.

He wasn’t as mad as I had thought he might be. He seemed to piece together my wet coat and clothes to the coat that I was currently wearing. All the same, he narrowed his eyes at Ritchie and then looked over at me, shaking his head and indicating that we could talk later. I stepped back and allowed him to walk in first, without a word, and he slammed the door behind himself, making me cringe.

“I’ll be sure to see ya tomorrow.” He whispered softly in my ear and we headed our own way.

***

My Father had only talked to me about his disapproval of him, and that he didn’t feel I should be hanging around his type, I tuned out about this time, nodding very seriously occasionally and agreeing to whatever it was he had mentioned. He was all idle threats; he very rarely carried through with anything at all. He had only helped me home, nothing more, and nothing less. And I’d heard the speech before, not from my dad. But he’d copied all his lines out of movies and stuff, so I took off respect points for lack of creativity.

Ritchie was there the next day, true to his promise. And I couldn’t help but feel immensely cheered up, despite getting a ‘D’ in social studies earlier. I was never too good in school anyway, even though my parents pushed me to get good grades, though they certainly never did well in school. I never heard of someone needing a scholarship to work at the docks.

“I see your coat dried off.” He said stepping over the crack that I’d tripped on the previous day. I felt heat rush to my face when he laughed.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” I said avoiding his gaze. He only shrugged.

“What’s to be sorry ‘bout? I’ve done plenny o’ fallin’.” He muttered, trying to keep things light, but I saw a dark flicker cross his face and remembered his stay in the hospital.

I felt my face grown even warmer as I tried to steer the conversation in a different direction. “How’ve things been going since you got out?” I silently scolded myself, for one; I made it sound like he’d been in jail, and two: I just mentioned the very thing I was trying to avoid.

But he didn’t seem to notice as he carried on, “Eh, mos’ly workin’ to be an engineer. But I’ve been playin’ the drums, I like that better.” I nodded,

“Yeah, I’d heard about that.” I said and he seemed to stand a bit taller at this, and I wondered for a moment how well he could play. We talked for awhile longer, and I found myself feeling friendlier to him, less formal. We didn’t suffer any more awkward pauses, and he enjoyed talking to me about his drumming. I didn’t understand half of what he said, but I listened any way.

As we neared my house I felt… sad? My father’s car was nowhere to be seen, but we went separate ways half a block away from our front gate anyway. He waved good-bye and I walked home quickly, trying to make up for the time I’d spent walking alongside him.

Homework was even harder to focus on than usual. Normally I’d find myself doing chores even to avoid it, so now that I had other things to think about, I didn’t want to even glance at it.

I never knew just what kind of thoughts could creep into your mind when you liked someone. They made me embarrassed to think them, and I tried to ignore them, but… It’s a wonder I even pass at all…

Once I was at my friends house, her name was Peggie. She was a cute girl, and she had a boyfriend, not to mention she was allowed to wear makeup to school. But only a little. We were doing homework together, she was a lot better at it than I was, and I was constantly frustrating her with my lack of attention.

At one point she slammed her book closed and looked at me, the sharp sound of the book jolted me from my thoughts and I turned, glassy eyed to her.

"Since you definitely aren't in the mood to study," She said and a bit of annoyance tinged her words, "did I tell you that Brian and Clara actually kissed the other day?" I pretended to be interested, but I really didn't care too much. And she must've noticed, because in the middle of telling me some rumour, she stopped and sighed.

"You've the smallest attention span the world has ever known." She said exasperatedly, opening the thick tome that rested on her lap. 

"Sorry, Peg... Just got a lot on my mind." I forced myself to read, but it was awhile before I realized I hadn't really taken in what was on the page. I stared out the window, thinking about how easy it would be to just not study and that maybe just one bad grade wasn't so bad, when I noticed Ritchie.

He was making his way down the street and I felt my breath leave me. I'd never had so much as a little crush before, so I had a hard time deciding if that was even what it was. It was just a weird feeling I couldn't name. Peggie seemed to notice something was up and she turned to look out the window.

"What're you... Ohhh." She said I could see her lips spread into a wide-faced grin, I felt my cheeks burning. Everyone seemed to know something about all this, except me. So I was terrible at hiding it because, I didn't know what to hide! It was all very frustrating.

 She pressed her face to the glass, not even bothering with subtlety. I hastily grabbed her by the back of her shirt and pulled her down. She was surprised for a moment and just lay on the floor, looking at me with her big mouth hung open and thinking.

"So, you like him?" She asked, biting her lower lip and looking up at me curiously. Amazing what she got out of all this, really. I pushed her away and glared.

"No, I don't." I crossed my arms and leaned against her sofa. I was a pretty bad lair... In more ways than one. I lied a lot. But not just about anything, I was real private about my business. Because it's mine. But I hardly ever get away with it, because I can't keep a secret, and people can usually tell when I'm lying.

"I think you do." She said, flipping too a page in her book. I wished she'd stop being such a know-it-all.  I continued to gaze out the window and she shook her head. "You're gone, ya know that? Real gone..."

