3:30pm

43: surreal

         <My bad habits lead to you>

°•°•°•°

Stephen 

I picked out two lilacs from the rectangle-shaped bush not too far from Mikayla's house. Normally, I wouldn't do that—I wasn't as enthusiastic about flowers. It was the color, I guess, that attracted me. Light purple. Cleo liked the color a lot. It wasn't her favorite though. Her favorite was pink. A light shade of pink to be precise. But she fancied lilac just as much.

The flowers held in place between my fingers so they didn't crumple in my pocket, I walked the rest of the way up to Mikayla's house, my mind subconsciously clinging onto the image of the smile on Cleo's face when she sees the flowers, just so I didn't think about the international deal that was to take place on Sunday. 

I'd already gone over everything I had to do to keep off Johnny's radar before Sunday. To ward off any suspicion. Even the slightest wrong move could attract Johnny's attention. He was exceptionally keen, especially with this deal, seeing as it was the biggest in his entire drug selling "career", as he often referred to it as, and he wasn't taking any chances. 

I wasn't either. I'd made sure to play my part. To be present at every meeting we had at the Base, to carry out every order he barked and to deliver every package he handed me. To be the ass-kisser he wanted me to be. 

And I'd made sure that on Sunday, I'll have no deliveries to make. Of my own accord, I'll take the day off, but before that, I'll make up an excuse as to why I wouldn't be present. My best bet would be that Johnny wouldn't care about my absence, because I had no major work to do on that day. According to the drill, I didn't need to be at the place of meeting, which wasn't too far from the Base, so I didn't become a liability if anything happened to go sideways. 

If everything went as smoothly as I thought it out, then I had nothing to worry about. By Monday, Johnny, Marion and the whole lot of them would be held in a cell, and me, I'd be at school, practicing for the basketball match and living my life the way I should've been. Like a normal teenager.  Or adult, I wasn't sure. Either way, I'd be living a normal life.

Getting to Mikayla's house, I jogged up the porch steps and stopped directly on the brown welcome mat laying before the door. I dinged the doorbell twice, like I normally did out of habit, holding the flowers tighter between my fingers.

Seconds passed into a minute and yet no one came to the door. Wondering what could be causing the delay, I reached out and double-dinged the doorbell again. 

For moments, there was still no reply, and slowly, like anyone would when they were waiting on the doorbell, I began to get impatient. And worried. Kinda. 

Did they go out or something? I thought. No, they couldn't have. I mean, Cleo knows we have plans today, so even if she were to go out on short notice, she'd at least tell me.

Just when I made to press the doorbell again, Mikayla's voice came to me from the other side. "Who is it?"

My eyebrows went up. Who is it? Mikayla never, ever, asked that. As far as I knew, at least. 

"Uh, Stephen?" I told her, my words coming out more of a question than a statement. 

"Kayla, you still there?" I asked, after a brief moment of silence. "Did something happen?"

Right then, the door creaked open and she stepped out, shutting the door behind her as she went. Quickly, I stuffed the lilacs into the pocket of my shorts before she could see them. 

"Stephen, hi!" She beamed.

"Uh, hi?" I stared. "Why you acting all weird today?"

"Weird?" She asked, her lips still stretched in a smile. "No, I'm not. What do you mean weird though?"