Love, Milo [PUBLISHED]

04 | Deal

CHAPTER FOUR
Milo

I CARRY OUT the dead raccoon in a trash bag and into the trash bin outside the garden gate.

Raelynn seemed upset that it was actually dead. It confuses me, isn't that what she wanted in the first place? For it to be gone?

I walk back into the greenhouse to find her brushing the dirt into a pile on the floor scooping it up with her hands and placing it back into the flower pots. A broken flower pot sits on the floor that the raccoon must've dropped and she bends down to grab the pieces with her bare hands.

Does she have a damn death wish?

"Raelynn," I walk to her and touch her shoulder. But I say it too late, the piece she picked up slips, cutting her palm just as I hoped it wouldn't.

She hisses, cursing, I watch the blood seep from the wound and I huff. "How do you manage to keep yourself alive, love? I've been around you for an hour and you've nearly had a raccoon attack you and then you slice your hand open."

I grab a rag hanging from one of the benches and walk to her pained face. She brushes several curls out of her face with her good hand, behind her ear, and shakes her head.

"It's just a little scratch, it's nothing," She lies as a drop of blood falls on the floor.

I hold her hurt hand in mine and lower it, walking her along to the bench where I tell her to sit. She does so, surprisingly.

I sit on the floor in front of her and her eyes widen, staring at my trousers. "Your clothes—"

"I don't care about my clothes. I think you bleeding is more important than the material getting dirty, don't you think?" Why does she worry about my clothes so much? "Besides my trousers are black."

She laughs as I dab the cloth on her wound, soaking up the blood. "Trousers?"

"What? That's what they're called." I glance up at her smile. It brightens up her face, the first smile I've seen of hers. I notice the piercing on her tongue as well, a small metal ball towards the tip of it as she speaks. It glistens under the hanging light above.

I find myself wondering how it feels to be in your mouth. Is it cold? What does the metal feel like against your teeth?

"And it's— Are you listening?" Shit, she was speaking.

I raise my eyebrows, looking back at her hand. "I blanked out, what did you say?"

She huffs. "I said trousers is a funny word, why don't you just say pants?"

"Pants," I snort. "It's such a strange word for trousers. The word pants is pants."

She laughs with one small huff as I continue cleaning her hand of the blood. A smile grows on my face at my success in making her laugh.

"You're strange, Milo," Is all she says.

I furrow my brows, pausing my hands to stare up at her. "Is that a good, or bad thing?"

She swallows, holding my eye contact as she answers with, "I don't know yet."

A moment passes before she breaks our gaze and takes her hand back, standing up. Closing off from me again, like a wall that was beginning to sway suddenly finds its balance, becoming sturdier than ever.