***

Ritchie tried to visit after school a couple times, but I wasn’t allowed out until my homework was done, and I was slow with that kinda stuff. Once my father hadn’t even told me he came and I spent practically the entire night wondering if he’d forgotten about me already.

But the next day was Saturday, and my Father had no good reason to keep me in. The weather outside wasn’t bad, a little crisp and windy maybe, but not bad like so many of the other days had been. So when I heard a knock on the door, my head whipped around faster than I think it ever had in my life. My father beat me to the door.

He opened the door a few inches and when I caught sight of Ritchie's familiar clothing, I waved at him over my dads shoulder and saw him smile a little. Ritchie nodded a polite ‘Hello’ to him, and my Father managed to be civil, but when Ritchie asked if I was able to join him, my father turned to me, looking reluctant.

“You finished cleanin’?” He muttered, scratching the back of his head, I nodded. “Schoolwork?” I nodded yet again, and again as he went down his list of requirements- which was beginning to irritate me- when he gave up. “You better be back by three.” He said as I shut the door behind me. I had a little less than an hour, but it was still time to be around Ritchie, so I didn’t complain.

I was out the door almost before he could finish. It felt nice to be outside, and on the weekend too. Mostly we just walked, but when I felt his hand slip into mine not only did my face burn immensely, but my heart was hammering in my chest so rapidly I was sure it could win the Kentucky derby.

We passed a candy shop and Ritchie looked at me, and I wasn’t sure I liked that look in his eye.

“Whadd’ya say to gettin’ a treat?” He asked me, motioning toward the shop. A few children had their faces pressed to the glass gazing longingly at the chocolates and candies on display.

“Oh, I dunno Ritchie. I don’t have any money on me and-”

“That’s not a problem. You can just wait ‘ere. I’ll be back in a few.” Before I had a chance to protest he walked inside and the door caused a bell to tinkle, bringing the store managers attention to the potential customer.

I stood waiting nervously, trying not to seem to out of place. But as people passed by and I only stood there awkwardly, looking at the shop, I don’t think I did a great job. Time seemed to drag by, but I heard a shout from the shop and Ritchie came bursting through the doors, passing a few candies hurriedly to the kids at the window who shoved them deep in their coat pockets. He rushed by me, grabbing my arm and practically dragging me away as I tried to keep up with him.

The angry shop owner was throwing anything he could grab and shouting things at us that I would never repeat.  When we were far enough away Ritchie finally slowed to a stop and I tried to catch my breath. He was laughing slightly as he leaned against a tree and I took a moment to figure out where we were.

“Ritchie,” I began tentatively “Where… are we exactly?” It didn’t seem like a bad place, and other people were there. Maybe some kinda park, I worried briefly about getting back home.

“’S’only a park, not far from your ‘ouse, so don’ worry... You don’ get out too much do you?” He  chuckled softly and sat down on a bench.

“Er, not really.” I felt my cheeks burn again at how stupid I was being. He slipped the candies out from his pocket and I thought about refusing them for a moment, but hunger got the best of me. It was strange eating the stolen candies, they seemed to taste different.

We talked for what seemed like only minutes, but when I noticed the sun slipping lower in the sky, my heart skipped a beat. I glanced at the wrists of people walking by and I think Ritchie noticed my wandering attention, because he turned to see why I was staring at a man that was passing by and not him.

“One second.” I said as I stood up and tapped the man lightly on the shoulder. “Excuse me,” I said as he turned around to see who had been so rude as to tap his shoulder. “Do you have the time?” I asked and glanced nervously at the face of his watch as he lifted it to his nose.

“3:15.” He said and continued his walk, slightly annoyed. What’s his problem? I thought, but then realized what he’d just said. Ritchie had figured out by now what was going on and was picking up the bits of rubbish on the bench.

“You think your father’ll be real mad?” He asked and a noticed a slight note of worry edge into his voice. I shrugged as we walked briskly out of the park,

“I’ve no idea, but I hope not…” He nodded and he cut through the buildings, taking a rather grimier, darker route. A shortcut I guessed, though I wondered if it was short enough. It was still almost ten minutes later when my house came into view.

I was about to step out from a narrow space between the two buildings when Ritchie took hold of my hand and pulled me back. I was afraid for a moment when he brushed his lips lightly against mine, but my tension eased. I was sad, I admit, when I had to sprint away from him into my house after convincing him it would be better for him to stay back.

My father was on the porch, furious about my late return. I don’t know how many times I tried to apologize to him about staying out for so long, but he only ignored my apologies. I sighed as I slumped up to my room, gazing at the ceiling for the longest time.

How long would it be before he allowed me to even think about Ritchie again? I turned my face over into my pillow and sighed. I didn’t really mind if my father told me I couldn’t talk to him anymore, I knew I would anyway. But it’d make it so much harder to enjoy our times together…

In all the hurry of trying to get home, I only just realized with a thrill that that had been the first time I’d ever been kissed. I mulled this over and thought to myself about how much I liked the word, ‘kiss’.