Miscellaneous

II- Charmaine

Whomever this James Albrecht guy thinks he is, he's not all that. He's almost convinced that just because he comes from Moscow and he's wearing an expensive coat, in September weather, he's a holy sentiment or something even closely equivalent.

I don't even care enough to show him the true, evergreen, city of ours but I'll play along. It's not my fault that my mama happens to need the cash urgently and Priscilla is talented at picking the perfect guy every time. She and I both know how hard it is for my mama to pull all the weight on her own. Truthfully, if it weren't for Priscilla's family, we would've been down in the gutter by now.

"You've got an alluring thing about you, you know?" He asks as we walk around the carnival.

I point at the Ferris wheel, admiring its presence. It's grand, colorful, and insanely mesmerizing. Probably my favorite ride out here, I wouldn't even hesitate to pick it over the rest. "Talking about alluring as if you are not. Have you seen yourself objectively?"

"See myself how? Objectively?"

I contain the urge to huff because tell me, how can someone so wealthy and...charming be so uninformed. "By seeing yourself objectively, I mean looking at yourself with no bias. As in, seeing yourself the way a complete stranger, such as me, would see you."

"Stranger? I think we've established that now you're my friend who's supposed to show me the real city. It would be preferable if I could add girl before the friend but what can I say, only time can tell."

I just happen to wonder, has this man ever heard of acquaintances? Not everyone can be a friend and I think this guy doesn't have the mental capacity to realize that.

"Plus, you sound like my mom right now." He adds. "She's a lawyer, so she's always talking about 'See yourself objectively James, the world will see a black guy this muscular and immediately think he stole somebody's expensive coat' As if I care, and so what if people think that?"

I pause to look at him, "But she's right James, the world can be quite judgemental and you're not soaking that part. You're completely missing her point."

He stuffs his hands in his pockets before smiling, "Hey, you want to play one of those prize games? Whatever you call them, let's just play."

This is exactly what I wanted but it almost pisses me off how he wouldn't listen to me.  "I would love to, especially if you win me that one," I say, pointing at the biggest, just as Priscilla asked.

"Challenge accepted, anything to score a date with the prettiest girl in this carnival. Hell, even the carnival isn't as jaw-dropping as you."

Talk about explicitly cheesy.

"You're too sweet, James. But I promise, win that, and you're almost guaranteed to secure a date with me." I say, before giving him my pinky.

I often take pinky promises seriously and for some reason, I felt called to do it with him. Just to show him that there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel, especially when I am not even remotely lying.

We hold our pinkies together for a few seconds, "Pinky promise." I say.

"Pinky promise." He says back.

Pulling out my phone to update Priscilla and make sure she knows she's downright going to lose this one, a smile spreads across my face.  She might as well prepare herself for the consequences, am I wrong?

As I send the message I typed, I peer over and watch him closely. He's not that tall, about 5'10 or 5'11 at the most, with a pretty athletic build. He sounds like the kind to skip leg day but absolutely murder his back and arms, not the mention a possibly slutty little waist. His eyes are so dark that I would expect them to hold the secrets of the universe, but his smile says otherwise.

He's a raconteur.

"That's what I'm talking about!" He says, before looking at me with a grin. "Guess what? I did it, pretty girl."

I smile at him, still succumbing to my thoughts. There's something brewing inside him and it's like a storm that's unseen until it hits, like an unexpected calamity. I'm not saying that he's destructive, he might be, I wouldn't know, but there's alot misplaced and I can't help but wonder why.

"Look, I did it." He smiles, placing the plushie in my arms gently. I smile back, out of politeness, not cause I'm happy.

His face falls as if he senses my facade. "Something wrong? I can get you another one if you'd like, just tell me which one."

I get onto my feet, my ankle almost twisting itself. "No, it's alright, this one works just fine," I tell him hastily, griping the plushie tightly. "I'll run to the washroom for a few minutes, I'll be right back."

"I can hold this for you though. I wouldn't want you walking such a distance with its weight and heels."

Can you stop saying things already, goddamn it, James?

I shake my head, smiling at him. "I promise, I'll be quick, it's going to be alright."

Before he says anything, I begin walking in the direction that will take me to the bathroom. My feet hurt from the way I  abruptly stood up, especially when I'm practically speed-walking away. I look back once and see him standing there, eyes on his phone with one hand in his coat pocket. I don't even linger enough to see if he'll look up, I just walk until I'm out of sight.

"Priscilla, where are you?" I whisper to myself as I look around. She's nowhere around here, at least to my knowledge. I pull out my phone and dial her number, looking around for any signs of James. "Goddamn it."

It's getting quite chilly and quite frankly, I'm not even close to dressing for the weather. None of that matters to me, as long as I can get home and bury myself in my bed so that I don't ever have to remember how nice it felt to walk around with him.

"Charmaine?"

I turn around quickly, again almost causing myself an injury. A sigh of relief leaves my body when I see that it's nobody but my favorite crackhead, Priscilla.

"Why do you look so...deranged?"

"I don't have any time to stand around and talk, let's go home or anywhere but here, please." I plead with her, hanging the plushie. "And there's your challenges aftermath, I won."

She squeals, hugging it with a big grin on her face. "And it's red too, my favorite color!"

I don't even bother to reply, instead, I just make my way to the exit while holding her arm so that she doesn't get distracted, as usual. When we're finally out, I wrap my arms around myself while waiting for the bus.

"So, is he a newbie serial killer or are we gravely mistaken?"

I know the answer to that, but what I don't know is if I should tell her the truth and let things get even more complicated than they are. It's either I tell her 'yes' and close it at that, so there is never a potential of anything building up. Or, I could say 'no' and let her arrange the ultimate wedding of me and James Albrecht.

The latter sounds disgusting, I wouldn't do that to myself.

"Yes, in fact, he asked me to do some very questionable things."

Her face falls and her grip on the plushie loosens, "Charmaine, please don't tell me you sacrificed something to get this plushie for me?"

I chuckle, "No, if that's what it took, I would've. But, the weirder things happened after the plushie so no, you're not even remotely involved."

"So he's a creep?" She asks, still looking concerned.

I shrug as I look into the distance, admiring the lights I had once experienced with that vagabond, James.

"Yes, now we can forget about him"

Just like the rest.

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