𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐋𝐮𝐬𝐭

14

Atreus' POV

"He may be keeping low key so stay on alert, but we'll get this done quickly." My mother said, referring to Vance.

"We have too because those pictures that may child have access to can cause a reckoning." Odessa said, pursing her lips on concentration as she typed away on her phone.

"Alright well I'm leaving now, I'm not sure when I'll be home but I assure I will be." I held onto my mother's shoulder kissing her cheek swiftly, before patting my fathers back and giving my sisters a fake tight lipped smile.

"Where are you going?" I stopped at the door turning to Galina. 

"Please don't mind my business mother." She scowled at me in response. I turned without another word and exited the room.

"Are you ready?" I asked Dariya who leaned on the opposite wall casually.

"For what?"

-

"A chocolate cone and a cookie dough." I said to the man behind the register.

"Is that all?" He questioned, his eyes not on me but on Dariya who hasn't speared him a glance.

"Are you talking to me or her?" I willed myself to keep my cool and succeeded, well enough I suppose.

"Is that all?" He asked again, finally looking to me.

"Yeah."

I took Dariya's hand again, guiding her out the line and to the side to wait on our order.

"Why the face?" She questioned.

"You notice that but you didn’t notice his incessant staring." She followed my line of sight to the boy who was still drooling over the cash register, eyes on her. He smiled a shaky smile when he saw her looking at him, his cheeks turning the brightest pink.

"Well yeah I didn't because I wasn't looking at him." I huffed quietly at her words, staring hard into the side of his large head.

"Someone is jealous." She sang teasingly.

"I can't be jealous for someone that is mine." I retorted in rapid fire, looking down into her eyes.

"Is that how it is?"

"That's how it is." She smirked at my response. We broke eye contact when I looked away because our order was called.

"Thanks." I said to the other worker that looked miserable.

"Yeah man, that dude over there said he left something for you." He pointed over his shoulder to the boy at the cash register, turning and going back to what he was doing.

My jaw ticked when I saw the number written on the napkin around the ice cream cone that was mine not Dariya’s, his loss.

"Here." I gave her the cookie dough in the cup, which she asked for. Hypnotized, I watched as she licked it, a quiet moan of satisfaction following.

"Do you want some?" She asked when she saw me staring.

"Yes but not the ice cream..." She laughed at my words. I offered mine thinking she would make that sound again but to my loss she didn’t, but she did outright lick it, win-win I guess.